A cybernetic view of environmental management: the implications for business organizations

Current environmental management practice is judged to be mechanistic and based on previous experience with health and safety and with quality management systems. In support of the claim that systems approaches to management are required, the question is asked: what is the systemic nature of environmental management and will it lead an organization towards some concept of sustainable business practice? To try and answer this question the Viable System Model (VSM) developed by Stafford Beer was used to analyse current environmental management practice from a systems perspective in seven manufacturing organizations. The findings suggest that significant structural changes in organizations will be necessary as well as changes in management practices (core competencies) and attitudes if organizations are to become viable. Tomorrow's business strategy is likely to be driven much more by cooperation rather than by competition. Some possible implications for business are: (1) Corporate portfolios will be organized around the supply chain (or flows of energy and materials) instead of products and markets. (2) Strategy will not only continue to be made at the corporate and business unit levels but also at the industry level. (3) Such developments will require much higher degrees of integration and cooperation than is currently practised between companies. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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