Order in Chaos - Cybernetics of Brand Management by Oliver Errichiello & Marius Wernke

Author:Oliver Errichiello & Marius Wernke
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783662659588
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

2.

Recursivity

3.

Autonomy

To 1.

Under viability, Beer understands a form of existence that goes beyond “existence” and offers development opportunities. This is possible if the system provides for internal stability, i.e. neither acts in absolute identical reproduction nor in absolute adaptation to the environment. The systems theorist Martin Adam explains: “The VSM is thus a model in which feedback loops are connected to each other in multiple stages and thus enable a self-contained functioning. This, self-related functioning enables the system to adapt to changes in the environment, to learn, to develop, to coordinate and integrate its parts […] At the same time, it is able to maintain this organization and thus to ensure internal stability. All this enables the system to select effective behaviour and thus to cope with external and internal complexities” (Adam 2001, pp. 51–52).

To 2.

Recursivity or “theorem of invariant structure” (Beer 1979, p. 73) means that every living system is part of a living system and consists of living systems in its subcategories. This fractal (self-similar in the sense of brand sociology) principle can be applied to all levels of any system, making the analysis of empirical facts practicable. Beer emphasizes: “Then if we have a model of any viable system, it must be recursive. That is to say, at whatever level of aggregation we start, then the whole model is rewritten in each element of the original model, and so on indefinetely” (Beer 1973, p. 5).

To 3.

A system’s autonomy comprises a system’s own interest in preserving itself. As a central finding, Beer states: “Autonomy [is] the freedom of an embedded subsystem to act on its own initiative, but only within the framework of action determined by the purpose of the total system” (Beer 1985, p. 105).

Autonomy therefore requires the freedom of a system to determine its behavior. Since each part of a system is itself a living system, it has autonomy at all levels—within the respective action framework. However, all system components are elements of an overarching system that itself has a vital interest in securing its original existence. Autonomy is therefore always a interplay between self- and overarching, central interests. Adam explains: “The systems […] are equipped with the necessary and sufficient structural conditions to fulfill their own activities. […] So the countries of a federal state act autonomously in many matters without the federal government having to deal with them in detail. The vertical component of the VSM, on the other hand, serves to hold the system together. This is done via […] interventions” (Adam 2001, p. 54).

Beer differentiates in his approach into five modules, with modules 1-3 being operationally oriented, while modules 4 and 5 are strategic, i.e. future-oriented and do not intervene in everyday business:

Operative Module 1 (Can and Do)

The production chambers of a system that are directly related to the environment. For example, in the case of a company, production, research and development or sales—that is, all departments that contribute to the daily implementation of the service.

Module 1 produces clear indicators such as demand, price, raw material requirements.

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