AN ASSESSMENT OF THE MANAGEMENT OF A RAILWAY ENTERPRISE FROM A MANAGEMENT CYBERNETICS PERSPECTIVE

A project was undertaken in order to identify structural and cultural causes of ineffectiveness in a state-owned railway enterprise. The methodology employed was based on Stafford Beer's Model of the Viable System. An “ethnographic type” preliminary study was undertaken, aiming at highlighting organizational problems from a management cybernetics perspective. Problems in the structuring of operational activities were diagnosed and reported in a previous publication (Paradissopoulos, 1991). This paper examines the structure and the functioning of the headquarters of the Greek Railway. The study demonstrates structural problems associated with a certain organizational culture. Being the outcome of both published material and the author's participation within the enterprise for more than ten years, the study reflects a subjective interpretation of organizational reality. It should therefore be supplemented by a survey within the enterprise, in order to derive the real dimensions of these problems from an analysis of managerial responses.