Evidence of the Impact of the VSM

The Viable System Model is a powerful tool for diagnosing, designing, and managing organizations in complex environments. Its applications improve organizational adaptability, resilience, and overall functionality across a wide range of contexts.

This is a bold claim, and there is a lot of practical experience in organizations of every type. There is also solid academic evidence of the impact of the VSM.

Evidence of Impact:

  1. Enhanced Diagnosis and Design of Organizations:
    • VSM has demonstrated significant diagnostic power in identifying weaknesses and opportunities for improvement in organizational structures, aiding in their redesign to better cope with environmental complexity (Schwaninger 2006)
    • It supports the creation of systems that are both autonomous and adaptable, ensuring viability by addressing critical variables and ensuring effective communication channels (Leonard 2009).
  2. Applications in Diverse Contexts:
    • The model has been successfully applied in areas ranging from higher education to software development and sustainability practices, showcasing its versatility (Rezk and Gamal 2019), (Kawalek and Wastell 2002). (Leonard 2007), (Espinosa Salazar and Walker 2017), (Espinosa 2022).
  3. Improved Management Practices:
    • By facilitating better alignment between organizational activities and environmental demands, VSM enables managers to address complexity effectively. This is particularly valuable in highly dynamic industries (Hildbrand and Bodhanya 2013)
    • The model encourages systemic thinking, which is crucial for addressing interconnected challenges (Espejo 190
  4. Empirical Validation:
    • Studies have empirically validated VSM’s principles, showing its effectiveness in fostering organizational viability and resilience (Schwaninger and Scheef 2016).

Literature

  • Espejo, Raúl, and Antonia Gill. o. J. „The Viable System Model as a Framework for Understanding Organizations“.
  • Espejo, R. 1990. „The viable system model“. Systems practice 3:219–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01062728.
  • Espejo, Raul, and Alfonso Reyes. 2011. Organizational Systems: Managing Complexity with the Viable System Model. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19109-1.
  • Espinosa, Angela. 2022. Sustainable Self-Governance in Businesses and Society: The Viable System Model in Action. 1. Aufl. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429490835.
  • Espinosa Salazar, Angela Ma, and Jon Walker. 2017. A Complexity Approach to Sustainability: Theory and Application. Second Edition. Series on Complexity Science, Volume 5. New Jersey: World Scientific.
  • Hildbrand, S., and S. Bodhanya. 2013. „The potential value of the Viable System Model as a managerial tool“. Management Dynamics : Journal of the Southern African Institute for Management Scientists 22:2–15.
  • Kawalek, P., and D. Wastell. 2002a. „A case study of the use of the viable system model in the organization of software development“, 120–34. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-930708-41-9.CH007.
  • Leonard, Allenna. 2007. „Integrating sustainability practices using the viable system model“. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 25:643–54. https://doi.org/10.1002/SRES.937.
  • Leonard, Alenna.. 2009. „The viable system model and its application to complex organizations“. Systemic Practice and Action Research 22:223–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11213-009-9126-Z.
  • Rezk, Sahar Saeed, and Shahinaz Gamal. 2019. „The viable system model and its applications in higher education: an overview“. Kybernetes. The International Journal of Cybernetics, Systems and Management Sciences 48:438–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-04-2018-0185.
  • Schwaninger, M. 2006. „Design for viable organizations: The diagnostic power of the viable system model“. Kybernetes. The International Journal of Cybernetics, Systems and Management Sciences 35:955–66. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920610675012.
  • Schwaninger, M., and C. Scheef. 2016. „A test of the viable system model: Theoretical claim vs. empirical evidence“. Cybernetics and Systems 47:544–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/01969722.2016.1209375.

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