ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the hidden and sensitive relation which links together the evolution of the managerial theories and that of production systems, integrating an empirical and a theoretical approach. It discusses the conceptual framework of the Viable Systems Approach merging a theoretical and a practical perspective. The tool-technique-method dynamic is a potential evolutionary path: it has no possibility to start if the focus remains on the traditional and dominant concept of technical and technological knowledge as unidirectional and vertically specialized. The transition from the pair tool-technique to method can be associated to the transition from explicit to tacit knowledge: easily transferred through a process of formation, a method qualifies a typically implicit knowledge, tacit and difficult to encode. The chapter provides an explanation of the evolutionary dynamics under investigation and is directed towards the identification of a general evolutionary principle that is able to take together concepts like sustainability, value, dynamic capabilities, decision making and others.
