Systeemtheorie | Summary: Organizatons social systems conductng experiments
Chapter 1: Introducing organization as social systems conducting experiments
Aristotle’s method starts with phenomena (things as they present themselves in our
experience). Commonly held opinions about it (endoxa). Key features of the phenomenon are
archai, which he related into a theory, allowing for and understanding of the phenomenon.
Strategy formulation depends on many uncertain factors. An organization commits itself to
goals that affect its survival. Strategic issues are discussions in social interaction - in
communication. Communication is the result of previous communication. It describes a social
activity. The selected goal is uncertain, it’s not known how it will affect the survival.
Selecting goals are both difficult and risky.
Regulation is needed to deal with disturbances. It’s impossible to predict when and which will
occur, because tasks depend on the output of many other tasks, and each of these may contain
errors. Workers need to have potential to generate regulatory actions, which need to be
implemented per hypothesis; make judgment about what will work in a particular
circumstance. All we do in organizations can be seen as conveying some message and it may
trigger further interaction. Every aspect in a job results from organizational decisions.
The tasks we perform are socially imbedded in 3 ways: 1) they depend on communication, 2)
their performance & regulation involves communication, 3) actions can be interpreted as
communicative acts.
Two key features can be discerned in organizational activities: experiment & social
systemic character. These are the two ‘arches’ of organizations.
In organizations, we’re continuously forces to make decisions. There are no rules to determine
a priori with certainty. However, organizational decision-situations call for actions, despite
their uncertainty. It’s like conducting an experiment, in which the selection of a particular
option can be regarded as a hypothesis. Organizations try to attain goals in an uncertain
world.
Everything in an organization involves communication, evolves from both outcomes of prior
communication and expected future communications. The communications are connected,
they refer to and depend on each other > system of communications.
Relation between social systemic and experimental character of organizations
To study a phenomenon Aristotle proposes to analyse commonly held ideas & opinions about
it to arrive at its key features. Then take these features and construct a theory doing justice to
the phenomenon. The communication in organisations is about conducting organizational
experiments. This stated, communication is about valuating, selecting, implementing,
monitoring, assessing, or reselecting goals, processes or regulatory actions. Decisions are
made, under conditions of uncertainty, about objects that can figure in the experiment.
At stake in these experiments is the organization’s meaningful survival. The objects and
processes in question have to do with adapting and realizing goals affecting the survival.
There are 2 types of strategic goals: goals that 1) express a relation between organization &
environment, and 2) can be subsumed under the first type.
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,Sense of survival=
Organization maintains a separate and meaningful (primary purpose is realizing goals that
define their transformation/primary process= ‘raison d’etre’) existence in its environment.
A separate existence is presupposed to select goals considered meaningful. Goals should be
realized to make maintaining a separate existence meaningful.
If no new meaningful goals are selected, abolishing the organization becomes the meaningful
goal.
What makes an organizations contribution meaningful to the larger society?
Aristotle: The highest purpose= Eudaimonia: living fulfilled live). Politics need to
enable the members of a polis to develop their human capabilities.
Organizations always have an effect on the conditions needed for this development, it’s a
societal function of the organization to enable this.
- Poor sense of survival: Maintaining a separate meaningful existence by selecting and
realizing in whatever way/goal, for whatever reason). E.g. profit
- Rich sense of survival: Maintaining a separate meaningful existence by selecting and
realizing goals to contribute to the creation of societal conditions
To survive in a constantly changing environment, organizations need to adapt and realize their
goals. By adapting, they stay in tune with changes. Realizing is maintaining their existence.
Realizing transformation processes: producing output. Output has to be specified. For every
process, goals have to be set = strategic regulation.
For disturbances, one should 1) monitor the transformation process, 2) based on this, take
action to deal with this (reactively/proactively).
OR= dealing with disturbances
Infrastructural conditions: regulation by design
1. HR; recruiting of people, their knowledge and motivation
2. Technology; requirements for realizing transformation processes and regulating them
3. Division of work (organizational structure); defining and allocating tasks &
responsibilities
Organizations have 4 different activities: 1)
realizing PP, 2) regulating disturbances in PP
(OR), 3) setting goals (regulation by control), 4)
designing infrastructural conditions (regulation
by design).
Setting goals and designing infrastructural conditions
are themselves processes for which infrastructural
conditions are required.
Every selection of a goal, process, regulatory action of
infrastructural condition is contingent: for every selection, there are
a number of alternatives. The problem is that a choice must be
made. Every selection contains risk. Experimentation is continuous
feedback process.
- Dependent variable: meaningful survival
- Independent variable: goals, transformation process, regulatory
actions etc.
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,- Hypothesis: Given the above, there’s a reasonable chance to survive meaningfully.
Organizational communication is directed at experimenting with the adaption and realization
of organizational goals. All goals, processes, regulatory actions and infrastructural conditions
serve as an anchor for further communication. Besides, the infrastructure structures the
communication about them. And, what we do in the organization is itself regarded as
communications.
What are the conditions for experimenting and how should they be created?
The real driving force behind survival is the ability of conducting experiments itself. Look at
the infrastructural conditions for conducting experiments: There are 2 design principles:
1. Functional: Which functions should be served by infrastructure (> Beer: VSM)
Not only what functions, but also clarify the relation between setting goals and realizing them
at different organizational levels.
2. Specific: How must the infrastructure be designed (>De Sitter: 7 design parameters)
Parameters for designing the organizational structure (in this book, not HR and technology).
Cybernetics (Ashby) provides concepts for understanding the regulation of any kind of
system. The objects in an experiment refer to 3 types of regulation and the experiment itself
must be regulated.
Social systems theory (Luhmann) is a cybernetically grounded sociological theory
explaining what the elements of social systems and their relations are. Conducting
experiments both depend on and condition communication in organizations. It also looks at
the relation between organizations and society.
Artistotle’s Ethics: a general goal of organizations is to provide meaningful contribution to
its societal environment. It looks at the nature of such contributions. Supporting individual
members of society to develop themselves as human beings (fulfilled live), both in-& outside.
Organizations are like non-trivial machines: behaviour is fundamentally unpredictable.
Chapter 2: Experimental Arche: Ashby’s cybernetcs
Theory about regulation, providing conceptual tools to describe the experimental arche. It
makes explicit how conducting experiments is linked to the survival of organizations. The
methods and principles are truly general and certain. Regulating a system= trying to influence
its behaviour.
Cybernetics hopes to provide effective methods for the study (describe behaviour) & control
(influence behaviour) of systems that are intrinsically extremely complex.
There are 2 kinds of influences on behaviour: 1) disturbances and 2) regulatory actions
The description of behaviour of some concrete system should make apparent a) how a system
behaves, b) how this behaviour reacts to disturbances and regulatory actions and c) regularity.
System is set of variables: features of things that given some purpose have to be taken into
account. Values of these at a given moment is the state. Behaviour is different states over
time. A transition is specified by two stated and the indication of which changed to which.
- Operand= state that changes to another
- Operators= all kinds of influences cause it to change
- Transform= sate into which the operand changes
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, This transformation states that if the system at any moment in time is a particular operand
state in the top row, then it will next be in a transform state indicated below this operand.
Regular behaviour and input
Two distinctions regarding transformations for criteria to determine regularity of behaviour
- Open vs closed
Open if a state in the transformation cannot act as an operand (there’s no further
transform for that state).
- Single-valued vs multi-valued
Single-valued when each operand converts to only one transform.
If behaviour can be described as closed and single-valued, it’s a determinate machine.
Transforms can be predicted with certainty.
If behaviour can be described as closed and multi-valued, it’s a Markovian machine.
The behaviour is described by a matrix of transition probabilities.
Using variables, you can describe change in behaviour, but not for the reasons of change.
That’s because a system is susceptible to input. There may be variables that are no part of the
system, influencing the system’s behaviour. These are: parameters.
Input is the specific value of a parameter at a specific moment in time. Dependent on input, a
system behaves in a certain way.
A determine machine with input is a collection of determinate machines (sharing a set of
operands). Value of parameter is the input.
To be considered regular, the behaviour of a system must be describable as a closed
transformation either with or without parameters (input).
The inner mechanism between input and output = black box.
We describe behaviour in terms of changes in values of the variables. To manipulate
behaviour, we also define parameters that may influence it.
Procedure for finding transformations describing behaviour: iteration of 5 steps:
1. Select purpose
2. Define system, parameters, and measurement interval
Variables that define the system. Values of variables are the output of the blackbox.
The states parameters are the input.
3. Record the behaviour of the black box in terms of input and output
Manipulate input and observe output, record them in a protocol.
4. Construct a conditional transformation
Re-code the protocol and simplify it. For each occurring combination of input and
output, collect all combinations that immediately follow it.
5. Establish regularities in the behaviour of the black box
Compare resulting transformation (step 4) with criteria for regular behaviour.
Depending on the regularity, take action. If closed and single-valued, the observer can
stop: the behaviour is predictable. If not, follow four different strategies:
a. Given the protocol, observer may redefine its results by means of abstraction.
b. Given the protocol, observer may also be content with statistical determinacy.
Determine probabilities of the occurrence of a particular outcome.
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