Cyber profiles

Citation

(2007), "Cyber profiles", Kybernetes, Vol. 36 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2007.06736caf.002

Cyber profiles

Cyber profiles

Professors Raul Espejo and Markus Schwaninger have recently been appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board of Kybernetes. They have a special interest in Management Science and will contribute to the journals coverage of this field.

Professor Raul Espejo

He has an engineering degree from the Catholic University of Chile and a doctorate from Aston University in Birmingham, UK.

From 1970 to 1973, he worked at the National Development Corporation of Chile, first as a Systems Engineer and later as Project Leader of the CYBERSYN project, the Chilean Government’s cybernetic project for the management of the national economy, under the scientific direction of Professor Stafford Beer.

After leaving Chile in 1974 he worked at the Manchester Business School in the UK, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria and the universities of Aston in Birmingham and Lincoln in the UK. He has been visiting professor at several universities including the universities of Amsterdam and Nijmegen in Holland and the University of Witten-Herdecke in Germany. He has been invited as a lecturer by universities in the UK, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Venezuela. He has been invited as speaker by institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Operational Research Society, Long Range Planning Society, Strategic Planning Society, The Institute of Measurement and Control, Institute of Management Services, The Institute for Latin American Studies, The Royal Military College of Science, The British Society for the Responsibility in Science, Association of Management Training and Development, the UK Systems Society and the European Business Ethics Network.

For the last 30 years the main focus of his research has been on organizational diagnosis and design. This research has been done in the tradition of organizational cybernetics, and has been influenced by the works in requisite variety of Ross Ashby, organizational cybernetics of Stafford Beer and biology of cognition of Humberto Maturana. He has published extensively in books and journals; is the author of over 80 academic papers, Co-author of the books Organization for ProgrammeManagement (Wiley, 1979) and Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management (Wiley, 1996) and Co-editor of the books The Viable System Model (Wiley, 1989), Organizational Fitness: Corporate Effectiveness Through Management Cybernetics (Campus Verlag, 1993) and To be and not to be, That is the System (Auer Verlag, 1997). He has lectured and run seminars worldwide.

In 1985 he created Syncho Ltd, an enterprise in the field of organizational cybernetics, in the Science Park of Aston University. From there he has done research in collaboration with a wide range of institutions worldwide, mainly in aspects of organizational diagnosis and design, with a focus on social transformation, organizational learning, democratic processes and environmental responsibility.

From 1993 to1996, he was a leading participant of the SYCOMT project, a UK Government funded research project on Computer Supported CooperativeWork (CSCW).

From 1995 to 1998 he was Scientific Director of a program for the institutional strengthening of the ColombianNationalAudit Office.During 1999-2000 hewas advisor to the Colombian Minister of Education in the introduction of a “New Educational System”. From 2000 to 2002 he led a research network on “Systems and the Information Society” funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. From 1996 to today he has been working in issues of democratic participation and transparency of policy processes, particularly focused on the management of nuclear waste in Europe, initially in the context of the Swedish Nuclear Waste Programme, then in the context of RISCOM 2, a European Union Framework 5 project, and currently in the context of COWAM 2, a European Union Framework 6 project.

Until 2005, he was in the Advisory Board of the EPSRC funded project “Integration of Complex Social Systems” (ICOSS) at the London School of Economics. Currently he is in the editorial boards of “Systemic Practice and Action Research” and Kybernetes, and is Director for Academic Affairs of the World Organization for Systems and Cybernetics. In 1997 he was elected Honorary Fellow of the World Organization for Systems and Cybernetics.

Currently, he is Director of Syncho Ltd and Visiting Professor at University College Worcester, UK. E-mail: respejo@syncho2.demon.co.uk. Web site: www.syncho.com

Professor Markus Schwaninger

Markus Schwaninger (Dr soc.oec.) is Professor of Management at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. He was born in Salzburg, Austria, and holds dual citizenship of Austria and Switzerland. He speaks seven languages: German (Native tongue), French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Latin.

His research focus includes: systems thinking, organizational cybernetics, and system dynamics applied to the study of complex social systems (for example, strategy and integrative management, organizational design, management systems, organizational transformation and learning), as well as inter- and trans-disciplinary studies. He has undertaken research projects for the Swiss National Research Foundation and the European Union, and been visiting scholar at different universities: in the UK (Aston), the USA (MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Canada (UBC-University of British Columbia) and Spain (Univesidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). Schwaninger is an industrious participant at scientific conferences, where he often directs sections (streams of research, e.g. EURO 2006 and 2007) or sessions on advanced research issues. Several scientific conferences have been organized or hosted by him (Unternehmungsfu¨hrung 1980, Society of Cybernetics for the Social Sciences (Deutsche Gesellschaft fu¨ r Wirtschafts – und Sozialkybernetik, Germany) 1997, European System Dynamics Workshop 2007, Metaphorum 2007).

Professor Schwaninger has been teaching widely and in different languages (German, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese). At the University of St Gallen – his academic base – he directs courses at all three levels, bachelor, master and doctoral. He is known for innovative teaching approaches, for example an interdisciplinary block seminar on strategy and organizational design held together with an oncologist, as well as seminars in which participants operate as learning teams. He coordinated the faculty team in charge of the elaboration of the St Gallen Management Concept – a framework for education and research at the University of St Gallen. Furthermore, he has been the director of the doctoral program of the Management Department andof the Integration Seminars – project seminars involving 25 faculty members for many years.

He has presented courses and undertaken consulting assignments on four continents. He has worked as a consultant to private firms and public organizations, including governmental institutions at federal and state levels, and has led seminars for executives in 12 countries. Professor Schwaninger is a much-procured speaker, having presented guest lectures and seminars at universities in Argentina (planned for August 2006), Austria, Brazil, Canada, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA. He has undertaken visiting professorships at: Fundac¸a˜o Getu´ lio Vargas/Sa˜o Paulo School of Management, Brazil; Universidad de los Andes, Bogota˜, Colombia; Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. He has been a member of the following organizations: The System Dynamics Society, The International Society for the Systems Sciences, The Society of Cybernetics for the Social Sciences (Deutsche Gesellschaft fu¨r Wirtschafts – und Sozialkybernetik, Germany), Advisory Board of OIKOS, a students’ initiative for ecological management at the University of St Gallen (Chairman), the Global Finance Forum (Advisory Council) and he is a founding member of the PLATO Network for Sustainability (Club of Rome/UNESCO/EU). Furthermore, he is on the editorial boards or advisory boards of learned journals, – Kybernetes (starting 2007), Journal of Applied Systems Studies, Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Zeitschrift Fu¨hrung und Organisation, SEM Radar.

Professor Schwaninger has authored approximately 180 publications in six languages, including books published by Wiley, Chichester; Campus, Frankfurt/ New York; Haupt, Berne; and Duncker & Humblot, Berlin. Among his publications are: Integrate Unternehmensplanung, Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 1989; Corporate Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management, Chichester: Wiley, 1996 (Co-authored with Espejo, Schuhmann, and Bilello); To Be and Not to Be, that Is the System: A Tribute to Stafford Beer, CD-ROM, Wiesbaden: Carl Auer-Systeme Verlag, 1998 (Co-edited with Raul Espejo); and Intelligente Organisationen, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1999. Furthermore, he is the editor of Hans Ulrich’s and Aloys Galweiler works: Hans Ulrich, Gesammelte Schriften, 5 volumes, Berne: Haupt, 2001; Galweiler, Aloys, Strategische Unternehmensfu¨hrung, 3rd edition, Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 2005. His articles in learned journals have been published in Cybernetics and Systems, Harvard Manager, Kybernetes, Long Range Planning, System Dynamics Review, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Systemic Practice and Action Research, among others. He got a Best Paper Award in 2005, at the CASYS (Computing Anticipatory Systems) Conference in Liege, Belgium. Schwaninger’s next book is Intelligent Organizations, Berlin: Springer (2006).