TELEON
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3511 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences, Methodology or model |
- “A goal-directed process unit, which stretch over several levels and incorporate numerous living and non-living subsystems”.
This concept has been introduced by G.G. JAROS, of South Africa, who states that it “has been applied to the study of complex systems in the diverse fields of education, social governance, business organization, technology assessment, psychology, health care and music theory” (1994, p.5).
JAROS distinguishes endoteleons, “which connect an upper (outer) level to a lower (inner) level” and exoteleons “which are directed at the higher (outer) levels. At each level bundles of both kinds of teleons combine to form doublets. Examples of doublets are the cells, individuals, families, organizations, communities and societies” (Ibid).
The similarity with MILLER's levels is obvious. But JAROS states: “Cells, humans and organizations are the result of their processes and not vice versa” (Ibid). This could provide the connection with SABELLI's Process theory. JAROS, moreover, seems to consider his teleons as translevel connective units, not merely structural-functional ones at specific levels.
In a more recent paper G. JAROS & E. DOSTAL replace the word “teleon” with the word “process” in italics, to differenciate it from the common use of the word.
They define this new “process” as “a spatio-temporal arrangement of actions forming in an autonomous, self-regulated system, as opposed to a simple, non regulated temporal sequence of actions the everyday usage of the word ”process“ tend to indicate”(1999, p. 199)