Criticism
In the arena of systems thinking, the idea of a line of cause and effect is disputed, in favour of the concept of causal loops. To quote Senge:
- In systems thinking it is an axiom that every influence is both cause and effect. Nothing is ever influenced in just one direction.
In addition, in an article in Quality Progress by Mark Paradies (Under Scrutiny) explains the psychological and philosophical limitations of cause and effect, especially as it applies to 5-Whys. The biggest drawbacks mentioned are 1) that cause and effect does not help investigators go beyond their current knowledge, 2) that cause and effect leads to the problem of "confirmation bias," and 3) that the use of cause and effect tends to lead to "single cause" answers in an increasingly complex world.
Paradies would define a root cause as follows: "The most basic cause (or causes) that can reasonably be identified that management has control to fix and, when fixed, will prevent (or significantly reduce the likelihood of) the problem’s recurrence."
Some highly respected government investigation agencies do not routinely use the term "root cause", for example, the National Transportation Safety Board. See http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/process.html
Read more about this topic: Root Cause
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“Good criticism is very rare and always precious.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)