Cybernetics— A Systems Approach to Management

Sociologists are usually seen as the principal developers of organisational theory and it is not always realised that some very convincing explanations of how organisations work and suggestions on how they might work better are to be found in the science of control systems — cybernetics. Cybernetics provides us with a general systems theory; that is a theory which can be applied to any kind of system where there are control functions. The best known and most influential cybernetician in Britain is Professor Stafford Beer. He has made many major contributions to writing and thinking on the theory of organisation. Below are some of his ideas on how organisations work and can be made to work more effectively which he originally put forward in a lecture to the United Kingdom Automation Council.