Management cybernetics

The practical applications involved steel production, publishing and operations research in a large variety of different industries.

[4] It often involved the development of models borrowed from basic sciences and put into an isomorphic relationships with an organizational situation.

Beer initially called this "operations research" (OR) but, along with Russell Ackoff, became increasingly disenchanted with that term as the field transitioned into one in which a predefined set of mathematical tools was applied to well-formulated problems.

[citation needed] Beer's critique of traditional OR, in part, was that it became a matter of experts in mathematics looking for situations that could be conformed to their methods.

[5] Viable means capable of independent existence and implies both maintaining internal stability and adaptation to a changing environment.

[6] The VSM is a model of the structures and functions that are both necessary and sufficient for the long-term survival of a system in a changing environment.

One of the great difficulties in managing the modern large organization is that many of the issues are far too complex for even small groups.

Organizations are often faced with choosing between 1) very costly and time-consuming meetings of large groups or 2) making bad decisions based on an inadequate grasp of the relevant factors.

Barry Clemson, at Beer's urging,[citation needed] wrote an introduction to management and organizational cybernetics.