Management Cybernetics Research Articles

The viable system model’s support to social responsibility

PurposeThe consequences of human social irresponsibility urge socially responsible reactions. The authors expose the consequences of socially irresponsible behaviour and state possible requisitely holistic tools to eliminate organisations’ dangerous and socially irresponsible behaviour. This paper aims to examine how the viable system model (the VSM) used as a diagnostic tool can help organisations support socially responsible behaviour.Design/methodology/approachGiven the variety of systems methodologies, the authors selected the VSM as a key methodological tool of Organizational Cybernetics. A case-study approach is used to demonstrate the power of the VSM as a diagnostic tool.FindingsHumans need to replace recklessness and selfishness by faster re-orientation towards a socially responsible society. By following the cybernetic circle of the preparation and implementation of the management process and practising social responsibility via the VSM, organisations can conduct socially responsible business operations for a socially responsible society. Respecting the pluralist nature of social responsibility and a limited framework of the VSM, the VSM analysis needs to be supported by interpretive systems approaches, such as Strategic Assumptions Surfacing and Testing (SAST).Research limitations/implicationsThe presented study’s limitation is the case study of a selected organisation from Europe. The discussion could be relevant to each organisation, which is observed as a viable system. The insights gained with this case study can be broadened by empirical research involving diverse organisations from various countries.Practical implicationsResearch results indicate socially irresponsible behaviours of the researched organisation and possible ways of overcoming them. The cybernetic circle of the preparation and implementation of socially responsible management processes through the VSM offers a possible path towards more social responsibility in organisations. Moreover, the VSM should be used in combination with interpretive systems approaches, such as SAST.Social implicationsThe generality of the VSM indicates that decision-makers could use the VSM for diagnosing socially irresponsible behaviour in organisations and for redesigning organisations to help develop a more socially responsible society.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to a cybernetic framework and methodological support to social responsibility. This study could serve as an essential starting point for organisations wishing to take further steps towards social responsibility.

Critical Technics in Architecture

In this article, I posit that for the field of architecture to come to a distinctly architectural application of computational technologies it requires the elaboration of a concept of critical technics. This is premised on a systems-view of technical development, which highlights the importance of time and situatedness for any consideration of change, genesis or becoming. In order to then construct an architectural technicity that can grapple with the external character of technical development, I argue – using the philosophy of technology of Gilbert Simondon and Stafford Beer’s management cybernetics – that what is needed for this is a radical opening-up of the architectural process in the form of a democratisation, to augment architecture’s capacity for producing alternate futurity.

Holistic Modelling Approach for the Management of Organisations

Developments in digitalization are in actual scientific discussion with leading focus on the automatizing of tasks especially in managers´ decision making, but also cover the view on the daily managerial task-fulfilment with digitalized solutions. Challenge for the managers is hereby the design of the digitalized work in a human-task-technology system by using advanced working models, methods and solutions. This compels to rethink causal-deterministic approaches and find new solutions, which especially occur in tasks of the strategic management. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first target was to identify and analyse the models and characteristics of strategic management decisions using approaches of the system theory, cybernetic management, and quantum theory. The second aim was to outline a framework of design parameters for creating causal-deterministic and holistic approaches in complex and complementary decision situations, so that they can be designed and processed digitally and implemented into human-task-technology systems, with outline the way how managerial decision-making will be changed.

Governance Mechanisms for Fourth Industrial Revolution Artifacts in Higher Education Institutions: A Systems Perspective

This conceptual contribution explores the relevance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and its artifacts to the transformation and redefinition of corporate governance in general, and specifically to Information Technology Governance (ITG). We have premised our contribution on the ‘open’ nature of the contemporary society founded on open digital infrastructures, with the Internet as the backbone, with various 4IR technologies reliant on this evolving and dynamic digital infrastructure. Our perspective and conceptualization of the emerging 4IRG draws from systems thinking, and specifically management cybernetics from which Stafford Beer evolved the Viable Systems Model (VSM) as a theory for diagnosing organizations. From a Critical Realist philosophical foundation, our contribution is contextualized in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to aid in motivating governance mechanisms that can be anchored on 4IR and VSM. We offer a conceptualization of digital governance mechanisms that call for algorithmic accountability of 4IR technologies. Specific research questions are proposed that can guide future studies on Fourth Industrial Revolution Governance (4IRG).

A case for the use of cyber-systemics to combat financial crime in Australia

Purpose Financial crime costs the world economy more than $1tn. Yet policing responses continue to apply traditional law enforcement methods to detect, identify and disrupt criminal actors in financial systems. The purpose of this paper is to challenge existing thinking around law enforcement practices in financial crime within an Australian context, by presenting an alternative model grounded in management cybernetics and systemic design (SD), which the author terms “cyber-systemics”. Design/methodology/approach This study reflects on prior research work across cybernetics and SD to suggest an integrated approach as a conceptually useful basis for considering regulation of financial crime, and to demonstrate utility using a case study. Findings The Fintel Alliance between financial crime regulators and financial institutions in Australia demonstrates a strong connection with, and example of, this study’s cyber-systemic regulatory framework. It will be demonstrated that the form of co-design framework offered under cyber-systemics is both consistent with cybernetic and SD literature, but also a means of avoiding regulatory disconnection in times of change and disruption. This study also invites consideration of how future forms of governance might be structured using cyber-systemics as a conceptual backbone. Research limitations/implications This work proposes a novel methodology at odds with traditional law enforcement ways of doing, inevitably requiring a change of regulatory mindset. In addition, this paper is purely conceptual and therefore more research on an empirical basis is required to prove the potential benefits in a real-world regulatory environment. Originality/value This is (to the author’s knowledge) the first conceptual exploration of blending SD and management cybernetics in the field of criminal law regulation.

Critical Success Factors of the University of the Future in a Society 5.0: A Maturity Model

When addressing the possible futures for the university, one can ask what the new critical success factors (CSF) are that represent the core of the University of the Future, from a strategic perspective of analysis. Considering the Society 5.0 paradigm, characterized by higher levels of uncertainty, turbulence, and balance between technology and human values, adaptation to the ecosystem becomes an essential competence. Based on the literature, considering the convergence of organizational cybernetics and biomimetics, this theoretical article proposes a set of new CSF for the University of the Future, expanding the analysis of Society 5.0 and the future challenges for universities. Additionally, proposes a maturity model with eleven dimensions and three stages to support this discussion, visioning a future scenario. This foresight approach provides new insights to think over strategic critical success factors for the university to respond to possible and sustainable futures. Reconfiguration, purpose, and digitization are capacities to address the new environment set in this Smart Society. With this analysis, strategic questions are proposed for researchers and practitioners, especially to address global and regional challenges that universities will face, particularly due to the technological gap established between countries.

An agenda for ontological cybernetics and social responsibility

PurposeThis paper aims to offer an integration of Vladimir Lepskiy’s third-order cybernetics and Raul Espejo’s Viplan methodology. Key ideas are mechanisms for social responsibility and a methodology to improve them through self-developing reflexive-active environments.Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose a methodology based on modern philosophy of science, which sets the foundation of ontological cybernetics, constructed by subjects with different epistemological stances. This methodology includes considerations for social values, worldview principles, multiple viewpoints and subject-oriented information and communication platforms.FindingsCurrent negative trends in socio-economic and environmental developments are associated with weaker social responsibilities of those holding power in society. To increase their social responsibility, the authors argue it is necessary for them to have more effective governance and development mechanisms. The proposed methodology ensures more effective interactions of stakeholders toward creating, regulating and implementing societal problem-solving.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper offers an initial theoretical conceptualization and illustration of social responsibility, which would benefit from further conceptual developments and practical applications.Social implicationsThe methodology helps increasing the level of social responsibility of all participants in control and development processes in social systems. The proposed approach allows ensuring the inclusion of stakeholders in societal problem solving through participatory methods and democratic approaches.Originality/valueThe conceptual and methodological ideas of this paper are based on the authors’ original research. The methodology and model of ontological cybernetics proposed in this paper are based on organizational cybernetics and modern views of philosophy of science. The methodology and model include basic ontological values and principles.

Systemic Design for Food Self-Sufficiency in Urban Areas

This article adopts a systemic approach to address the problem of the operationalization of relationships between actors conducive to food self-sufficiency in urban areas. Through the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA), the literature on urban agriculture was analyzed, detecting eight key trends and topic areas. This information was used to design a generic recursive organizational structure with the identification of the key roles and functions for management and governance in the multi-level and multi-stakeholder relationships of a sustainable urban self-sufficient food production system, inspired by the principles of complexity management and organizational cybernetics. Methodologically, this is the first application that combines the exploratory capability of SNA and the recursive structure of the Viable System Model (VSM) to propose applicable organizational structures in any urban area, suggesting a new route for the study and application of systemic thinking in the development of urban agriculture schemes. However, due to the conceptual nature of this work, this study opens a discussion on how we can rethink interactions to seek continuous adaptation in food self-sufficiency, provide tools that foster inclusion, and adapt to every context to support the relevant actors and academics in urban agriculture.

System Engineering for Project Organization

The theory of systems allows to organize to more efficient management of the development and changes of the project. Classification of M. Jackson for classification of various practices of the systems approach was used for research and analysis. The paper deals with the use of systematic approach in organization management to enhance efficiency in project progress and change management. Based on the classification of M. Jackson different applications of systematic approach are examined and analyzed. A case study of soft system thinking is described. The goal of ongoing research is development of a method to evaluate the effectiveness of project teams at HES MEPhI. The efforts involved application of soft systems methodology and yielded a unified methodology comprising tools and approaches of more efficient management of project teams. The merger of the soft systems methodology and evolution of developed tools into a combined methodology, its deployment in the practice of managing project teams in the field of education provides the launching site for its further extrapolation to other fields where project teams operate.
 Keywords: system approach, project teams, education, soft systems thinking, organizational cybernetics, changes, management, efficiency, project, team

The educational technologist as a variety-handler

In this work, we theorise the role of the educational technologist in an educational institution as a “variety-handler”. That is, we theorise the educational technologist as responsible for the orchestration of educational and technical resources, namely tools, either to attenuate systemic variety or amplify regulative variety at a certain level of recursion. To do so, we carried out a single case study that focused on the work of the educational technologist in a Music College. The educational technologist provided support to an accordion teacher and his student in remote music lessons. We collected qualitative data from the practice of the educational technologist and the experience of both the teacher and the student over six months (mainly observations and interviews) and we analyzed them building on research from managerial cybernetics, in particular, Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM). Our case study indicates that, depending on the context, the educational technologist may overtake many roles, such as be a designer, technician, researcher, planner and so on. But the central role is that of handling variety in order to avoid disruption that could potentially affect the lesson negatively.

控制论与耗散结构论在舰船维修库存管理环节中的应用研究

控制论与耗散结构论在舰船维修库存管理环节中的应用研究

Systemic complementarity, an integrative model of cooperation among small and medium-sized tourist enterprises in Mexico

This article explores cooperation among small and medium-sized tourism companies as a way to adapt better to their context because the lack of organisation and control affect their equilibrium and life cycle. The systemic complementarity was explored to maximise responsive and adaptive capabilities considering heterogeneity in these companies. The viable system approach was adopted to treat conflictual relations in these companies; in that sense, the viable system model was applied to develop coherent relationships, foster collaborative interactions and seek equilibrium. The functions and communication processes in the model distribute necessary information to enrich management and operations considering the environment. Also, the culture and interaction among actors foster ownership and engagement to achieve viability. Finally, through organisational cybernetics, it is attempted to contribute to strengthen these organisations and help them to identify their opportunities as a whole.

An Organizational Cybernetics Framework for Designing a Viable Higher Education System

The Viable System Model (VSM) is an Organizational Cybernetics framework mainly used to handle systems complexity. The fundamental role of the VSM is to steer the mechanisms of a complex system to achieve its purposes and maintain its viability. The purpose of this study is to use the VSM to attempt to develop a framework for a viable higher education system. The developed framework is based on the principles of Beer’s Organizational Cybernetics and then augmented with the phases of applying the VSM described by Jose Perez Rios. The proposed framework not only presents a thorough explanation of the principles of a viable higher education system but also gives the basis for a thorough redesign that can be used to help the top universities’ management to diagnose and maintain the viability of their systems.

The complexity continuum, part 2: modelling harmony

PurposeComplex systems adapt to survive, but little comparative literature exists on various approaches. Adaptive complex systems are generic, this referring to propositions concerning their bounded instability, adaptability and viability. Two classes of adaptive complex system theories exist: hard and soft. Hard complexity theories include Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and Viability Theory, and softer theories, which we refer to as Viable Systems Theories (VSTs), that includes Management Cybernetics at one extreme and Humanism at the other. This paper has a dual purpose distributed across two parts. In part 1 the purpose was to identify the conditions for the complementarity of the two classes of theory. In part 2 the two the purpose is to explore (in part using Agency Theory) the two classes of theory and their proposed complexity continuum.Design/methodology/approachExplanation is provided for the anticipation of behaviour cross-disciplinary fields of theory dealing with adaptive complex systems. A comparative exploration of the theories is undertaken to elicit concepts relevant to a complexity continuum. These explain how agency behaviour can be anticipated under uncertainty. Also included is a philosophical exploration of the complexity continuum, expressing it in terms of a graduated set of philosophical positions that are differentiated in terms of objects and subjects. These are then related to hard and softer theories in the continuum. Agency theory is then introduced as a framework able to comparatively connect the theories on this continuum, from theories of complexity to viable system theories, and how harmony theories can develop.FindingsAnticipation is explained in terms of an agency’s meso-space occupied by a regulatory framework, and it is shown that hard and softer theory are equivalent in this. From a philosophical perspective, the hard-soft continuum is definable in terms of objectivity and subjectivity, but there are equivalences to the external and internal worlds of an agency. A fifth philosophical position of critical realism is shown to be representative of harmony theory in which internal and external worlds can be related. Agency theory is also shown to be able to operate as a harmony paradigm, as it can explore external behaviour of an agent using a hard theory perspective together with an agent’s internal cultural and cognitive-affect causes.Originality/valueThere are very few comparative explorations of the relationship between hard and soft approaches in the field of complexity and even fewer that draw in the notion of harmony. There is also little pragmatic illustration of a harmony paradigm in action within the context of complexity.

Complex system governance: Concept, utility, and challenges

AbstractComplex system governance (CSG) is an emerging field focused on design, execution, and evolution of (meta)system functions that produce control, communications, coordination, and integration of a complex system. Ultimately, CSG explains system performance, prospects for continued system viability (existence), and future system sustainability. This paper explores three primary perspectives for CSG. First, following a brief introduction, a CSG overview is provided. Three underlying fields (systems theory, management cybernetics, and system governance), the derived model for CSG, and essential distinctions of CSG are developed. Second, the role and nature of CSG pathologies as aberrations from normal or healthy system conditions are developed. Pathologies are grounded in systems theory, and requisite variety is used to explain pathologies in complex system design, execution, or development impacting system performance. Third, challenges for balanced evolution of the CSG field are suggested. The paper concludes with suggestion for simultaneous development of science, engineering, and practice for CSG.

Migration Model of Science and Education Management in the ‘Archive Philosophy’ of M.K. Petrov

Purpose: The article deals with the features of science and education in the context of the management system, presenting not a traditional management system, but the innovative idea of a migration management model. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study is based on the archive philosophy of M.K. Petrov. Under the conditions of ‘big science’, its creative potential focusing on innovations in the field of practical applications and in the education system, assigns its generation feature to cybernetic management models. Findings: Authors presents a model of education, facing the issue of management science and education in modern conditions. It analyses the concepts of the ‘science of science’ and ‘society scientification’ in the conditions of the modern ‘big science’. Practical Implications: The results gives the view on shaping the institute of science in modern times and could be used in managing science and education at all levels. Originality/Value: The study has a unique viewpoint on the framework of science and education, addrssing the very nature of these sociocultural phenomena .

SYNTHESIS OF THE ORGANIZATION IMAGE ON THE BASIS OF COMBINED APPROACHES AND MODELS

Purpose. Consider the possibility of using the concepts and technologies of complex modeling to describe complex objects and synthesize their appearance.Materials and methods. The combined approach and models used for the synthesis of the image of the organization, which is considered as a situational center, are proposed. At the same time, the technical theories, organizational cybernetics and autopoiesis were chosen as the basic theories underlying the developed methodology. Results. A method of synthesizing the appearance of a situational center was proposed and substantiated, which allowed, firstly, to ensure continuous and constructive interaction between conceptual model developers and software platform architects, as well as between specialists from different subject areas, developers of typical design solutions and users of situational centers, and – second, to form a universal organization pattern, taking into account the invariant, resource and structural characteristics of the synthesized organization. Conclusion. It is proposed to use in the synthesis of the image of the organization three well-known classes of conceptual models: constructs, patterns and typical design solutions in the “technological inheritance” mode. Modes of use of conceptual models are synchronized with the appropriate tools and developers.

Researches status and trends of management cybernetics and viable system model

PurposeThis paper reviews the underpinning principles and scientific trends of cybernetics and the viable system model (VSM). Therefore, this paper aims to guide authors and managers active in management cybernetics and to inform them about the past, current and future trends in this discipline.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods. First, a descriptive and qualitative approach is used to review and analyze management cybernetics historical trends. Then, a frequency analysis (quantitative) is conducted on the 1,000 first publications in the field.FindingsThe cybernetics was emerged in the Josiah Macy conference in 1946. Then, Wiener introduced the field of cybernetics and Ashby, Von Foerster and McCulloch developed this concept as a discipline. The Management cybernetics field that was introduced by Beer is a combination of system, control and management sciences. Beer presented VSM as an operational model in this area. Analyzing the 1,000 top-ranked publications shows that the introduction of this field reached maturity and further development became relatively mature. Moreover, based on the analyzed trends, VSM model application can now be strongly attractive. In this paper, the main journals, authors and research trends are analyzed. The main application area of this model is in the IT field and large-scale organizations.Practical implicationsThe present paper’s implication for practitioners and researchers is guiding authors and managers to most appropriate studies in the field, so that they can produce and use the most efficient studies in this field.Social implicationsThe fields of IT, Policy-Making, Production, Social Issues, Service industry, Software developers, etc., are some of this paper’s implications for industry and society.Originality/valueIn this paper, the steps of VSM development are investigated. Then, recent trends (classifications, authors, journals and topics analysis) are surveyed by analyzing the top 1,000 publications in this field. This paper would help researchers find more appropriate research fields. In addition, it helps practitioners find the optimum solutions based on management cybernetics for their problems among vast numbers of publications.

Reviews of Recent Publications [Two books reviewed

As the first narrative to integrate the many dimensions of cybernetics into a single narrative, this book presents a new answer to this crucial question. For Ronald Kline, cybernetics was most critically a site of contestation, and more specifically of what sociologists term boundary work. Practitioners continuously fought over and redrew the borders of cybernetics, demarcating it from adjacent disciplines like information theory, general systems theory, and bionics, and dividing cybernetics itself into subdisciplines like management cybernetics and medical cybernetics. Many of the founders of the field had the ambition to create a universal discipline, but Kline emphasizes their failure to do so, as practitioners disagreed about the content of cybernetics, fractured it into more narrowly defined disciplines, or carried lessons back to traditional disciplines and, thus, abandoned the project of building a new one. Kline’s emphasis on boundary work is supported by his careful attention to shifting alliances, discourses, and research programs. He points out, for example, that the cofounders of cybernetics who attended the Macy Conferences in the 1940s and 1950s focused on feedback and circular causality only in their first meetings; after about 1949, they fixed their attention firmly on the question of how to measure information. Concepts and discourses of information remain a central dimension of the book from that point forward; it devotes a chapter to how scientists constructed information theory as a distinct discipline in the 1950s, and another to how the phrases information technology and information society became ubiquitous tools for making sense of technology and society in the 1980s and 1990s. Kline’s accounts of the relationships between cybernetics and the fringe are strongest in these accounts of the 1950s, when many of those involved were canonical founders of cybernetics.

Diagnóstico de una organización de desarrollo de productos informáticos con perspectiva sistémica

In this work, a diagnosis with a systemic approach is made to a Computing Products Development (DPI) organization, using Organizational Cybernetics (CO) and the Stafford Beer Model of Viable Systems (MSV). The MSV provides adaptability and organizational capacity to reduce the complexity of the environment, increase product quality and avoid loss of resources, also raises important issues and brings relevant ideas for software development in situations that involve complexity. The DPI can be supported by systemic methodologies so that the products in the organizations are of quality for the end user, ensuring the viability of the organization.