Systemic Problem Structuring in a Complex Hospital Environment using Viable System Diagnosis – Keeping the Blood Flowing

Maren Berge Vik, Hanne Finnestrand () and Robert L. Flood
Additional contact information
Maren Berge Vik: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Hanne Finnestrand: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Robert L. Flood: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2022, vol. 35, issue 2, No 4, 203-226

Abstract: Abstract This article presents the application of the systemic problem structuring approach Viable System Diagnosis (VSD) within the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in a large hospital in Norway. It explains why systemic thinking is relevant to this uniquely complex form of human organization. The department was coping with systemic dysfunction and VSD was chosen because previous applications demonstrated VSD excels at diagnosis of what is causing dysfunction. VSD was employed through a participatory framework that included in the process, among other stakeholders, medics, technologists, managers, administrators and, as far as possible given the sensitive nature of patient information, the patient. VSD guided thinking about what the organization is set up to do and the existing organizational arrangements to achieve that. The outcome was an agenda for debate that guided stakeholder discussions toward ways and means of improving organizational arrangements. The article briefly reviews previous applications of VSD in the hospital sector and other large complex organisations.

Keywords: Viable Systems Model (VSM); Viable System Diagnosis (VSD); Hospital; Systemic thinking; Complex organisations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11213-021-09569-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:syspar:v:35:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11213-021-09569-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11213

DOI: 10.1007/s11213-021-09569-6

Access Statistics for this article

Systemic Practice and Action Research is currently edited by Robert Flood

More articles in Systemic Practice and Action Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().