ACTIVITY

Activities consist of acts or actions, and reactions.

A single act by a living creature such as raising a limb may be seen as a simple form of activity. In reality it is the result of complex biological and mechanical movements stimulated by a brain. However, for the purpose of interpreting such an act within an environment in the Management Universe it is convenient to regard it as an action. Such an act or action may also in turn create a response and a reaction, – for example if the hand of a human is raised in order to strike an opponent. The resulting actions and reactions in response may be described as activity.

An action that is detected by one or more living creatures may be regarded as a stimulus. Such an action normally leads to a response. However, if the action is not detected there can be no response. If the action is detected it is interpreted, and the reaction may take one of three possible forms. The action may be ignored, evaded, or engaged.

Action and Reaction

A fearsome dragon was creating terror in the land. The action of the dragon was detected by St George, who interpreted it as a threat. His reaction to the stimulus of being told of the dragon could have been to ignore it (perhaps it was untrue), evade the dragon, or engage the dragon and kill it.

Activity is the resultant of forces applied to resources.

At the simplest level activity can be defined as a single act or action –‘something happening or being done’. If we apply basic Newtonian analytical concepts to activity in the Management Universe, it can be seen that activity is a vector quantity – a force with both magnitude and direction. It consists of acts or actions, and reactions that occur in response to them. Activity has a form — activity may be both physical and intellectual. It has forces which have magnitude, direction, and duration. These forces have a mode — they may be applied consciously by the people concerned in the activity, but they may also apply forces unconsciously. Reason, logic, morality, and social pressures are all examples of intellectual concepts that are powerful forces in human activities. The management of any human design or construction activity, from the invention of the wheel to the application of space technology involves both physical and intellectual forces. The observable effect of human activities is the resultant of the combined effect of the magnitude, direction, and duration of the forces acting on the resources to which they are applied.