Viable System Model
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The Viable Systems Model, or VSM is a model (abstract) of the organisational structure of any viable or autonomous system. A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are adaptable. The VSM expresses a model for a viable system, which is an abstracted cybernetic description that is applicable to any organisation that is a viable system and capable of autonomy.
Overview The model was developed by operations research theorist and cybernetics Anthony Stafford Beer in his book Brain of the Firm (1972). "Brain of the Firm", Beer Allen Lane, 1972. Together with Beer's earlier works on cybernetics applied to management, this book effectively founded management cybernetics.
The first thing to note about the cybernetic theory of organisations encapsulated in the VSM is that viable systems are recursion; viable systems contain viable systems that can be modelled using an identical cybernetic description as the higher (and lower) level systems in the containment hierarchy (Beer expresses this property of viable systems as cybernetic isomorphism).
Components of the Viable System Model Here we give a brief introduction to the cybernetic description of the organisation encapsulated in a single level of the VSM.
A viable system is composed of five interacting subsystems which may be mapped onto aspects of organisational structure. In broad terms Systems 1-3 are concerned with the 'here and now' of the organisation's operations, System 4 is concerned with the 'there and then' - strategical responses to the effects of external, environmental and future demands on the organisation. System 5 is concerned with balancing the 'here and now' and the 'there and then' to give policy directives which maintain the organisation as a viable entity
- System 1 in a viable system contains several primary activities. Each System 1 primary activity is itself a viable system due to the recursive nature of systems as described above. These are concerned with performing a function that implements at least part of the key transformation of the organisation.
- System 2 represents the information channels and bodies that allow the primary activities in System 1 to communicate between each other and which allow System 3 to monitor and co-ordinate the activities within System 1.
- System 3 represents the structures and controls that are put into place to establish the rules, resources, rights and responsibilities of System 1 and to provide an interface with Systems 4/5.
- System 4 - The bodies that make up System 4 are responsible for looking outwards to the environment to monitor how the organisation needs to adapt to remain viable.
- System 5 is responsible for policy decisions within the organisation as a whole to balance demands from different parts of the organisation and steer the organisation as a whole.
- Algedonic Alerts are alarms that escalate through the levels of recursion when Actual performance deviates from Capability, typically after a time out.
Rules for the Viable System In "Heart of Enterprise" Beer, Wiley 1979. a companion volume to "Brain...", Beer applies William Ross Ashby concept of (Requisite) Variety (cybernetics): the number of possible states of a system or of an element of the system. There are two aphorisms that permit observers to calculate Variety; four Principles of Organization; the Recursive System Theorem; three Axioms of Management and a Law of Cohesion. These rules ensure the Requisite Variety condition is satisfied, in effect that resources are matched to requirement.
Regulatory Aphorisms These principles are:
- It is not necessary to enter the black box to understand the nature of the function it performs.
- It is not necessary to enter the black box to calculate the variety that it potentially may generate.
Principles of Organisation These principles are
- Managerial, operational and environmental varieties diffusing through an institutional system, tend to equate; they should be designed to do so with minimum damage to people and cost.
- The four directional channels carrying information between the management unit, the operation, and the environment must each have a higher capacity to transmit a given amount of information relevant to variety selection in a given time than the originating subsystem has to generate it in that time.
- Wherever the information carried on a channel capable of distinguishing a given variety crosses a boundary, it undergoes Transduction; the variety of the transducer must be at least equivalent to the variety of the channel.
- The operation of the first three principles must be cyclically maintained through time without hiatus or lags.
Recursive System Theorem This theorem states:
- In a recursive organizational structure any viable system contains, and is contained in, a viable system.
Axioms These axioms are:
- The sum of horizontal variety disposed by n operational element equals the sum of the vertical variety disposed by the six vertical components of corporate cohesion. From "The Heart of Enterprise" pp 214- 217 three inputs from System Three*, the System Ones and System Two to System Three and three inputs from Environment, System Three and Algedonic alerts to 4/5 in the Metasystem.
- The variety disposed by System Three resulting from the operation of the First Axiom equals the variety disposed by System Four.
- The variety disposed by System Five equals the residual variety generated by the operation of the Second Axiom.
The Law of Cohesion for Multiple Recursions of the Viable System This law states:
- The System One variety accessible to System Three of recursion x equals the variety disposed by the sum of the metasystem of recursion y for every recursive pair."The Heart of Enterprise" page 353: x and y are one level apart.
Literature 1972, Stafford Beer, Brain of the Firm; Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, London, Herder and Herder, USA. Translated into German, Italian, Swedish and French.
1979, Stafford Beer, The Heart of Enterprise; John Wiley, London and New York. Reprinted with corrections 1988.
1981, Stafford Beer, Brain of the Firm; Second Edition (much extended), John Wiley, London and New York. Reprinted 1986, 1988. Translated into Russian.
References
External links
- Comment on Viable Systems Model, with references
- Metaphorum: researching and developing VSM applications
- The VSM on a memorial website of Stafford Beer
- Chronicles of Wizard Prang
Organizations:
- Metaphorum Society
- The Cybernetics Society,
- American Society for Cybernetics
- World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics.
Viable System Model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Viable Systems Model, or VSM is a model of the organisational structure of any viable or autonomous system. A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the ...
The Viable System Model Guide
The VSM Guide has been reformatted and (slightly) revised. The new version can now be found at. www.esrad.org.uk/resources/vsmg_3/ www.scio.org.uk/resources/vsmg_3/
The Viable System Model Trevor Hilder
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Supporting knowledge management through the viable system model; Warren, L. (2003) Supporting knowledge management through the viable system model. Systemist, 25, 156-165.
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Learning from Beer, using the viable system model for organisational design; Ragsdell, G. and Warren, L. (1999) Learning from Beer, using the viable system model for organisational ...
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