Red Squirrel Reflections Dave Hoover explores the psychology of software development

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Does Structure Produce Behavior?
Friday, June 18, 2004

I picked up The Fifth Discipline with great expectations and I have not been disappointed thus far. I was introduced to systems thinking in graduate school when I learned about family systems theory and its chief luminary Murray Bowen. Reading Peter Senge's take on systems thinking has been enlightening thus far.

I do have one bone to pick, though. Peter makes some strong statements about social structure and its influences on behavior:

"Structure produces behavior, and changing underlying structures can produce different patterns of behavior." (page 53)

His statement bothers me. It doesn't seem to account for the diversity of the human condition. I believe this thinking leads to the assumption that I would behave the same way as anybody else given the same social structure. I think it would be more accurate to say that structure strongly influences behavior, while produces goes a bit too far.

Ironically, Peter goes on to to say: "Western languages, with their subject-verb-object structure, are biased toward a linear view." (page 74) Which leads him to point out that: "All causal attributions made in everyday English are highly suspect!" (page 78) I agree with this view, and believe it should be applied to his statement that "structure produces behavior," (a.k.a. subject-verb-object) which strikes me as a bit linear.

In my experience, individual and group behaviors occur as a result of myriad systemic forces, individual idiosyncracies, thought models, belief systems, etc., not just social structure.

Replies: 3 comments

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook is a good read too.

Posted by keithray on 06/21/2004

I believe it was David Allen who said that complex rules produce simple behaviors and simple rules produce complex behavior, pointing out (for me) the differences between rigid, heirarchical structures and loose, informal ones. The former based on volumes of regulations, the latter on a few key principles. The former produces idiotic behavior and the latter heroism.

Posted by david greenfield on 06/24/2004

David,

I've read that quote somewhere too, I think it might have been in Roy Miller's Managing Software for Growth (formerly Growing Software), in which he delves into complexity science to explain some of the dynamics of software development. Maybe he was quoting Allen.

I still resist the idea that these structures, whether they are simple or complex, produce the behavior. The structures have an incredible power over the individuals in the system, but when it comes down to it, individual behavior emerges from factors that include more than just social structure.

Posted by Dave on 06/25/2004

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