Second-order Cybernetics. Management. Systems Science

The idea of the circular causality implicit in cybernetics has been extended, originally by Heinz von Foerster, to include the circle comprising an observed system and the observer. This extension is a departure from traditional Newtonian science and from earlier views of cybernetics where the observer is assumed to have autonomy that puts him or her outside any causal loop. The earlier version of cybernetics is termed ‘‘first-order’’; the extension is called ‘‘second-order’’ or ‘‘cybernetics of cybernetics.’’

The extension is most clearly relevant to the observation of social systems and, hence also, to teaching and manage­ment. In these contexts, an observer must either be part of the observed system or have involvement with it. In other contexts, such as those of the so-called exact sciences, the involvement of the observer may be less obvious, but still, complete objectivity is impossible.

The impossibility of access to anything to be called reality also has been recognized under the heading of constructi­vism, a philosophical viewpoint that predates cybernetics. Clearly the construction formed by an individual has to allow effective interaction with the environment if he or she is to operate effectively and, indeed, to survive, but no precise image or model is implied by this construction.

Management. The application of cybernetics to management was pio­neered by Stafford Beer and is a major field of interest. In an early paper, he listed characteristics of a cybernetic, or viable, system that include internal complexity and the capability of self-organization, along with a means of inter­acting appropriately with its environment.

He indicated points of similarity between the communications and con­trol within a firm and a human or animal central nervous system. For example, he likened the exclusive pursuit of short-term profit by a firm to the behavior of a ‘‘spinal’’ dog deprived of cerebral function.

The view of human organizations as viable is supported by the observation that groups of people in contact sponta­neously form a social structure. The viability of organiza­tions has been described as ‘‘social autopoiesis,’’ as part of sociocybernetics where autopoiesis is a principle originally used with reference to biological systems to indicate self­production.

The Beer ‘‘Viable System Model’’ has found wide application in management studies and depends on his listing of a set of components that are essential for viability. Failures or inadequacies of management performance may be attributed to absence or weakness of one or more of these components. It is asserted that viable systems have recur­sive character in that they have other viable systems embedded in them and are themselves components of lar­ger ones.

The cells of the body are viable systems that are embedded in people, who in turn form organizations, and so on. Connections to higher and lower viable systems are part of the model.

An aspect emphasized by Beer (8,9) is the need for a rapid response to disturbances, achieved in the nervous system by local reflexes, which respond automatically but also are subject to higher-level control. His work also makes exten­sive use of the Ashby principle of Requisite Variety, which corresponds to a theorem of the Shannon Information Theory and states that a disturbance of a system only can be corrected by a control action whose variety, or information content, is at least equal to that of the disturbance.

This view has been epitomized as: ‘‘only variety can absorb variety.’’ Beer (8,9) analyzed many management situations in terms of variety, alternatively termed complexity, and claimed to be practising ‘‘complexity engineering.’’

Systems Science. Cybernetics is concerned essentially with systems, and valuable discussions of the meaning of ‘‘system’’ appear in works of Ashby, Pask, and Beer. No firm distinction exists between cybernetics and systems science except for a difference of emphasis because of the essen­tially biological focus of cybernetics. However, the seminal work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy on systems theory has very substantial biological content.