the whole is more than sum of its parts?

Question

The systems perspective on organizations and communication

Answer 1

let's take an office with a manager a secretary and 2 workers. the manager is focused on the secretary spreading rumors with one co-worker. the manager is also concerned that the other worker feels isolated. the manager is upset even more that nobody shares their concerns with him. that's the sum of the parts.

the whole might be that nobody likes the manager, and they want him gone. the secretary and the employee have found a bond in a common evil, while the other worker copes with not telling what he knows and not liking the manager through solitude.

Answer 2

Yes. When you consider the whole you get emergent properties or characteristics as Jano said. All the relationships between the parts add a new level of complexity to the whole. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Answer 3

That expression comes from ancient greek philosophers, to mean that complex systems always exhibit properties that cannot easily be derived from their parts considered separately.

Think on a person. It is difficult to believe that we are our stomach plus our liver plus our heart etc. Complex systems usually exhibit what is called "emergent" properties.

Sorry for my poor english.

Answer 4

in a practical down to earth way
one could say
a tv , a car, a plane,a boat etc ......
they all are constructed of so many parts, if you put those parts on a heap you have lots of rubble
but put together in a certain way you have a tv, a car etc.... which is much more than the heap of rubble

Answer 5

It's called synergy. Uou cannot lift something, nor can your friend. The two of you working together can.

Answer 6

One company alone cannot destroy civilisation, but fast food chains, tobacco industries and alcohol producers can.