This article makes a contribution to the ongoing paradigmatic debate concerning management science, aiming to define more precisely its constructs. At present, within this field there is a lack of definition, of a universally accepted way of seeing reality, which results in a clear deficit in pedagogical identity. Our proposal for a new paradigm is based on three descriptors or constructs (prisms): organization, knowledge, and safety (OKS); in this model, the leading role is played by human. The “organization” prism, in the classic sense, concerns the organization with an emphasis on the implementation of the personalistic vision of human. The “knowledge” prism includes the technical, social, and economic aspects of the collection, processing, and use of knowledge. The “security” prism is an aspect related to the identification and prevention of crises and threats to the functioning of the OKS triad as a whole.

The article is dedicated to the modelling of the essence of decision-taking processes in flat and hierarchical decision problems. In flat decision problems particular attention is drawn to the effectiveness of strategies in seeking decision variants on solution decomposition trees, taking into account the strength of their predefined contradictions. For hierarchical decision processes, the issue of iterative balancing of global (hierarchical) decisions is expressed, based on the valuation of the significance of flat decisions.

Characterization theory was developed in the 1970s by a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a prominent cybernetics V.A. Gorbatov, and became the nucleus of an international school. Many of today’s academy graduates make a new generation of scholars, more than 150 doctors and assistant professors, developing a new descriptive theory of cybernetic complex systems, based on the canon of the so-called characterization principle, binding the sets of y¥a functioning models and x¥bstructure models using the paradigm of monotone mappings of the considered system. This article presents an overview of the following problems: (1) the issues of functional-structural connection systems from the point of view of their design correctness; (2) the basic postulates of the characterization principle; (3) the nature of interaction between system objects; (4 and 5) mechanisms and functions for initiation of the operation; (6) the mechanisms of control and reaction functions; (7 and 8) the analytical form of initiation function and a network initialization function and (9) the axiom of extensionality (J), feasibility (R) and compatibility (Z).

Events and Event ProcessesPresented article describes the issues known from the logical structures characterization theory [2] used in this case to describe the events designed for the needs of proper functioning of organizational structures. Necessary formalization is used strictly for the maintenance of the concept discipline. Event theory [5] is used in the designing of complex structures of organizational systems for which the basic necessity is its compliance with the set functional description. Final organization's characteristics are determined by many factors, such as: a) completeness and non-contradiction of the functional specification b) theoretical correctness of the functional transformation of the organization into the design of its organizational structure c) correctness of the technical project realization.

This article presents a synthesis of knowledge about safety management procedures for critical infrastructure in the context of risk management theory and the provisions of the Polish law on emergency management launched on of April 26, 2007. In this paper, the inadequacy of the accepted procedures at present is highlighted, as well as their continuous improvement and adaptation to prevailing political, legal, social, and economic conditions. This paper proposes using the concept of situational management and knowledge management to develop a new method of predicting, preventing, and responding to emerging crises within critical infrastructure. The considerations presented in this paper lead to a proposed concept system supporting critical infrastructure safety management through the implementation of knowledge management methods.