Jose Perez Rios

Universidad de Valladolid | UVA · Department of Business Organization and Marketing and Market Research

Design and Diagnosis for Sustainable Organizations The Viable System Method Jose Perez Rios - Find out if your organization is prepared to survive - Learn in a short time how to diagnose the health of your company - Find out why your organization does not meet your expectations - Why many firms and organizations are unable to survive the current...

The profound change that took place in communication and information technologies, especially after the irruption and proliferation of the internet, to a great extent transformed the way organisations operate and opened up the opportunity of using new tools based on those technologies. In this paper, we present one example of how these can be used...

The authors advocate building a bridge between two systems approaches, namely system dynam-ics (SD) and the viable system model (VSM), which is the main exponent of organizational cybernetics (OC). Such a synthesis is aimed at opening a path towards a better capability of actors to deal with complex issues in both organizations and society. Given t...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework, based on Beer's viable system model (VSM) that enables managers of public and private organizations to cope with the complexities faced by their organizations. Design/methodology/approach Based on concepts from organizational cybernetics (OC) an heuristic is elaborated for the design o...

A presente publicación -titulada- DIAGNÓSTICO recolle os resultados das análises que sobre o impacto da crise no corpo construído da área urbana da cidade da Coruña se obtiveron no curso de verán “Empty Coruña?” e na “Xornada Cidadán sobre renovación e rexeneración urbana. En torno aos efectos da crise na cidade” e das investigacións previas, reali...

p>Developing resilient individuals, organizations and communities is a hot topic in the research agenda in Management, Ecology, Psychology or Engineering. Despite the number of works that focus on resilience is increasing, there is not completely agreed definition of resilience, neither an entirely formal and accepted framework. The cause may be th...

The interest in how to build resilient organizations is increasing in the last two decades. However , there is no formal and accepted framework yet. In this paper, we argue that the application of the principles of the Viable System Model (VSM) improves organizational resilience. We also argue that the VSM constitutes a valid framework to design re...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to expose how organizational cybernetics (OC)-related concepts could be used in combination with information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate group discussions on complex issues, and to show its impact in a real case. Design/methodology/approach – A software inspired by OC and team syntegrit...

In this chapter we discuss how the use of Organizational Cybernetics (OC) helps to identify the variety of needs to be considered in a planning-related intervention in a university campus and to influence the project design in such a way that the variety of services responding to these needs will also be increased. After a short description of some...

In this paper we expose how concepts taken from the Systems Thinking field, and in particular Organizational Cybernetics (OC), can help decision makers to study complex issues with the help of the information and communication technologies (ICT). We present some software tools developed within the Systems Thinking and Organizational Cybernetics Res...

This study evaluates Team Syntegrity® (TS) as a tool to improve the efficiency of teamwork in solving complex problems by means of stimulating collaboration and developing cross-fertilization and creativity. Some evidence suggests that TS has good results for individuals who participate in the process; however, no empirical research has occurred on...

The challenge to managers in the current turbulent environment is a formidable one. In relation to this challenge, researchers have pointed out that the quality of managers' decisions is limited by the quality of the models about the systems they try to govern. This chapter's purpose is to show how Organizational Cybernetics (OC) and the Viable Sys...

The need of a tool for facilitating communication between System 4 and System 3 in an organisation was made clear by Beer himself when the VSM was introduced. Its last innovation, termed Team Syntegrity (TS) (Beer 1994), was duly developed in order to help these two systems to communicate adequately and, as a result, to contribute to the smooth run...

Now that we have looked at the basic concepts of OC, I will go on to show how these can be applied in both diagnosing an already existing organisation and as a guide when designing a new one. In both cases, the fundamental line of the study is to assess the viability of the organisation or, should this be a new creation, to help it to start out wit...

In the last decades, a great change in information and communication technologies has taken place, particularly following the advent and proliferation of the Internet. These changes have to a large extent transformed the way in which firms operate and compete. They have generated new business opportunities as well as giving rise to improvements in...

Having considered in Chap. 1 certain basic cybernetic principles and the main elements of the VSM, and in Chap. 2 the way in which they can be applied in diagnosing or designing organisations, I will now turn to some of the pathologies which most commonly occur in organisations or companies (see Pérez Ríos 2008b). As we know from medical practice,...

The profoundly rapid changes occurring in the operating environment for organisations in general and companies in particular are making it essential, if their viability is to be guaranteed, for the provision of tools that can deal with the kind of complexity inherent in such changes.KeywordsCommunication ChannelOperational UnitSystem ThinkingVertic...

The challenge to managers in the current turbulent environ-ment is a formidable one due to its complexity. The ability to recognize what complexity means and to cope with it is something that managers should have. The training/education of students/managers should consider these issues. In this paper we present an Internet accessible educational en...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an example of the application of a framework, based on Beer's organizational cybernetics and viable system model, that allowed the top management of a public university to design and implement university policy and actions related to the physical design of the various university campuses. Design/meth...

Resumen. La complejidad a la que deben hacer frente las organizaciones en general, y sus proyectos en particular, hace necesario disponer de herramientas capaces de abordarla, fomentando una comunicación y colaboración efectiva entre la diversidad de afectados, sobre todo en las etapas iniciales del proyecto, en las que es crítica la claridad de lo...

Organizational Cybernetics and the Viable System Model in particular describe the necessary and sufficient conditions for the viability of an organization or company. When these are not fulfilled the organization will not work properly and depending on the severity of the dysfunction even their same existence may be in danger. In this work we use t...

Organizational Cybernetics and the Viable Model System in particular describe the sufficient necessary conditions for organization or company viability. When these are not fulfilled the organization does not work properly and depending on the severity of the dysfunction, their very existence may be in danger even. This work uses the VSM to identify...

Purpose This paper attempts to show how the new communication and information technologies and the internet in particular can help in the design of viable organizations. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a set of specific software tools based on internet, created for the purpose as given above. The tools are bundled in two packages. T...

In line with the conference theme - "Collegiality" - the authors propose to build a bridge between two Systems Approaches, namely System Dynamics (SD) and Management Cybernetics (MC). This synthesis is aimed at opening a path for a better capability to deal with complex issues of actors in both organizations and society. With their resprctive stren...

The number of approaches, researchers and practitioners in Systems Thinking has been growing over the last decades and particularly in recent years. This wide and deep evolution within the systems community that is a sign of vitality has also increased the communication difficulties among its components. If the systems community wants to overcome t...

La nueva frontera de la humanidad ya no es tanto el desarrollo científico y tecnológico como la comprensión de la complejidad de los sistemas sociales en que estamos inmersos. Este conocimiento es imprescindible para poder hacer frente de forma efectiva a los problemas de tensión social que afectan a la humanidad. Se trata de explorar nuevas formas...

Se realiza en el Departamento de Organización y Gestión de Empresas de la E.T.S de Ingenieros Industriales de Valladolid. La realiza el grupo de Ingeniería y Organización con el objetivo de desarrollar una plataforma informática portable para la realización de experimentos económicos. El sistema de trabajo es en equipo y trata del desarrollo inform...