University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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particular the political and legal system - attenuation programs (strategy of
attenuation), based on more or less stabilized societal values: for example regulation
to reduce the use of toxic materials. Organizations should incorporate these
programmes into their structures and decisions. In this way they not only take into
account the goals of their primary activities, but also societal values related to their
performance and side effects.
But despite this framework of legislation and other forms of regulation organizations
can still behave more or less ‘socially responsible’. Therefore societal ‘amplifying
programs’(strategy of amplification) are often put in place, which aim for example at
increasing the reflection of companies on the societal impact of their activities and
taking responsibility for it. For instance, by means of audits or duties of disclosure
(Teubner 1985:164,168; Achterbergh & Vriens 2009).
The integration of these programs of societal subsystems is an important organizational
contribution to society and a form of corporate social responsibility. At
the same time, societal programs are reinforced when organizations integrate these
values in their structures and decisions. This is a form of upward recursion. In
addition, using the method of ‘downward recursion’ it can be analyzed how systems
within the organization (like business units, teams) can be designed in order to
absorb as much complexity as possible, resulting in less complexity at the level of
the organization as a whole (Beer, 1995).
The VSM can form a basis for dealing with environmental complexity and
integration of societal norms (economic, social, ecological). It does so by describing
the strategies for complexity reduction and also by specifying the internal functions
necessary and sufficient for organizational viability. In order to remain viable a
system must be able to realize and adapt its goals. To this purpose, it needs exactly
five functions (Beer 1985):
1. Primary activities: concerns the making of the products or services for systems in
the environment. The primary activities realize the goals constituting the viable
system's raison d'être (Espejo et al. 1996).
2. Coordination: coordination of interdependencies between these primary activities.
3. Control: the primary activities and coordination are necessary, but not sufficient
for the viability of an organization. Each primary activity can still pursue its own
goals without contributing to the realization of the strategy of the viable system
as a whole. For this reason there must be a third function ‘Control’ ensuring
synergy and cohesion between primary activities. It is the task of control to
translate the goals of the viable system (e.g. an energy company) into goals for
the primary activities (e.g. supplying wind, solar and tidal energy) and to monitor
and regulate the realization of these goals.
4. Intelligence: the task of intelligence is to scan the environment of the organization
for relevant developments and to initiate adaptation in such a way that the
organization stays aligned with these developments (e.g. who are the relevant
stakeholders, which technological developments take place, which are the social
and ecological needs etc.).
5. Policy: has the tasks of coordinating the interaction between control and
intelligence and consolidating its results by (re)defining the identity and mission of