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Samenvatting Systeemtheorie
Uitgebreide samenvatting van het boek Organizations, Social Systems Conducting Experiments voor het vak Systeemtheorie.
[Meer zien]Voorbeeld 4 van de 65 pagina's
Voorbeeld 4 van de 65 pagina's
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Door: laudihulswit • 4 jaar geleden
Voorbeeld van de inhoud
Notities Boek OrganizationsSocial Systems Conducting Experiments
H1 Introducing Organizations as Social Systems Conducting Experiments
Formulate principles for the design of organisations, enabling them to survive / continuing conducting
their experiments. Organizations as social systems conducting experiments and finding principles to
improve their design.
1.2 Making sense of Organizations: From Phenomena to Key features
Relating key features into a theory that can be used to make sense of these and other everyday
organizational situations. Starting with everyday situations to end up with a theory allowing to
understand them.
Aristoteles’ method: starts with a phenomena (things as they present themselves in our experience)
and collected commonly held opinions (endoxa) about it. He analysed these opinions to arrive at key
features of the phenomenon: its archai. Related these archai into a theory for understanding the
phenomenon. Method is particularly useful for something we are already thoroughly involved in, yet
is hard to pin down exactly (organisation). Organizations pervade almost every aspect of our lives.
We need them in our lives and at the same time, we fear them for their destructive potential
(environment).
Then derive some key features form typical descriptions of what is going on in organizations.
Situation 1: Strategy formulation
A group of managers is asked to formulate a new strategy for the organisations medium-term goals in
light of recent market research (products and markets). Choosing the wrong goals has an effect on
organization’s chances for survival. Many uncertain factors.
Social activities: carried out by means of communication. Strategic issues are discussed and brought
about in social interaction (communication).
Strategic goals also depend on and build upon ideas, viewpoints and choices that are the result of
previous communications prior to the meeting. Communication about strategic issues depends on
earlier communication about them. Also previous choices structure the strategic discussion.
1. Situation 1 describes a stage in an more encompassing activity (strategy formulation) in
which an organization under conditions of uncertainty commits itself to goals that affect its
survival in its environment. Activity is both difficult and risky due to the uncertainty.
2. It describes a social activity consisting of communication referring to communication. The
resulting strategy communicates the selection of particular goals that function as a point for
departure for future communication.
Situation 2: A worker in trouble
For every task in an organization it’s relevant to deal with disturbances in order to realize its goal. For
this we regulate, but you can’t predict when a disturbance will take place, and backlog can often occur
as a result. Tasks in an organization depends on many factors and other tasks. You can’t predict a
priori which regulatory actions will be needed. It often seems good to equip workers with the potential
to generate regulatory actions, given the disturbing circumstances. Actions have to be implemented
per hypothesis (one has to make a judgement about what will work in particular circumstances).
Conditions of uncertainty. Unclear what the effects of regulatory action will be.
Performing and regulating tasks is also always socially embedded (involves communication).
- Everything we do in the context of our job can be seen as conveying some message (thinks of
demonstrating, act of subversion).
- Almost every aspect of our job results from organizational decisions (communicative
process).
Tasks we perform are socially embedded:
1. Depend on (the outcomes of organizational) communication
, 2. Performance and regulation involves communications
3. Our (task-related) actions can always be interpreted as communicative acts
Two key features of the phenomenon organization:
1. Experimental character
2. Social systemic character
The First Arche: the Experimental Character of Organizations
In organizations we are continuously forced to make decisions about goals, about how to perform
transformation processes, or about regulatory activities, without being certain of their effects. Certain
‘rules’ or lists of implementation do not exist, it is not that simple.
Organizational decision-situations call for action, decisions have to be made. Making such decisions
is like conducting an experiment, in which the selection of a particular option can be regarded as a
hypothesis in an organizational experiment. We hope the desired effect will be attained, but we cannot
be sure about this.
Conducting experiment in this way is the first arche – capturing the intuition about organizations
having to do with trying to attain goals in an uncertain world.
The Second Arche: the Social Systemic Character of Organizations
Often organizations are described in terms of social interactions of communication. A common
definition is a group of people in pursuit of a common goal; requires dynamic, meaningful
communication.
This communication evolves against a background of both outcomes of prior communication and
expected future communications. Suggest that what we do when we perform our tasks can itself be
seen as communication.
Social interaction or communication is central to organizations and more in particular, these
communications are connected.
There could be other possible key features in organizations derived from the 2 situations above. 2
examples are seen as key features of all organizations.
The Relation Between the Social Systemic and the Experimental Character of Organizations
Next, one should take the key features and construct a theory doing justice to the phenomenon of
organizations.
- Experimental character
- Social systemic character (communication referring to communication)
Topics of organizational communication concern conduction organizational experiments. In these
experiments goals, processes, and regulatory actions are continuously assessed, selected,
implemented, monitored, evaluated and reselected.
Organizational communication is about objects involved in the experiment. Current communication
refers to prior communication about these objects, and in this sense it is conditioned by it. Future
communication refers to current communication.
In a system consisting of communication referring to communication, decisions are made under
conditions of uncertainty about object that can figure in the experiment, such as goals, processes,
means to goals, etc.
Organizations as Social Systems Conducting Experiments
Conducting experiments
This is the organization’s meaningful survival. What is required to perform experiments (objects
appearing in them and what does the process look like)? The objects and processes have to do with
adapting and realizing goals affecting organizational survival.
What is at Stake in the Experiment: Maintaining a Separate and Meaningful Existence
,Situation of selecting strategic goals:
- Goals that express a relation between the organization and its environment (producing a
specific product for a specific target group)
- Goals that can be subsumed under the first type of goals (production targets, quality norms)
Is there an overall goal that serves as a desired effect for all organizational experiments? Many goals
can be overall goals as long as they express a relation between the organization and the environment.
Overall the goal of survival seems best.
1. An organization maintains a separate existence in its environment (what about organizations
meant to cure a disease, once this disease is cured they can disappear). Then it is about a
meaningful goal rather than separate existence. This can therefore not be the overall goal of
the experiment.
2. Maintaining a separate and meaningful existence in its environment. Maintaining
existence can only serve as an overall goals if there is a point to it. Organization’s primary
purpose consists in realizing goals that define their transformation processes (or primary
processes). Survival is meaningful to the extent that goals are selected and realized that are
considered meaningful. As long as the goal of curing a disease, survival is meaningful, once it
is cured the goal is meaningless and replaced by a new one.
a. Poor sense of survival: maintaining a separate meaningful existence by selecting and
realizing in whatever way, whatever goals, considered meaningful for whatever
reason.
b. Rich sense of survival: maintaining a separate and meaningful existence by selecting
and realizing goals to contribute to the creation of societal conditions enabling human
beings to develop and realize their humanity because this is considered to be the
meaningful thing to do.
What goals can be considered meaningful? All kinds of goals can be selected for all kinds of reasons.
You can also look at the organization’s contribution to the society. Think about Aristoteles’ ethics: the
highest purpose for us as human beings is developing our characteristically human capacities to their
fullest extent (= eudaimonia). Living a fulfilled life. Politics should make it possible for people to live
a fulfilled life.
Organizations play a major role in the modern society. Organizations always have an effect (positive
of negative) on the conditions needed for the development of the members of society. Enabling
members of the society to develop and grow.
Conducting the Experiment: Adaption and Realization for Meaningful Survival
What objects and processes are involved in experiments? To survive in a constantly changing
environment organizations need to:
1. Select and reselect (adapt) their goals. Stay in tune with changes in the environment.
2. They need to realize the selected goals. Maintain existence in environment, putting the
selected goals to the test.
Transformation process: a process turning some input into some output.
Realizing a transformation process means producing some output. Products but also ideas etc. into
strategy. The output of an organizational process has to be specified. Goals have to be set; strategic
regulation of the process.
Realizing transformation processes is often affected by disturbances. The transformation process has
to be monitored and measured have to be taken to do something about these disturbances (=
operational regulation).
To realize transformation processes, certain conditions have to be installed (= infrastructural
conditions):
- Human resources (skilled an motivated people).
- Organizational structure: tasks and responsibilities are properly defined and distributed.
, - Relevant technological means should be available.
Installing these infrastructural conditions is called regulation by design.
Activities performed in organizations:
1. Realizing transformation processes
2. Regulating transformation processes operationally (operational regulation)
3. Setting goals for transformation processes (strategic regulation)
4. Designing infrastructural conditions for transformation processes and their operational
regulation (regulation by design)
The process of designing infrastructural conditions should lead to infrastructural conditions enabling:
- Realizing transformation processes as well as regulating them
o Operationally
o By design
o Strategically
Infrastructural conditions are needed to (re)design infrastructural conditions.
The Experimental Character of Adaption and Realization for Survival
Survival:
1. Set the right goals
2. Select and perform transformation processes to realize these goals
3. Select and perform operational regulatory activities to deal with disturbances impinging on
the transformation processes
4. Select and implement infrastructural conditions to carry out activities 1, 2, 3.
Contingent: for every selection, there are always a number of alternatives to choose from. Choices
must be made. You can’t predict if a choice has the desired result. You can’t determine with certainty
that selections are effective. Organizations are forced to make decisions. Organizing is risky due to
combination of contingency, uncertainty and the imperative need to choose. Therefore organizations
are thought of as systems experimenting, need to make hypotheses.
- Dependent variable: meaningful organizational survival
- Independent variables: goals, transformation processes, regulatory actions, infrastructural
conditions
- Hypothesis: given this set of goals, transformation processes, regulatory actions and
infrastructural conditions, there is reasonable chance to survive meaningfully.
In organizational experiments, goals, transformation processes, regulatory actions and infrastructural
conditions are manipulated to increase the chance to survive. Will the chosen manipulation lead to the
desired effect? Conducting experiment is an ongoing activity
1. Selection
2. Reflection
3. Reselection
Organizations as Social Systems
Organizational communication is about objects figuring in the experiment. Communication is thus
about goals, infrastructural conditions, operational regulation and/or realizing transformation
processes (= focal objects). Other object can develop from this set of objects. All these objects
however serve as an anchor for further organizational communication.
1. They serve as an anchor because further communication always refers to past and current
decisions with regard to objects involved in the experiment. Objects are monitored, reflected
upon or reselected. Can serve as a background against which other objects are considered.
2. Selected objects serve as an anchor for organizational communication because the particular
infrastructure that has been selected structures it. Due to the particular division of work we
know who to communicate with, also influences the way in which we communicate.
3. Every act itself can be considered as communication. Slow working can be a sign of
dissatisfaction or illness. This then triggers further communication.
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