Raul has an engineering degree from the Catholic University of
Chile and a doctorate from Aston University in Birmingham, UK. He worked for the
National Development Corporation of Chile first as a systems engineer and later
as project leader of the Cybernetic Project for the organisation and management
of the industrial sector of the country. Thereafter, he moved to Europe,
undertaking research projects in the UK, at the Manchester Business School, and
with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in
Laxenburg, Austria.
In 1977 he joined the Aston Business School in Birmingham, where he was a senior
lecturer and head of the Information Management Group until 1994. From January
1995 he holds the Chair of Information Management at the University of
Lincolnshire and Humberside. From 97 to 98 he was Director of the University's
Centre for Systems Research and currently is Chair of the Departmental Research
Committee. He is also visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam.
He has published extensively in books and journals. He is the author of over 60
academic papers, co-author of the books Organization for Programme Management
(Wiley 1979) and Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic
Approach to Management (Wiley 1996) and co-editor of the books The Viable System
Model (Wiley 1989), Organizational Fitness: Corporate Effectiveness Through
Management Cybernetics (Campus Verlag 1993) and To be and not to be, that is the
System (Auer Verlag, 1997) . He lectures and runs seminars world-wide.
In 1985 he created Syncho Ltd, a management consultancy working in the field of
organisational cybernetics, in the Science Park of Aston University. He has been
consultant of companies like Hoechst AG in Germany, Hydro Aluminium in Norway
and 3M in Europe.
Over the past years his research has been focused on issues of transparency in
decision making and the use of information technology in organisations. From
1993 to1996, he was a leading participant of the SYCOMT project, a UK
'Department of Trade and Industry' and 'Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council' funded project on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).
From 1996 to early 1998 he was part of the RISCOM project, a 'Swedish Nuclear
Inspectorate' and the 'Swedish Radiation Inspectorate' funded project on
transparency in decision making in the nuclear industry. From 1995 to 1998 he
worked with the Colombian National Audit Office in a large scale project to
change auditing practices in the country's public sector. Currently he is
advising the Colombian Ministry of Education.
In 1997 he received an honourary membership of the World Organization for
Systems and Cybernetics, organization of which he is its current Academic
Director.
|
