Greetings and welcome once again to this, only my second ever forage into blogspace.
To quickly summarise my reasons for blogging in case this is the first time you've encounted the stafford beer meets business strategy blog, I have decided to write this blog to document, discuss and hopefully expand on an mphil proposal I submitted to Liverpool John Moores University just over a year ago.
Various and wide ranging circumstances have dictated that I am no longer pursuing the research proposed but I hope that through this blog I can go some way to resurrect my research interests and keep the topic alive and current. In the grand scheme of things I can then hopefully pick up my research interests in this area with an academic institution and fulfill my commitment to researching in this area.
So, as promised in my first ever blogging experience, here is my outline proposal of work. Again, my aim for this blog is to show open my thoughts to the outside world and welcome feedback. Therefore please feel free to comment on this post, its contents, thoughts, theories and assumptions. The entire blog is a work-in-progress and designed as a learning experience for myself, as well as hopefully widening the audience for what's a relatively contemporary area of business thinking (the Stafford Beer stuff more so than Business Strategy!).
Background
This research proposal is developed from the work undertaken by the author’s KTP programme at Salt Union Ltd.; in particular the designing and implementing of the Exactrak value added business. The proposed research is to be part-funded by Salt Union and as such has their full endorsement and co-operation.
The background subject areas for the research are structured into two strands: that of Business Strategy and Managerial Cybernetics, as outlined below.
Salt Union Limited and Exactrak
Exactrak is a unique web based, real time tracking and monitoring system for local authority municipal vehicles. It provides detailed real time information about the operations of a fleet helping to ensure high service standards and maximum cost efficiencies (www.exactrak.co.uk). As suggested by Moffat (2005), Exactrak’s bespoke nature aims to deliver the technology that allows local authorities to best manage their fleets. ‘Most local authorities have large fleets to manage, and are under increasing pressure in all areas to ensure best practice and high service levels…up until relatively recently, there was nothing which was designed specifically to monitor the activity of all the vehicles in a local authority fleet’.
Porter (2004) suggests that ‘the essence of formulating competitive strategy is relating a company to its environment’. This is an important part of Business Strategy and also an important notion in the field of Managerial Cybernetics.
Beer’s model, as a tool to assess viability, has been continually developed and its use has widened to areas such as the designing of management systems in software design and the management structures in organisations. Heemink et al. (2001) use the VSM as “a basis for the management system within an agent-based simulation platform that will evaluate management concepts”. It is a novel application of the traditional concept of viability that this study intends to follow.
Espejo (2003) describes it [the VSM] as “offering a holistic form of observing collective behaviours in today’s societies”. He continued to work with the VSM and the development of the theory with Roger Harnden (1989). Based upon Espejo’s individualistic interpretation on the VSM as “observing collective behaviours in today’s societies”, the structures in place within system 5 of the VSM and the importance of the system 3-4 homeostasis are to be researched to identify whether these elements and the remainder of the model can be used to identify, determine and evaluate business strategy.
This research intends to explore how managerial cybernetics and the VSM can inform business strategy in order to deliver improvement into a business environment [Exactrak].
Methodology
The methodology the research intends to follow is a combined qualitative and quantitative approach. Wisker (2001) suggests that ‘qualitative research is carried out when we wish to understand meanings, or look at, describe and understand experience, ideas, beliefs and values’. This approach will be used in the research methods below to determine current practice through interviews with key Exactrak executives. A qualitative approach will provide the flexibility to accommodate subjective perspectives and personal ideas, beliefs and values that comprise a composite value set. A quantitative approach will then be used to collate and record information collected through the quantitative research.
To provide a holistic overview to the combined research methodology, the research will use the principles of the Hypothetico-Deductive Method as outlined by Sekaran (2003). Although predominantly a scientific approach, its structure of observation, preliminary information gathering, theory formulisation, hypothesizing, further scientific data collection, data analysis and deduction is suitable to the structure of this research.
Literature Review
An initial literature review has already taken place as part of this research proposal (see ‘context’ section). The review will form the basis for a full literature review that will follow the proposal.
Hart (2000) suggests that a literature review is undertaken using ‘a range of techniques that can be used to analyse ideas, find relationships between different ideas and understand the nature and use of argument in research’. The review will use these principles while reviewing the available literature for the fields of Business Strategy and Managerial Cybernetics. It will also look at the Viable Systems Model developed by Stafford Beer (1984) and the work of other prominent authors. The review will also investigate a number of other fields of research; notably that of change management and research methods.
Outcomes
and the Viable Systems Model can be used as tools for understanding and creating Business Strategy. Through successful completion of the research, an evaluation into the efficacy of the current business strategy in Salt Union and Exactrak will be completed, enabling the development of a VSM-based approach to facilitate a re-configuration of the Exactrak business strategy, reflecting the enhancements available as a result of the research outcomes.
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