Organizational cybernetics: a modified perspective

Dirk VriensJan Achterbergh

Radboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands

Cybernetics: effective methods for studying and controlling complex systens

Organizational cybernetics: effective methods for studying and controlling organizations

Beer - main contribution:

VSM: functions for viability

Application of VSM to study and control organizations

Three modifications are needed to understand and control organizations

Modification 1: the social dimension

Understanding and controlling organizations in their societal environment implies knowledge about:

• the social nature of organizations

• The social nature of (modern) society

• The relation between organization and society

Therefore organizational cybernetics should include social theory

Modification 2: viability

Understanding and controlling organizations in their societal environment needs a respecification of viability

Beer: Being able to maintain a separate existence

Respecification:

•Viability beyond survival: ‘living a fulfilled life’ (developing a system’s specific capacties to their full extent)

•Application to organizations in their societal environment: enabling the fulfilled life of individuals

• organizational members

• society

Modification 3: infrastructural conditions

Understanding and controlling organizations in their societal environment needs: designing infrastructural conditions for realizing the functions needed for viability

Which designs for:

•organizational structures

•HR-systems

•Technology

enhance the realization of the five functions?

To understand and control organizations

in their societal environment organizational cybernetics needs:

1. Social theory: e.g. Luhmann’s theory of social systems

2. A ‘broad’ and ‘applied’ concept of viability: e.g. based on Aristotle’s ethics and politics

3. Theory for designing organizational structures, HR-systems, and technology enhancing the realization of the five functions