Management cybernetics
Management cybernetics is concerned with the application of
Research into operations
As practiced by Beer, research into operations involved multidisciplinary teams seeking practical assistance for difficult managerial issues.
Viable system model (VSM)
Viable means capable of independent existence and implies both maintaining internal stability and adaptation to a changing environment. "Internal stability" and "adaptation" can be in conflict, particularly if the relevant environment is changing rapidly, so the viable system model (VSM) is about maintaining a balance between the two such that the system is able to survive.[6]
The VSM is a model of the structures and functions that are both necessary and sufficient for the long-term survival of a system in a changing environment. Allenna Leonard, Beer's longtime partner, suggested that the most useful way to think about the VSM is as a language. The VSM is a language of viability. The VSM is a language for diagnosing organizations and managerial teams in terms of their viability or lack thereof. The VSM is also a language for designing organizations and managerial teams that will be viable.
Syntegration
One of the great difficulties in managing the modern large organization is that many of the issues are far too complex for even small groups. The critical knowledge is often dispersed among a substantial number of people. Organizations are often faced with choosing between 1) very costly and time-consuming meetings of large groups or 2) making bad decisions based on an inadequate grasp of the relevant factors. Integration is a group method designed to solve this conundrum.
Integration melds a number of cybernetic principles with
Learning and development
The literature on management cybernetics is extensive. The
Organizational cybernetics
Organizational cybernetics (OC) is sometimes distinguished from management cybernetics.[clarification needed][citation needed] Both use many of the same terms and draw on some of the same source but are said to interpret them according to slightly different philosophies of systems thinking.
Organizational cybernetics studies organizational design, and the regulation and self-regulation of organizations from a systems theory perspective also drawing on Beer and cybernetics, but also takes the social dimension into consideration. Extending the principles of autonomous agency theory (AAT), cultural agency theory (CAT) has been formulated for the generation of higher cybernetic orders.[16]
Researchers in economics, public administration and political science focus on the changes in institutions, organisation and mechanisms of social steering at various levels (sub-national, national, European, international) and in different sectors (including the private, semi-private and public sectors; the latter sector is emphasised).[17][18]
There is also an extensive related field also growing out of
See also
- Autonomous agency theory
- Government by algorithm
- Gregory Bateson
- Institut für Unternehmenskybernetik
- Management science
- New cybernetics
- Organizational studies
- Outline of management
- Strength-based practice
- Viable system theory
- Warren McCulloch
References
- ^ Jonathan Rosenhead (2006) "IFORS' Operational Research Hall of Fame Stafford Beer", in International Transactions in Operational Research Vol 13, nr.6, pp. 577–578.
- Michael C. Jackson(1991), Systems Methodology for the Management Sciences.
- ISBN 978-3-319-42620-4.
- ^ Beer, Stafford. 1979. The Heart of Enterprise. Chichester [Eng.]; New York: Wiley.
- ^ a b "Researches status and trends of management cybernetics and viable system model" (PDF). Emerald Insight.
- ^ Beer, op.cit.}
- ISBN 9782881245183.
- ISBN 978-0-470-06056-8.
- ^ Espejo, Raul and Alfonso Reyes. 2011. Organizational Systems: Managing Complexity with the Viable System Model. Springer Science & Business Media.
- ^ Stewart, D.J. 1989. A ternary domanial structure as a basis for cybernetics and its place in knowledge. Kybernetes 18 (4): 19-28.; Stewart, D J. "The Ternary Analysis of Work and Working Organisations." Kybernetes (2000).
- ^ von Foerster, Heinz, John Stroud, Lawrence S Kubie, and Norbert Wiener. 2003. Cybernetics | kybernetik the macy-conferences 1946--1953. Transactions, Claus Pias (Hrsg.), Zürich/Berlin: Diaphanes456.
- ^ Malik, F. (2011). Management: Mastering Complexity: Corporate policy and governance: How organizations self-organize. . Campus Verlag.; Malik, Fredmund. 2010. Management: The Essence of the Craft. . Management: Mastering Complexity. Campus Verlag.; Malik, Fredmund. 2011. Strategy: Navigating the Complexity of the New World. . Trans. J Scherer Frankfurt; New York: Campus Verlag, 2016.; Malik, Fredmund. 2012. The Right Corporate Governance: Effective Top Management for Mastering Complexity. . Campus Verlag.
- ^ Stewart, op.cit.
- ^ Jenkinson, Angus. 2019. Imparity, service-dominant logic, and the architecture of enterprise. . In . 1 vols. Cybernetics Society Annual Conferences 51. King's College, London: Cybernetics Society. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V4lFsHsFY8.
- ^ "Management cybernetics: total quality management". Emerald Insight.
- ^ Yolles, M.I, Fink, G. (2014). Personality, pathology and mindsets: – Agency, Personality and Mindscapes, Kybernetes, 43(1)
- ^ Organisational Cybernetics[permanent dead link], Nijmegen School of Management, The Netherlands.
- S2CID 220642374. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-3-642-14315-1.
Further reading
- Cwarel Isaf Institute (2002), Methods and Models, Retrieved 26 October 2021 from https://www.kybernetik.ch/en/fs_methmod.html
- Stafford Beer (1959), Cybernetics and Management, English University Press. 214pp.
- Stafford Beer (1966), Decision and Control: The Meaning of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics, 568 pages.
- Stafford Beer (1972), Brain of the Firm: A Development in Management Cybernetics, Herder and Herder.
- Stafford Beer (1979), The Heart of Enterprise, John Wiley, London and New York.
- Stafford Beer (1985), Diagnosing the System for Organizations, John Wiley, ISBN 0471906751
- Richard F. Ericson (1969). Organizational cybernetics and human values. Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology. Monograph. George Washington University. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED065266.pdf
- Raul Espejo (2006), "What is systemic thinking?", in: System Dynamics Review, Vol 10, Issue 2-3, pp 199–212.
- Michael C. Jackson(1991), Systems Methodology for the Management Sciences.
- Michael C. Jackson (2000), Systems Approaches to Management, 465 p.
- Richard F. Ericson (1969). Organizational cybernetics and human values. Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology. Monograph. George Washington University.
- Francis Heylighen (2001), "Cybernetics and Second-Order Cybernetics" in: R.A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology (3rd ed.), (Academic Press, New York.
- George E. Lasker and Aleksander Zgrzywa, (Eds.) (2003), Information Systems Research and Management Cybernetics, 65 p.
- A. Leonard (2002), "Stafford Beer: The Father of Management Cybernetics", in: Cybernetics & Human Knowing, Volume 9, Numbers 3-4, 2002, pp. 133–136(4).
- P.N. Rastogi (1979), Introduction to Social and Management Cybernetics, New Delhi: Affiliated East West Press.
- Lars Skyttner (2001), "Multiple perspectives of management cybernetics", in: General Systems Theory: Ideas & Applications, p. 327-336.
- Stuart A. Umpleby & Eric B. Dent (1999), "The origins and purposes of several traditions in systems theory and cybernetics", in: Cybernetics & Systems, Taylor & Francis
- Wolfgang Winter & Manuela Thurm (2005), "Second-order cybernetics! In systemic management thinking?", in: Kybernetes, Vol 34 Issue: 3/4 pp. 419–426.