The Search for Viability: A practitioner's view of how the Viable Systems Model is helping transform English local government (and why it has passed unrecognised)

Abstract

Since 2010, local authorities in England have experienced an unprecedented reduction in their resourcing at a time when demands on services have risen substantially through social and demographic changes. Faced with such external challenges, various Councils' internal transformations have sought to change the organisation as a system, but also to alter the relationship with the environment. These have clearly been attempts to create viable systems, but have not been explicitly termed as such. This paper outlines a series of transformation interventions that have used the principles of the viable systems model to improve business governance and make evident the criticality of the effective functioning of Systems 2–5 of the viable systems model. The paper also considers why, when such individual transformations have evidentially supported the viability of local authorities, systemic thinking has not yet been embraced by the sector to improve its governing business systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Ingeniería de Sistemas de Gestión mediante la Cibernética Organizacional y Procesos en organizaciones de Junín-Perú

“…Walker [21], describe una serie de intervenciones de transformación que han utilizado los principios del modelo de sistemas viables para mejorar la gobernanza empresarial y hacer evidente la criticidad del funcionamiento eficaz de los Sistemas 2-5 del modelo de sistemas viables.…”

Drilling down the viable system theories in business, management and accounting: A bibliometric review

“…Therefore, the VSM, in its diagnostic and planning tasks, has been applied to different types of systems, and at different levels of complexity, for its ability to detect the existence or the lack of adequate communication among the different systems concerned. Currently, various applications at different levels and sectors of economic and social activities confirm its potential: Walker (2017) reports on experiences in various councils in the United Kingdom; Burgess and Wake (2013) discuss its applicability to small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises; Harwood (2009) focuses on its design function by revising its application to the entire Scottish tourism sector; other applications are derived from the consulting environment (Chatzimichailidou & Katsavounis, 2012; Herzog et al, 2016; Hildbrand & Bodhanya, 2014; Maracha, 2016; Melé, Chinchilla, & López‐Jurado, 2019; Rezaee, Azar, Erz, & Nayeri, 2019; Rezk & Gamal, 2019). Other scholars (Adham, Kasimin, Mat Isa, Othman, & Ahmad, 2015; Mahamed Ismail, Welch, & Xu, 2015) outline the design contribution of the model to the sustainable quality of university research.…”

Diseño organizacional mediante el enfoque sistèmico y cibernético: El caso de una empresa prestadora de saneamiento

“…Schwaninger, [23], pauta una forma de probar la teoría empíricamente del modelo de sistema viable, sobre la base de una encuesta amplia y un análisis cuantitativo pertinente, los datos disponibles apoyan las hipótesis y con ello corroboran la teoría del modelo de sistema viable. Walker, [24], describe una serie de intervenciones de transformación que han utilizado los principios del modelo de sistemas viables para mejorar la gobernanza empresarial y hacer evidente la criticidad del funcionamiento eficaz de los Sistemas 2-5 del modelo de sistemas viables; también considera por qué, cuando tales transformaciones individuales han apoyado es evidente la viabilidad de las autoridades locales, el sector aún no ha adoptado el pensamiento sistémico para mejorar sus sistemas empresariales rectores.…”