Using the Viable Systems Model to Structure a System Dynamics Mapping and Modeling Project for the Australian Taxation Office

This paper is a case study of a major System Dynamics (SD) intervention in policy design in the Australian Taxation Office. The project, which lasted two years, tested a number of hypotheses regarding the application of Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Model (VSM) to the structure and process of the project. The paper reports that the success of the VSM within the ATO was qualified by political changes in the external environment.     

The Viable System Model and Its Application to Complex Organizations

Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model is the best known of the many cybernetic models he constructed over a career spanning more than 50 years. He explored the necessary conditions for viability in any complex system whether an organism, an organization or a country. Although the model was first applied in his work in the steel industry, many further applications were made during his later work as a consultant. The best known of these was when he was invited by President Salvadore Allende of Chile in 1970 to model the social economy of that country. That experiment was brutally cut short in 1973 by the CIA assisted coup during which Allende was killed and Pinochet’s dictatorship installed. The model itself draws on mathematics, psychology, biology, neurophysiology, communication theory, anthropology and philosophy. It was first expressed in mathematical terms in ‘The Cybernetic Factory’; next it was described in neurophysiological terms in Brain of the firm; and finally according to logic and graphic presentation in Heart of Enterprise and Diagnosing the System for Organizations. This last version is the one that is most accessible. It enables people to address organizational issues in a way that skirts the usual categories and organization charts and gets down to the actual necessary functions, no matter who is performing them. With this model people can get a boost as they diagnose or design an organizations. One aspect is to discover what the organization’s critical variables are and to find or install the homeostats that will show that they are maintaining equilibrium. Within that context, the model will help you ascertain that the principle functions and communications channels are in place and can function effectively. A crucial aspect of the VSM is that it is recursive; that is that the same relationships can be traced from the shop floor to the corporation or from the village to the country. Two examples will be discussed: a small business and the Chilean work from the 1970s. It is hoped that this will encourage people to imagine a world that works much better than it does now and where management is not defeated by complexity. A version of this paper was delivered as the first Stafford Beer Memorial Lecture on July 8, 2007 at the World Multiconference on Systems, Cybernetics and Informatics in Orlando Florida.     

Toward a Buddhist Systems Methodology 3: An Application in a Taiwanese Non-Governmental Organization

This paper describes the application of a Buddhist systems methodology (BSM) to tackle a significant conflict (and underlying issues) threatening the future of a large non-governmental Buddhist membership organization in Taiwan. An evaluation of the BSM, undertaken six months after the intervention, demonstrated positive impacts, including a major reduction in conflict; improved communications across the organization (especially from the bottom-up); a successful restructuring to address some of the underlying issues; a significant upturn in the recruitment and retention of members; and a consequential turn-around of the organization's financial position. In addition, several senior managers took on the BSM for their personal use, trained others, and cascaded the methodology down the organization. This resulted in the official adoption of the BSM as the ‘main decision-making system’ for part of the organization, and the start of wider dissemination. Based on these results, the authors argue that the BSM may have more general utility for problem solving and problem prevention in Taiwanese (and possibly other) Buddhist organizations.

Designing a Management System for a Rural Community Development Organization Using a Systemic Action Research Process

This paper describes the first phase, 'finding out', of a systemic participatory action research intervention in the management systems of a rural community development organization in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The aims of the intervention were to (a) improve the management system of this organization, and (b) evaluate the usefulness of particular systems methodologies for the improvement of management systems of organizations involved in community development in under-resourced rural contexts. The second phase, "implementation," needs to be completed and thoroughly evaluated before any final conclusions can be drawn about the suitability of the chosen systems framework for Third World type rural contexts. However, the second phase is, at the time of writing, underway and all indications are that an interpretive ('Soft') Systems Methodology, combined with insights from a more functionalist ('hard') approach (with methods chosen through a Critical Systems Thinking framework) holds much promise for participatory systemic interventions in these contexts.     

Design Rules for Intranets According to the Viable System Model

The Viable System Model, VSM, by Stafford Beer is a model used for diagnosing and designing organizational structure and communication to facilitate necessary and sufficient conditions for viability. The model has been used for diagnosing different kinds of organizations at different levels where its use highlights existing or missing communication patterns and information flows in different communication channels and relates findings to a viable system. In a previous article, VSM and Intranet have been discussed and examples of advantages of combining the two concepts when designing organizations, has been given. In this article, VSM is combined with Intranet and possible functions in an intranet that support information exchange between different systems are identified and described. The suggested functions identified in this article are finally related to Intranet use modes, and the concepts of Empowerment vs. control.     

广义双线性系统的参考模型终端滑模控制

利用李雅普诺夫方法研究了广义双线性系统的参考模型终端滑模控制.首先通过选取适当的非线性切换流形,与相应的终端滑模控制律来设计了广义双线性系统的终端滑模控制方法,保证了其闭环系统的渐近稳定,并使闭环系统模态能够在有限时间内达到平衡点,实现终端滑动模运动.最后,通过了一个数值算例说明了该方法的有效性.     

2-D系统一般模型控制输入能量受限下的能达集

研究了2-D系统一般模型控制输入能量受限下的能达集问题.当该系统能达时,给出了其控制能量受限下能达集的表达式.利用线性矩阵不等式(LMI)给出了一个估计该能达集范围的方法,该方法在计算上是容易的.最后给出了一个示例.     

Toward a Buddhist Systems Methodology 1: Comparisons between Buddhism and Systems Theory

This paper compares some key concepts from Buddhism with ideas from different traditions of systems thinking. There appear to be many similarities, suggesting that there is significant potential for dialogue and mutual learning. The similarities also indicate that it may be possible to develop a Buddhist systems methodology to help guide exploration and change within Buddhist organisations.

多Agent系统形式化建模方法研究

简要总结了多Agent系统（MAS）形式化建模方法的研究现状;以面向对象Petri网（OPN）和π演算为基础,给出了一种直观的MAS体系结构模型（Multi-Agent Systems Architecture Model,MASAM）。OPN可以形象地描述MAS的初始化结构及动态行为,而π演算可以刻画MAS的动态演化;另外,可以利用Petri网和π演算的相关分析方法和支持工具分析和验证系统模型,在系统开发早期发现并避免体系结构级的错误。     

组织通过外部学习进行隐性知识转移的模型研究

针对隐性知识的特征及其传播特点,用微分动力学方法建立了组织通过外部学习进行隐性知识转移的分析模型,在此基础上,进一步分析了影响组织隐性知识转移渐近解的主要参数控制.模型揭示了组织通过外部学习进行隐性知识转移的规律,指出了组织获得外部隐性知识的条件及隐性知识在组织中传播的条件,同时也阐明了一些能改进隐性知识转移效果的途径,文中最后还分析了模型对管理的现实意义.     

经济复杂系统的建模研究--人工经济模型

经济系统是一个由大量自由买卖主体构成的复杂适应系统,可以用基于Agent的计算经济学（Agent-based Computational Economics, ACE）方法进行研究.本文提出了一个自主开发的ACE系统：SIMECO模型.用CRA（Classifiers, Rules, Actions）三层结构对Agent建模可以得到比传统基于简单固定规则的ACE模型更丰富的涌现行为,包括社会分工的自发形成、价格围绕某一固定区间动态波动、流的自发出现并增长.进一步,计算机模拟实验中还形成了由集体大规模Agent自发的交易行为导致的交易网络之上的商品流,它会伴随着系统的进化而不断增强,并使得SIMECO中的大量Agent能更好地适应多变的环境.     

Diagnosis and implementation: How a large cooperative employed a series of proposals for restructuring based upon the Viable Systems Model

Currently cooperatives of more than 11 members are facing organizational crisis: structure is imperative but traditional methods using authority and obedience are anathema. This paper recounts an attempt to use the Viable Systems Model to design an effective organizational structure within the constraints of cooperative working practices. It begins with the diagnosis, describes how the resulting conclusions were received by the cooperative, and gives an account of the resulting organizational structure. The success of the project is assessed.     

The Viable Systems Model Applied to a National System of Innovation to Inform Policy Development

This paper outlines how the viable systems model (VSM) can provide insights into a National System of Innovation by focussing on the necessary variety needed to match the system's changing external environment. Because an innovation system is more diffuse than a firm, the VSM needs to be described within an ‘ecological’ metaphor. This approach gives insights into the system's learning processes, showing that there can be a trade-off between variety and control for the system to maintain a fixed level of viability. Furthermore, for many innovation systemsthe coordination is ‘soft’; taking place through markets, through Government directions, and through relationships embodied in clusters, unions or industry groups, etc.Governments generally can only manage the system indirectly by facilitating the generation of the necessary variety, influencing strategic directions, filling gaps in the system and encouraging coordination. Societal or cultural innovations, such as new forms of citizen participation in decision-making, may well improve the viability of an innovation system. However, if these innovations are pursued for societal rather than economic purposes, they fall outside the usual definition of innovation within an NSI.     

A Study on Integrated Model of Decision Support Systems

1　IntroductionToday,systems integration has been becoming a challenge issue lying the front of DSStheories and applications. Numbers of new models,technologies and methods have beenintroduced to develop DSS with the developmentand inter- permeation of sy…     

Complexity and change: Reflections upon the cybernetic intervention in Chile, 1970–1973

Social change depends on communications. The more effective the communication mechanisms between the participants in a situation are, the more likely it is that they will contribute, to the best of their abilities, to the discovery and production of desirable change. Hence the relevance of studying, and improving, the cybernetics of problem situations. Effectiveness in this case is defined by the degree to which the complexity of the situation is matched by the complexity of the regulatory mechanisms in use. However, if this proposition is going to be useful, it is necessary to have approaches to work out the matching. This paper discusses a cybernetic methodology, relying on Beer's Viable System Model, which enables a deeper understanding of, and capacity to deal with, situational and regulatory complexities. Finally, these ideas are used to reflect upon the cybernetic intervention in the Chile of the early 1970's.     

Knowing and Acting in Conditions of Uncertainty: A Complexity Perspective

As practitioners working with groups and organizations, we have reflected together on what we think is happening when we find ourselves acting into situations in which the intention motivating the action as its goal is itself emerging in the very action. Along with others, we have been excited by the ideas of self-organization in the natural sciences and also theories of practice, for example, tacit and explicit knowledge, in the social sciences. Together, these promise fresh insights into the potential of organizations. However, we find ourselves diverging significantly from writers who at first sight seem to be using similar ideas, but they do so with an exclusive focus on strategic choice and intention. To illustrate what we mean, we explore the work of Nonaka and Takeuchi and how they use Polanyi's idea of the participant observer. We do this to identify contradictions we see in their approach. We also discuss the implications of an alternative understanding of participation and what this indicates about what can and cannot be managed in the creation of new knowledge.     

Diagnosis of Organizational Soft Problems in a Peruvian Financial Institution by Systemic Thinking

Managing financial institutions in an underdeveloped economic context has become a real challenge nowadays. In order to reach the organization’s planned goals, they have to deal with structural, behavioral and informational problems. From the systemic point of view, this situation gets even worse when the company does not present organizational boundaries and a cohesive identification for their stakeholders. Thus, European countries have some special financial lines in order to help the development of micro credit in Latin communities in an attempt to help the local economy. However, institutions like Caixa dos Andes in Peru present management problems when dealing with this complexity. Based on this, how can the systemic eye help in the diagnosis of soft problems of a Peruvian financial company? This study aims to diagnose soft problems of a Peruvian financial company based on soft variables like identity, communication and autonomy and also intends to identify possible ways to redesign its basic framework. The (VSM––Viable System Model) method from Beer (1967), applied in this diagnostic study, was used in a practical way as a management tool for organizations’ analysis and planning. By describing the VSM’s five systems, the creation of a systemic vision or a total vision is possible, showing the organization’s complexity from the inside. Some company’s soft problems like double control, inefficient use of physical and human resources, low information flows, slowness, etc. The VSM presented an organizational diagnosis indicating effective solutions that do integrate its five systems.     

主动设计知识服务系统中的用户建模研究

主动设计知识服务系统的设计目标渡江是主动为设计者提供准确及时的设计知识服务，从而提高设计效率，用户模型的性能直接影响到整个服务系统的适应性，响应速度和服务的正确率，为了充分利用设计用户行为的纵向和横向关联，本文将模板和机器学习相结合的方法用于设计用户建模，提出了基于模板的用户建模过程模型，对基于机器学习的模型动态更新方法中关键技术以及用户模型的校验和反馈进行了讨论。     

运动体系统仿真模型验证方法软件包的开发

本文对动态系统仿真模型验证方法软件包（ＭＶＶＳＰ）的功能作了简要说明，对各类验模方法的使用特点进行了详细的分析