Is the Viable System Model of organization inimical to the concept of human freedom?

This paper examines the sensitivity of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model of organization to the concept of human freedom. The paper notes the many critics who have suggested that the Viable System Model is inimical to human freedom and their especial reference to its application to the social economy of Chile in the early 1970s. Drawing on the work of philosophers, a conceptual analysis of freedom is provided that suggests a complex ordinary language usage of the term. At least three determinants of freedom, that are logically independent of one another, are identified as being of relevance to its ordinary usage. The paper finds that these determinants are implicitly addressed and acknowledged within Beer’s own writings, but that they are ignored by the critics of the Viable System Model and that this makes for a lack of clarity and precision in the debate. The paper also applies a further criterion, formulated in political philosophy, to judge whether the leadership of the government that applied the Viable System Model to the Chilean social economy was itself hostile to political freedom or democracy. This application of the criterion suggests that they were not

Understanding and managing the manage processes

This paper discusses understanding and managing the manage processes. It was presented at the conference of the Performance Measurement Association in 2004

Co-evolution path model : how enterprises as complex systems survive on the edge of chaos

In this theoretical paper, we introduce and describe a model, and demonstrate its origins from the disciplines of Enterprise Architecture, cybernetics and systems theory. We use cybernetic thinking to develop a &lsquo;Co-evolution Path Model&rsquo; that describes how enterprises as complex systems co-evolve with their complex environments. The model re-interprets Stafford Beer&rsquo;s Viable System Model, and also uses the theorem of the &lsquo;good regulator&rsquo; of Conant and Ashby, exemplifying how various complexity management theories could be synthesised into a cybernetic theory of Enterprise Architecture, using concepts from the generalisation of EA frameworks.<br /

Decision Support System and Customer Relationship Management as Components of the Cybernetic System Enterprise

This study analyzes the role played by the information system and its component, the software system, in a larger system - the Enterprise. In this context, the paper focuses on the structure of Decision Support System and Customer Relationship Management and their benefits in the functioning of the global system, by examining the conditions of implementation of these tools in the organization. We will show that used independently these tools offer reduced services, but when interconnected, they become a very powerful tool for command and control. Viability, evolution and autonomy requested by users for their information system are obtained more easily by a systemic-cybernetic approach to the Enterprise.DSS, Data Warehouse, CRM, Information System, Cybernetic System

Cybernetics and organisational analysis; Towards a better understanding of Beer.' s Viable System Model

This paper describes a model - the Viable Systems Model - which purports to explain the more fundamental essence of what is required for effective organisation. The model draws on concepts from the science of cybernetics, and focusses on the fundamental objective of viability - the ability of a system to maintain a separate identity. The paper provides a description of cybernetics appropriate to the needs of those with backgrounds in management and organisational behaviour, and is intended to guide practitioners through elementary VSM analyses of real organisations and diagnosis of cybernetic weaknesses. The paper also attempts to bridge the divide which exists between the so-called 'hard' and 'soft' disciplines which strive. to extend our knowledge about organisations and improve managerial practic

Integrating IDEF0 into a Systems Framework for Statistical Engineering

Driven by a growing requirement during the 21st century for the integration of rigorous statistical analyses in engineering research, there has been a movement within the statistics and quality communities to evolve a unified statistical engineering body of knowledge (Horel and Snee, 2010; Anderson-Cook, 2012). Outside of the 2014 Statistical Engineering Agreement among the ASQ Statistics Division, DOT&E, NASA, and IDA, there has been little formal progress toward this goal since the May 2011 NASA Symposium on Statistical Engineering in Williamsburg Virginia. In the ASEM-IAC 2012, Cotter (2012) identified the gaps in knowledge that statistical engineering needs to address, explored additional gaps in knowledge not addressed in the prior works, and set forth a working definition of and body of knowledge for statistical engineering. Again in the ASEM-IAC 2015, Cotter (2015) proposed a systemic causal Bayesian hierarchical model that addressed the knowledge gap needed to integrate deterministic mathematical engineering causal models within a stochastic framework. Missing, however, is the framework for specifying the hierarchical qualitative systems structures necessary and sufficient for specifying systemic causal Bayesian hierarchical models. This paper proposes revisions to and integration of IDEF0 as the framework for developing hierarchical qualitative systems models

A systemic evaluation of the implementation implications of an integrated, standard information system : the SAP implementation project as a viable system

Bibliography: leaves 107-108.Real-time, on-line, integrated software systems are a part of the latest technologies for large concerns as enablers for viability in an ever increasing competitive business environment. The SAP (R/3 and R/2) standard software is widely considered as one of the leading solutions and implementation projects have taken the world by storm. The software, which runs on client server systems since 1992, is expensive and takes time to install. Complete systems can run into the tens of millions of dollars and take from one to over three years to implement. The application of the software spans most of the processes of a business, logistics, finance, workflow and human resources as a real time, on-line and integrated information system enabler. Much of the data capture and some of the control aspects of the business are automated. With this sophistication comes a new level of complexity. An initial argument of the thesis is that the success of an investigation into the problems associated with SAP implementations will be dependent on the thorough development of the inquiry system as a framework for appreciating the implications of such projects. Question Which management research approach will provide useful knowledge of the situation, with challenges including variety of human interpretations and interests, the complexity of organisational regulation and the technical options of the software? A framework was developed by considering three levels for paradigms; philosophy, methodology and the application of the methodology. As a choice for the philosophical level, phenomenology was chosen with its regard for the importance of the mental models of an observer. Pragmatism, with its basis for attributing meaning on the consequences of holding a belief or assumption, is enabled by a bias towards systems thinking as an adequate way of determining an appropriate level of knowledge of possible consequences of a decision. The scientific method is the underlying guide for the inquiry process with its abductive, deductive and inductive stages. The base strength of the method, as presented by Peirce (Smith, 1995), was experienced as the rigorous attention to the development and testing of an hypothesis. Due to the variety and importance of human mterpretation regarding purposes and methods of information system implementations, the approach by Soft Systems Methodology was adopted as an enabler for an immersion into the problems of a project. As such it was the basis for the abductive stage of the inquiry. The result of this immersion determined the requirements for the choice of further methodologies. The application of the SSM inquiry is guided by seven stages of sets of questions, as the 'technical' aspect of the inquiry framework