Title: Synoptics, part VIII: application of the organisational model of synoptics with regard to companies, territorial compounds and functional compounds

Authors: Herbert Rauch

Addresses: Institute for Social Analysis IfS, Schottenfeldgasse 25-27/533, 1070 Vienna, Austria

Abstract: Companies, villages and healthcare systems are all social systems, which function via indirect interaction: that means person A reaches out to person C by some kind of communication via person B. This chain can become very large, a pyramid with up to 14 echelons are to be observed (e.g., the Catholic church, military apparatuses). In the case of companies - these interactions are still more or less happening within one hierarchical pyramid. In a village (smaller in size) or in cities (larger in size) there are even many such pyramid-like chains of communication [besides companies also bureaucracies and cultural organisations are to be found there; and these are all summoned under one overall decision-making agenda (e.g., the mayor and his administrators working under the top positions' responsibility)]. Communities of this kind are all summarised as goal-oriented or territorial compounds. There are also functional compounds, i.e., networks of smaller or larger topic-oriented organisations as, e.g., the health system in a state.

Keywords: synoptics method; social analysis; hypotheses; companies; villages; healthcare systems; territorial compounds; functional compounds; social sciences; social systems; challenge principle.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIP.2021.118848

International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, 2021 Vol.15 No.4, pp.276 - 298

Received: 04 Nov 2020
Accepted: 10 May 2021
Published online: 08 Nov 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article