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Article
Publication date: 27 October 2020

Raul Espejo and Vladimir Lepskiy

This paper aims to offer an integration of Vladimir Lepskiy’s third-order cybernetics and Raul Espejo’s Viplan methodology. Key ideas are mechanisms for social responsibility and…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to offer an integration of Vladimir Lepskiy’s third-order cybernetics and Raul Espejo’s Viplan methodology. Key ideas are mechanisms for social responsibility and a methodology to improve them through self-developing reflexive-active environments.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose a methodology based on modern philosophy of science, which sets the foundation of ontological cybernetics, constructed by subjects with different epistemological stances. This methodology includes considerations for social values, worldview principles, multiple viewpoints and subject-oriented information and communication platforms.

Findings

Current negative trends in socio-economic and environmental developments are associated with weaker social responsibilities of those holding power in society. To increase their social responsibility, the authors argue it is necessary for them to have more effective governance and development mechanisms. The proposed methodology ensures more effective interactions of stakeholders toward creating, regulating and implementing societal problem-solving.

Research limitations/implications

This paper offers an initial theoretical conceptualization and illustration of social responsibility, which would benefit from further conceptual developments and practical applications.

Social implications

The methodology helps increasing the level of social responsibility of all participants in control and development processes in social systems. The proposed approach allows ensuring the inclusion of stakeholders in societal problem solving through participatory methods and democratic approaches.

Originality/value

The conceptual and methodological ideas of this paper are based on the authors’ original research. The methodology and model of ontological cybernetics proposed in this paper are based on organizational cybernetics and modern views of philosophy of science. The methodology and model include basic ontological values and principles.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 50 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 August 1999

529

Abstract

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 28 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Raul Espejo

It is natural for interacting organisational actors and environmental agents to experience complexity asymmetries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the balancing of these…

Abstract

Purpose

It is natural for interacting organisational actors and environmental agents to experience complexity asymmetries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the balancing of these complexities at a level of performance that not only maintains the organisation’s viability but also the health of its ecosystem.

Design/methodology/approach

Ashby (1964) proposed variety, or the number of possible states of a situation, as a measure of complexity and the Law of Requisite Variety as an ontology and heuristic for complexity management strategies. Following these propositions Beer’s variety engineering (Beer, 1979) is a construct to design these strategies.

Findings

This paper offers epistemological and methodological considerations to discuss the viability and performance of organisational systems.

Research limitations/implications

Measuring organisational performance needs powerful methodological support. This paper offers to some extend this support but it needs further development.

Practical implications

Performance is related to the concept of dynamic capabilities, which in recent times has had important practical implications.

Originality/value

Though the concepts of this paper have a long history, their methodological articulation is original.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 44 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2011

Raul Espejo and Daniel Kuropatwa

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of a company in Argentina with the support of the viable system model (VSM) and the Viplan method. This company had had a…

2020

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of a company in Argentina with the support of the viable system model (VSM) and the Viplan method. This company had had a cybernetic intervention in the 1980s and in 2002 went out of business. The authors' purpose was revisiting the company with the lenses of current organizational cybernetics to find new insights from its history.

Design/methodology/approach

The history was constructed by one of the authors, who was a key player in the company. He also obtained the views of other people who had worked in the company. These data were assessed interactively by the two authors using the VSM and the Viplan method.

Findings

Though a functional application of the VSM may be helpful to highlight communication and information requirements, it yields limited insights about viability. It is the assessment of relationships within the organization and with environmental agents that offers more valuable results.

Research limitations/implications

Often retrospective studies have limited value; it is easy to construct history to fit particular interests. However, the authors had very different backgrounds, one highly involved with the company's history, the other interested in clarifying the use of the VSM. The first wanted to provide an accurate history and the second insights to improve the application of the VSM.

Originality/value

The approach of the paper is focused on a particular and unique situation. Also the paper goes beyond the more traditional functional applications of the VSM. It is an application focused on people's relations and performance.

Article
Publication date: 19 November 2019

Igor Perko and Raul Espejo

The purpose of this memorandum is to share the awarding of one of the most prestigious recognitions in systems thinking and cybernetics: The World Organisation of Systems and…

145

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this memorandum is to share the awarding of one of the most prestigious recognitions in systems thinking and cybernetics: The World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold medal was awarded in June 2019 to Professor Emeritus, PhD, PhD, Matjaž Mulej for his long-life contributions.

Design/methodology/approach

The Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold medal was awarded to Professor Emeritus, PhD, PhD, Matjaž Mulej based on the combination of extensive literature analysis and the Delphi approach.

Findings

Based on Professor Emeritus, PhD, PhD, Matjaž Mule’s exceptional accomplishments in the field of systems thinking and cybernetics, especially the Dialectical Systems Theory and the notion of requisite holism, combined with his visionary projects as, for instance, the development and application of social responsibility concepts, he was nominated and awarded this esteemed medal.

Research limitations/implications

The Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold medal draws the focus to important work of exceptional individuals and at the same time drives researchers to follow his example in research and overall behaviour.

Originality/value

The Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold medal has been awarded to 12 people during the past 50 years of WOSC’s existence. Only researchers that have provided significant imprint in systems thinking and cybernetics with their research and organisational activities in society, organisations and communities can be nominated for this prize.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 49 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Raul Espejo

Illustrate supported by Beer’s Viable System Model and four vignettes the relevance of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity in policy processes…

Abstract

Purpose

Illustrate supported by Beer’s Viable System Model and four vignettes the relevance of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity in policy processes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the concepts of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity are briefly discussed to ground policy processes in good cybernetics. Then, with the support of four vignettes, the idea of good cybernetics in policy processes is illustrated.

Findings

The cybernetics of policy processes is often ignored.

Research limitations/implications

If the purpose of this paper were to influence policy makers it would be necessary to further the empirical base of the four vignettes and clarify desirable forums to ground the relevance of self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity in policy processes.

Practical implications

Beer’s recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity have much to contribute to the betterment of policy processes and the amelioration of the unbearable social and organisational costs of many current policies.

Originality/value

The application of concepts such as self-organisation, recursive structures, self-reference and reflexivity adds to the understanding of policy processes.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 44 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2011

Raul Espejo and Zoraida Mendiwelso Bendek

The purpose of this paper is to argue that active citizenship and organisational transparency are necessary to increase stakeholders' influence in policy processes. Active…

1446

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue that active citizenship and organisational transparency are necessary to increase stakeholders' influence in policy processes. Active citizenship is necessary to involve stakeholders in policy processes and organisational transparency is necessary to improve communications between them and policy makers.

Design/methodology/approach

First, this paper explains a conceptual framework to understand communications in social systems. Second, it illustrates its application with reference to concrete policies in England.

Findings

It is found that for active citizenship it is necessary not only to increase stakeholders' competencies but also make effective those organisational structures relevant to the policy issues of concern. However, and this is a key reason to increase people's competencies, these structures are the outcome of self‐organising processes shaped by those who are better organised, with more resources and in positions of power.

Research limitations/implications

Beyond informed and well‐grounded dialogues, communications between citizens and policy makers happen through organisation structures that activate some resources at the expense of others and involve some stakeholders at the expense of others. Unless these structures make possible balanced communications between them, citizens will find it difficult to influence policy makers.

Originality/value

The paper sees the policy for active citizenship and community empowerment in England under the lens of a cybernetic framework.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 40 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 18 October 2011

153

Abstract

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 40 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2004

German Bula

This paper is an account of management and organisational interventions in multiple institutions and enterprises in Colombia during the past 10 years, mainly influenced by…

356

Abstract

This paper is an account of management and organisational interventions in multiple institutions and enterprises in Colombia during the past 10 years, mainly influenced by Stafford Beer's ideas and work. It offers comments about the use of these ideas in three projects; particularly it focuses on an intervention in the National Controller's Office. These are accounts of failure and success. However, assessments of success and failure are tempered by difficulties in appreciating the complexity of social processes and our inability to see cause‐effect connections. The paper offers insights about concrete aspects of these interventions and the footprints they have left in the country.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 33 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 April 2012

Raul Espejo

The purpose of this paper is to offer an incursion into the complexity of organisations. This paper distinguishes a collective in its surroundings, an organisation in its medium…

608

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to offer an incursion into the complexity of organisations. This paper distinguishes a collective in its surroundings, an organisation in its medium and an organisation in its environment and proposes these distinctions as complementary epistemologies that help when studying organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper, supported by two case studies, that makes use of ideas of organisational cybernetics, autopoiesis and organisational ecology.

Findings

Beyond the more common black box observation of organisations that helps account for the transformations of inputs into outputs, this paper argues for the accounting of the relationships producing an organisation. This latter approach highlights the need to account for the complexity of communications between autonomous systems with different cognitive capabilities.

Originality/value

The complementary epistemologies offered in this paper offer an emerging paradigm to understand ecologies of enterprises and other organizational forms.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 41 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

1 – 10 of 109