An overview of OST and its Services and Programs - a tribute to Fred Emery
27th August, 1925 - 10th April, 1997 Fred Emery was an internationally renowned Australian social systems scientist best remembered for his profound research into practical and proven alternatives to bureaucratically structured organisations. His enduring legacy is the worldwide phenomenon of organisations restructuring themselves around self-managing work teams. Throughout his life Fred had an unshakeable belief in the common sense and decency of ordinary people and their ability to manage themselves. Early in his working life in the West Australian coal mines, he observed firsthand the anti-social behaviour of workers who had no decision making built into their jobs. After receiving his PhD from Melbourne University in 1953 he set about establishing a practical alternative to the bureaucratic organisation by designing one based on self-managing work teams. This was one part of his lifelong quest to bring about real democracy; participative rather representative democracy, which would allow people to self manage in every part of their lives. During the 1950's Fred joined the Tavistock Institute in London where he provided the intellectual leadership of the now famous European socio-technical systems research projects. These projects proved conclusively that highly adaptive, responsive organisations structured as self-managing work teams produced greater human and organisational benefits than existing bureaucratic structures. At the same time he formalised the Theory of Open Systems, from which he translated the Search Conference (SC) for strategic planning and the socio-technical systems design (STS) process for self-managing teams. This theory now forms a cornerstone of modern management organisational theory. When Fred returned to Australia in 1969 he advanced his research into Open Systems Theory and in 1971 developed and pioneered a new and faster process for establishing organisations built on self-managing teams. This new process, which replaces STS, is known as the Participative Design Workshop (PDW). The PDW is one of the most effective processes known today for establishing highly adaptive and productive organisations. During a prolific career, Fred received international recognition as an intellectual leader and brilliant social systems scientist in fields as diverse as systems thinking, organisational theory, communications, penology, education, political studies, marketing, defence studies, military strategy, drug addiction, learning and perception. Up until his death Fred continued his outstanding theoretical and practical research towards improving the human condition. His vast collection of published and unpublished papers and books, which can be found here, are testament to his profound contribution to humanity. Frederick Edmund Emery