The capabilities approach and variety engineering. A case for social cocreation of value

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show an application of variety engineering in the social realm (Beer in The heart of enterprise. Wiley, Chichester, 1979, in Brain of the firm. Wiley, Chichester 1981, in diagnosing the system for organizations. Wiley, Chichester, 1985). It focuses on reducing environmental complexity by catalysing self-organizing processes (Espejo and Reyes in Organizational systems: managing complexity with the VSM. Springer, London, 2011). This catalysis is based on the use of Sen and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach (Sen in Development as freedom. Oxford University Press, New York, 1999; Nusbaum in Women and human development: the capabilities approach. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2000). By doing this an organization may improve the quality of the relations with their clients by transforming environmental agents into new suppliers. This approach opens a new dimension of social responsibility for organizations. A particular case is presented in which a regional university in Colombia faces the challenge of attending low-income students coming from small municipalities. They designed a strategy to offer low-cost housing and a daily balanced meal without using the university's own resources. Instead, they managed to involve some agents of the community by developing their capabilities. This kind of variety engineering shows the possibility of new forms of social responsibility in universities by incorporating the capabilities approach into their managerial practices. This is something that is currently under study in other universities (Boni et al. in Science and engineering ethics. Springer, London, 2015).