Viable System Model
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR III ASSIGNMENT “VIABLE SYSTEMS MODEL (VSM) AS APPLIED TO A MAJOR ORGANIZATION”
Study of Viable Systems Model at ITC Ltd.
Submitted by:
Daksh Kumar Anand
Uh11013
Introduction This paper is intended as study of the Viable System Model for better understanding. It deals with some of the basic concepts embodied in the model, the modeling process, and its use in practice in ITC Ltd. ITC’s transformation from cigarette to a conglomerate. Why we need Organizational Models We all interpret the world through models; these can be explicit, or tacit. For all managers in all organizations, their ability to manage a situation or organization effectively is in direct proportion to the accuracy and relevance of the models they are using to understand it. By far the most common organizational model in use in management today is still the hierarchical model though it has various disadvantages. What it doesn’t model is any of the more fundamental things about the organization: what it is, what it does, how it does it, its processes, formal and informal structures, communications and information transfers, or decision making. The VSM (Viable Systems Model) offers a more sophisticated alternative, one that can be used both for diagnosing existing organizations, and for designing new ones. The Viable Systems Model: The viable systems model or VSM is a model of the organizational structure of any viable or autonomous system. A viable system is any system organized in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are adaptable. The VSM expresses a model for a viable system, which is an abstracted cybernetic (regulation theory) description that is applicable to any organization that is a viable system and capable of autonomy.
A viable system is composed of five interacting subsystems which may be mapped onto aspects of organizational
Study of Viable Systems Model at ITC Ltd.
Submitted by:
Daksh Kumar Anand
Uh11013
Introduction This paper is intended as study of the Viable System Model for better understanding. It deals with some of the basic concepts embodied in the model, the modeling process, and its use in practice in ITC Ltd. ITC’s transformation from cigarette to a conglomerate. Why we need Organizational Models We all interpret the world through models; these can be explicit, or tacit. For all managers in all organizations, their ability to manage a situation or organization effectively is in direct proportion to the accuracy and relevance of the models they are using to understand it. By far the most common organizational model in use in management today is still the hierarchical model though it has various disadvantages. What it doesn’t model is any of the more fundamental things about the organization: what it is, what it does, how it does it, its processes, formal and informal structures, communications and information transfers, or decision making. The VSM (Viable Systems Model) offers a more sophisticated alternative, one that can be used both for diagnosing existing organizations, and for designing new ones. The Viable Systems Model: The viable systems model or VSM is a model of the organizational structure of any viable or autonomous system. A viable system is any system organized in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are adaptable. The VSM expresses a model for a viable system, which is an abstracted cybernetic (regulation theory) description that is applicable to any organization that is a viable system and capable of autonomy.
A viable system is composed of five interacting subsystems which may be mapped onto aspects of organizational