HEIKKI HEISKANEN is a management consultant with clients mainly in the Scandinavian countries and the Eastern European nations. His scholarly works include publications of the Finnish Academy of Science, and books and journal articles in the Finnish language. He has developed numerous professional manuals and computer programs to implement management observation and communication theory.G.A. SWANSON is a Professor of Accounting at Tennessee Technological University. His more than 50 articles have appeared in such journals as Systems Research, Behavioral Science, The Accounting Review, Internal Auditor, Advances in Accounting, Accounting Historians Journal, and The Journal of Business Education. He is coauthor of Measuring and Interpretation in Accounting--A Living Systems Theory Approach (Quorum, 1989) and Internal Auditing Theory--A Systems View (Quorum, 1991).

• Illustrations Preface Introduction and Overview Elements of Living Systems Theory Elements of Linguistic-Mathematical Theory How to Construct Backdrops How to Use Backdrops in Management The Big Picture--Combinations of Analysis Results Syntactic Analysis and Its Methods Semantic Analysis An Overview of Some Semantic Methods Summary

HEIKKI HEISKANEN is a management consultant with clients mainly in the Scandinavian countries and the Eastern European nations. His scholarly works include publications of the Finnish Academy of Science, and books and journal articles in the Finnish language. He has developed numerous professional manuals and computer programs to implement management observation and communication theory.G.A. SWANSON is a Professor of Accounting at Tennessee Technological University. His more than 50 articles have appeared in such journals as Systems Research, Behavioral Science, The Accounting Review, Internal Auditor, Advances in Accounting, Accounting Historians Journal, and The Journal of Business Education. He is coauthor of Measuring and Interpretation in Accounting--A Living Systems Theory Approach (Quorum, 1989) and Internal Auditing Theory--A Systems View (Quorum, 1991).

• Illustrations Preface Introduction and Overview Elements of Living Systems Theory Elements of Linguistic-Mathematical Theory How to Construct Backdrops How to Use Backdrops in Management The Big Picture--Combinations of Analysis Results Syntactic Analysis and Its Methods Semantic Analysis An Overview of Some Semantic Methods Summary