This section is preceded by a brief description of the model itself. It gives the five subsystems that must be present for the organisation to be viable and the recursive structure in which the whole system contains viable subsystems with the same structure. It lacks several information loops between the system and its environment, and within the system. However, it serves as a sufficient illustration for a brief description of the VSM in this chapter. The symbols in Figure 16 have specific meanings.
Circles indicate the core operation of the system.
Squares and triangles indicate regulatory functions. The thin lines between the symbols indicate the flows of information. A thin, dashed ellipse indicates System One of the system. For example, at a power producing utility, System one may consist of the power plants. The utility's purpose is to produce power, and the plants carry out this task.