Design and Diagnosis for Sustainable Organizations : The Viable System Method

How can organizations and their managers face the tremendous complexity of the current environment? How can their compliance with the requirements of sustainability be evaluated? And how can new organizations be structured to ensure their viability? This book addresses these questions in a very practical way, essentially combining systems theory with cybernetics to help managers to evaluate and shape organizations by making accessible the wealth of knowledge contained in these fields. Importantly, it also provides guidelines for its practical application. "This book is a masterpiece! It makes a timely appearance. José Pérez Ríos offers precisely the essential knowledge and insights which organizational experts and managers must have in our day. This is a complete blueprint for ensuring the viability - health, robustness, and high performance - of an organization." Prof. Dr. Markus Schwaninger, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland "This is an exceptionally important book on Stafford Beer´s great discovery of managerial cybernetics, the Viable System Model and its practical application to all kinds of organisations. The book comes right on time for mastering the great challenges of fundamental macro change in most parts of the world and of the dynamics of interconnected global systems. José Pérez Ríos, with his profound understanding of complex systems and their laws of complexity, control, self-regulation and self-organisation makes an invaluabel contribution to the reliable functioning of institutions and to the viability of society as a whole." Prof. Dr. Fredmund Malik, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland Chairman of Malik Management “José Pérez Ríos' new book is a MUST for anyone interested in solving the central dilemma of complex social systems: how to achieve viability in spite of complexity. José explores and expands with great clarity Stafford Beer's ideas about Organizational Cybernetics. In addition, he presents a unique software to put Beer's "Viable System Model" into practice. The book also contains a step by step explanation of Beer's "Team Syntegrity", a tool to facilitate agreement without loosing variety. This is a very remarkable procedure of utmost relevance in today's world of conflicts. For all these reasons I highly recommend it.” Dr. Enrique G. Herrscher CAPSIST - Center for Systems Thinking & Action Past President ISSS, Int'l Society for the Systems Sciences