Abstract
This paper describes and analyzes “the Social Solidarity Network” (SSN), which is an agency of the Office of the President of the national government of Colombia. Its purpose is to promote self-development programs in the poorest communities in the country, as well as to improve their local public decision-making and other organizational mechanisms. The workings of the “monitoring system” used by the SSN, whose design has been inspired by Beer's ideas of monitoring and control, are introduced and discussed (Beer, 1979/1981a,b; Espejo and Harnden, 1989). The paper also offers a brief analysis of the structural mechanisms currently in use for communicating among local government agencies and the other departmental, regional, and national levels of government. This analysis indicates that the national authorities design and supervise the local planning and control mechanisms too closely and often ignore the existence and views of the intermediate recursions of government and the priorities of the local communities. The paper concludes with an assessment of the multi-university-based monitoring system used to follow up the activities and results of the SSN.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackoff, R. L. (1994).The Democratic Corporation, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
Argyris, C. (1993).On Organisational Learning, Blackwell, Cambridge, MA.
Beer, S. (1979).The Heart of Enterprise, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
Beer, S. (1981a).Brain of the Firm, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
Beer, S. (1981b).Diagnosing the System for Organisations, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
Checkland, P. (1981).Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
CIDER (1995, 1996).Diseno del Sistema de Monitoreo para la Red de Solidaridad Social, Informes No. 1, 2, y 3 a la Red de Solidaridad Social y al BID.
Conant, R. C., and Ashby, W. R. (1970). Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system.Int. J. Syst. Sci. 1(2), 89–97.
Espejo, R. (1989). Strategy, structure and information management.J. Inform. Syst. 3, 17–31.
Espejo, R. (1994). What is systems thinking?Syst. Dynam. Rev. 10(2–3), 199–212.
Espejo, R., and Harnden, R. (eds.) (1989).The Viable System Model. Interpretations and Applications of Stafford Beer's VSM, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
Espejo, R., and Schwaninger, M. (eds.) (1993).Organisational Fitness. Corporate Effectiveness Through Management Cybernetics? Campus Verlag, Frankfurt and New York.
Espejo, R. and Watt, J. (1979). Management information systems: A system for design.J. Cybernet. 9(3).
Espinosa, A. (1995).Strategic Information Systems for the Colombian President's Office, Doctoral Thesis, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham.
Flores, F. (1982).Management and Communication in the Office of the Future, Doctoral Thesis, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
Jackson, M. C. (1989). Evaluating the managerial significance of the VSM. In Espejo, R., and Harnden, R. (eds.),The Viable System Model: Interpretations and Applications of Stafford Beer's VSM, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
Maturana, H., and Varela, F. (1987).The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding, New Library Science, Boston.
Mintzberg, H. (1994).The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning: Reconceiving Roles for Planning, Plans and Planners, Free Press, New York.
Schwaninger, M. (1990). Embodiments of organisational fitness.Syst. Pract. 3(3).
Senge, P. M. (1992).The Fifth Discipline. The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, Century Business, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Espinosa, A. A monitoring system for the social development program in Colombia. Systems Practice 10, 459–472 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02557892
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02557892