On the Choice of Objectives in Systems Studies

Charles Johnston Hitch

Expert InsightsPublished 1960

A discourse on broadening our horizons and ambitions when objectives for systems studies are chosen. In the hierarchy of ends and means, there is no essential difference among levels, or between means and ends. The systems analyst may make contributions at high as well as low levels and may frequently be unable to contribute at low levels unless he contributes also at high levels. The objectives that the systems analyst strives to maximize must be clarified and defined. This is possible only if he is unconstrained by dogma and by false hopes for authoritarian or external solutions.

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Hitch, Charles Johnston, On the Choice of Objectives in Systems Studies. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1960. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P1955.html.
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