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Management Systems:A Viable Approach
Maurice YollesLiverpool John Moores University1999Published by Financial Times Pitman, London
©
Maurice Yolles
 
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Chapter Content
AcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroduction
Part 1: Management Systems: a foundations
1. The Nature of Management Systems2. Introduction to the theory of worldviews3. The Paradigm of Complexity4. The Dynamic of System Paradigms5. Purposefulness, Methods, and Purposeful Intervention
Part 2: Viable Systems and Inquiry
1. Systems as Actors in Networks2. Viability and Change in Systems3. The Theory of Viable Systems4. The Nature of Methodological Inquiry5. Viable Inquiry Systems
Part 3: Approaches to Inquiry
1. Systems Intervention Strategy. Case:
Budget Deficit in Liverpool City Council 
2. Organisational Diagnosis. Case:
Budget Deficit in Liverpool City Council 
3. Soft Systems Methodology. Case:
Change in the National Health Service
4. Viable Systems Model Methodology. Case:
Viability in a School of Transport 5.
Conflict Modelling Cycle. Case 1:
The Liverpool Dock Strike of 1995
; Case 2:
The Fall of the Soviet Empire.
6. Exploring the Practice of Mixing MethodsGlossaryBibliographyIndex
 
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Acknowledgements
This work has not been undertaken in vacuum. It was inspired through my teaching,and I must thank all of my students who helped me develop it through the feedback that they gave me. I must also thank those students whose case study material I haveused as a base from which I could illustrate how the methodologies described could beused. These include Terry Ashford, Judy Brough, Nicola Magill, Mark Muirhead,Kathy Ricketts, and Raymond Turner.I would also like to thank my colleagues who, through comments during discussionsor on early drafts of various chapters, allowed me to develop my ideas and integratethem. The list of those I would like to mention include Denis Adams, Bakri Ahmad,David Brown, Noyan Dereli, Agustin Duarte, Roger Harnden, Doug Haynes, GrahamKemp, Paul Iles, Allena Leonard, Chris Mabey, Gerald Midgley, Saundra Middleton,Ann Mulhaney, Terry Murray, John Naylor, Mo Pirani, Eric Schwarz, and JimSheehan.Of these people, Gerald Midgley was kind enough to make very useful comments onchapters dealing with the problem of paradigm incommersurability, and David Brownon other aspects relating to the nature of the paradigm. Chris Mabey was very helpfulwith ideas that related to Systems Intervention Strategy, and he and Paul Iles withOrganisational Development. Allena Leonard provided quite important feedback tome on the Viable System Model, as did Doug Haynes. Denis Adams was also particularly helpful in this respect, as he was in other more general areas of the book,and I am indebted to him for the time he gave me in general discussion of the conceptsI have developed in order to address some theoretical problems in managementsystems. Saundra Middleton assisted me with comments over Soft SystemsMethodology. Ann Mulhaney provided comments on complexity and with systems ingeneral. Jim Sheehan was kind enough to comment on aspects of cybernetics, andGraham Kemp and Mo Pirani on aspects of the Conflict Modelling Cycle. EricSchwarz gave me important feedback on his ideas relating to his theory of viability,and his work together with that of Stafford Beer has provided a foundation for thework here. Roger Harnden was particularly helpful to me early on in the developmentof my ideas by providing essential support. Also, I am grateful to John Naylor whoacted in a similar capacity and to Agustine Duarte for some general comments.Without the time these colleague gave me, this book would have taken much longer tocomplete. I would also like to thank Shyamal Mukhege, a senior medical practitioner,who was kind enough to comment on the case study on the National Health Serviceassociated with Soft Systems methodology.I would also like to thank John Cushion who worked on behalf of my publisher andwho gave me early encouragement after we originally discussed the idea of this book.At least as much as any of these, however, I wish to thank my wife Maria TeresaVentura who helped me with this work both intellectually through our discussions,and with her understanding and patience.
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