Enhanced viability in organizations: An approach to expanding the requirements of the viable system model

Abstract

The Viable System Model (VSM) is a functional model of organizational structures whose implementation results in a presumably viable system. Despite scientific arguments and successful implementations in organizations, the VSM is still not widely used in practice. A reason may be that the VSM as defined by Beer addresses only the structural domain of the control (management) system in an organization and appears to miss some prerequisites for viability. Aiming for a more comprehensive approach for implementation of the VSM in practice, this paper proposes six enhanced requirements (prerequisites for viability) that organizations should try to fulfill in addition to the structural requirements. These six are deduced by analogies to “natural” viable systems, esp. the human body.