Synergy (glossary)
(1) In an organization synergy is the ability of a group to outperform even its best individual member. Jay Hall (Buchanan & Huczynski, 1997).
(2) A construct or collection of different elements working together to produce results not obtainable by any of the elements alone. The elements, or parts, can include people, hardware, software, facilities, policies, documents: all things required to produce system-level results. (Blanchard 2004).
Source(s)
David Buchanan & Andrzej Huczynski: Organizational behavior, introductory text. Prentice Hall,pp 276,Third Edition 1997 ISBN 0-13-207259-9
(2) Benjamin Blanchard 2004, System Engineering Management, pp 8, John Wiley 2004, ISBN 0-471-29176-5
Discussion
Definition (2) is typical of the use of the term synergy in Systems Engineering texts to describe how system behavior emerges from the interaction between elements. In this sense Synergy is closely related to emergence
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