Beer's “organizational tensegrity” and the challenge of democratic management

Many systems scientists are keenly interested in the democratization of management, particularly in the development of better processes for democratic decision making. Stafford Beer's recent development of a consensus decision-making process based on “organizational tensegrity” is an exciting contribution in this area, which also has important implications for the design of democratic organizational structures. This paper describes some experimentation with these ideas (with assistance from Beer) in two work groups at Pacific Bell and explores the potential of Beer's process for democratic management.