Suma (co-operative) - Viable Systems Model

Viable Systems Model

Suma was the subject of an application of the Viable System Model (VSM), designed by Stafford Beer, which aimed to improve the efficiency of collective management by focusing on two principles - autonomy and coherence. This meant that each individual member would have infinite scope for independent action, and infinite responsibility for those actions, but only up to the point that if threatened the operation of the whole Suma. The model is recursive in that delegation is stepped: Suma to departments, departments to teams, teams to individuals, etc. This application, led by Jon Walker, was documented and published as part of the Strategic Management in the Social Economy (SMSE) project, managed by ICOM and supported by Directorate-General XXIII of the Euroepan Commission. It aroused a good deal of academic interest. The SMSE Handbook is out of print but the VSM chapter has been published in an html version. The overt use of VSM language has since been dropped, but the bottom-up organisational principle remains.