Overview

Sustainable Self-Governance in Businesses and Society offers a sound introduction to Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and clarifies its relevance to support organisational sustainability and self-governance. While the VSM has been known since the early 1980s, it hasn’t been always easy to understand and to apply. It explains the self-transformation methodology to analyse the way organisations manage (or not) their complexity and govern themselves. The work is supported by multiple examples of application in organisations of all scales – from small to multi-national corporations and from organised social networks to communities and national organisations. It clarifies the relevance of Beer’s theory to support systemic learning and change in organisations, and to coach them to self-organise and self-govern. Readers interested in further understanding insights from complex systems and cybernetics theories for designing and transforming organisations will benefit from this book, as it works to offer very detailed insights on how to put the VSM theory into practice. It clarifies how it improves adaptive capabilities, agile and self-regulated structures, more capable of fully implementing corporate sustainability strategies and self-governing themselves. The chapters provide key reading for managers, consultants, practitioners, and post-graduate students working in organisational transformation, governance, and sustainability.

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9781032354972

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Reviews

Lots of people have been waiting for this book. Angela Espinosa is a noted authority on organisational cybernetics and worked closely with Stafford Beer. Her work deepens our understanding of the 'viable system model' and offers significant insight into how best to use it in practice. - Professor Michael C. Jackson, OBE It is a pleasure to recommend this book that brings multiple applications of the Viable Systems Model (sometimes combined with other systems approaches) to practical problems in society. Too often, new methodologies remain within academia and their potential goes unrealized but this book gives numerous examples of work that combines an empathetic approach to people trying to make their institutions work while maintaining the rigor of the science behind them. - Dr. Allena Leonard, Cybernetician, Director Team Syntegrity International, President Metaphorum. Former President of the American Society for Cybernetics and the International Society for the Systems Sciences The functioning of our society depends strongly on the functioning of its organizations. Angela Espinosa's book, based on great application experience, shows in a practical way how to apply the Viable System Model so that we can finally make organizations work, however complex and dynamic their environment. A must read for all leaders dealing with organizational issues. - Dr. Martin Pfiffner, Board of Trustees Fondation Oroborus

Author Information

Angela Espinosa is Emeritus Fellow at Hull University Business School, University of Hull, UK.

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