DOCSLIB.ORG

1 System Viability of Organizations and The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1 System Viability of Organizations and The SYSTEM VIABILITY OF ORGANIZATIONS AND THE AETIOLOGY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CRISIS A Quantitative Assessment of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model SYSTEMISCHE LEVENSVATBAARHEID VAN ORGANISATIES EN DE ETIOLOGIE VAN ORGANISATIE CRISES Een kwantitatieve toets van Stafford Beers 'Viable System Model' (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 20 november 2017 des ochtends te 10.30 uur door Michael Dominik PFIFFNER geboren op 9 oktober 1963 te Zürich, Zwitserland 1 Promotoren: Prof. dr. S.G.L. Schruijer Prof. dr. J.P.P.E.F. Boselie 2 3 Committee: Prof. dr. M. van Bottenburg Prof. dr. A.J. Meijer Prof. dr. E.F. Loos Prof. dr. P. Curşeu Prof. dr. A. Wierdsma 4 5 1 Abstract 1.1 Abstract in English Michael Dominik Pfiffner System Viability of Organizations and the Aetiology of Organizational Crisis A Test of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model and a Quantitative As- sessment of the System Viability of Organizations for the Understanding and Pre-Emption of Organizational Crisis Keywords: System Viability, Organizational Crisis, Failure, Manage- ment Cybernetics, Early Recognition, Prevention, VSM Subject of this dissertation is the aetiology of crisis processes which place organizations under existential threats and which often cause organiza- tional demise and bankruptcy. To date, research on organizational crises (OC) has not succeeded in identifying the generic grounds for these detri- mental processes in organizations. Instead, by referring to the complexity and to the assumed multi-causality of the phenomenon, research has contin- ued to provide only either general observations or deep singular analyses of often prominent crisis cases, which provide no generalizable insights. To help practice fight OC, other researchers have produced lengthy lists of crisis symptoms or developed multi-theory approaches finding, for example, exter- nal shocks responsible for OC, whereas others, using different theories, found the opposite to be the real origin of OC. Dozens of crisis stage models or crisis archetypes have been suggested to spur understanding of the phe- nomenon. However, from all these findings no sound idea of what governs the aetiology of OC could be derived; on the contrary, all too often the find- ings were conflicting or incommensurable. A minimal consensus can be found in literature about some basic characteristics of slowly developing OC of non-catastrophic, non-sudden origin, which is the research object of this dissertation. The most often men- i tioned traits of such OC are: a) Increasing complexity and, at the same time, decreasing means of remedy in the course of OC. b) Ineffectiveness or ad- verse effectiveness of conventional management measures towards OC. c) Existential threat to the whole organization as a consequence of OC. d) Often very long incubation time with locally triggered or random place of OC out- break. e) Unclear or seemingly multiple OC origins. It turns out that opaqueness and increasing complexity are two com- monly reported properties which make OC both difficult to understand and to counteract as a manager, and also hard to explore theoretically. Many disciplinary approaches to explain and counter OC exist. Mar- keting, finance, organization, production, HR or IT have functional explana- tions as to why organizations would fail. However, explanations such as too small market share, too high interest cost, inefficient work processes, insuffi- cient manpower or obsolete programming are superficial observations which neglect the underlying shortcomings of OC or indicate problems only after OC has already damaged vital parts of organizations. Complex, multifaceted and non-transparent phenomena are the re- search object of systems sciences, which deal with sets of invariant rules that are at work in systems and which are decisive for the behaviour of these sys- tems. Because OC are complex, multifaceted and non-transparent phenom- ena, this thesis looks at OC through the lens of system science. Using a sys- tems, or more precisely, a management cybernetic theory called the Viable System Model (VSM) to address those issues, this work has overcome ob- stacles, observed in earlier research. The VSM is a topological model of the invariant control structure of any viable system; independent of an organization’s individual design. It de- fines the necessary and sufficient conditions for organizational viability, a fact that makes the VSM interesting for OC research: If the VSM defines the nec- essary and sufficient conditions for organizational viability and if OC is a pro- cess which threatens an organization’s viability, then OC must infringe these conditions and, therefore, the VSM conditions can be used to understand and predict OC. ii To test this hypothesis the viability conditions of the VSM have been operationalized and translated into a questionnaire. For that purpose, the situation vignette method has been developed, defining idealized control sit- uations and allowing multiple issues of the rich VSM to be evaluated within a limited number of situation vignettes or questions. With it, the system viability of two groups of organizations has been retrospectively evaluated: one group of 74 organizations that experienced existential crises and one group of 61 institutions that did not. To avoid key informant bias effects due to the in- volvement of management teams which were responsible for the evaluated organizations, the evaluation has been conducted by independent third party experts with a controlled sound knowledge of these organizations. To take into account the many interconnected and dependent sys- tems, sub-systems and principles of the VSM, a partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach has been used to establish statisti- cally the causal relationship between the availability of the viability conditions of the VSM and the prevalence of OC in the sample. On the basis of the above 135 cases, a significant and strong connection between system viabil- ity based on the VSM characteristics and the occurrence of organizational crises was found. This means that the null hypothesis of this thesis, that the phenome- non of organizational crisis cannot be explained by the system viability of or- ganizations, was rejected or conversely: system viability of organizations is strongly connected with the occurrence of OC. With these findings, the con- tribution of this dissertation is threefold, it provides a quantitatively under- pinned increase in knowledge about the aetiology of organizational crises, a qualitative framework coded in plain language for the early recognition and prevention of organizational crises in practice and a quantitative test of the Viable System Models substantial claims. For both practitioners and researchers, the findings of this dissertation provide useful starting points on how to pre-empt and further explore OC in the endeavour to protect valuable resources and achievements with busi- nesses and public authorities. iii iv 1.2 Abstract in Dutch Levensvatbaarheid van het systeem van organisaties en de etiologie van crises in organisaties Een test van Stafford Beers 'Viable System Model' (VSM) en een kwantitatieve evaluatie van de levensvatbaarheid van het systeem van organisaties met het oog op de preventie en de vroegtijdige detectie van crises in organisaties Sleutelwoorden: levensvatbaarheid systeem, crises in organisaties, mislukking, managementcybernetica, vroegtijdige onderkenning, preventie, VSM Het onderwerp van deze dissertatie is de etiologie van crisisprocessen die een bedreiging vormen voor het voortbestaan van organisaties en die deze vaak ten onder of failliet doen gaan. Tot op vandaag is er nog geen enkel onderzoek in geslaagd de algemene oorzaken te achterhalen voor deze negatieve processen binnen organisaties. Omwille van de complexiteit en de aanname dat er verscheidene factoren verantwoordelijk zijn voor dit fenomeen, blijft onderzoek steeds opnieuw ofwel algemene opmerkingen, ofwel zeer specifieke analyses van opmerkelijke gevallen naar voren schuiven die geen generaliseerbaar inzicht bieden. Om deze crises in organisaties te helpen vermijden, hebben onderzoekers uitgebreide lijsten van crisissymptomen opgesteld of verscheidene theorieën ontwikkeld die bijvoorbeeld externe schokken verantwoordelijk stellen voor deze crises. Andere onderzoekers daarentegen maken gebruik van andere theorieën om net het tegenovergestelde aan te halen als oorzaak van crises binnen organisaties. Er werden al tientallen crisismodellen of crisisarchetypes uitgewerkt om een beter inzicht in het fenomeen te krijgen. Maar in al deze studies werd nooit verwezen naar wat aan de bron kan liggen van deze crises; de resultaten waren daarentegen vaak tegenstrijdig of onderling onvergelijkbaar. De wetenschappelijke literatuur lijkt een minimale consensus te hebben bereikt over bepaalde basiskenmerken van traag ontwikkelende v crises in organisaties met een niet-catastrofale, niet-plotselinge oorsprong. Dit type crises maken het onderwerp uit van deze dissertatie. De meest voorkomende eigenschap van deze crises zijn a) een verhoogde complexiteit en tegelijkertijd, een steeds moeilijker wordende oplossing gedurende het verloop van de crisis. b) ondoeltreffendheid of gebrekkige doeltreffendheid van de conventionele managementmaatregelen
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Error Linguistics and the Teaching and Learning of Written English in Nigerian Universities As a Second Language Environment
    International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) ISSN (Online): 2319 – 7722, ISSN (Print): 2319 – 7714 www.ijhssi.org ||Volume 9 Issue 6 Ser. I || June 2020 || PP 61-68 Error Linguistics and the Teaching and Learning of Written English in Nigerian Universities as a Second Language Environment MARTIN C. OGAYI Department of English and Literary Studies Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. Abstract: Alarming decline of the written English language proficiency of graduates of Nigerian universities has been observed for a long period of time. This has engendered a startling and besetting situation in which most graduates of Nigerian universities cannot meet the English language demands of their employers since they cannot write simple letters, memoranda and reports in their places of work. Pedagogy has sought different methods or strategies to remedy the trend. Applied linguistics models have been developed towards the improvement of second or foreign language learning through the use of diagnostic tools such as error analysis. This paper focuses on the usefulness and strategies of error analysis as diagnostic tool and strategy for second language teaching exposes the current state of affairs in English as a Second Language learning in Nigerian sociolinguistic environment highlights the language-learning theories associated with error analysis, and, highlights the factors that hinder effective error analysis of written ESL production in Nigerian universities. The paper also discusses the role of positive corrective feedback as a beneficial error treatment that facilitates second language learning. Practical measures for achieving more efficient and more productive English as a Second Language teaching and learning in Nigerian universities have also been proffered in the paper.
    [Show full text]
  • So Language. Very Prescribe. Wow. the Familiar Popular Dispute Between Descriptivists and Prescriptivists About Grammar Is
    So language. Very prescribe. Wow. Abstract: The philosophical dispute about linguistic normativity is one battlefield in a larger war over the nature of language as an object of scientific study. For those influenced by Wittgenstein, language involves following – or failing to follow – public, prescriptive rules; for Chomsky and his followers, language is a property of individual minds and brains, and the grammatical judgements of any mature individual speaker – her competence – cannot be, in any linguistic sense, ‘wrong’. As I argue here, the recent ‘doge meme’ internet fad provides surprising evidence for the prescriptivist view. Normative attitudes towards linguistic practices are a ubiquitous feature of those practices, and there is no principled basis on which to regard them as non-linguistic. Keywords: Chomsky; Doge; I-Language; Normativity; Prescriptivism. The familiar popular dispute between descriptivists and prescriptivists about grammar is – let us not mince words here – a profoundly tiresome and pointless one (Wallace 2001), which the explosion of opportunities for pedantry afforded by the internet has done everything to amplify, and nothing to revivify; I have no intention of pursuing it here. But the dispute has roots, or at any rate analogues, in some deep issues in theoretical linguistics and the philosophy of language; and as I shall argue, interesting light is shed on that dispute by a most unlikely online phenomenon. I begin by summarising the main threads of the philosophical debate about normativity in grammar, and the apparent stalemate they have recently issued in. I then try to make whatever sense can be made of the wilfully absurd ‘Doge’ meme, before showing how that phenomenon, surprisingly, provides significant evidence for the prescriptivist case.
    [Show full text]
  • Viable System Model As a Framework for Understanding
    The Viable System Model as a Framework for Understanding Organizations by Raúl Espejo and Antonia Gill Introducing the Model The Viable System Model (VSM) is not a new idea. Created by Stafford Beer over twenty years ago, it has been used extensively as a conceptual tool for understanding organizations, redesigning them (where appropriate) and supporting the management of change. Despite its successful application within numerous private and public sector organizations, however, the VSM is not yet widely known among the general management population. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the ideas behind the model are not intuitively easy to grasp; secondly, they run counter to the great legacy of thinking about organizations dating from the Industrial Revolution - a legacy that is only now starting to be questioned. To deal with the second point in more detail, organizations have been viewed traditionally as hierarchical institutions that operate according to a top-down command structure: strategic plans are formulated at the top and implemented by a cascade of instructions through the tiered ranks. It is now widely acknowledged that this modus operandi is too slow and inflexible to cope with the increasing rate of change and complexity surrounding most organizations. Technology developments have helped to usher in a new concept of a flatter, networked-type organization with a wider distribution of data to reach all those who actually perform the work - in real time. The ground is now fertile for viewing the organization in a new light. However, there is also much confusion about the nature of this new-style organization.
    [Show full text]
  • Detangling the Wicked Problem of Modern Crime
    WEBS OF DECEIT: DETANGLING THE WICKED PROBLEM OF MODERN CRIME drhgfdjhngngfmhgmghmghjmghfmf For: 2016 Fram Applied Critical Thinking Speaker Series PAMELA J. SYDELKO DIRECTOR: SYSTEMS SCIENCE CENTER GLOBAL SECURITY SCIENCES DIVISION ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY Pamela J. Sydelko Education PhD M.S. in Soil B.S. in Botany MBA Candidate Science Systems North Dakota Skills Science University University the State Something aboutUniversity me that of you should know of Illinois of Chicago University Hull, UK 1982 1984 2004 Present Experience Environmental Spatial GIS Integrated Executive Systems Science Modeling M&S Management Science the zero 1985 1988 1994 2003 2004 2014 U.S. Army Argonne Construction National Engineering Laboratory Research Laboratory 2 WHAT IS A SYSTEM? EVOLUTION OF SYSTEMS THINKING Systems HARD AND SOFT SYSTEMS THINKING Thinking CRITICAL SYSTEMS THINKING (CST) RadialSYSTEMIC List INTERVENTION-SmartArt This is example for a subtitle WHAT IS A WICKED PROBLEM? Wicked Problems PROPERTIES OF WICKED PROBLEMS COMPLICATED VS WICKED PROBLEM? Brainstorm OUTLINE The Inter- STOVE-PIPED GOVERNMENT agency GOVERNMENT CZARS AND TASK FORCES Proposal PARTICIPATORY SYSTEMIC PROBLEM STRUCTURING Crime at ANTICIPATORY SYSTEMS the Urban Edge SYSTEMIC ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN EVALUATION OF METHODS AND PROCESS 3 4 WHAT IS A SYSTEM? . A System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole and serving a common purpose 5 FOUNDATIONS OF SYSTEMS THINKING? "Modern science is characterized by its ever-increasing specialization, necessitated by the enormous amount of data, the complexity of Ludwig von Bertalanffy techniques and of Systems thinking has theoretical structures “There appear to exist roots in the General within every field. Thus general system laws which apply to any Systems Theory that science is split into was advanced by system of a particular Ludwig von innumerable type, irrespective of the Bertalanffy in disciplines continually particular properties of the1940’s.
    [Show full text]
  • Viable System Model
    Viable System Model Jolene Hurtubise Omar Khattab Background Stafford Beer ● Operational Researcher and Cybernetician ● Head of the Department of Operational Research and Cybernetics for United Steel ● Founder of Management Cybernetics ○ “The science of effective organization” ● Author of Brain of the Firm and The Heart of the https://squiretothegiants.files.wordpress.com/20 Enterprise 15/12/stafford-beer.jpeg ● Magnificent beerd! History ● Developed in 1950s ❖ Tool for dealing with organizational structure issues ● Idea of viable systems originated from the human body ❖ Neuro-physiological terminology ❖ Organisation is a neural network that co-evolves with the environment ● Model presented in graphic representations The 4 M’s http://cdn.onlinewebfonts.c http://cdn.onlinewebfo https://www.shareicon.net/t https://cdn4.iconfinder.com/dat om/svg/img_453915.png nts.com/svg/img_895 ag/machinery?p=3 a/icons/aiga-symbol- 75.png signs/441/aiga_cashier- 512.png Purpose of the Viable System Model ● Develop viability based on universal invariances ● Meta-language facilitating autonomy in social groups ● Encourage self-transformation in organizations ● Sustainability in businesses and communities ○ Ability to learn, adapt and evolve http://solutionslab.io/academy/wp- content/uploads/sites/4/2016/05/Complexity-science-course.png Variety A way to measure complexity. “The number of possible states of a system.” What is a Viable system / viable system model? https://ih0.redbubble.net/image.387863594.5073/flat,800x800,075,f.jpg Main elements of an organisational
    [Show full text]
  • The Role and Significance of Error Linguistics in a Second Language Environment Studies (AJLLS) Vol
    ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Role and Significance of Error Linguistics in a Second Language Environment Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 1 No. 5 - Joseph-Kenneth (Joe-ken) Kelechi Nzerem PhD & Prisca Odinakachi Bob 1 The Role and Significance of Error Linguistics in a Second Language Environment By Joseph- Kenneth (Joe-ken) kelechi Nzerem PhD Imo- State University, Owerri & Prisca Odinakachi Bob Evangel University, Akaeze, Ebonyi State Abstract Despite the fact that learners of the English language in non-native environments strive to attain native speakers’standard, their performance is replete with various forms of errors capable of causing infidelity in communication. This study investigates the significance of error linguistics in a Second Language environment. It states that errors are inevitable parts of language learning. They are indications that there exists a learning process. The study argues that although the making of errors is significant in the learning process, there is need to identify, locate, quantify and assess errors committed by learners. Therefore, error linguistics becomes a tool in the hands of linguists to unravel the mystery surrounding the making of errors. The study hinges on the behaviourist theory which is a psychological theory that emphasizes on observable behaviour. It was propounded by J. B. Watson, E. L. Thorndike and B. F. Skinner. The causes of errors as stated in this studyinclude: lack of motivation, First Language interference, translation of idiomatic expressions and overgeneralization. The study classifies errors into inter-lingual and intra-lingual as well as distinguishes between errors and mistakes. It therefore presents procedures used for error analysis in error linguistics which hopefully would reduce the number of errors committed by a Second Language learner of the English language.
    [Show full text]
  • Building a Decentralized Global Political Economy
    A SYSTEM THAT WORKS: BUILDING A DECENTRALIZED GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY USING THE VIABLE SYSTEM MODEL Jon Li Institute for Public Science & Art 1075 Olive Drive #4, Davis CA USA, 530-753-0352, [email protected] ABSTRACT A political economy that enhances personal freedom requires effective but limited regulation. The Viable System Model by Stafford Beer offers a way to analyze an organization’s communication problems, maximize resource use, minimize waste, and adapt to a changing environment by clarifying what to regulate. Jon Walker’s “VSM Quick Guide” and Allenna Leonard’s “Personal VSM” ground the reader. VSM is applied to a community of 65,000 people in Davis, California, USA, in a way that could be used in other places around the world, to help identify strategies to better meet human needs, enhance the local economy, reduce environmental damage, and encourage natural healing processes. Given the recursive nature of the VSM, this method could be used at every level from person to family/neighborhood/village/community/ district/ region/ state/nation/continent/planet, emphasizing the system in focus. “National Government: disseminated regulation in real time, or ‘How to run a country’” by Stafford Beer describes how to construct “quantified flow charts” to identify which statistics to measure daily as regulation at a particular level of recursion. REDEFINING THE SOCIAL CONTRACT When someone says “bureaucracy,” you probably think – delay, confusion, even obstruction. What if we could eliminate MOST of the organizational confusion – just disappear it – along with half the bureaucracy itself? THAT is the claim of this paper: A 1950s British scientific discovery that precipitates a complete revolution in social science as we know it.
    [Show full text]
  • A Viable System Model for Product-Driven Systems Carlos Herrera, André Thomas, Sana Belmokhtar, Rémi Pannequin
    A viable system model for product-driven systems Carlos Herrera, André Thomas, Sana Belmokhtar, Rémi Pannequin To cite this version: Carlos Herrera, André Thomas, Sana Belmokhtar, Rémi Pannequin. A viable system model for product-driven systems. International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Systems Manage- ment, IESM 2011, May 2011, Metz, France. pp.CDROM. hal-00607682 HAL Id: hal-00607682 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00607682 Submitted on 10 Jul 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Systems Management IESM’2011 May 25 - May 27 METZ - FRANCE ⋆ A Viable System Model for Product-Driven Systems Carlos HERRERA a, Andr´eTHOMAS a, Sana BELMOKHTAR a, R´emi PANNEQUIN a a Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy (CRAN), Nancy Universit´e, CNRS Campus Science, Vandœuvre, France. Abstract This paper describes a modeling approach for product-driven systems based on the Viable System Model (VSM). A general VSM description is presented, highlighting the pertinence of this approach for modeling intelligent product systems, specifically when a compromise between control and autonomy is aimed. An application is also provided for modeling a hybrid centralized/distributed production planning and control system.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Error Analysis in Second Language Acquisition (English)
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 1027-1032, May 2012 © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.2.5.1027-1032 Error Analysis and Second Language Acquisition Ali Akbar Khansir Bushehr University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Iran Email: [email protected] Abstract—Error Analysis is one of the major topics in the field of second language acquisition research. Errors are an integral part of language learning. The learner of English as a second language is unaware of the existence of the particular system or rule in English language. The learner’s errors have long been interested for second and foreign language researchers. The basic task of error analysis is to describe how learning occurs by examining the learner’s output and this includes his/her correct and incorrect utterances. There are two major approaches to the study of learner’s errors, namely contrastive analysis and error analysis. Error analysis cannot be studied properly without touching upon the notion of contrastive analysis. Contrastive analysis and error analysis have been commonly recognized as branches of Applied Linguistic Science. This paper examines in detail the three most influential error theories: Contrastive analysis, Error analysis and Interlanguage theory. Corder (1978) maintains that interlanguage can be seen as a restructuring or a recreating continuum and, therefore; evaluates their role in second language acquisition. Index Terms—error, contrastive analysis, error analysis, and interlanguage I. INTRODUCTION The term applied linguistics seems to have originated in the United States in the 1940‟s. The creation of applied linguistics as a discipline represents an effort to find practical applications for modern scientific linguistics (Mackey, 1965).
    [Show full text]
  • Error Analysis and Second Language Strategies. PUB DATE 24 Feb 71 NOTE 27P
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED, 048 579 AL 002 764 AUTHOR Richards, Jack T1ZTLE Error Analysis and Second Language Strategies. PUB DATE 24 Feb 71 NOTE 27p. EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS Child Language, *English (Second Language), *Error Patterns, Interference (Language Learning), Learning Theories, Linguistic Competence, Linguistic Performance, *Psycholinguistics, *Second Language Learning ABSTRACT Discussed in this paper are reasons why people who speak second languages may not speak or write them with native-speaker-like fluency. These second-language deficiencies may be the results of(1) interference, the use of aspects of another language at a variety of levels; (2) strategies of learning such as over overgeneralization and analogy by means of which the learner tests out his hypotheses about the structure of the language; (3) strategies of assimilation, in which the learner makes his learning task easier; and (4)strategies of communication, whereby the learner adapts what he knows into an efficient communication model, producing an optimal utility grammar from what he knows of the language. In addition to understanding these deficiencies, it is necessary to distinguish between performance and competence errors. The former are occasional and haphazard and are related to such factors as fatigue and memory limitations. The latter are systematic and may represent either a transitional stage in the development of a grammatical rule or the final stage of the speaker's knowledge. While knowledge about second language learning is still largely speculative, excluding the possibility of prescribing recipes for teachers, this account of errors and learning strategies may suggest some of the reasons for errors.
    [Show full text]
  • Gregory Bateson, Cybernetics, and the Social/Behavioral Sciences
    GREGORY BATESON, CYBERNETICS, AND THE SOCIAL/BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES ABSTRACT Gregory Bateson's interdisciplinary work in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology was profoundly influenced by the ideas set forth in systems theory, communication theory, information theory and cybernetics. As is now quite common, Bateson used the single term cybernetics in reference to an aggregate of these ideas that grew together shortly after World War II. For him, cybernetics, or communication theory, or information theory, or systems theory, together constituted a unified set of ideas, and he was among the first to appreciate the fact that the patterns of organization and relational symmetry evident in all living systems are indicative of mind. Here, we must not forget that due to the nineteenth century polemic between science and religion, any consideration of purpose and plan, e.g., mental process, had been a priori excluded from science as non-empirical, or immeasurable. Any reference to mind as an explanatory or causal principle had been banned from biology. Even in the social/behavioral sciences, references to mind remained suspect. Building on the work of Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch, and W. Ross Ashby, Bateson realized that it is precisely mental process or mind which must be investigated. Thus, he formulated the criteria of mind and the cybernetic epistemology that are pivotal elements in his "ecological philosophy." In fact, he referred to cybernetics as an epistemology: e.g., the model, itself, is a means of knowing what sort of world this is, and also the limitations that exist concerning our ability to know something (or perhaps nothing) of such matters.
    [Show full text]
  • The Viable System Model
    Organization: Viable Systems Model The Viable System Model Trevor Hilder Cavendish Software Ltd. (Presentation v1.03 12-Jun-1995) © Cavendish Software Ltd. 1995, portions © Stafford Beer 1985 This presentation provides a brief introduction to Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM). Stafford Beer is one of the leading figures in the science of cybernetics, which concerns itself with the underlying laws which govern how organisms, machines and organizations maintain their identity, and fulfill their purposes within their environment. Cybernetics claims that there are underlying laws which apply equally to the manner in which the nervous system of an animal maintains control over its actions, to the way in which a species maintains itself within its ecosystem, and to how a corporation maintains its existence in its marketplace. The VSM provides a notation which can be applied by non- mathematicians to help them understand and apply these general laws. © Cavendish Software Ltd. 1995, portions © Stafford Beer 1985 1 Organization: Viable Systems Model Objective nTo provide a brief introduction to Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model uIts purpose uHow it can be used © Cavendish Software Ltd. 1995, portions © Stafford Beer 1985 Stafford Beer developed the VSM over a period of over thirty years as an aid to the practical process of diagnosing problems in human organizations, and helping to improve their functioning. Stafford believes that effective organizations should maximize the freedom of their participants, within the practical constraints of the requirement for those organizations to fulfill their purpose. He believes that the science of cybernetics can be used to design organizations which fulfill these objectives.
    [Show full text]