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Cybernetics

The term cybernetics comes from the Greek word for steersman or the helmsman on a ship. Two other Greek words that have the same root mean govern and governor. Norbert Wiener, who first used the term in English, defined it as “control and communication in animal and machine.” The term was subsequently extended to social systems. Numerous other definitions have been proposed. Stafford Beer defined cybernetics as the “science of effective organization.” Gregory Bateson said cybernetics deals with form rather than substance. Gordon Pask defined cybernetics as “the art of manipulating defensible metaphors.” Organization theorists may regard cybernetics as a science of information processing, decision making, learning, adaptation, and organization, whether these occur in individuals, groups, organizations, nations, or machines.

Conceptual Overview

The field of cybernetics was created after World War II by a group of people who were discussing the topic of circular causal and feedback mechanisms in biological and social systems. A series of 10 conferences on this topic between 1946 and 1953 were supported by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. The field was named cybernetics after Norbert Wiener published his book titled Cybernetics in 1948. In his book, Wiener distinguished three revolutions in human society: The agricultural revolution was a transition from hunting and gathering to settled cultivation of the land. Consequences included the growth of cities, specialization in employment, and legal systems. The second revolution Wiener called the “first industrial revolution,” which was brought about by new forms of energy, such as steam and electricity. Consequences included larger, more integrated social units; further specialization of labor; and a great increase in the number of people employed by bureaucratic organizations. The third revolution Wiener called the “second industrial revolution,” which the world was just entering in the late 1940s. It was brought about by information machines—computers and computer networks. Consequences include the focus of human effort on creativity rather than repetition, the globalization of economic activity, and the sharing of ideas almost instantaneously around the world. The three types of society distinguished by Wiener were repeated by Daniel Bell in his book The Coming of Post-Industrial Society and in Alvin Toffler's more popular book The Third Wave in 1981.

Cybernetics is the science that best explains the second industrial revolution. It has influenced many fields, including computer science, robotics, management, sociology, political science, economics, psychology, and philosophy—particularly epistemology, the theory of knowledge. Cybernetics offers to organization studies general theories that not only explain organizational phenomena but also reveal similarities between processes in organizations and processes in other fields of study. Since it is a general theory of the regulation of systems, it can be regarded as a general theory of management and organization, encompassing adaptation, self-organization, and reflexivity. Currently, many people in developed societies spend several hours a day in cyberspace, but few people are familiar with the basic principles of cybernetics.

Process Improvement and Adaptive Systems

In the years since World War II, quality improvement or process improvement methods have played a key role in determining the relative competitiveness of nations. The success of these methods can be explained using Ross Ashby's theory of adaptation. Process improvement methods are based on a distinction between working in a process and working on a process. An organization is envisioned as a collection of processes. The people who work in a process constitute the process improvement team. Work in the process is the work they do to make the process function. Work on the process is the work they do when they meet as a team to discuss how to improve the process. This conception of how to improve processes within an organization, and hence how to improve the organization, is an example of Ashby's theory of adaptive behavior. Ashby showed that any system having two nested feedback loops, one inside the other, would be able to display adaptive behavior. The inner feedback loop operates frequently and makes small adjustments. The outer feedback loop operates infrequently and initiates the learning of a new pattern of behavior. Adaptation encompasses learning. Learning can be defined as a change in behavior in the direction of improvement. To learn means to acquire a pattern of behavior that is suitable for a particular environment. However, when the environment changes, the pattern of behavior also may need to change. A system that can change its behavior when the environment changes is said to be adaptive.

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