Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Managing Complexity pp 301–308Cite as

How Organizational Cybernetics can Help to Organize Debates on Complex Issues

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

  • 1612 Accesses

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Management and Industrial Engineering ((LNMIE))

Abstract

In this paper we expose how concepts taken from the Systems Thinking field, and in particular Organizational Cybernetics (OC), can help decision makers to study complex issues with the help of the information and communication technologies (ICT). We present some software tools developed within the Systems Thinking and Organizational Cybernetics Research Group (STOCRG) of the University of Valladolid that based on OC concepts use ICTs to help groups of people to study complex issues in a collaborative way through Internet. We discuss some uses of OC to help collective decisions making and we show two international pioneering experiences in which the ICTs have been used in combination with OC concepts. In the first case the purpose was to create a collective scientific book by a group of scientists working at distance and, in the second case, to organize a major academic international event. We end the paper showing an example of specific software (Debates Organizer) developed in the STOCRG through the last 15 years to facilitate any size of groups of people through Internet the organization of debates on complex issues.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Team Syntegrity® and Syntegration® are registered trademarks by Team Syntegrity Internacional Inc. and Malik Management Zentrum St. Gallen.

  2. 2.

    A detailed description of the Team Syntegrity protocols can be found in Pérez Ríos [11, 13] and in chapter five of the book: Pérez Ríos [14] Design and Diagnosis for Sustainable Organizations. The Viable System Method, Springer.

  3. 3.

    The Systems Thinking and Organizational Cybernetics Research Group at the University of Valladolid developed a set of optimizing algorithms for various TS configurations.

References

  1. Almuiña C, Martín R, y Pérez Ríos J (eds) (2000) Las Universidades iberoamericanas en la sociedad del conocimiento. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, ISBN:84-8448-03-3

    Google Scholar 

  2. Almuiña C, Pérez Ríos J et al (2008) La relevancia de los medios de comunicación en Castilla y León. Consejo Económico y Social de Castilla y León. ISBN:978-84-95308-37-5

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ashby WR (1956) An introduction to cybernetics, Vol 2. Chapman Hall, London

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Beer S (1979) The heart of enterprise. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  5. Beer S (1981) Brain of the firm, 2nd edn. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  6. Beer S (1985) Diagnosing the system for organizations. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  7. Beer S (1994) Beyond dispute: the invention of team Syntegrity. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  8. Conant RC, Ashby WR (1970) Every good regulator of a system must be model of that system. Int J Syst Sci 1(2):89–97

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Espejo R, Schwaninger M et al (1997) To be and not to be that is the system: a tribute to Stafford beer, CD ROM. Carl Auer-Systeme, Wiesbaden

    Google Scholar 

  10. Pérez Ríos J (1998) La “sintegración en equipos” y el aprendizaje en las organizaciones. El caso de IBERFORO-98. Key note speech. I Reunión de Rectores de Universidades Hispano-Americanas-Filipinas. Marzo 1998, Valladolid, Spain

    Google Scholar 

  11. Pérez Ríos J (2000) Nuevas formas organizativas en sociedades complejas. In: Almuiña C, Martín R, Pérez Ríos J (eds) Las Universidades Iberoamericanas en la sociedad del conocimiento. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, pp 291–317

    Google Scholar 

  12. Pérez Ríos J (2006) Information and communication technologies and organizational cybernetics. The fourth metaphorum conference. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK, 4–5 May 2006

    Google Scholar 

  13. Pérez Ríos J (2008) Diseño y diagnóstico de organizaciones viables. Un enfoque sistémico. IBERFORA 2000. ISBN: 978-84-612-5845–1

    Google Scholar 

  14. Pérez Ríos J (2012) Design and diagnosis for sustainable organizations: the viable system method. Springer, Heidelberg

    Book  Google Scholar 

  15. Schwaninger M (2006) Intelligent organizations: powerful models for systemic management. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo INSISOC, Dpto. de Organización de Empresas y CIM, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad de Valladolid, Campus Miguel Delibes S/N, 47011, Valladolid, Spain

    José Pérez Ríos, Iván Velasco Jiménez & Pablo Sánchez Mayoral

Authors
  1. José Pérez Ríos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Iván Velasco Jiménez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pablo Sánchez Mayoral
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Pérez Ríos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. INSISOC, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    Cesáreo Hernández

  2. INSISOC, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    Adolfo López-Paredes

  3. INSISOC, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    José M. Pérez-Ríos

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Pérez Ríos, J., Velasco Jiménez, I., Sánchez Mayoral, P. (2014). How Organizational Cybernetics can Help to Organize Debates on Complex Issues. In: Hernández, C., López-Paredes, A., Pérez-Ríos, J. (eds) Managing Complexity. Lecture Notes in Management and Industrial Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04705-8_35

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04705-8_35

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-04704-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-04705-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation