Viable System Model

10 Key excerpts on "Viable System Model"

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  eBook - ePub

  Complexity Approach To Sustainability, A: Theory And Application (Second Edition)

  Theory and Application

  • Angela Espinosa, Jon Walker;;;(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • WSPC (EUROPE)

    (Publisher)

  2

  _______________

  Viability through Complexity Management: Revisiting the Viable Systems Model

  In this chapter, the viable systems model (VSM) — and related concepts — will be introduced and described. Section 2.1 presents the platform on which the model was built; Section 2.2 gives an overview of the model and introduces the five systems from which it is constructed; Section 2.3 describes in detail its core elements; Section 2.4 presents the basic theory of viability and complexity management from a VSM perspective; Section 2.5 describes in more detail the issues required to deal with the complexity of the adaptation mechanism (3/4/5 homeostat) in a viable system, and in particular, Beer’s latest invention: Team Syntegrity (TS) — a tool for democratic collective decision-making. In the last section (Section 2.6 ), we reflect on the complementarities between the VSM and the younger theory of complex adaptive systems (CAS), and how they may work together to help us to more effectively address core issues of viability in socio-ecological systems. All through this chapter, we will explain how the theory of viability can be relevant to the development sustainability research and practice.

  2.1.THE CONCEPTUAL PLATFORM

  2.1.1Inspiration

  We will seek the source of effective organisation in the cybernetics of natural processes — the brain itself. S. Beer

  The VSM, developed by Stafford Beer, is one of a number of theories that takes its inspiration from the natural world. The approach is to look at the way natural systems work, try and understand the principles of operation, and then to see if they have any use in the design of social systems and institutions. Originally inspired by the way the central and autonomic systems of human beings control and coordinate the workings of the muscles and organs (see, for example, McCulloch, 1965; Maturana & Varela, 1980, 1988; Powers, 1973; Von Foerster, 1981) Beer developed a generalized theory distilling the principles involved, which can be applied universally to all systems which are characterized as “viable.”

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  An Introduction to Cybernetic Synergy

  Improving Decision-Making and Cost Efficiency in Business and Commercial Environments

  • Mark Rowbotham(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Productivity Press

    (Publisher)

  3 The Viable Systems Model

  The English cybernetician Stafford Beer devised, applied, and refined the viable systems model (VSM) over a period of 30 years. It is aimed at the diagnosis and design of organisations as autonomous systems capable of self-organisation and adaptation to changing contexts. The VSM, rooted in a cybernetics (regulation theory) approach, offers a framework for gaining vital information on a system’s functioning and ensuring its viability through requisite variety. It promotes the appropriateness and the repertoire of the system’s responses to challenges by striving to make the responses as nuanced as the problems themselves.

  Beer described the VSM as an insight machine rather than a technocratic solution to problems . Others have described the VSM as a paradigm shifter because of its indisputable validity and practical utility. Although his theory and the implementation of it are complex, the VSM nevertheless provides a framework according to which non-mathematicians can understand systems functioning.

  This chapter provides a brief summary of Beer’s work and main ideas but does not cover the theoretical subtleties and nuances in detail, as these are of no importance to the notion of applied cybernetics, especially within a business context. To gain a more complete understanding of the VSM, it is best to read some of Beer’s own publications, such as his books, The Brain of the Firm and The Heart of Enterprise .

  The Theoretical Underpinnings of the VSM

  The VSM stems from a transdisciplinary cybernetics perspective which can be described as the science of effective organisation through communication and control, or the regulation of systems to ensure their sustainability.

  The epistemology of Beer’s approach is informed by Relativity Theory and Hegel’s Axiom of Internal Relations. According to Beer, all organising and management activities are aimed at dealing with complexity . He describes the measure of complexity as that of variety or the number of possible states of a system

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  Decision-Making in High Risk Organizations Under Stress Conditions

  • Anthony J. Spurgin, David W. Stupples(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  11 3 Cybernetic Organizational Model Beer’s Viable Systems Model (VSM) 3.1 OVERVIEW The purpose of this chapter is to present information on the viable systems model (VSM) developed by Beer (1985) and its application to better diagnose management systems. The hierarchical methods to depict management structures do not help one to understand how these operations actually function. VSM is a method to enable understanding of management dynamics of organizations, based upon cybernetics. The key word in VSM is “viable”: capable of maintaining a separate existence. If one considers the roles of the various parts of an organization, one can quickly rec- ognize that some parts make decisions, others plan operations, and yet others carry out those plans. Between these parts, there are communication channels transporting information about the processes being operated on and instructions to operations personnel to increase or decrease activities. Beer recognized these relationships as being similar to the detailed actions and responses of human and animal bodies; in other words, the same principles being used to understand how animals operate were relevant to the diagnosis of human organizations. This chapter will cover control systems concepts so that one can appreciate how simple controllers work, alongside with ideas about feedback and feedforward signals used in the control of processes. Some further, concepts related to controls are intro- duced so that the jump to the complexity of cybernetics is more easily understood. Modern technology shows that more and more computers are being used in ways that resemble cybernetics. One example of this is the control of automobile engines. Automobile manufacturers have responded to the public needs by designing complex interconnected control schemes for cars to control pollution, prevent the release of noxious gases, and at the same time increasing fuel economy and power output.

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  Understanding Organizational Fitness

  • Kaijun Guo, Paul Iles, Maurice Yolles(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Information Age Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Nor do they appreciate the significance of this for the viability of their social collectives. Viability, then, is the ability of an autonomous system to durably survive. Viable complex systems evolve through a sequence of structures and process- es that enables them to maintain integrity, identity, and autonomy. However, such a system will not be able to maintain itself viably through evolution if its parts decompose or are consumed, and where no possibility arises of its parts being resynthesised, replaced, or substituted, or where its integrity is lost through severe pathologies. While many pathologies impact on the abil- ity of a viable system to effectively pursue their interests or purposes, severe pathologies erode their capacity to maintain their status of being viable. Viable Systems  87 Beer’s Viable Systems Beer recognized that it was necessary to identify the variety that a system experiences, and as such developed his paradigm called managerial cyber- netics (MC). Some of the propositions for this have been summarized in Wikipedia (2007). Beer (1979) explored the nature of viable systems and proposed his Viable System Model (VSM) as a way of: (1) designing viable systems so they could effectively pursue their interests and (2) diagnosing their pathologies so that they could pursue their interests effectively and maintain their condition of viability. VSM is a generic model of the organization that promotes principles of communication and control that help it to maintain its viability. The principle of VSM is to propose axiomatically that any organization able to be modeled as a viable system can also be modeled as a set of the generic systems each of which have an identity and purpose that can be reflected in the system. It also has higher functions that are allocated to the metasystem, as shown in Figure 4.3. Figure 4.3 Semantic map showing the outline concept of the Viable System Model, with implicit connections between management and operations.

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  eBook - ePub

  Learning Strategies for Sustainable Organisations

  • Bryan Hopkins(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Figure 2.17 suggests what might happen when a strategy for sustainability-focused learning is introduced. Initially, sustainability is seen as important, so people will feel that learning about sustainability is more important. This will contribute to higher levels of sustainability-focused practices so that people will feel that the organisation is operating sustainably. However, this could then mean that sustainability is seen to be less important. This would mean that there is a balancing loop, and that it is difficult to maintain interest over time in learning about sustainability. Of course, this may not be the case as other factors need to be considered, and strategies could be implemented to maintain perceptions of importance. So the value of sketching out a loop of this sort is in helping to identify what might happen and what can be done to achieve the desired effect.

  Time for reflection You should now have an idea about how to draw causal flow diagrams. Try drawing a few to get the hang of how they work and see whether you develop any new insights about a situation.

  One idea is to think back to the references to Joseph Tainter’s suggestion that societies collapse as it becomes too expensive to maintain their complexity (Sections 1.2 and 2.8). How might you represent those dynamics in a causal flow diagram?

  Another possibility is a dynamic noticed by Chris Argyris relating to the professional development of experts—why are they sometimes reluctant to learn? You will find some suggested (but not necessarily definitive) answers to these at the end of this chapter.

  2.12 The Viable System Model

  The Viable System Model (VSM) developed by Sir Stafford Beer57 is a management cybernetics tool which can be used to explore how organisations operate. Like SD, cybernetics is based on feedback, but the key difference is that in cybernetics the feedback is used to implement some form of control, as was shown in Figure 2.9 .

  VSM is not the easiest tool to understand, but people who are experienced in using it claim that it is the most powerful tool they know of for developing an understanding of what is actually happening in an organisation. The challenge in understanding may be because usually when we ask someone how their organisation works they usually look for an organisational structure chart. This shows what different departments, divisions, and so on the organisation has, but says nothing about how

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  Systems Thinking and Viable Systems

  • Sergio Barile(Author)
  • 2024(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Two examples will clarify what has just been said. With reference to point 1, consider a small “independent” commercial company belonging to the so-called traditional retail, with no technological and market skills and set in a context dominated by large retail stores belonging to retail chains. This company will most likely record a much lower survival capacity than that of its competitors in the large-scale retail trade, which can obviously lead to its failure in a short period of time. However, this company will be qualified as a viable system until its failure is reached, or until the moment in which other conditions that prevent the respect of the principles will not intervene. In fact, an observer in that period will always see a structure and a system, being able to represent the latter through the distinction between an area of deciding and one of acting.

  In relation to point 2, it can be noted, however, how there may be systems capable of being active in their environment, or identifiable by the presence of a structure and a system – e.g., a computer – which will never respect the remaining principles of the VSA.

  3.3.1 The Principles of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA)

  Sheet 4 summarizes the principles already introduced in the previous chapter and based on a formal definition of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA).

  Sheet 4—The VSA Principles

  • Survival: A viable system, inserted in a specific context, has the primary purpose of survival.
  • Eidos: The viable system in its ontological qualification can be conceived from a double perspective: that of the structure and that of the system.
  • Isotropy: The viable system in its behavioural qualification is characterized by two logically distinct areas: that of deciding and that of acting.
  • Ethos: The viable system, in its existential dynamics, is directed towards the pursuit of goals and the achievement of objectives by the interaction with suprasystems and subsystems from which and to which, respectively, it draws and provides guidelines and rules.
  • Exhaustiveness: For a viable system, all entities external to its structure are also viable systems, that is, components that can be traced back to the structure of a higher-level viable system.

  A detailed description of each of the principles is given below. Comparing this description with what is specified in the previous chapter, it will be noted that, although the same concepts are described, the perspective changes. The descriptive distinction can be traced back to the power/act dichotomy, mentioned in the previous chapter.

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  Cognitive Dependability Engineering

  Managing Risks in Cyber-Physical-Social Systems under Deep Uncertainty

  • Lech Bukowski(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Bukowski, 2019 ). The function of an organization is to complete the pursued goals effectively and efficiently. Material relations are the flows of goods (raw materials, semi-finished products, finished products and energy) between the elements of the organization. Intangible relationships are communication, ensuring the flow and exchange of information between the elements of the organization.

  Figure 2.1 shows a general model of a system with a defined structure and dynamic behaviour. Its inputs are the events occurring in its environment (controllable – resources supply, as well as uncontrollable – disturbances), and its outputs are the produced functions (controllable – goods and services delivery, as well as uncontrollable – disruptive events). Ackoff’s concept has become the basis for defining and investigating physical systems and has also found application for cyber-physical systems. However, it has not found wider application among researchers working on living systems (human and social).

  Figure 2.1: General model of cyber-physical system according to the concept proposed by Ackoff (1971).

  2.3 Concept of Living Systems – The Viable System Model

  The idea of building a model of an animated system based on the human body was first presented by Stafford

  Beer in his book Brain of the Firm

  (1972). This concept, called neurocybernetics, was developed by Beer in his later works (Beer, 1981 , 1985 , 1989 ) and is currently known as The Viable System Model (VSM). By ‘viability’ the author meant the ability of a system to maintain a separate existence and therefore to survive regardless of changes and threats in its environment. The Viable System was mainly characterized by the following features:

  • capacity for self-regulation and self-correction,
  • ability to learn,
  • adaptability, and
  • the capacity to develop and evolve.

  Fundamental to this concept is the concept of variability and the so-called Law of Requisite Variety which states that the variety of the control unit must be at least the same as the variety of the governed system. A significant reduction in variability is only possible through system recursion, which means that each level of the system (subsystems, assemblies, parts, and elements) is a recursion of its metasystem. Based on these basic assumptions, Beer formulated four general conditions that any viable system must meet:

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  Strategic Value Chain Management

  Models for Competitive Advantage

  • Qeis Kamran(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  It fosters a decentralized control function and enhances the variety of the next higher system to maintain stability, thus achieving organizational objectives efficiently and functioning on the basis of homeostasis within their individual environment. VSM and recursion discovers new guidelines for leaders that will simplify management and its objectives (Christopher, 2007). If the question arises that if one viable system is contained in another viable system, as the Russian dolls (see Figure 2.22) simply display, where in each larger doll a smaller one is contained. With this analogy, another justified question arises, which may state: how is the principle of viability that underpins the notion of ‘able to maintain a separate existence’ (Beer, 1979a) manifested? The answer can be given according to Beer (1979a): the foundation of the claim lies in the word ‘able’, as diversified organizational units are contained in one larger unit until they are wholly contained by the meta system. Self-organization in social productive systems The notion of ‘self-organization’ was coined in the 1940s to label processes in which systems become more highly organized over time, without being ordered by outside agents or by external programmes, thus it has become one of the leading revelations to management from the study of non-linear science, without ever having been properly defined and integrated widely (Ashby, 2004): Formally, the basic mechanism underlying self-organization is the (often noise-driven) variation which explores different regions in the system’s state space until it enters an attractor. This precludes further variation outside the attractor, and thus restricts the freedom of the system’s components to behave independently

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  Cross-Sectoral Relations in the Delivery of Public Services

  • Andrea Bonomi Savignon, Luca Gnan, Alessandro Hinna, Fabio Monteduro, Andrea Bonomi Savignon, Luca Gnan, Alessandro Hinna, Fabio Monteduro(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  In particular, networked-governance (PVM and PG) is an ideal model halfway between organization’s total closure (hierarchy) and total openness (market). The system vision introduced by the two theories advances a synthesis between the two poles by proposing a reticular asset in which all actors jointly produce value toward common goals and in which there is a clear governing organ (top-down) who has the role of coordinating collaborations among stakeholders (bottom-up). So, this final networked model is based both on top-down decision-making and on bottom-up cooperation strategies aimed at integrating citizenship in organization's conduct.

  VIABLE SYSTEMS APPROACH: TOWARD SYSTEM GOVERNANCE

  As a result of the general shift toward a “broadened” (and multi-stakeholder) perspective in governance literature, viable systems approach (VSA; Barile, 2000 ; Golinelli, 2000 ) stands out among extant theories on service since it widens its focus to study organizations at an overall level by observing their behavior through the analysis of their context and relationships established with sub- and supra-systems in order to survive and to co-evolve.

  The approach, which also provides researchers and managers with new interpretative schemes for renovate strategic and organizational model (Barile, 2008), is herein selected as a theory aimed at rereading traditional governance models (see paragraph 4).

  VSA espouses an all-encompassing viewpoint halfway between reductionism and holism deriving from the consideration of organizations as systems (Capra, 1997) viewed as a complex set of interacting components and from the willingness to explore the ways in which they survive in changing environmental conditions.

  Despite examining exclusively service interactions, the theory seeks to identify the most proper strategies for managing contextual changing in order to achieve a better understanding of the observed complexity and so viability (Barile & Polese, 2010 ). It can be also considered as a methodology halfway between S-D logic (placed at a higher level of abstraction) and SSMED (which is an operative approach) (Barile & Polese, 2011 ; Golinelli, 2010

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  Holistic Management

  Managing What Matters for Company Success

  • William F. Christopher(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Interscience

    (Publisher)

  For innovations in management consider best practices derived from system science and cybernetics as these are presented in Viable System Model (VSM) and the on-going experience of companies using this model or other learning from system science. Also, continuously con- sider the evolving best practices in the seven key performance areas described in this book. The right innovations in the practice of manage- ment will be essential for continuing company success. For innovations in management consider best practices derived from system science and cybernetics as these are presented in the Viable System Model (VSM) and the on-going experience of companies using this model or other learning from system science. Also, continuously consider the evolving best practices in the seven key performance areas described in this book. The right innovations in the practice of manage- ment will be essential for continuing company success. Experience with the technologies of quality measurement and improvement demonstrates that there is always a better way. This is a good idea to keep in mind in confronting problems and opportunities. Search for the innovations in all functions; the new and better ways that will create the company’s future. Discover the better ways and make them happen. The system 4s and the system 3/4/5 linkages at all levels of recursion have the responsibility for discovery and innovation in each of the VSM businesses. Discoveries may be found in-house, in R&D, in operations, or in any of the company’s environments. After discovery and development by system 4, the work of people in systems 5, 4, 3, and 2 will be needed to make the innovation happen. TECHNOLOGY FORECASTING Technology forecasting is risky, but less risky than not looking ahead. A discipline of technology forecasting developed after World War II, led by James R. Bright and Milton E. F. Schoeman, professors at the University of Texas, and Joseph P.

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