Systemic Management for Intelligent Organizations

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Methodology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Cybernetic Management Paradigms

      • Matthias Hühn

      Pages 3-19

   3. The Importance of Being Atheoretical: Management as Engineering

      • Camilo Olaya

      Pages 21-46

   4. What Is a Validation Methodology? Analyzing and Synthesizing Two Meanings

      • Stefan N. Grösser

      Pages 47-60

3. Management

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

      PDF

   2. The Management of Strategic-Foresight Activities: Evidence from Large European Multinationals

      • Günther Müller-Stewens, Adrian Mueller, Veronika Lüders

      Pages 63-82

   3. More Foxes in the Boardroom: Systems Thinking in Action

      • Peter Gomez, Timo Meynhardt

      Pages 83-98

   4. The Management of Innovations and Personal Well-being: A Trans-Disciplinary Model and Empirical Findings

      • Andreas Krafft

      Pages 99-119

   5. Can a Cybernetic Approach Help Build Intelligent Organizations? A Critical Inquiry

      • Andrea L. Sablone

      Pages 121-139

4. System Dynamics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 141-141

      PDF

   2. Enhancing Performance Management and Sustainable Organizational Growth Through System-Dynamics Modelling

      • Carmine Bianchi

      Pages 143-161

   3. Turning Innovation into Value

      • Henry Birdseye Weil

      Pages 163-178

   4. System Dynamics in Distressed Investments: Power and Limitations from the Perspective of a Project Manager

      • Marius Fuchs

      Pages 179-193

   5. Application of Systems Thinking in Management Consulting

      • Thomas K. Hamann

      Pages 195-208

5. Viable System Model

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 209-209

      PDF

   2. Organizational Cybernetics and Urban Planning: The Case of the University of A Coruña

      • José Pérez Rios, Xosé Lois Martínez Suárez

      Pages 211-225

   3. Reflections on Adequate System Variety

      • René Zeier

      Pages 227-236

   4. Sustainable Governance

      • Ralf-Eckhard Türke

      Pages 237-247

   5. Business Intelligence and Second-Order Cybernetics: The Importance of Knowledge Management

      • Peter Hechenblaickner

      Pages 249-268

​The last two decades increasingly have challenged the field of management by confronting it with rapidly growing levels of dynamism, inter-connectedness, and complexity. Systems-based management approaches, their promise already proven, offer great potentials for influencing and coping with this development. This collection of essays offers ideas and exemplary case studies from experts in systemic management, organiza-tional cybernetics, and system dynamics for meeting the challenges in so-cio-economic systems. This book was compiled to honor the academic achievement of Markus Schwaninger, a leading protagonist in developing the field of systemic management and organizational cybernetics. His stature in the field is demonstrated in the forewords by Raul Espejo and John Sterman. The efforts of 18 researchers and practitioners, all closely related to Markus Schwaninger, offer conceptual and empirical approaches that will allow managers and advanced students of the management profession to analyze, understand, and design intelligent organizations.  The book weaves its content from both theory and practice and offers hints for improving a variety of organizations, both private and public, profit and non-profit, and large and small.​

• Cybernetics
• Intelligent Organization
• Model-Based Approaches
• System Dynamics
• Systemic Management
• Viable System Model

From the reviews:

“The book is dedicated to celebrate the work of Markus Schwaninger … . I really recommend you have one copy of this excellent work. … This book is unique and the best on this theme and it is a necessary reading for anyone interested in these topics and besides that the book is very well written and very well presented and organized.” (Inspire and Action Blog, inspireandaction.wordpress.com, November, 2013)

• School of Business, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland

  Stefan N. Grösser

• and Arts, School of Business, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, Lucerne, Switzerland

  René Zeier

Stefan N. Groesser is Professor of Strategic Management at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland and a lecturer for System Dynamics at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. He was a visiting scholar at the System Dynamics Group at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has received degrees from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in business administration and economics, from the University of Bergen, Norway, in System Dynamics, and from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in Management. Stefan's research interests include strategic management, diffusion management, business models, mental models, and simulation methodology. He has published in the journals Systems Research and Behavioral Science, System Dynamics Review, and the European Journal of Operational Research.

René Zeier is the Director of the Lucerne School of Tourism at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He lectures on systems thinking, marketing, and sales. Based on his practical experiences as a manager at Nestlé, Novartis, and Coca-Cola, he now focuses on implementing insights from systems thinking. The range of his engagement, which includes collaborations with his students, varies from development aid to tailor-made business consulting.

Policies and ethics