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and thereby achieve the system goal. Such interactions may lead
to synergy or discord. Each actor has a role in the performance of the
technical system and also personal values, motivations, and skills

(human, social, and technical) that underpin his or her interactions
with other agents and influence choices and decisions. The sum total
of the agents/actors, their characteristics, and interactions, plus the

effectiveness of the structure within which they operate can be
considered abstractly as 'endogenous energy'. This to be distinguished
from 'exogenous energy' e.g., inputs from the marketplace

Hierarchy: In order to perform work, all systems are
hierarchical, distinguishing between system-level integration

functions and task functions performed by the mass of agents. This is
an inalienable reality of all systems and arises from the very definition
of a system as a collection of interacting parts; it must by definition

have at least a 'parts' level that performs work and a system level to
represent the grouping. The larger the system (number of agents,
geographic spread) the greater the number of levels in the hierarchy

needed to coordinate work. This natural aspect of all systems becomes,
in human-based business systems, bound up with human issues of
power, which expresses itself in such realities of corporate life as
power, command and control, and office politics

Downward Causation: For a system as a whole to survive, system-

wide interests must override individual agent interests. This is
called downward causation. If this alignment of interests fails the
system will lose coherence and will likely die. Downward causation is
a universal phenomenon of complexity and systems. Inside a business

system, it is in the interests of all the agents for the firm to survive.
The socially-accepted existence of operational hierarchy (frozen into a
power structure) and the acceptance that the interests of the whole

must prevail is what has up until recently underpinned the command
structure inside traditional organizations. However, acceptance of the
need for the system-level interests to prevail begs the question of how
system-level interests are formulated. Historically, the system's

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