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The paper seeks to put together cybernetics principles determining the possibilities of interaction between two or more goal‐oriented systems to show that they are determining the patterns of societal organization, too.

Goal‐orientation and decision‐rules, as found in simple feedback systems, and Ashby's Law of requisite variety are repeatedly applied to investigate the cybernetic possibilities for the interaction and organization of goal‐oriented systems.

The interaction of goal‐oriented systems can lead directly to conflict, cooperation or hierarchy. Out of conflict and cooperation there is a further tendency to develop hierarchies. And in a diversifying environment a hierarchical higher system can grow, get suppressive or perish. It is shown how all this abstract cybernetic reasoning applies to societal organization, too: laws follow the form of decision‐rules of feedback systems. Institutions making laws have to define the elements of such decision‐rules. And societal organization processes for solving conflicts face exactly the options derived from the interaction of goal‐oriented systems.

The goals and the goal‐oriented decisions pursued by a “system” like a person or an institution, are identified as the most important cybernetic determinants to explain seemingly complex phenomena like societal organization.

The paper shows that just a few cybernetics principles determining the possibilities of interaction between two or more goal‐oriented systems suffice to analyze and explain processes of societal differentiation and organization.

Flexibility continues to be key to the competitiveness of manufacturing firms. However, both in academia and industry, there still exists a lack of understanding regarding the fundamental nature of flexibility. This lack of understanding has often led to overly optimistic expectations regarding the direct transformation of technological flexibility into manufacturing flexibility. A theoretical model of the firm, based on cybernetics, is proposed in this paper.

The model relates flexibility to the cybernetic concept of variety and examines a dynamic system in terms of its task structure.

The model proves useful both in dispelling some of the misconceptions regarding flexibility, and in providing practical insights into issues of designing flexible manufacturing organizations.

The paper presents a means by which variety can be measured.

The conceptual model clarifies certain aspects of system flexibility. The first implication is that the flexibility required at a node is not fixed, but dependent on its connection with other nodes. The degree to which the interconnected nodes are effective regulators determines the variety impinging upon the target node. The second implication is that variety reduction is often a preferred solution over increased variety handling. The third implication is that the seemingly peculiar finding that relatively inflexible nodes in combination can be quite flexible, is easily explained using this theoretical model of the firm. System flexibility depends more on each node possessing requisite variety than on each possessing an enormous number of responses.

Current formulations of the concept of intellectual capital (IC) are seen as flawed. They equate IC with intangible assets and intellectual property, or, with knowledge management (KM) activities. They also do not explain its genesis and development. IC is here conceptualised as the holistic and superordinate capability of an enterprise to create value through a creative orchestration of its knowledge resources, under conditions of constant change. It is the result of the dense dynamic nexus of a firm's social capital (SC), human capital (HC), and KM. It is manifested in the form of a firm's sustained profitable growth. It, thus, also represents a firm's overarching capability to meet challenges and exploit opportunities in its continual efforts to generate wealth. The essence of the concept is seen to lie in Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety. Requirements for its development toward sustained value creation and growth of enterprises are outlined briefly.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how the system science and cybernetics in Stafford Beer's viable system model (VSM) will help management structure and manage their company to achieve on‐going success in a fast‐changing world.

The author worked with Stafford Beer in the 1970s, applying his VSM in the corporation he then worked for and has used the VSM ideas in work with companies in 16 countries, always with success. The VSM instructs in how to structure and how to manage. For what to manage the author used Peter Drucker's key performance areas, and has more than 50 years of experience working in these areas.

The author has found, during his long career in industry and in consulting, that the VSM is the best available guide for structuring and managing a business enterprise for success in turbulent times.

In the 1950s, Ralph Cordiner “decentralized” General Electric into 120 businesses, pioneering a new, better way to structure and manage a corporation. After 50 years, we have the next revolutionary advance in management, the system science and cybernetics in Stafford's VSM. The VSM includes information and environments in structure, enabling companies to change as appropriate for achieving on‐going success in a world of huge and fast‐growing variety.

The paper shows how a simple form of the VSM includes all the system science company management needs to structure and manage their company for enduring success in fast‐changing times.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate different cybernetic structures of simple adaptive systems and their cognitive and behavioral options.

Using a functional approach, two basic forms of adaptive systems are constructed, which process data on one level respectively two hierarchical levels. Based on that complex combinations of such one‐level and hierarchical structures are investigated.

It is shown how different cybernetic structures enable simple forms of adaptive behavior. A basic blueprint for the controller structure of animal species is derived from them, with a simple “brain” and a unit for “motion control” as subsystems. Four paths of evolutionary growth are identified that allow a widely independent development of these subsystems.

The paper provides a typology of simple adaptive systems and discusses the forms of behavior they can develop with preprogrammed – i.e. evolutionary given or technically programmed – decision‐rules. It discusses the requirements that these decision‐rules can form models enabling adaptive behavior. It is suggested that these requirements hold for the models of more complex adaptive systems, too.

This paper is the first in a series of three on a cybernetic theory distinguishing systems able of preprogrammed adaptation, system‐specific adaptation, and learning.

This paper sets out to report on research by the authors into the development and application of four extensions to Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety (LoRV) that increase its utility in the arena of unplanned changes in hegemonic control of designed complex socio‐technical systems/digital eco‐systems in the built environment that are structurally dynamic or emergent.

Research on which the paper is based focused on exploration of classical systems approaches to the design of complex socio‐technical systems in which ownership, power, control and management of structure and benefit generation and distribution are distributed, dynamic and multi‐constituent. Support for development of these four extensions to Ashby's Law comes from observation of four decades of socio‐technical systems development along with critical thinking that combined systems analysis theories with theories and findings from fields of hegemonic analysis, design research, management, management information systems, behaviour in organisations and sociology.

The paper outlines application of four new extensions to LoRV in relation to unplanned changes in distributions of power, ownership, control, benefit generation and benefit distribution in complex socio‐technical systems/digital eco‐systems in the built environment that are emergent or have changing structures. Three of these extensions have been outlined earlier in relation to the design of learning object‐based e‐learning systems. The fourth extension builds on these via application of Coasian analysis. The paper also describes a suite of five guidelines to assist with the design of complex socio‐technical systems derived from the four extensions to Ashby.

The four extensions of Ashby's Law that underpin the design guidelines in this paper are deduced from observation and critical analysis rather than being “proven” empirically. They are derived from observation of the behaviour of real‐world complex systems together with critical analytical thinking that integrated theory and research findings from a range of disciplines where each informs understanding of hegemonic aspects of emergent complex socio‐technical systems involving multiple, changing constituencies, and evolving system structures.

A design method is derived comprising five design guidelines for use in pre‐design and design of complex socio‐technical systems/digital eco‐systems in the built environment.

The paper describes the application of four new extensions to LoRV that extend the analytical role of Ashby's Law in diagnosis of changes in power relations and unintended design outcomes from changes in the generation and control of variety in complex, multi‐layered and hierarchical socio‐technical systems that have multiple stakeholders and constituencies. From these, a suite of five new design guidelines is proposed.

This paper marks the centenary year of W. Ross Ashby (1903‐1972), one of the founders of the interdisciplinary subject of cybernetics. Its purpose is to Ashby's cybernetics to construct a framework for understanding some of the features that presently characterise British higher education.

The contents of Ashby's 1956 book, An Introduction to Cybernetics, are outlined. Cybernetic concepts, principles, and laws are then applied to some of the features that presently characterise UK universities: growth in student numbers, the modularisation of curricula, concerns over academic standards, and bureaucracy.

The paper finds Ashby's writings to be critical to understanding the nature of many of the contemporary debates about UK higher education. A diagnosis and critical evaluation of the policy impetus to increase student numbers and modularise curricula is supplied. A cybernetic analysis in support of the current concerns over academic standards is provided. The paper demonstrates why the current higher education quality assurance regime produces a bureaucratised university.

The paper's framework is supported by an analysis of available national statistics and other secondary evidence, but more detailed, cross‐comparative, longitudinal studies of the UK labour market and educational attainment are required.

Given the economic perspective adopted by policy‐makers – the paper identifies three reasons why the current policy of expanding UK higher education may be flawed.

The paper marks the centenary year of W. Ross Ashby by demonstrating how his writings can supply a framework for understanding the current debates about UK higher education policy.

Ranulph Glanville has argued that ambitions of strict control are misplaced in epistemic processes such as learning and designing. Among other reasons, he has presented quantitative arguments for this ethical position. As a part of these arguments, Glanville claimed that strict control even of modest systems transcends the computational limits of our planet. The purpose of this paper is to review the related discourse and to examine the soundness of this claim.

Related literature is reviewed and pertinent lines of reasoning are illustrated and critically examined using examples and straightforward language.

The claim that even modest epistemic processes transcend the computational means of our planet is challenged. The recommendation to assume out-of-control postures in epistemic processes, however, is maintained on ethical rather than on quantitative grounds.

The presented reasoning is limited in as far as it is ultimately based on an ethical standpoint.

This paper summarizes an important cybernetic discourse and dispels the notion therein that epistemic processes necessarily involve computational demands of astronomical proportions. Furthermore, this paper presents a rare discussion of Glanville’s Corollary of Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety.

A cybernetic theory of hierarchical social systems is given, starting from an extension of Ashby's general theory of regulation and control to amplifying regulation. Regulation and control in human society are then discussed and the conditions for the existence of social classes and social hierarchy examined.

This paper aims to show how basic cybernetics principles of the interaction of two or more goal‐oriented systems determine the possibilities of social change – and of history.

The starting‐point is the assumption of a social unit organized in two levels in which leaders and subordinated members share mutual goal‐values. As sources for differentiation within this unit diverging individual strivings and questions of leadership (i.e. defining goals, internal and external policy) are identified.

These sources for differentiation suffice to explain the emergence of individual, political and economic conflicts, as well as the necessary emergence of a multilevel hierarchical organization of society in order to deal with these conflicts. The options of how to deal with these conflicts are analyzed in detail.

To avoid the emergence of a proletariat, i.e. a fraction of a society whose interests are neither represented nor pursued by its leaders, is identified as crucial for the long‐term stability of a social unit.

The paper shows how a few cybernetic principles – primarily the cybernetics of decision making and Ashby's law – can explain complex social phenomena. Thus, it shows the applicability of elements of a cybernetic epistemology.