Cybernetic control models:

Ladies and gentlemen, the concept of ‘cybernetic control’ is simple in essence but highly complex in execution.

Cybernetics is the study of evolution, adaptation and control of systems. In principle, the cybernetic control model is a model that can provide a framework for the study of the control of any system. This encompasses the design and implementation of systems such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Management Information Systems (MIS) that are used within business as a controlling mechanism within such areas like budgets, forecasts and predicting future outcomes.

Cybernetics is a not a familiar term within the public domain despite it having a long association in the development of control models. For instance, is an accounting system to be of no avail when confronted with a dynamic and changing environment?

A business may identify its principal objective as increasing shareholder wealth by a quantitative measure such as earnings per share (eps) or annual profits declared. Directing the efforts of the people in the organisation to that achievement is complex, difficult and uncertain for a number of reasons.

Generally speaking business environments are inherently unstable and many events are outside the control of the people who run the business. The common held view by those able to share expertise in the field of cybernetics is that it operates in a fairly closed environment and therefore unusual trends are likely to be ignored. However, from a scientific point of view such spurious results are of real concern to the scientist, despite protestations that may arise from those who wish to simply ignore as to what and why such results were created.

Information systems, ladies and gentlemen, are as much a scientific issue as it is a social science facet. Combining the two, as in understanding ‘global warming’ for instance, is an imperative operative. The thrust of science will be felt harder throughout business in the coming years, and decades ahead. Cybernetic control is about perfection and rids itself of waste, inefficiencies and unproductive ethics. Delivery is an important professional gauge: those responsible and entrusted must ensure that such systems are robust, transparent, fully accountable and able to accommodate changes within the business and global environment.

Well defined cybernetic models tend to exhibit controlled reactions to any changes within the operation of the system. This, not only serving as an indicator, can be extremely useful in adapting to the system to environmental changes. Without it, the system is susceptible to becoming obsolete, ineffective and out-of-date. The application of science, even in its pure form, will become an important basis by which such systems evolve. Quantitative methods, for example, are having large scale impetus towards design and how changes to the system should be effected in the future. For instance, the effectiveness of ‘linear regression’, ‘linear programming’ and the ability to extract quick optimum results are rendering basic systems virtually useless. Organisations require systems that are much more than just merely claiming to be proactive. The combination of mathematical sciences with management accounting, for instance, should elicit systems that take no prisoners. Cybernetic models aim to bridge the expertise from various professional boundaries, not something that is entrenched from the past that was originally devised from within a narrow set of criteria.

Control in an organisation is rarely mechanistic and can take place at various levels in the hierarchy. ‘Multiple feedbacks’ should be a facility that reflects the complexity of an organisation or firm coping with many hostile influences in real world situations. Managers need to look ahead more frequently, as well as backwards. ‘Feed forward’, ladies and gentlemen, is an essential part of the intelligent approach required more and more by organisations.

In any dynamic organisation several sub-systems interact; this interdependence is a feature of the difficulty of running a business in an orderly and efficient manner. This interrelationship of subsystems is difficult to model and the broad outlook of any cybernetic control system is to view it in holistic terms. On the face of it, however, this in itself is an over-simplification.

Typically, a firm should be viewed as a whole, as a single system – that is made up of the several subsystems. Inevitably, all of the systems within a business need some form of control, the management accounting system (MIS) is one of the ways in which such control is applied. The cybernetic control model can be used in the appraisal and study of the Management Information System as a subsystem in its own right and, could also be used in analysing the organisation as a whole.

Objectives, initially set, are crucial underpinnings in the development of a cybernetic control system. Cybernetic development provides facilities that measures, compares and identifies what corrective action might be necessary as well as being able to actually implement them. Such a system is based on constant repetition of this measuring and implementation that allows for ‘feedback control’ and ‘feed forward control’.

Comparisons between actual outcomes and objectives = feedback control. Corrective action takes place after the system has gone out of control. Self-regulatory parameters allow the system to be robust enough in adapting.

If deviations are anticipated by using the model in a predictive manner and by taking corrective action so as to prevent the system from going out of control the process is described as ‘feed forward control’.

Either type of control can be applied in open or closed systems. Closed systems are systems whose operation is independent and isolated from its environment. Open systems are ones which are exposed directly to environmental change which brings in an element of unpredictability and uncertainty. A business, the framework for a management information system, is an open system. MIS’s are affected by environmental factors outside its control such as customers, suppliers, interest and exchange rates, competitors and so on.

Four essential conditions exist for the model (cybernetic control model) to be of use. Without them, such a model cannot be effective:

1. The outputs can be measured;

2. The objectives can be defined;

3. It is possible to identify the true reasons for any deviation from plan;

4. It is possible in determining corrective action which, when implemented, will have the appropriate and desired effect.

Unless such conditions apply any attempt at implementing such a model will be rendered useless. For example, unless outputs can be measured they cannot be compared to the system’s objectives. Whether a business is sufficiently predictable for the model to be useful depends on its nature. In any business, however, there are likely to be some aspects that are relatively stable where cybernetic control can and should provide useful insights.

Cybernetics is certainly becoming the preferred method of control as against other indigenous systems that may exist. The issue is certainly very complicated because of how firms operate in a complex and uncertain world and because of environmental uncertainties. Unless managers are effective themselves, the system will quickly reflect such deficiencies. However, such weaknesses require to be rooted out anyway. The great advantage of cybernetic models is its ability to reflect standards in firms as they are. Or, in other words, rise and fall by your own making.