Abstract
In Part I of the book, we explored the two “archai” of organizations indicating that they are social systems conducting experiments. In the present part, we will give a systematic exposition of ways of organizing this experiment. Given the “logic” of the experiment, this means that we have to look for principles enabling the design of infrastructural conditions allowing organizations to experiment. These infrastructural conditions are so important because an organization’s potential to select and reselect goals, infrastructures, operational regulation, and transformation processes (and all other “objects” related to these “focal” objects), crucially depends on the design of its infrastructure.
Above, we distinguished two classes of design principles: functional design principles and specific design principles. Functional design principles specify what a system’s infrastructure must be able to do if the system is to survive. Specific design principles, specify rules and heuristics for the design of particular parts of the infrastructure (the division of work, human resources management, technology), given the set of functional design principles.
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Notes
- 1.
Recursion derives from “recurrere,” which means “to run, walk back” in Latin. In mathematics or computer science, recursion is used to indicate that some function or routine calls itself. For instance, we can define F(n) (on N) as (1) 1 if n = 0 and (2) 3*F(n−1)+3 if n > 0. This is a recursive definition. However, the general description given in text also applies to these functions: In the main function (the concrete system f(n)) we can find a subsystem (the recursive call f(n−1)) with the same characteristics (the defining aspects).
- 2.
Beer uses the word “System” instead of function. We have two reasons to depart from this usage. The first is that the Viable System Model is a functional model of viable systems, specifying functions required for viability. This terminology is consistent with other recent descriptions of the Viable System Model in literature (see for instance, Espejo, et al. 1996) The second reason is that we reserve the word system for the viable system as a whole.
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Achterbergh, J., Vriens, D. (2009). Beer: Functional Design Principles for Viable Infrastructures. In: Organizations. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00110-9_6
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