SATM 4.7.3 Variety Engineering

Managers are unable to make accurate predictions either about the organizations they manage or the environments within which those organizations are situated. Ashby (1956, An Introduction to Cybernetics, Methuen, London.) takes the credit because of his invention of the key concept of variety. The variety of a system is defined here as the number of possible stated it is capable of exhibiting. Obviously, variety is a subjective concept depending on the observer.

SATM 4.7 Control Engineering and Cybernetics

The Greek word kybernetes, meaning the art of steersmanship, was employed by Plato to refer both to the piloting of a vessel and to the steering of the "ship of state." From the Greek kybernetes came the Latin gubernator, and hence the English governor.