斯塔福德·比尔“活系统”思想探析

Stafford Beer's Viable System Thought

运筹学的局限促使斯塔福德·比尔转向控制论寻求复杂管理问题的解决方法。他首创活系统思想,运用多样性设计,促使组织系统能主动适应外界特定环境,以实现独立存活以及组织身份持续得以确认的目标。基于活系统思想,比尔将人体神经系统与组织管理系统进行同构对应,创建由5个相互关联的功能子系统组成的VSM模型,该模型能对任何社会组织系统进行诊断和设计。活系统思想有着重要的价值:打破从上至下的层级管控,实现基层自主管理的目标;以"整合"的方式处理管理复杂性;强调存活性组织需要具有优化的整体结构。

Operations Research confined to dealing with complex management problems, Stafford Beer turned to Cybernetics to find a solution. He pi-oneered viable system thought which promotes system positively to adapt the particular external environment, to achieve independent survival and continued to confirm the identity of the organization by using the diversity design. Based on viable system thought, Beer structured human nervous system and organization with the corresponding management system, created a VSM model consisting of five interrelated functional subsystems, which have the ability of system identification and diagnosis to any social organizations. The value of viable system thought on the organization management is to break the top-down hierarchical control to make grass-roots unit autonomous management; by means of integration to do with complexity; to em-phasize viable organization to have optimized whole structure.