Of course, feedbacks reinforce or counteract secondary and tertiary shifts as well as initial shifts. One consequence may be a reverberation cycle, in which changes circle round and round a loop of elements. If reinforcing feedbacks dominate a reverberation cycle, the changes grow larger with each iteration, escalating into a drastic reorientation. A reorientation propagates as long as reinforcing feedbacks dominate, and it stops propagating when counteracting feedbacks exceed the reinforcing ones, because counteracting feedbacks stabilize ideologies. If counteracting feedbacks dominate a reverberation cycle, the changes grow smaller with each iteration. In their seminal book on ways of inducing changes in rigid and harmful ideologies, Watzlawick, Weakland and Fisch(1974) described ways either to disrupt counteracting feedbacks or to deceive them into fostering changes.
(Starbuck, 1982:12-3)
Starbuck, W. 1982. Congealing Oil: Inventing Ideologies to justify acting ideologies out. Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 19, (1), pp. 3-27.
See also oscillations, OODA loops,
Feedback (negative) (PE and MSA)
Feedback (positive) (PE and MSA)
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