On Organizational Cybernetics - a brief note

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of regulatory systems structure. You could actually download the ebook on Cybernetics by R. Ashby (re: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASHBBOOK.html). Ashby's book is a classic in Cybernetics.  My briefing here is on Management Cybernetics which is the field of cybernetics concerned with management and organizations. Especially, I will provide information on Organizational Cybernetics (OC) which is a more advanced form of Management Cybernetics (MC) in the sense that OC uses use more complex, observer-dependent notion of variety than MC. (re: http://everything.explained.at/Management_cybernetics/). As a beginner to learn OC, I suggest you to start with Jackson (2000). This book gives you an overall view of the essence of OC from a systems perspective. My favoured introductory textbook on OC, which is very much about the Viable System Model (VSM)  of S. Beer, is Clemson (1984). It is easy to read and provides reasonable depth of the subject for a beginner on OC. If you are interested to study the subject further, you could study Espejo et al. (1996) and Espejo and Harnden (1989). Next, try to study the two original textbooks on the VSM by S. Beer, namely, Brain of the Firm and The Heart of Enteprise.

OC and VSM are still being studied and applied with findings being reported in academic journals such as  Systems Research and Behavioural Science and Systemic Practice and Action Research from time to time. There are also some new textbooks on OC such as Espejo and Reyes (2011).  Keep yourself updated with OC via continuous study of it. It is a fascinating subject in Systems Thinking.



References

1. Beer, S. (1979) The Heart of Enterprise, Wiley.
2. Beer, S. (1981) Brain of the Firm, Wiley.
3. Clemson, B. (1984) Cybernetics: A New Management Tool, Abacus Press.
4. Espejo, R. and Harnden, R. (editors) (1989) The Viable System Model, Wiley.
5. Espejo, R. andReyes, A. (2011) Organizational Sytems: Managing Complexity with the Viable System Model, Springer.
6. Espejo, R., Schuhmann, W., Schwaninger, M. and Bilello, U. (1996) Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management, Wiley.
7. Jackson, M.C. (2000) Systems Approaches to Management, Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers.
8. On the Viable System Model: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viable_System_Model