Stafford Beer Research Articles

Management cybernetics: a look at the debate

This paper is a response to Patrick Rivett's ‘critical appreciation’ of the management cybernetics of Stafford Beer. Professor Rivett has radically misrepresented Professor Beer and management cybernetics. In the process, Professor Rivett has muddied the water around a number of critical issues. This paper (1) discusses Professor Rivett's errors, (2) briefly discusses the utility of cybernetics for managers, and (3) attempts to direct attention back to the fundamental issues of societal stability and institutional adaptation.

Book Reviews

Ackoff, Russel L., Redesigning the Future, A Systems Approach to Societal Problems, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1974—reviewed by Paul Gray Agapos, A. M., Government-Industry and Defense: Economics and Administration, University of Alabama Press, 1975, 184 pp., $9.50—reviewed by John C. Honig Beer, Stafford, Platform for Change, a Message from Stafford Beer, John Wiley and Sons, 1975, ($14.50 paper), 456 pp.—reviewed by Paul Gray Brophy, Peter, Michael K. Buckland, and Anthony Hindle (Editors). Reader in Operations Research for Libraries, Information Handling Services, 392 pp.—reviewed by Richard W. Trueswell Childress, Robert L., Fundamentals of Finite Mathematics, Prentice-Hall, 1976, 544 pp., $12.95—reviewed by Douglas C. Montgomery Dowling, William L., Hospital Production, Lexington, Mass., D.C. Heath and Company, 1976, 166 pp., $14.50—reviewed by Walton M. Hancock Eck, Roger D., Operations Research for Business, Wadsworth Publishing, Inc., 1976, 757 pp., $15.95—reviewed by Ted S. Glickman Francis, Richard L., and John A. White, Facility Layout and Location: An Analytical Approach, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974, 468 pp., $17.95—reviewed by Donald Erlenkotter Isaacson, D. L. and R. D. Madsen, Markov Chains: Theory and Application. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1976, 256 pp.—reviewed by U. Narayan Bhat Lapin, L., Quantitative Methods for Business Decisions, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1976, 770 pp.—reviewed by James R. Evans Pipe, G. Russel, and A. A. M. Veenhuis, National Planning for Informatics in Developing Countries, North-Holland Publishing Co., 1976, 531 pp., $45.00—reviewed by Lutz Conrad Quade, E. S., Analysis for Public Decisions. American Elsevier 1975, 322 pp, $17.00—reviewed by Peter Kolesar Ramalingam, P. Systems Analysis for Managerial Decisions. John Wiley & Sons, 1976, 607 pp., $17.95—reviewed by Larry R. Arnold Wesolowsky, George O., Multiple Regression Analysis and Analysis of Variance, New York; John Wiley & Sons, 1976, 292 pp., $10.95—reviewed by P. V. Rao

The galloping Cyberneticist

Planning Review intercepted Stafford Beer after his recent luncheon address to the Montreal chapters of NASCP and PEI to extract his current views on planning and the organization. Beer has long been concerned with the rate of change which technological achievement represents, and comments: “It is to the rate rather than to the changes themselves that we have to adapt.” In the interview that follows, he defines planning as the process of adjusting to a change in the environment. From his long inquiry into the task of organization and control in a fast‐changing environment, he concludes that the line/staff distinction is now dysfunctional. Planners and other staff personnel are making many decisions because they have the information and the decision has to be made quickly. Dr. Beer argues that these people should be given the responsibility to match the power they in fact enjoy. That power derives from information, which should not be confused with the accumulation of data. Data becomes information only at the point where it effects changes in the individual or company receiving it. Beer has long been a key figure in the fields of cybernetics, operations research, and management science. He's been a full‐time senior manager in four British companies, one a large publishing house and another United Steel, where he founded and directed for 13 years what became the largest civil operations research group. He has acted as consultant to international organizations such as the UN and the OECD and to a number of governments, including those of the United States, Britain, France, and Chile, in the sciences of management and effective organization (“the science of effective organization” is his preferred definition of cybernetics). Beer is Visiting Professor of Cybernetics at Manchester University, England, as well as Adjunct Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at the University of Pennsylvania. A conference speaker, broadcaster, and writer, Dr. Beer has published more than 150 papers and articles. Probably his best known books are Cybernetics and Management (1959), Brain of the Firm (1972), and Platform for Change (1975). In his spare time, Stafford Beer paints and writes poetry in his country home in Wales.

The case for cybernetics: A critical appreciation

The paper presents an enquiry into the reasons why there are so few published practical examples of the application of cybernetics in management. It takes the case for such an approach as presented in Platform for Change by Professor Stafford Beer and comments on and criticises the separate papers presented in that volume. It is suggested that there may be two main reasons why, in Britain, cybernetic thinking has not yet any real impact on management. The first is a tendency to over state the case and the second is a failure to understand human reactions to the sort of control systems which cyberneticians are suggesting.

New order for society

Platform for Change *. By Stafford Beer. (Wiley: London and New York, January 1975.) £5.00.

A Review of: “PLATFORM FOR CHANGE”, by Stafford Beer. John Wiley, New York, 1935.457 pp.

(1975). A Review of: “PLATFORM FOR CHANGE”, by Stafford Beer. John Wiley, New York, 1935.457 pp. International Journal of General Systems: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 171-172.

Brain of the Firm: The Managerial Cybernetics of Organization

Beer is undoubtedly among the world's most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know. Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA. If . anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer . everyone in management . should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and . even elegant diagrams. The Economist This is the second edition of a book which has already become a management 'standard' both in universities and on the bookshelves of managers and their advisers. Brain of the Firm develops an account of the firm based upon insights derived from the study of the human nervous system, and is a basic text from the author's theory of viable systems. Despite the neurophysiology, the book is written for managers to understand. The companion volume to this book is The Heart of Enterprise, which is intended to support and complement this text. Beer's works represent required reading for everyone who believes that a capacity for rigorous thinking is an essential attribute of today's successful managers and administrators. Brain of the Firm shows a first-rate intellect at work and provides concepts, models and inspiration for both practitioners and teachers. Sir Douglas Hague, CBE

Book Notes

Book review in this article Modern British Government J.A. Cross London Review of Public Administration London Regional Group, Royal Institute of Public Administration. Twice yearly Public Administration: Policy Making in Government Agencies Ira Sharkansky The Art and Practice of Public Administration: Papers by Louis J. Kroeger Harriet Nathan The British Prices and Incomes Board Allan Fels The Case for Regional Reform William Thornhill The Urban Future John N. Jackson Rates or Prices? Alan K. Maynard and David N. King The Administration of Publicly‐Aided Housing Charles S. Ascher A Management System for the Seventies John Argenti Current Contents in Management Manchester Business School Library Planning Programming Budgeting: A Systems Approach to Management Fremont J. Lyden and Ernest G. Miller The Game of Budget Control G. H. Hofstede Care of the Elderly: An Exercise in Cost Benefit Analysis R. Wager Brain of the Firm: The Managerial Cybernetics of Organization Stafford Beer Salary Structures for Management Careers Arthur Bowley Payment Systems: Selected Readings Tom Lupton Trade Unions: Selected Readings Economic Analysis and Public Enterprises Ralph Turvey. George Allen & The Administrative History of India 1834–1947: General Administration B. B. Misra Ghana under Military Rule 1966–1969 Robert Pinkney Facts in Focus The Health Services of Ireland Brendan Hensey Values and the Active Community International Studies of Values in Politics

Cybernetics— A Systems Approach to Management

Sociologists are usually seen as the principal developers of organisational theory and it is not always realised that some very convincing explanations of how organisations work and suggestions on how they might work better are to be found in the science of control systems — cybernetics. Cybernetics provides us with a general systems theory; that is a theory which can be applied to any kind of system where there are control functions. The best known and most influential cybernetician in Britain is Professor Stafford Beer. He has made many major contributions to writing and thinking on the theory of organisation. Below are some of his ideas on how organisations work and can be made to work more effectively which he originally put forward in a lecture to the United Kingdom Automation Council.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Intelligence and Cultural Environment. By Philip E. VernonModelling of Thinking and the Mind. By N. M. Amosov.Automation Theory and Learning Systems. Edited by D. J. Stewart from contributions selected by Stafford Beer, F. H. George and the late Richard GoodmanModern Systems Research for the Behavioural Scientist: a Sourcebook. Edited by W. Buckley.Cybernetics. By John F. Young.Psycholinguistics: Experiments in Spontaneous Speech. By Frieda Goldman Eisler.Development in Learning. Vol. III: Contexts of Education. Edited by J. F. Morris and E. A. Lunzer.Attachment and Loss. Vol. I: Attachment. By John Bowlby.The Evaluation of Personal Constructs. By D. Bannister and J. M. M. Mair.The Psychology of Superstition. By Gustav Jahoda.The Neuropsychology of Development: A Symposium. Edited by Robert L. Isaacson.Experience and Capacity. Edited by D. P. Kimble.Studies of Anxiety. (British Journal of Psychiatry Special Publication no. 3.) Edited by M. H. Lader.Social Competence and Mental Handicap: An Introduction to Social Education. By H. C. Gunzburg.Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioural Sciences. By Roger E. Kirk.Delinquents and Non‐delinquents in Perspective. By Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck.The Epidemiology of Depression. By Charlotte Silverman.Sentence Structure and the Reading Process. By I. M. Schlesinger.Mental Health and Subnormality. Edited by G. O'Gorman.A Psychological Approach to Abnormal Behaviour. By Leonard P. Ullmann and Leonard Krasner.Reward and Punishment in Human Learning: Elements of a Behavior Theory. By Joseph Nuttin and Anthony C. Greenwald.Brain and Behaviour. Vol. I: Mood, States and Mind. Vol. II: Perception and Action. Vol. III: Memory Mechanisms. Vol. IV: Adaptation. Edited by K. H. Pribram.The Tasks of Childhood. By Phillipe Muller. Translated from the French by Anita MasonThe Psychology and Education of the Young: A Guide to the Principles of Development, Learning and Assessment. By Margaret MunroIndustrial Training Handbook. Edited by J. W. BarberPsychology: An Outline for the Intending Student. Edited by John Cohen.Pygmalion in the Classroom. By Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson

Government money for the inventor

Since the National Research Development Corporation was established in 1948, over 20 000 inventors have passed through its mail box or doors, but less than 5% of their ideas were taken up. How have its senior executives used the talents given to them? Today NRDC has a capital of £50 m. behind it and some notable successes to its credit. It has made its first book‐keeping profit in its 20th year of operation. Stafford Beer, Consultant to IPC and Professor Gordon Wills, Editor of Management Decision, talked recently to JOHN DUCKWORTH, Managing Director of NRDC.

A review of “Decision and Control:” The Meaning of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics. By Stafford Beer. (John Wiley & Sons, 1966.) [ Pp. xii-j-556.

(1968). A review of “ Decision and Control:” The Meaning of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics. By Stafford Beer. (John Wiley & Sons, 1966.) [ Pp. xii-j-556.] Ergonomics: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 90-92.

Book Review:Decision and Control. Stafford Beer

Book Review:Decision and Control. Stafford Beer

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal of Management StudiesVolume 4, Issue 2 p. 221-247 BOOK REVIEWS First published: May 1967 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1967.tb00184.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract Book reviewed in this article OPERATIONS RESEARCH Decision and Control. By Stafford Beer Operational Research and the Social Sciences. Edited by J. R. Lawrence Applied Queueing Theory. By Alec M. Lee Operations Economy: Industrial Applications of Operations Research. By W. J. Fabrycky and P. E. Tergerson Operations Research Models for Business and Industry. By Guiseppe M. Ferrero di Roccaferrera ORGANIZATION AND INNOVATION A Manager's Guide to Making Changes. By Arnold S. Judson The Creaitve Organization. Edited by Gary A. Steiner Organization and Innovation. By Chris Argyris STATISTICS Statistics and the Manager. By P. G. Moore Introduction to Business and Economic Statistics. By John R. Stockton Basic Statistics with Business Applications. By Richard C. Clelland LONG RANGE PLANNING Long Range Planning—The Executive Viewpoint. By E. Kirby Warren ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY The British Building Industry. By Marion Bowley Mergers in Modern Business. By Nicholas A. H. Stacey Economic Organization of Modern Britain. By Noel Branton BUSINESS FINANCE Business Finance, A Management Approach. By Louis K. Brandt Financial Planning and Policy. By Ernest W. Walker and William H. Baughn The Economics of Corporate Finance. By Seymour Friedland Finance for Management. By C. S. Page and E. E. Canaway MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING Management Accounting Principles. By Robert N. Anthony Accounting For Management Control. By C. T. Horngren Managerial Accounting. By C. L. Moore and R. K. Jaedicke Managerial Accounting. By J. H. Rossell and W. W. Frasure An Introduction To Business Accounting For Managers. By W. C. F. Hartley Essential Accounting For Managers. By A. P. Robson Budgeting: Key To Planning and Control. By R. L. Jones and H. G. Trentin Meaningful Interpretation Of Financial Statements. By D. E. Miller Capital Budgeting And Company Finance. By A. J. Merrett and A. Sykes Working Capital Management. By W. Beranek How To Read A Balance Sheet. By International Labour Office Significant Accounting Essays. By Maurice Moonitz and A. C. Littleton Volume4, Issue2May 1967Pages 221-247 RelatedInformation

Stafford Beer. Cybernetics and management. Management science series. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York1959, xviii + 214 pp.

Stafford Beer. Cybernetics and management. Management science series. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York1959, xviii + 214 pp.