Stafford Beer Research Articles

From United Steel to Waymo: industrializing simulation

AbstractThe use of computers for simulation work can be traced back to the 1950s, and the pioneering work of Stafford Beer, KD Tocher and others at Cybor House in Sheffield, UK, the research and development (R&D) department of British steelmakers, United Steel. This innovative simulation work sought to offer an abstracted, ‘total’ environment of the steelmaking process in which different operational activities could be modeled. Critical to this work was the ability of computer simulations to perform such modelling at a fraction of the cost, wasting fewer material resources, and in a considerably shorter timeframe. Such work can be understood as the earliest example of the application of industrial-scale ‘automated computation’ to a real-world industrial process. Similarly indebted to the early principles of computer simulation, Waymo engineers are also engaged in the building of so-called ‘conflict typologies’ designed to encode material properties of everyday driving interactions between road users, rather than simply road users themselves. Through ‘motion planning’, coupled with the categorization of driving interactions, Waymo engineers build instrumental understanding of their own system’s purported intelligence in navigating everyday driving situations. Functioning as ‘generative mechanisms’ rather than simply evaluative devices, engineers seek to industrialize—instrumentalize, scale up, rationalize—everyday driving knowledge. Through conflict typologies, instrumental knowledge of the actual capacities of autonomous vehicles is industrialized, materialized, and realized.

Synergizing Structure and Agility: A Comprehensive Analysis of SAFe Agile Framework through the Lens of Stafford Beer's Viable System Model

AbstractThis paper presents a novel examination of the SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework®) through the theoretical framework of Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM). By applying the principles of VSM, renowned for its systemic and cybernetic approach to organizational management, we offer a unique perspective on the structural and functional aspects of SAFe® in its various configurations: Essential, Large Solution, Portfolio, and Full. The study employs functional modeling to delineate the congruencies and divergences between VSM and SAFe®, aiming to illuminate how VSM's systemic insights can enhance the implementation and efficacy of SAFe® practices. This interdisciplinary approach not only contributes to a deeper understanding of SAFe's® capabilities and limitations but also demonstrates the practical applicability of VSM in contemporary agile environments. The findings propose actionable insights for organizations seeking to optimize their agile practices through a more structured, systemic lens, thus bridging a crucial gap in agile and systems thinking literature. This paper is poised to benefit practitioners and theorists alike, offering a fresh perspective in the agile systems domain.

Spontaneity and Control: Friedrich Hayek, Stafford Beer, and the Principles of Self-Organization

Friedrich Hayek, the Austrian economist, and Stafford Beer, best known for engineering socialist Chile's CYBERSYN project, met exactly once, at the 1960 Symposium on the Principles of Self-Organization, hosted by the Biological Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois. Independently, in the decade that followed, Beer and Hayek each sought to apply the principles of self-organization to the design of economic institutions. They were joined in the belief that the full enjoyment of human liberty would require a self-organizing world economy. To understand why, this article delves into the explanatory logic and intellectual history of “self-organization.” I use points of convergence between Beer's thought and Hayek's to reframe a key moment in the history of neoliberalism.

A nexus of affective events theory and viable system model to comprehend affective work environment holistically – an empirical investigation

PurposeDespite being a seminal explanation of the workforce emotional experiences, capable of mapping the path from the antecedents to consequences, affective events theory (AET) only offers a “macrostructure” of a working environment. To date, little is known about the universal features of the work environment that may guide the understanding of imperative work aspects triggering employees’ emotions at work. Hence, the study proposes and validates that Stafford Beer’s viable system model (VSM) can provide a holistic view of the organizational work environment, enabling a comprehensive understanding of work events or factors triggering workforce emotions.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the VSM structural layout is used to fill in the “macrostructure” of the “working environment” in AET to diagnose the functional and relational aspects of the work and the related work events occurring within. Using a deductive approach, 31 work events were adopted to determine the impact of VSM-based work environment events on the employees’ emotional experiences and subsequent work attitudes (job satisfaction) and behaviors (citizenship behavior). To field test the proposed nexus of VSM and AET, the survey was conducted on two hundred and fifteen employees from 39 different organizations. PLS-SEM tested the explanatory power of the suggested VSM’s systemic approach for understanding the affective work environment in totality.FindingsThe findings confirmed that the VSM metalanguage provides a holistic view of the organizational functioning and social connectivity disposing of affective work events, helpful in assessing their aggregate influence on employees’ emotions and work-related outcomes.Practical implicationsThe findings identify how employees' emotions can be triggered by everyday work operations and social relations at work, which can affect their extra-role behaviors and necessary work-related attitudes.Originality/valueThe study utilized Beer’s VSM framework based on the systemic principle of “holistic view” for ascertaining the affective work environment and its related features holistically, which filled in well the macrostructure of “work environment features” with micro-structures of organizational inter-related aspects which are yet to be known in AET – a seminal explanation for managing workforce emotions.

Characterization of a Mexican MSME Technological Observatory through the Viable System Model

The viable system model (VSM) is a conceptual framework for analyzing and designing complex organizations, which was developed by Stafford Beer in the 1970s. It is based on the idea that every organization is a system composed of a set of interconnected subsystems that must work together effectively to achieve its goals. One of the key scientific novelties of using the VSM in technological issues is its emphasis on adaptability and resilience. The VSM recognizes that organizations must be able to adapt to changing environments and circumstances in order to survive and thrive, and that this requires a flexible and responsive organizational structure that is capable of learning and adapting over time. By using the VSM to design and manage their technological systems, organizations can create more adaptive and resilient systems that are better able to respond to changing technological and market conditions. The current dynamics of the market push companies to look for ways to improve their competitive position by relying on instruments that facilitate the effective acquisition, processing, and analysis of large amounts of data from different and dispersed sources; in response to this need, various tools for research and information processing have emerged. One of them is the technological observatories that appeared in the nineties. They are considered tools that assist in the design of strategies, the decision-making of companies, and the development of public policies. The following research aims to characterize a technological observatory for MSMEs in Mexico based on the model of viable systems (VSM); its intelligence area is validated through a prospective model for the next five years using the I Think 8.0 software. The methodological strategy is based on the mixed sequential explanatory method; in the first instance, a quantitative analysis is carried out on the structure, processes, human resources, and innovation of twenty technological observatories of the business sector that operate worldwide, after which a qualitative analysis was elaborated established in thematic axes on the opinion of experts in areas of public policy, technologies, knowledge transfer, education, both contributions supported to generate an overview of the current state of technological observatories in Mexico and worldwide, then obtain the necessary inputs to develop the proposed model. As a result, an observatory model was obtained for MSMEs with good profitability and permanence over time, thanks to their anticipated strategies based on the perspective regarding their management. Keywords: MSMEs, observatory, foresight, viable systems, competitiveness. https://doi.org/10.55463/issn.1674-2974.50.4.19

The project-oriented organisation through the lens of viable systems

Organisations are increasingly implementing projects to respond to growing complexity and changes in their environments. Such organisations are referred to as project-oriented organisations. This organisation type has been described with regard to value-based, people-based and structure-based competencies. To strengthen the theoretical underpinning of the competence model of project-oriented organisations, we adopt the cybernetic perspective of viable systems developed by Stafford Beer. We conceptually derive survivability, sense-making and futureability as central competencies of viable systems and relate them to such organisations. In doing so, the paper strengthens the theoretical understanding of project-oriented organisations and contributes to a simplification of the model of viable systems. From a practical perspective, we empower organisations to increase their viability by leveraging their viable competencies.

Alexander Bogdanov, Stafford Beer and intimations of a post‐capitalist future

AbstractAlexander Bogdanov (1873–1928) was a Russian social theorist and revolutionary activist whose ‘universal organizational science’, or Tektology, is increasingly being recognized as offering stronger foundations for the systems approach than the later ‘general system theory’ of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Had his thinking not been suppressed by Stalin, the course of Soviet history might have been different. Stafford Beer (1926–2002) was a British management scientist and consultant who was a pioneer in the development of ‘organizational cybernetics’. His best‐known engagement was with the government of Salvador Allende, in Chile, seeking to use his ‘viable system model’ to create a socialist society that did not rest on a command economy. This experiment was cut short by the Pinochet coup d'etat. I have found no evidence that Beer was familiar with the work of Bogdanov, and this makes the similarities in their thinking particularly striking. This paper explores the ideas they shared in common. The work of other writers who have drawn on the work of Bogdanov and Beer, in formulating contemporary visions of post‐capitalism, is highlighted.

'Anarchist technologies': Anarchism, cybernetics and mutual aid in community responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic that gripped the world since the end of 2019 has been felt most immediately both as a health crisis and an economic, social and political crisis. Secondary impacts of social distancing and lockdown in many countries have put strains on people's capacities to provide essential food and medicines for themselves and their families. In response, outside of centralised government and voluntary sector frameworks, local mutual aid groups have emerged around the world as a primary site of community resilience. Given mutual aid's strong links to the anarchist political tradition, for example in its identification by Kropotkin as a factor in evolution, this article suggests that these new mutual aid groups can be understood best through the related concept of self-organisation. Tying anarchist approaches to mutual aid and self-organisation together, it is argued that cybernetics and Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) offer useful tools in helping both academic analysis and on-the-ground practice assess and improve the effectiveness of mutual aid in and beyond the COVID-19 crisis. The article offers a qualitative thematic analysis of anarchist and related texts published during the pandemic that reflect on mutual aid practice. In doing so, it highlights some of the challenges and tensions such self-organised mutual aid practice might face and proposes a participatory research agenda drawing on Beer's VSM.

Cybernetic governance of the Peruvian State: a proposal.

This paper aims to make a proposal to govern the Peruvian State under the umbrella of management cybernetics, following the paths of the viable system model (VSM), proposed by Prof. Stafford Beer, enriched with other soft and hard systemic methodologies and technologies, to cover the soft and hard issues that are part of the complex Peruvian reality at different levels of recursion. For doing this, four defined perspectives were adopted to understand the complexity of Peru: the sectoral view, the regions view, the river basins view and the macroregions view. Peru is seen as a system in focus, defining, for each of these four perspectives, the five systems that VSM has. The application of the VSM in each perspective serves to apply it in two modes: diagnosis and design, according to the respective perspective. Then an integrative analysis and reflection is done considering the four perspectives, to analyze the viability of the VSM approach in the governance of the Peruvian State to establish some conclusions and recommendations in relation to the proposal, appearing at the end of the paper.

Operative communication: project Cybersyn and the intersection of information design, interface design, and interaction design

This article examines the connecting lines between the Chilean Project Cybersyn’s interface design, the German Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm and its cybernetically inspired approaches towards information design, and later developments in interaction design and the emerging field of Human–Computer Interaction in the USA. In particular, it first examines how early works of designers Tomàs Maldonado and Gui Bonsiepe on operative communication, that is, language-independent (and thus internationalizable) pictogram systems and visual grammars for computational systems, were intertwined with attempts to ground industrial design in a scientific methodology, to address an era of computing machines, and to develop the concept of the interface as a heuristic for a renovated design thinking. It thereby also reconstructs further historical vanishing lines—e.g. the pictorial grammar of Otto Neurath’s ISOTYPE—of the development of the ‘ulm model’ of design. Second, the article explores how an apprehension of first-order cybernetics in West Germany—e.g. represented by hfg ulm staff like Max Bense or Abraham Moles, merged with Cybersyn’s second-order cybernetics ideas, as represented by Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model. And third, it asks about a further conceptual turn regarding an understanding of design which resulted in a focus on communicative interaction, e.g. in the later works of Fernando Flores and Terry Winograd on HCI, or in Beer’s Team Syntegrity approach. As an effect, the text will explore a specific and international network of cybernetic thinking between Latin America, Europe, and North America which emerged around Project Cybersyn, and which was occupied with questions of HCI, a democratization of design, and intelligence amplification.

Cybersyn, big data, variety engineering and governance.

This contribution offers reflections about Chilean Cybersyn, 50 years ago. In recent years, Cybersyn, has received significant attention. It was the brainchild of Stafford Beer, who conceived it to support the transformation of the Chilean economy from its bureaucratic history to hopefully create a vibrant and modern society, driven by cybernetic tools. These aspects have received much attention in recent times; however, in this contribution, I want to discuss how working in Cybersyn influenced my work after the coup of 1973. Perhaps, for me, its major influence was in the management of complexity, through what I refer here as variety engineering and through the Viable System Model VSM as a paradigm to the management of relationships with implications to enterprises, society and the economy. After the 1973 coup major interest was in technological aspects of Cybersyn such as real-time management and its contribution to decision support and executive information systems. In the late 70s I was personally influenced by information management, but by the early 1980s my work moved towards methodological aspects of how to use the VSM. By 1989 I had created the VIPLAN method (Espejo, 1989). Key questions I attempted to answer were, how to model the complexity of enterprises and their interactions with environmental agents. Later on, in the 1990s and 2000s, the main direction of my work was epistemological, ontological and methodological towards second-order cybernetics and relationships. Only in recent decades the political transformations proposed by Cybersyn have captured the imagination of many commentators. The confluence of social and cultural changes with information technology, data models, artificial intelligence, algorithms and several additional technological developments have challenged the excesses of capitalism, particularly after the banking crisis of 2008–2009. The purpose in this paper is discussing this evolution in the light of those early days in Chile.

Diagnose the viability of separation of power in Egypt: a cybernetics perspective

PurposeThe aim of this study is to diagnose the Egyptian political system from the perspective of the viable system model (VSM). That in turn gives us significant insights on how to improve the distribution and control of power in Egypt to warrant greater autonomy and representativeness in the branches of government.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed diagnostic framework in this study was accomplished by applying the principles and aspects of Stafford Beer's VSM to the three state powers of Egypt: the executive, legislative and judiciary. In addition, it adopts the guidelines for applying the VSM described by both Stafford Beer and José Pérez Ríos.FindingsThe presented framework in this study shows a comprehensive explanation of the essential functions and their distribution among the entities of the Egyptian political system. In addition to that, the findings give us insights about the need for greater autonomy and self-organization among the political system's entities. Greater communication, consensus, cooperation and coordination is needed to achieve balance, regulate the interactions between them and to monitor each other without intervention. This, in turn, would ensure greater representation of citizen demands and expectations, and protect and guarantee their rights and freedoms.Originality/valueThe modeling of the Egyptian political system from a VSM perspective suggests the necessity of reform of the political system by a clear division of functions and tasks within the operational entities and subentities, decentralization of power structures and utilization of the decision marketing mechanism to reach public acceptance. The application of the VSM, for the sake of diagnosing and designing the viability of separation of power, can be considered as highly original.

Cyberneticisation as a Theory and Practice of Matter

The ecological implementation of cybernetic ideas in architecture requires a material theory and practice that enables their propositions to be tested. The need for approaches that move from simulation to cybernetic reality is a documented limitation of cybernetics recognised by Stafford Beer with his pond ecology experiments and Gordon Pask through electrochemical devices. While both experimented with adaptive material platforms as embodiments of designed cybernetic systems, their approaches were limited by the available toolsets. This article considers an ecological trajectory of cybernetisation by revisiting notions of biological computation as a generative material practice. In particular, the growing fields of biodesign and living architecture go beyond notions of biological analogues that inform modern architecture by directly incorporating living systems into the very fabric of buildings as designed expressions of ecology.

Critical Technics in Architecture: A Cybernetic Approach

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.

Integrating parallel conversations in an institutionalized society: Experiments with Team Syntegrity online

For the philosopher Ivan Illich, society became a set of systems rather than a group of people. As such, society depersonalizes life and brings the need for open non-systematized spaces where people can act and interact outside their typical roles. On the other hand, an absence of formal structures may simply open spaces for the informal reproduction of society’s already well-established structures. Given this conjuncture, can systems be designed to foster personal expression? The answer I found in cybernetics is self-organization, a process of adaptation to a context that can grow different organizations depending on what this context provides. This implies that personal expression is a concern in society’s emergent organizations, calling for meta planning to design the context of some of society’s self-organization processes. The cybernetician Gordon Pask argued that depersonalization follows from non-conversational communications, like the ones that develop in large committees. In response, Pask’s fellow cybernetician Stafford Beer proposed a meeting protocol called Team Syntegrity allowing large groups to subdivide into small integrated discussion groups. While Beer’s work has been extensively discussed in existent literature, this article presents the results of four experiments conducted by using variations of Beer’s protocol to understand both the ease with which it can be adapted to different situations, and the implications of its conversational structure on personal expression. The experiment’s realization demonstrates that the protocol’s preparation is laborious and hard to adapt in a timely manner in situations where participant numbers fluctuate. Automation of these processes, however, offers possibilities to use the approach in loosely organized groups. Automation can also help choosing the most appropriate protocol for particular situations through the manipulation of its configuration. Despite difficulties, the protocol offers promise for different purposes, encouraging personal expression in a way that reverberates with others’ personal perspectives.

Towards viability of academic departments: the power of organizational cybernetics

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to use the power of organization cybernetics (OC) to design a flexible viable academic department that is at the risk of losing its viability because of the complexity of the educational environment.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed framework is developed based on Beer’s OC and the viable system model (VSM). This study adopts the guidelines for applying the VSM described by Stafford Beer and José Pérez Ríos.FindingsThe framework presents a comprehensive explanation of the essential functions of a viable academic department. In addition, it determines the basis for an inclusive redesign that can be used to maintain the department’s identity and viability as well.Originality/valueAlthough there are many studies applying the framework of the VSM, in an educational context, most of them limited its usage to the evaluation of the viability of academic departments. They did not use the power of OC to design for systemic viability. Accordingly, the application of OC and the VSM, for the sake of designing a viable academic department, can be considered as highly original.

Why is Quality Improvement so Challenging? A Viable Systems Model Perspective to Understand the Frustrations of Healthcare Quality Improvement Managers

The challenges facing Quality Improvement Managers (QIMs) are often understood and addressed in isolation from wider healthcare organisation within which quality improvement initiatives are embedded. We draw on Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) to shed light on how the viability of quality improvement depends on the effective functioning of five critical quality improvement systems and the extent to which these systems are integrated within the healthcare organisation. These systems are System 1 (Operations), System 2 (Coordination), System 3 (Operational Control), System 4 (Development) and System 5 (Policy).Our analysis draws on interviews with 56 QIMs working in 15 of New Zealand's 20 District Health Boards. We use VSM to identify the sources of problems in QI implementation. These include changes in direction for QI initiatives; myopic behaviour resulting from fragmented systems of care; difficulties in managing and monitoring QI activities given variable staff engagement and inadequate resourcing; pressure for quick results rather developing QI capabilities; and a lack of strategic embeddedness.A viable QI system requires QI approaches that are (1) implemented at an organisation-wide level; (2) well-resourced and carefully monitored; (3) underpinned by a long-term vision; and (4) supported by QIMs with the necessary power and influence to integrate QI subsystem within the wider healthcare organisation.

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.

Cyberneticisation as a Theory and Practice of Matter

The ecological implementation of cybernetic ideas in architecture requires a material theory and practice that enables their propositions to be tested. The need for approaches that move from simulation to cybernetic reality is a documented limitation of cybernetics recognised by Stafford Beer with his pond ecology experiments and Gordon Pask through electrochemical devices. While both experimented with adaptive material platforms as embodiments of designed cybernetic systems, their approaches were limited by the available toolsets. This article considers an ecological trajectory of cybernetisation by revisiting notions of biological computation as a generative material practice. In particular, the growing fields of biodesign and living architecture go beyond notions of biological analogues that inform modern architecture by directly incorporating living systems into the very fabric of buildings as designed expressions of ecology.

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).