Sir (Charles) Geoffrey Vickers,
VC (13 October 1894 – 16 March 1982) was an English lawyer, administrator, writer and pioneering
systems scientist. He had varied interests with roles at different times with the
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...
,
Law Society,
Medical Research Council and Mental Health Research Fund. In the later years he wrote and lectured on social
systems analysis
Systems analysis is "the process of studying a procedure or business to identify its goal and purposes and create systems and procedures that will efficiently achieve them". Another view sees system analysis as a problem-solving technique that ...
and the complex patterns of social organisation. The
Sir Geoffrey Vickers Memorial Award has been presented by the
International Society for the Systems Sciences
The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is:
:"to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their ...
since 1987 in his memory.
He was awarded the
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
in World War I while serving in
The Sherwood Foresters, and was knighted following World War II, during which he served as Deputy Director General at the
Ministry of Economic Warfare
The Minister of Economic Warfare was a British government position which existed during the Second World War. The minister was in charge of the Special Operations Executive and the Ministry of Economic Warfare.
See also
* Blockade of Germany (193 ...
, in charge of economic intelligence and as a member of the
Joint Intelligence Committee.
Biography
Early life
Geoffrey Vickers was born and grew up in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
, where his father Charles Henry Vickers ran a successful lace business, Vickers & Hine Ltd. He described his first day of school as "school introduced me to the anguish reserved both for the non-conformist who wishes to conform and the awkward who long to excel in dexterity".
[ He attended Bramcote, a preparatory school near Scarborough and then ]Oundle School
Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City ...
; a public school before entering Merton College, Oxford where he briefly studied Classics from 1913 until the start of war.
He later described his home as "a place of unalloyed happiness. The only stresses of the time came from the external world of school or the internal world of awakening conflict and confusion ... I remember nothing desired that was satisfied by spending money of mine and nothing that was denied for lack of money ... we moved by bicycle and bus, played in each other's gardens and stayed in farmhouses". He described his father as "the best and most lovable man I ever knew; and he seemed to combine the two superlatives without the slightest effort".[
]
World War I
His education was interrupted by World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He and his brother William Burnell Vickers volunteered for service in the army. Geoffrey joined the Sherwood Foresters
The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to ...
(7th Robin Hood Battalion) and was in France before the end of 1914 first as a second lieutenant, promoted to temporary captain in 1915 and then to major and as second in command, 1 Bn, The Lincolnshire Regiment in 1918. Explaining his thoughts about going to war, he later wrote "In August Germany invaded Belgium, we had a treaty with Belgium, so we all stopped what we were doing and went off to war. It was as simple as that".[ He was awarded the ]Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
for action in 1915 and the Croix de Guerre (Belgium) in 1918.[Biographical History](_blank)
Reprint from the Institute of Internal Studies, University of California Berkeley. Also includes photocopy of the article taken from "Human Relations". Volume 24, number 5, 1971.
He won the Victoria Cross for his actions on 14 October 1915 when he held a barrier across a trench in the Hohenzollern Redoubt
The Hohenzollern Redoubt () was a strongpoint of the German 6th Army on the Western Front during the First World War, at Auchy-les-Mines near Loos-en-Gohelle in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. Named after the House of Hohenzollern, ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
against heavy German bomb (grenade) attacks, ordering a second barrier to be built behind him in order to secure the safety of the trench, regardless of the fact that his own retreat would be cut off, and holding back the enemy for long enough for a second barrier to be completed.
His brother Burnell was killed in action in 1917.
In June 1918 he commanded a battalion in the Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne (french: Seconde Bataille de la Marne) (15 July – 18 July 1918) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. The attack failed when an Allied counterattack, supported by s ...
for which he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre.
Inter-war years
After the war he returned to Oxford and took a pass degree in French, European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD 500), the Middle Ages (AD 500 to AD 1500), and the modern era (since AD 1500).
The first early ...
and law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
in 1919. He qualified as a solicitor in 1923 and by 1926 he was a partner in the leading London law firm of Slaughter and May
Slaughter and May is an international law firm headquartered in Bunhill Row, London. Founded in 1889, Slaughter and May is considered to be one of the most prestigious law firms in the world and is a member of the " Magic Circle" of elite Londo ...
. He specialised in the legal aspects of large financial operations, many of which had international dimensions. In 1930 he was one of the first to take the five-day Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers ...
commercial flight from the UK to India and during the 1930s he was also involved in negotiating the extension of the German debt.
In 1938 he established and chaired the 'Association for Service and Reconstruction.[ The above initiative put him in touch with a number of people who met regularly in a group called ' The Moot' that also included Joe Oldham, ]Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the sociolo ...
, Reinhard Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, John Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry (6 August 1889 – 12 March 1957) was an English writer. He was a prolific author, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime. ...
, T. S. Eliot, Michael Polanyi
Michael Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Mihály; 11 March 1891 – 22 February 1976) was a Hungarian-British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He argued that positivism supplies ...
, Sir Walter Moberly and Adolph Lowe
Adolph Lowe (born ''Adolf Löwe''; 4 March 1893 – 3 June 1995) was a German sociologist and economist. His best known student was Robert Heilbroner. He was born in Stuttgart and died in Wolfenbüttel.
Major publications of Adolph Lowe
...
. The Moot itself grew out of a conference on Church, Community and State held in Oxford in 1937.
World War II
Vickers served in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
; he was re-commissioned as a colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
, and was seconded as Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Economic Warfare
The Minister of Economic Warfare was a British government position which existed during the Second World War. The minister was in charge of the Special Operations Executive and the Ministry of Economic Warfare.
See also
* Blockade of Germany (193 ...
, in charge of economic intelligence. From 1941 to 1945 he was a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Chiefs of Staff.[VICKERS, Col Sir (Charles) Geoffrey (1894-1982)](_blank)
British library of political and economical science, retrieved 2007.
He was also a member of the London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...
(1942–46) and of the Council of Law Society (1938–50).
Afterwards
After the war, Vickers had a successful career in management and administration before becoming a prolific writer and speaker on the subject of social systems analysis
Systems analysis is "the process of studying a procedure or business to identify its goal and purposes and create systems and procedures that will efficiently achieve them". Another view sees system analysis as a problem-solving technique that ...
and the complex patterns of social organisation. He wrote many books including The ''Art of Judgement'', ''Freedom in a rocking Boat'' and ''Human Systems are Different''. He introduced the concept of 'Appreciative Systems' to describe human activity. His work was taken up by researchers at the Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
in particular.
From 1946 to 1948 he was also first Legal Advisor to the National Coal Board
The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...
. At the time of creation on 1 January 1947 when some 750,000 workers from 800 different private companies became part of the largest employer in the western world where he worked alongside E. F. Schumacher. Afterwards he became a member of National Coal Board in charge of manpower, training, education, health and welfare (1948–55).
From 1952 until 1960 he was member of the Medical Research Council and was chairman of the Research Committee of Mental Health Research Fund from 1951 to 1967. In 1977 he was president of the Society for General Systems Research, now the International Society for the Systems Sciences
The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is:
:"to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their ...
.
Between 1955 and 1958 he took part in the 'Round Table on Man and Industry', a project sponsored by the School of Social Work at the University of Toronto, the conclusions of which were published in ''The Undirected society''. On the inside jacket cover he muses 'The Industrial band-wagon rolls ever faster onwards, remaking the world we live in and with it ourselves. Are we in the driving seat or merely passengers – or even under the wheels? What part does human decision making play in directing or controlling the process?'.
His second wife, and close companion, died in 1972. His manuscripts for 'Western Culture and Systems Thinking' and 'Autonomy and Responsibility' were constantly rejected for publication.
In 1977 he moved to a retirement home, on the same street in Goring-on-Thames on which he had lived for many years.[
Geoffrey died in 1982; however, the influence for his work is still alive. The International Society for the Systems Sciences presents the Sir Geoffrey Vickers Memorial Award each year in his memory. His military medals were left to the Sherwood Foresters Collection and are on display in ]Nottingham Castle
Nottingham Castle is a Stuart Restoration-era ducal mansion in Nottingham, England, built on the site of a Norman castle built starting in 1068, and added to extensively through the medieval period, when it was an important royal fortress and ...
.[ His papers relating to systems thinking are archived at the ]Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
.[
]
Systems practice
In the later years Vickers wrote and lectured on the subject of social systems analysis
Systems analysis is "the process of studying a procedure or business to identify its goal and purposes and create systems and procedures that will efficiently achieve them". Another view sees system analysis as a problem-solving technique that ...
and the complex patterns of social organisation. His work was taken up by researchers at the Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
in particular. Vickers is regarded as a systems practitioner rather than an academic. He introduced the concept of appreciative systems to describe human activity. He recognised that appreciation of systems requires the participation of not only the observer, but also that of the subject.
Appreciative systems and appreciative behaviour
Much of his work is devoted to the analysis of judgement in terms of what he called 'appreciative behaviour': this is described most effectively in ''The Art of Judgement'' (1965). He believed that social institutions are best analysed as systems, and his published work, notably ''Human Systems are Different'' (1983), made far-reaching contributions to systems thinking in its applications to human society.
Vickers coined the term "appreciative system" in his 1968 article "Science and the Appreciative System" to refer to "the activity of attaching meaning to communication or the code by which we do so". In "Human Systems are Different" (1983) Vickers explained:
I find it surprising that we have no accepted word to describe the activity of attaching meaning to communication or the code by which we do so, a code which is constantly confirmed, developed or changed by use. I have for many years referred to this mental activity as ”appreciation'; and to the code which it uses, as its ”appreciative system‘; and to the state of that code at any time as its ”appreciative setting'. I call it a system because, although tolerant of ambiguity and even inconsistency, it is sensitive to them and tries to reconcile them.
In a 1978 interview Vickers added:
I'm interested in Systems from the personal up to the very large, human, social systems, I'm also interested in systems of concepts and values through which we see all the others which I call appreciative systems.
A response by Peter Checkland
Peter Checkland (born 18 December 1930, in Birmingham, UK) is a British management scientist and emeritus professor of systems at Lancaster University. He is the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM): a methodology based on a way of syste ...
in his "Systems Thinking Systems Practice":
Vickers argues that our human experience develops within us 'readiness to notice particular aspects of our situation, to discriminate them in particular ways and to measure them against particular standards of comparison...' These readinesses are organized into an 'appreciative system which creates for all of us, individually and socially, our appreciated world....The appreciative settings condition new experience but are modified by the new experience. Such circular relations Vickers takes to be the common facts of social life, but we fail to see this clearly, he argues, because of the concentration in our science-based culture on linear causal chains and on the notion of goal-seeking.
Vickers suggests replacing the goal-setting and goal-seeking with feedback models in which personal, institutional or cultural activity consists in maintaining desired relationships and eluding undesired ones. The process is a cyclical one which operates like this: Our previous experiences have created for us certain 'standards' or 'norms', usually 'tacit' (and also, at a more general level, 'values', more general concepts of what is humanly good and bad); the standards, norms and/or values lead to readiness to notice only certain features of our situations, they determine what 'facts' are relevant; the facts noticed are evaluated against the norms, a process which leads to our taking regulatory action and modifies the norms or standards, so that future experiences will be evaluated differently.
Geoffrey Vickers continued corresponding with Peter Checkland in the years before Vickers' death and discussed the relationship between systems ideas and real-world experience. From those discussions Checkland created the model of the appreciative process, that may be used as a basis for making sense of the world we live in. Checkland (2004) worked on numerous examples to demonstrate the way in which the model may be applied in very different situations.
Moral and political philosophy
Geoffrey Vickers' perspectives on moral and political philosophy can be presented through three key terms:
* Our human capacity to respond aptly to our situation;
* The analysis of modern society in terms of institutions; and
* The moral importance of responsibility to the maintenance of human culture and cooperation
Publications
;Systems thinking
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
;Edited papers
*
*
;For children
* – circa 1926
;Poetry
*
;World War II
*
;Vickers writings in Adolph Lowe Archive
* "Purpose and Force; The Bases of Order" (pub), 1940.
* "Incomes and Earnings–A Steady State?" (pub.), circa 1960.
* "The Management of Conflict" (pub.), 1972.
* "Towards a More Stable State" (pub.), 1972.
* Copies of Vickers-Simon Correspondence (unpub. TS), 1973.
* "Whither the Mixed Economy?" (pub.), 1973.
* "Some Implications of Systems Thinking" (unpub. TS), 1978.
* "The Poverty of Problem-Solving" (unpub. TS), 1980.
* "Autonomous Yet Responsible?" (unpub. TS), undated.
* "The Weakness of Western Culture" (unpub. TS), undated.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
;Systems Theory
Search Open University resources relating to Geoffrey Vickers
Appreciative Systems
A summary of the work of Sir Geoffrey Vickers by Dr Richard Varey
paper by Galit Cohen and Peter Nijkamp
;Military
*
''(photos, site includes other articles on SF)''
''(Oxfordshire)''
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vickers, Charles Geoffrey
1894 births
1982 deaths
People educated at Oundle School
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
Sherwood Foresters officers
British Army personnel of World War I
British Army personnel of World War II
British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross
British systems scientists
Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium)
Royal Lincolnshire Regiment officers
English solicitors
British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross
Military personnel from Nottingham
Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences