Organizations As Systems
The concept of organization refers to the grouping and arrangement of parts to form a whole in order to put it in good working order. Organizations can be conceptualized as Open Social Systems; that are essentially goal-seeking, information feedback systemss. They are systems in that how the organization performs cannot be calculated by adding up all the work arrangements - like departments - with the resources and processes that connect it all together. They are social systems in that the organization is made up of people, and has a defined purpose that is subscribed by the individuals. And they are Open Systems in that they continuously interact with their environments through acquisition of input, production of output, and exchange of information; they survive and grow by continuously adapting to their environment through learning.
Business Organizations
Business organizations are entities such as an enterprise, company or firm, each with grouping and arrangement of its parts to form a whole system to put it in good working order to attain its purpose. A business organization is in good working order if it has adequate and sufficient organization, and energy is available in and to the system. Energy is defined as the "capacity for action", action, or power to effect action. Energy in an organization derives from a complex of sources including: the physical capacities of its members; social resources such as loyalties, shared sentiments and values, common values, and resources from its environment. Energy in an organization can be in the form of information and resources. The measure of effectiveness of an organization is its capacity to fulfill the system's goals, and the goals of its components..
Enacting Organization Instance
Organizations as social systems exist in the real world through people who are members of the organization and some physical structures (such as offices and facilities). Enacting an organization involves translation from the abstract model of the formal definition to concrete system elements, such as assigning individual actors (people) to positions in the organization structure organized around functional areas in pecifies locations and facilities. The assignment of actors to positions is formally made through the signing of legal contracts (created and regulated through organization policies) with the actors. The signature of this contract represents a conveyance of the goals of the position to the actor(s) who are assuming that position, i.e., the goals of the position are expected to be executed by the actor(s) enacting that position.
Organization System Viewpoints
Types of systems such as Mechanical Systems or Mechanisms (e.g., Clocks, production automation systems, etc., with no purpose and intentions of their own), Biological Systems, and Ecological Systems are outside the scope of our discussion. An organization as whole can be viewed from a number of behavioral perspectives with respect to: creating value, learning, and social purpose.
The concept of organization refers to the grouping and arrangement of parts to form a whole in order to put it in good working order. Organizations can be conceptualized as Open Social Systems; that are essentially goal-seeking, information feedback systemss. They are systems in that how the organization performs cannot be calculated by adding up all the work arrangements - like departments - with the resources and processes that connect it all together. They are social systems in that the organization is made up of people, and has a defined purpose that is subscribed by the individuals. And they are Open Systems in that they continuously interact with their environments through acquisition of input, production of output, and exchange of information; they survive and grow by continuously adapting to their environment through learning.
Business Organizations
Business organizations are entities such as an enterprise, company or firm, each with grouping and arrangement of its parts to form a whole system to put it in good working order to attain its purpose. A business organization is in good working order if it has adequate and sufficient organization, and energy is available in and to the system. Energy is defined as the "capacity for action", action, or power to effect action. Energy in an organization derives from a complex of sources including: the physical capacities of its members; social resources such as loyalties, shared sentiments and values, common values, and resources from its environment. Energy in an organization can be in the form of information and resources. The measure of effectiveness of an organization is its capacity to fulfill the system's goals, and the goals of its components..
Enacting Organization Instance
Organizations as social systems exist in the real world through people who are members of the organization and some physical structures (such as offices and facilities). Enacting an organization involves translation from the abstract model of the formal definition to concrete system elements, such as assigning individual actors (people) to positions in the organization structure organized around functional areas in pecifies locations and facilities. The assignment of actors to positions is formally made through the signing of legal contracts (created and regulated through organization policies) with the actors. The signature of this contract represents a conveyance of the goals of the position to the actor(s) who are assuming that position, i.e., the goals of the position are expected to be executed by the actor(s) enacting that position.
Organization System Viewpoints
Types of systems such as Mechanical Systems or Mechanisms (e.g., Clocks, production automation systems, etc., with no purpose and intentions of their own), Biological Systems, and Ecological Systems are outside the scope of our discussion. An organization as whole can be viewed from a number of behavioral perspectives with respect to: creating value, learning, and social purpose.
Operations System
The Operations System for an organization is the joint configuration of resources and processes such that its resulting competencies are aligned with the organization's desired competitive position. The existence of trade-offs and constraints in the operations system imply that no single operation can be universally appropriate for all organizations; rather, each organization strategy requires a tailored operating system configured such that its competencies best fit the customer value proposition specified by the organization's competitive strategy.
The Operations System is utilized by Operations Management in its tasks to provide the best match of supply with demand.
The Operating System integrates three (3) different but complementary views of operations including:
The Operations System is utilized by Operations Management in its tasks to provide the best match of supply with demand.
The Operations System for an organization is the joint configuration of resources and processes such that its resulting competencies are aligned with the organization's desired competitive position. The existence of trade-offs and constraints in the operations system imply that no single operation can be universally appropriate for all organizations; rather, each organization strategy requires a tailored operating system configured such that its competencies best fit the customer value proposition specified by the organization's competitive strategy.
The Operations System is utilized by Operations Management in its tasks to provide the best match of supply with demand.
The Operating System integrates three (3) different but complementary views of operations including:
- Resource View – This view focuses on the assets used in operations to create and deliver value. The resource view of an organization or any of its parts as a bundle of resources (real assets). Viewing operations as a bundle of real assets is most useful when decision on amounts and types of resources the operation needs. This investment or capital budgeting decision, along with the allocation of resources to activities, is one of the major tasks of management. The resources/assets can be categorized into tangible resources (i.e., people/human resources, capital assets – property, plant and equipment), and intangible resources (i.e., relationship with suppliers and customers, intellectual property, reputation and brands, knowledge and experience in processing, technologies and markets).
- Process View – This view focuses on how the resource portfolio is utilized and allocated to activities with the intent of adding value. Adopting a process view means we deal with instances of work called flow units (e.g., consulting engagements, patients, hotel guests, barbershop/salon patrons, or customer orders) flowing through a network of activities and buffers. Buffers store flow units that have finished one activity, but are waiting for the next activity to start. The primary workflow is typically accompanied by an information flow (to coordinate activities) and cash flow (to support and reward them). A process may refer to workflow such as billing a customer, implementing an engineering change order, new product development, manufacturing process, etc.
- Competency View – This view focuses on the resulting abilities of the ensemble of an organization’s resources, processes and values which determine the set of outputs, products/services that the operating system will be particularly good at providing. A competency is a set of defined behaviors that provide a structured guide enabling the identification, evaluation, and development of behaviors in individual employees. A competency is the ability of an individual to do a job properly.
The Operations System is utilized by Operations Management in its tasks to provide the best match of supply with demand.
Organizations as Open Systems
Open system theory (Ludwig von Bertanlanffy,, 1956), defines the concept of a system, where "all systems are characterized by an assemblage or combination of parts whose relations make them interdependent" (Scott p. 77). Open system perspectives see organizations both as hierarchical systems and as loosely coupled systems. Open systems tend to have some semblance of clustering and levels -- multiple subsystems that specialize in certain system activities. Inter dependencies and connections within a subsystem tend to be tighter than between subsystems. These "stable sub-assemblies" give a distinct survival advantage to the entire system. However, most organizations do not function as tightly run cybernetic systems. Often normative structures are only loosely connected to actual behavior, at both the individual and group level. Pfeffer and Salancik note that "The organization is a coalition of groups and interests, each attempting to obtain something from the collectivity by interacting with others, and each with its own preferences and objectives "(Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978 p. 36). This loose coupling can be useful in itself (Weick, 1976) by improving adaptability.
Business Organizations as Open Systems
Organizations are open systems, they affect and are affected by their environment. When a business regularly interacts with its environment, and exchanges and processes feedback, it is an open system organizational structure. Open systems have open, or porous, boundaries that allow feedback exchanges from inside and outside the business. The controllers of open systems pay attention to their external environment, internal environment and customer needs and reactions. Open systems tend to devise more than one way to accomplish goals or reach similar results with different conditions and operations--what von Bertanlanffy called “equifinality.” This is in direct contrast to closed systems that function under the assumption that there is only one way to achieve a result: a direct relationship between cause and effect. Organizations usually try to influence their external environments through use of public relations, advertising and promotions, lobbying and advocacy, education, industry and local leaders. A highly effective organization is regularly exchanging feedback information with the external environment through use of environment scanning, market research and evaluations.
Organization Purpose/Mission
Organizations as social systems have “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) which may be expressed as a goal to be achieved. Members in that organization/society (social system) have to subscribe to that goal; which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. Obviously, their beliefs, motivations, etc., can also be influenced by culture (organizational, and environmental), as well as “self-awareness” (as it shapes learning and impacts decisions). In this formulation, “self-awareness” is an “internal” critical factor that can be expressed.
An individual actor's beliefs, motivations, etc., can be influenced by culture (organizational, and environmental), as well as “self-awareness” (as it shapes learning and impacts decisions). In this formulation, “self-awareness” is an “internal” critical factor that can be expressed through “soft-goal” models (e.g., declaration of some condition that can influence the achievement of purposes/goals). The goals of the organization are derived from its stated purpose for existence; this is refined and assigned to its sub-organizations so these sub-organization units become jointly responsible for attaining the goals of the whole organization (organization-as-system).
Organization System Goals
Organizational goals express the intentional properties of an organization system and its subsystems at various levels. Organizational "hard" goals are used to express the functional goals of the the functional elements and subsystems that comprise the organization entity/system. Organizational "soft" goals are used to express the purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the human (real) actors that comprise the organization such as stakeholders, managers, employees, etc., through logical actors such as positions. Usually, high-level goals of an organization and organization units (logical structured actors) are of strategic (long-term) nature. Such goals are often made operational by refining them (through AND-OR Hierarchical decomposition) into lower-level (tactical) goals (top-down approach). The refinement of goals may proceed until sub-goals (prerequisites) are found, which could be realized by lower-level tasks in the organization’s process hierarchy that can be assigned to a role and/or position. In practice, the top-down approach is combined with the bottom-up approach, performed by aggregation of lower-level goals.
Strategy
A strategy is an approach or hypothesis of the intended means to accomplish certain defined goals and objectives that contribute to a certain defined vision/"end". A strategy is defined by an orderly grouping of interdependent goals linked together according to a plan (strategic plan) to achieve a strategic objectives that in turn contribute to achieving the mission. Strategy is achieved through the constant interplay between doing, planning, and evaluation. Strategic thinking involves prioritizing certain activities, and approaches over others as well as marshaling and coordinating scarce resources in the service of chosen priorities.
Organization System Dynamic Model
Organizations are dynamic social systems which are a collection of people with a common purpose. The dynamics of social systems are expressed in terms of the intentional properties of the actors that comprise the system, and the interaction relationships between these actors. Interactions between actors can occur to satisfy goals that are either common to actors or global goals which pertain to the society (organization) as a whole and lay outside the scope of any one individual actor. Considering sub-organizations as a kind of structured logical actor, interactions among the sub-organization units can be viewed as a way of realizing society goals.
Feedback Loop
The feedback loop is a process in which a system receives internal/environmental responses to its behavior and in turn, reacts to those received responses by accommodating and assimilating the energy/information received, by altering the system's structure, and then engaging in altered exchanges of energy/information. Feedback measures output against a standard in some form of cybernetic procedure that includes communication and control. Feedback can be positive or negative; routine or informational. Negative feedback generally provides the controller with information for action. Positive feedback reinforces the performance of the system, and is routine in nature.
Enabling Environments
The enabling environment is comprised of the external and internal factors.
The external environment is defined by external factors such as characterized by PESTEL factors e.g., tight lending conditions, government regulations and competition. These factors are uncontrollable, and can be modeled as the institutional relations between the business and the external organization/entity of interest to the business, but are not directly controlled by it. The external environment is modeled as a network of "External Entity" actors and their goal dependency relations with the business organization. The external entity abstraction is an abstraction over the concept of influencer in Motivational Modeling and can denote concepts such as regulators, competitors, market forces, customers, technology, etc. The category of external entities (influencers) is large and inclusive. Every business has hundreds of potential influencers. Influences can be political, economic, ecological, societal, and technology. There will always be too many influencers to model. The decision as to what influencers to model is determined by the influencers that impact the organization's strategies and tactics, and affect the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization.
The internal environment is defined by the set of internal factors resulting from either the way the business is run, or decisions made, or both. The factors resulting from how the business is run include the business reputation and image, credit worthiness, etc. The factors resulting from business decisions include management structure and staffing, physical decor of facilities/offices, etc. Internal factors can be controlled directly or indirectly; but changing these factors usually involves indirect costs such as lost productivity for example, while new employees are being trained, some direct costs such as a penalty for terminating a lease before it expires.
Open system theory (Ludwig von Bertanlanffy,, 1956), defines the concept of a system, where "all systems are characterized by an assemblage or combination of parts whose relations make them interdependent" (Scott p. 77). Open system perspectives see organizations both as hierarchical systems and as loosely coupled systems. Open systems tend to have some semblance of clustering and levels -- multiple subsystems that specialize in certain system activities. Inter dependencies and connections within a subsystem tend to be tighter than between subsystems. These "stable sub-assemblies" give a distinct survival advantage to the entire system. However, most organizations do not function as tightly run cybernetic systems. Often normative structures are only loosely connected to actual behavior, at both the individual and group level. Pfeffer and Salancik note that "The organization is a coalition of groups and interests, each attempting to obtain something from the collectivity by interacting with others, and each with its own preferences and objectives "(Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978 p. 36). This loose coupling can be useful in itself (Weick, 1976) by improving adaptability.
Business Organizations as Open Systems
Organizations are open systems, they affect and are affected by their environment. When a business regularly interacts with its environment, and exchanges and processes feedback, it is an open system organizational structure. Open systems have open, or porous, boundaries that allow feedback exchanges from inside and outside the business. The controllers of open systems pay attention to their external environment, internal environment and customer needs and reactions. Open systems tend to devise more than one way to accomplish goals or reach similar results with different conditions and operations--what von Bertanlanffy called “equifinality.” This is in direct contrast to closed systems that function under the assumption that there is only one way to achieve a result: a direct relationship between cause and effect. Organizations usually try to influence their external environments through use of public relations, advertising and promotions, lobbying and advocacy, education, industry and local leaders. A highly effective organization is regularly exchanging feedback information with the external environment through use of environment scanning, market research and evaluations.
Organization Purpose/Mission
Organizations as social systems have “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) which may be expressed as a goal to be achieved. Members in that organization/society (social system) have to subscribe to that goal; which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. Obviously, their beliefs, motivations, etc., can also be influenced by culture (organizational, and environmental), as well as “self-awareness” (as it shapes learning and impacts decisions). In this formulation, “self-awareness” is an “internal” critical factor that can be expressed.
An individual actor's beliefs, motivations, etc., can be influenced by culture (organizational, and environmental), as well as “self-awareness” (as it shapes learning and impacts decisions). In this formulation, “self-awareness” is an “internal” critical factor that can be expressed through “soft-goal” models (e.g., declaration of some condition that can influence the achievement of purposes/goals). The goals of the organization are derived from its stated purpose for existence; this is refined and assigned to its sub-organizations so these sub-organization units become jointly responsible for attaining the goals of the whole organization (organization-as-system).
Organization System Goals
Organizational goals express the intentional properties of an organization system and its subsystems at various levels. Organizational "hard" goals are used to express the functional goals of the the functional elements and subsystems that comprise the organization entity/system. Organizational "soft" goals are used to express the purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the human (real) actors that comprise the organization such as stakeholders, managers, employees, etc., through logical actors such as positions. Usually, high-level goals of an organization and organization units (logical structured actors) are of strategic (long-term) nature. Such goals are often made operational by refining them (through AND-OR Hierarchical decomposition) into lower-level (tactical) goals (top-down approach). The refinement of goals may proceed until sub-goals (prerequisites) are found, which could be realized by lower-level tasks in the organization’s process hierarchy that can be assigned to a role and/or position. In practice, the top-down approach is combined with the bottom-up approach, performed by aggregation of lower-level goals.
Strategy
A strategy is an approach or hypothesis of the intended means to accomplish certain defined goals and objectives that contribute to a certain defined vision/"end". A strategy is defined by an orderly grouping of interdependent goals linked together according to a plan (strategic plan) to achieve a strategic objectives that in turn contribute to achieving the mission. Strategy is achieved through the constant interplay between doing, planning, and evaluation. Strategic thinking involves prioritizing certain activities, and approaches over others as well as marshaling and coordinating scarce resources in the service of chosen priorities.
Organization System Dynamic Model
Organizations are dynamic social systems which are a collection of people with a common purpose. The dynamics of social systems are expressed in terms of the intentional properties of the actors that comprise the system, and the interaction relationships between these actors. Interactions between actors can occur to satisfy goals that are either common to actors or global goals which pertain to the society (organization) as a whole and lay outside the scope of any one individual actor. Considering sub-organizations as a kind of structured logical actor, interactions among the sub-organization units can be viewed as a way of realizing society goals.
Feedback Loop
The feedback loop is a process in which a system receives internal/environmental responses to its behavior and in turn, reacts to those received responses by accommodating and assimilating the energy/information received, by altering the system's structure, and then engaging in altered exchanges of energy/information. Feedback measures output against a standard in some form of cybernetic procedure that includes communication and control. Feedback can be positive or negative; routine or informational. Negative feedback generally provides the controller with information for action. Positive feedback reinforces the performance of the system, and is routine in nature.
Enabling Environments
The enabling environment is comprised of the external and internal factors.
The external environment is defined by external factors such as characterized by PESTEL factors e.g., tight lending conditions, government regulations and competition. These factors are uncontrollable, and can be modeled as the institutional relations between the business and the external organization/entity of interest to the business, but are not directly controlled by it. The external environment is modeled as a network of "External Entity" actors and their goal dependency relations with the business organization. The external entity abstraction is an abstraction over the concept of influencer in Motivational Modeling and can denote concepts such as regulators, competitors, market forces, customers, technology, etc. The category of external entities (influencers) is large and inclusive. Every business has hundreds of potential influencers. Influences can be political, economic, ecological, societal, and technology. There will always be too many influencers to model. The decision as to what influencers to model is determined by the influencers that impact the organization's strategies and tactics, and affect the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization.
The internal environment is defined by the set of internal factors resulting from either the way the business is run, or decisions made, or both. The factors resulting from how the business is run include the business reputation and image, credit worthiness, etc. The factors resulting from business decisions include management structure and staffing, physical decor of facilities/offices, etc. Internal factors can be controlled directly or indirectly; but changing these factors usually involves indirect costs such as lost productivity for example, while new employees are being trained, some direct costs such as a penalty for terminating a lease before it expires.
Business Organizations As Social Systems
A social system is a whole that is defined by its function(s) in one or more containing systems; each system containing at least two essential parts which can affect its behavior and properties. Business organizations are social systems in that each has a purpose, and is greater than the sum of its parts. How it performs cannot be calculated by adding up all the work arrangements - like departments - with the resources and processes that connect it all together. Organizations are social systems comprising of people, organized into structured grouping and managed to meet a need or pursue collective goals. Organizations can be viewed as a collection of people with a common purpose that depend on norms and rules as enforcement mechanisms to restrain the individual behavior of the people (actors). All organizations have a management structure that determines relationships between the different activities and the members, and subdivides and assigns roles, responsibilities and authority to carry out different tasks. Any human-created systems can be characterized as "purposeful system" when its "members are also purposeful individuals who intentionally and collectively formulate objectives and are parts of larger purposeful systems". Other characteristics are:
From what Ackoff and Emery published in 1972 “Systems Thinking and Human Behavior”, "Individual systems are purposive", they said, Knowledge and understanding of the aims of purposive systems can only be gained by taking into account the mechanisms of social, cultural, and psychological systems".
Modeling Social Systems
Social Systems are defined as system of systems in that larger more complex systems are composed of systems of the same type (i.e., Social System). A social system is defined in terms of human actors that are deemed to be systems in that they are purposive and have intentions. Any organization of thinking humans in a purposeful endeavor (i.e., business, community, society, militia, army, etc.) is also by deduction a system. So enterprises and organizations are social systems that are purposive and capable of independent thought, decisions, and actions as a result of the behavior of the members (human actors).
So in our Ackoff compliant social systems we have “terminal nodes” that are human systems, that can be composed into larger systems, so far through composition and collection mechanism. Ackoff also posits that these systems which by definition are independent actors can also be combined into larger systems through their interactions and relations types (e.g., cause-effect relations, producer-consumer relations, shared services oriented relations, etc.).
Organizations As Social Systems
Conceptualizing organizations as systems allows us to formulate organization problems as social systems problems and leverage systems thinking approaches to formulate and develop appropriate, possibly optimal solutions to these problems.
It is clear that to have model that expresses social system that conforms to Ackoff’s criteria you need to demonstrate the following:
This basic construct would now allow us to model and analyze a given social systems problem and/or situation to formulate the problem to be solved. The analysis and evaluation requires simulation because of uncertainties inherent in the complexity of the domain as well as insufficient data and information. Once we have a problem well formulated, we can develop alternative solutions to solve them using different techniques (this is where Big Data comes in for social systems problems such as politics, or business).
<<TBD>>
Organization System Goals
Organizational goals express the intentional properties of an organization system and its subsystems at various levels. Organizational "hard" goals are used to express the functional goals of the the functional elements and subsystems that comprise the organization entity/system. Organizational "soft" goals are used to express the purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the human (real) actors that comprise the organization such as stakeholders, managers, employees, etc., through logical actors such as positions. Usually, high-level goals of an organization and organization units (logical structured actors) are of strategic (long-term) nature. Such goals are often made operational by refining them (through AND-OR Hierarchical decomposition) into lower-level (tactical) goals (top-down approach). The refinement of goals may proceed until sub-goals (prerequisites) are found, which could be realized by lower-level tasks in the organization’s process hierarchy that can be assigned to a role and/or position. In practice, the top-down approach is combined with the bottom-up approach, performed by aggregation of lower-level goals.
Strategy
A strategy is an approach or hypothesis of the intended means to accomplish certain defined goals and objectives that contribute to a certain defined vision/"end". A strategy is defined by an orderly grouping of interdependent goals linked together according to a plan (strategic plan) to achieve a strategic objectives that in turn contribute to achieving the mission. Strategy is achieved through the constant interplay between doing, planning, and evaluation. Strategic thinking involves prioritizing certain activities, and approaches over others as well as marshaling and coordinating scarce resources in the service of chosen priorities.
Organization System Dynamic Model
Organizations are dynamic social systems which are a collection of people with a common purpose. The dynamics of social systems are expressed in terms of the intentional properties of the actors that comprise the system, and the interaction relationships between these actors. Interactions between actors can occur to satisfy goals that are either common to actors or global goals which pertain to the society (organization) as a whole and lay outside the scope of any one individual actor. Considering sub-organizations as a kind of structured logical actor, interactions among the sub-organization units can be viewed as a way of realizing society goals.
Organization Behavior
The behavior of an organization as a whole is defined by the patterns of interactions among its functional organization units and the the behavior of soacial actors (people, individuals and grousp of individuals) that are members of these units, and between the functional units with processes that interact with the environment such as customer service, marketing, regulatory compliance, etc. The behavior of actors is manifested in each actor's decisions, actions, and priorities. The behavior of actors is impacted by their beliefs, values, and "mental model", and influenced/guided by organization's purpose, policies, and cultures (institutional arrangements). To be good standing members of an organization, actors have to subscribe to the purpose and values of the that organization and policies which give coherence to the actor's behavior.
Actors' behavior can be analyzed and described at the following levels:
The behavior is influenced by the design of the organization structure and its institutional arrangements. A well designed organization ensures appropriate levels of energy is generated and maintained in the system. System organization secures, expends, and conserves energy to maintain the system and further the achievement of its mission/purpose.
Organization Structure
Organizational structures are the manifestation of strategic orientations and regulate information flows, decision making, and patterns of behavior, that is, the “internal allocation of tasks, decisions, rules, and procedures for appraisal and reward, selected for the best pursuit of a strategy. Structures develop due to the need to organize behavior in a meaningful way and provide orientation for organizational members to set actions that comply with organizational strategy, organizational culture, and, as a result, accepted patterns of behavior. The behavior of an organization is usually guided by its strategic and tactical goals. Behavior and performance
The structure of an organization's social system can be represented logically by logical actors such as organizational units and positions as systems, and their relationships. In creating social network models of real world situations, we adopt as a premise that the social world is unknowable and uncontrollable with respect to the behavior of "actors" (human agents, individual or groups of individuals). Organization structure provides a visual explanation of the decision rights, clarifies roles and responsibilities, allocates human resources, and ensures a level of flexibility to respond to unexpected circumstances.unfolds as observable manifestations (phenomena) of predefined strategies as regulated by organizational structures.
Interactions
Interaction refers to the manner in which each component functions with other components of the system. Interactions between actors can occur to satisfy goal intentions common to the actors, or global goals which pertain to the organization (or society) as a whole and lay outside the scope of any one individual actor.
Logical Actor Dependency Relations Model
The central conceptual modeling construct in modeling social systems as abstractions of real world situations is the "actor". It is an abstraction which is used to refer to people (the active elements/entity) that is capable of independent action. The actors in a social system are connected by strategic goal dependency relationships to form a social network. The semantics of the interactions encoded on the dependency relations between two actors/social systems is through goal models. The dependency relations between actors are defined as directed network links, and the direction expresses the direction of exchange of value in terms of “value assets” during the interaction between for example, provider and customer, supplier and organization, etc.
Strategic Goal Dependency Relations Models
The strategic goal dependency relations models define declarative high-level network models of social systems' strategic objectives and goals. The goal models are linked to the actors and they express the expectations of each of the parties to the relationship. The organization goals express organization's purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the organization actors (stakeholders, managers, employees, etc.). The notion of “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) in social systems is a goal to be achieved. Members in that society (social system) have to subscribe to that goal which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. The strategic goal dependency relationships models enable the development of social systems and social networks' models of business, government agencies, and community organizational social systems that represent abstractions of real world organizations and institutions.
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is the collective behavior of humans who are part of an organization, and the meanings they attach to their actions. Culture includes the organizational values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. It is important to note that culture is not overt behavior or visible artifacts that one might observe if one were to visit a company. It is not even the philosophy or value system which the organization articulates or has written down in various "charters". It is the assumptions which lie behind the values and which determine the behavior patterns and viable artifacts such as dress code, office layout, etc.
Culture manifests itself in the particular way things are done in an organization including how decisions are made. It affects who gets hired, how they get trained (formally or informally), what behaviors get rewarded, who gets promoted, and virtually all organizational procedures and administrative protocols. Organizational culture can be supportive of the following: Learning and Development (Growth), Participatory Decision-Making, Power Sharing, Support and Collaboration, Tolerance for risk and conflicts.
Organizational Policy and Procedure
Organizations depend on norms and rules - policies to guide behavior. Policies are recognized descriptions which act as enforcement mechanisms to restrain individual behavior and regulate all sorts of organizational interactions such as delegation, dependency relationships with internal/external organizational entities as well as defining concepts within the organizational setting. Policies and procedures enable how organizations operate to help them cope with their environments. The purpose of these rules is to allow the organization to make decisions using "standard operating procedures" as a guideline and hence make decisions more consistent.
Institutional Arrangements
Institutional arrangements refer to the policies, procedures and processes that allow systems to function and interact effectively and efficiently in an organized setting. Such arrangements/relationships can be rules which may be binding, e.g., legislation or contractual arrangements, or non-binding, e.g., codes of conduct, norms, and values that are unwritten but are widely accepted. Within the enabling environment, institutional arrangements are policy and legal frameworks; at the organizational level, they include strategy, processes, and technology that enable operations, as well as internal accountability mechanisms.
Feedback Loop
The feedback loop is a process in which a system receives internal/environmental responses to its behavior and in turn, reacts to those received responses by accommodating and assimilating the energy/information received, by altering the system's structure, and then engaging in altered exchanges of energy/information. Feedback measures output against a standard in some form of cybernetic procedure that includes communication and control. Feedback can be positive or negative; routine or informational. Negative feedback generally provides the controller with information for action. Positive feedback reinforces the performance of the system, and is routine in nature.
<< Social Systems Modes >>
Organization Social Systems Modeling Methods
Organizations as systems can be modeled as social systems using the Organization System Network Structure modeling editor which is the integration of the Organization Relations Modeling Editor and the Goal Network Modeling Designer/Editor. This integration of modeling methods allows users to create social systems that define the organizing view of particular organizations with focus on an organization's purpose, actors and their various relationships and interactions, as well as behaviors aligned with achieving the intended purpose.
Modeling Organization System Entity
Organization Entity is a modeling abstraction that denotes a particular organization being modeled and acts as a reference to the concept of the whole system. It is comprised of a configuration of a complex of actors (people and/or groups) that according to commonly agreed rules, and procedures strive to realize one or more preset objectives of the entity.
Modeling Organization Purpose/Mission
Organizations as social systems have “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) which may be expressed as a goal to be achieved. Members in that organization (social system actors) have to subscribe to that goal; which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. Obviously, their beliefs, motivations, etc., can also be influenced by culture (organizational, and environmental), as well as “self-awareness” (as it shapes learning and impacts decisions). In this formulation, “self-awareness” is an “internal” critical factor that can be expressed as a "health" metric.
Modeling Organization System Elements - Actors
The central conceptual modeling construct in modeling social systems as abstractions of real world situations is the "actor". It is an abstraction which is used to refer to people (the active elements of a soacial system) that is capable of independent action. Actors represent the perspectives and objectives of the individuals responsible and accountable for establishing the vision and direction of the organization, formulating and implementing the organization's design and strategy, and executing the implemented strategy, resulting in creating and delivering value to customers to increase customer satisfaction and stakeholders' value.
Modeling Organization Social System Structure and Organization Relations Editor
The Organization Social System structure is a network of actors (social system eklements) that define the organization entity of interest and its environments. The network is comprised of structured actors such as organization units that define the organization system, and external environment entities such as organization and institutions whose actions influence organization behavior. The social system network is defined using the Organization Relations Editor which allows users to create relationship links (selected from a template of relationship types) among organization units as well as between organization units and external environment entities such as markets, competitors, regulators, legislators, etc.
The network structure essentially depicts an organization as a network structure of organization units (logical structured actors) connected to its environment through a pattern of relationship types. The organization relationships types supported include "Business Function" relations,, "Task Dependency" and "Resource Dependency" relations.
Modeling Organization System External Environments
The external environment is denoted by an external environment entity model. The concept of Environment Entity is an abstraction that is used to define forthcoming developments (either inside or outside of the organization) which are likely to have important impact on the ability of the organization to meet its objectives. The Environment Entity is also an abstraction over the concept of strategic issue, and the concept of influencer in Motivational Modeling. The category of Environments Entities (Influencers) is large and inclusive. Every business has hundreds of potential Influencers. There will always be too many Influencers to model. The decision as to what Influencers to model is determined by the Influencers that impact the organization's strategies and tactics, and affect the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization.
External Organization Entity and Properties Editor
The Environments Entity Text Editor provides the capability to create Environments Entity objects. The External Organization Entity modeling editor allows users to create External Organization Entities such as suppliers, vendors, competitors, consulting companies, etc., as well as customers, markets, etc. The properties editor allows users to define and add to an external entity its intentions expressed in terms of goals models. The properties editor allows users to define and add to an external entity its intentions expressed in terms of goals models.
Environments Network Models & Organization Relations Models Editor
The External Organization Entity modeling editor allows users to create External Organization Entities such as suppliers, vendors, competitors, consulting companies, etc., as well as customers, markets, etc.
The Organization Relations Editor allows users to create relationship links between and among organization units, external entities, and environments factors (influencers). This essentially defines a network structure that depicts an organization system structure and its environment. The organization relationships types supported include "Value Chain" relations, and "Supply Chain" relations,
External Organization Entity Properties Editor
The properties editor allows users to define and add to an external entity its intentions expressed in terms of goals models.
Modeling Organization System Interactions
The Organization System Relations Editor enables users to create actor dependency networks that express the interactions of actors that comprise a system in achieving the objectives/purpose of the overall system of interest.
The editor supports a number of different dependency relations such as "value chain", "shared business function", etc. The dependency relations between actors are defined as directed network links, and the direction expresses the direction of exchange of value in terms of “value assets” during the interaction between for example, provider and customer, supplier and organization, etc.
The semantics of the interactions encoded on the dependency relations between two actors/social systems is through goal models.
Strategic Goal Dependency Relations Models & Editor
The strategic goal dependency relations designer enables the creation of strategic goal dependency relations diagrams. These diagrams define declarative high-level network models of social systems' strategic objectives and goals. The goal models are linked to the actors and they express the expectations of each of the parties to the relationship. The actors in a social system are connected by strategic goal dependency relationships to form a social network.
The strategic goal dependency relations models define declarative high-level network models of social systems' strategic objectives and goals. The goal models are linked to the actors and they express the expectations of each of the parties to the relationship. The organization goals express organization's purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the organization actors (stakeholders, managers, employees, etc.). The notion of “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) in social systems is a goal to be achieved. Members in that society (social system) have to subscribe to that goal which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. The strategic goal dependency relationships models enable the development of social systems and social networks' models of business, government agencies, and community organizational social systems that represent abstractions of real world organizations and institutions.The strategic goal dependency relations supported include:
The strategic goal dependency relations models may be contrasted with process models employing dynamic ontologies. Unlike typical process models based on activity diagrams and data flow diagrams which focus on workflow, control flow, and information flow; the SD (strategic goal dependency relations) models depict what actors want from each other, and the freedoms that each actor has. For example, actors may possess knowledge that enables them to achieve specific goals and perform certain tasks, but this knowledge is not made explicit in the SD model. SD models depict external relationships among actors, while remaining silent regarding the internal makeup of actors.
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A social system is a whole that is defined by its function(s) in one or more containing systems; each system containing at least two essential parts which can affect its behavior and properties. Business organizations are social systems in that each has a purpose, and is greater than the sum of its parts. How it performs cannot be calculated by adding up all the work arrangements - like departments - with the resources and processes that connect it all together. Organizations are social systems comprising of people, organized into structured grouping and managed to meet a need or pursue collective goals. Organizations can be viewed as a collection of people with a common purpose that depend on norms and rules as enforcement mechanisms to restrain the individual behavior of the people (actors). All organizations have a management structure that determines relationships between the different activities and the members, and subdivides and assigns roles, responsibilities and authority to carry out different tasks. Any human-created systems can be characterized as "purposeful system" when its "members are also purposeful individuals who intentionally and collectively formulate objectives and are parts of larger purposeful systems". Other characteristics are:
- "A purposeful system or individual is ideal-seeking if... it chooses another objective that more closely approximates its ideal".
- "An ideal-seeking system or individual is necessarily one that is purposeful, but not all purposeful entities seek ideals", and
- "The capability of seeking ideals may well be a characteristic that distinguishes man from anything he can make, including computers".
From what Ackoff and Emery published in 1972 “Systems Thinking and Human Behavior”, "Individual systems are purposive", they said, Knowledge and understanding of the aims of purposive systems can only be gained by taking into account the mechanisms of social, cultural, and psychological systems".
Modeling Social Systems
Social Systems are defined as system of systems in that larger more complex systems are composed of systems of the same type (i.e., Social System). A social system is defined in terms of human actors that are deemed to be systems in that they are purposive and have intentions. Any organization of thinking humans in a purposeful endeavor (i.e., business, community, society, militia, army, etc.) is also by deduction a system. So enterprises and organizations are social systems that are purposive and capable of independent thought, decisions, and actions as a result of the behavior of the members (human actors).
So in our Ackoff compliant social systems we have “terminal nodes” that are human systems, that can be composed into larger systems, so far through composition and collection mechanism. Ackoff also posits that these systems which by definition are independent actors can also be combined into larger systems through their interactions and relations types (e.g., cause-effect relations, producer-consumer relations, shared services oriented relations, etc.).
Organizations As Social Systems
Conceptualizing organizations as systems allows us to formulate organization problems as social systems problems and leverage systems thinking approaches to formulate and develop appropriate, possibly optimal solutions to these problems.
It is clear that to have model that expresses social system that conforms to Ackoff’s criteria you need to demonstrate the following:
- You can build conceptual goal models that express the motivations, and intentions, as well as concerns of individuals and assign them to actors (human systems) to create the foundation systems of a "social system". This goal model is consistent with the Business Motivational Model (BMM) notion of motivations, intentions, and beliefs.
- Define constructs such as enterprise made up of collections of related organization units (business units, functional units, divisions, etc.) which are comprised of human members therefore making them social systems as well. Since we want some flexibility in this model construction, we will leverage the Positions and Position Structure (Organization Reporting Chart) within each organization unit as a human resource profiles definition which will be resolved to actual human employees at deployment and/or execution time. The Positions define the competencies required for that organization unit to achieve its goal; the position management structure defines the accountability structure necessary for managing that endeavor to ensure success. Note that Bruce’s notion of Teams can be accounted for in this way as well as other collections.
- We can also define constructs such as mechanisms which aid our actors (systems) to deliver their mission (purpose, etc.). In our social systems denoting the enterprise some of these mechanisms are processes, applications, services, etc. These mechanisms do not have motivations/purpose, and intentions of their own, they are ascribed the motivations of the social systems that use and/or control them. They can provide the capability to realize a “producer-consumer relationships thereby have outputs and outcomes (impact of the outputs on the social system at large). Note that processes group resources of various types (other mechanisms/machines, data, people, applications, etc.) in creating and/or delivering value. Here again, we want to maintain a certain level of flexibility and defer decisions on utilization of particular resources till the last moment we would define resource profiles in terms of roles as part of the process model possibly using BPMN notation supplemented by resource selector and assignment policies. The types of the data and information elements in the process model are expressed through UML models.
- Note that the resource profiles defined by roles only address assignment and allocation issues, the actual capability of the resource to produce value in some situations must also be defined. For human resources, the capacity to learn, culture influence on capacity to perform assigned tasks, etc., would have to be modeled; for production equipment capacity to produce, and rate of production would be modeled, etc.
- We can now formulate corporate, business, and functional level strategies in terms of the motivations and objectives of the leaders and stakeholders of the enterprise, and distribute these strategic goals as well as mission and vision to the organization units (the social systems that comprise the enterprise as a system). We can have policies and procedures that define how goals are cascaded down to the individual employees and/or teams that actually accomplish the tasks that achieve the goals.
- Strategy alignment and organization alignment issues that cause so trouble with strategy execution failures etc. are not managed as social systems configuration issues which are non-existent by definition of the model constructions as well as system verification and validation methods.
- External relationships or interaction with external environments (also modeled as systems) are expressed through “influencer” and impact assessment models such as specified in the Business Motivational Modeling (BMM) specification. This approach allows for a normalized external and environmental factors model that is consistent with capturing market analysis, competitive analysis, value networks, industry analysis, as well as PESTEL factors analysis model. With the assessment and impact models we can easily introduce the notions of:
- Opportunity.
- Threats.
- Risks and Reward.
- Strength and Weaknesses in Organization Capabilities.
This basic construct would now allow us to model and analyze a given social systems problem and/or situation to formulate the problem to be solved. The analysis and evaluation requires simulation because of uncertainties inherent in the complexity of the domain as well as insufficient data and information. Once we have a problem well formulated, we can develop alternative solutions to solve them using different techniques (this is where Big Data comes in for social systems problems such as politics, or business).
<<TBD>>
Organization System Goals
Organizational goals express the intentional properties of an organization system and its subsystems at various levels. Organizational "hard" goals are used to express the functional goals of the the functional elements and subsystems that comprise the organization entity/system. Organizational "soft" goals are used to express the purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the human (real) actors that comprise the organization such as stakeholders, managers, employees, etc., through logical actors such as positions. Usually, high-level goals of an organization and organization units (logical structured actors) are of strategic (long-term) nature. Such goals are often made operational by refining them (through AND-OR Hierarchical decomposition) into lower-level (tactical) goals (top-down approach). The refinement of goals may proceed until sub-goals (prerequisites) are found, which could be realized by lower-level tasks in the organization’s process hierarchy that can be assigned to a role and/or position. In practice, the top-down approach is combined with the bottom-up approach, performed by aggregation of lower-level goals.
Strategy
A strategy is an approach or hypothesis of the intended means to accomplish certain defined goals and objectives that contribute to a certain defined vision/"end". A strategy is defined by an orderly grouping of interdependent goals linked together according to a plan (strategic plan) to achieve a strategic objectives that in turn contribute to achieving the mission. Strategy is achieved through the constant interplay between doing, planning, and evaluation. Strategic thinking involves prioritizing certain activities, and approaches over others as well as marshaling and coordinating scarce resources in the service of chosen priorities.
Organization System Dynamic Model
Organizations are dynamic social systems which are a collection of people with a common purpose. The dynamics of social systems are expressed in terms of the intentional properties of the actors that comprise the system, and the interaction relationships between these actors. Interactions between actors can occur to satisfy goals that are either common to actors or global goals which pertain to the society (organization) as a whole and lay outside the scope of any one individual actor. Considering sub-organizations as a kind of structured logical actor, interactions among the sub-organization units can be viewed as a way of realizing society goals.
Organization Behavior
The behavior of an organization as a whole is defined by the patterns of interactions among its functional organization units and the the behavior of soacial actors (people, individuals and grousp of individuals) that are members of these units, and between the functional units with processes that interact with the environment such as customer service, marketing, regulatory compliance, etc. The behavior of actors is manifested in each actor's decisions, actions, and priorities. The behavior of actors is impacted by their beliefs, values, and "mental model", and influenced/guided by organization's purpose, policies, and cultures (institutional arrangements). To be good standing members of an organization, actors have to subscribe to the purpose and values of the that organization and policies which give coherence to the actor's behavior.
Actors' behavior can be analyzed and described at the following levels:
- Individual Level - At this level, the individual actor's behavior is influenced by factors such as: learning, perception, creativity, motivation, turnover, task performance, etc.
- Group Level - At this level, behavior is influenced by factors such as: group dynamics, intra- and inter-group conflicts and cohesion, leadership, power, norms, networks, communication, and roles.
- Organization Level - At this level, behavior is influenced by factors such as: organizational culture, organization structure, inter-organizational conflict and cooperation, change, technology, and external environment forces.
The behavior is influenced by the design of the organization structure and its institutional arrangements. A well designed organization ensures appropriate levels of energy is generated and maintained in the system. System organization secures, expends, and conserves energy to maintain the system and further the achievement of its mission/purpose.
Organization Structure
Organizational structures are the manifestation of strategic orientations and regulate information flows, decision making, and patterns of behavior, that is, the “internal allocation of tasks, decisions, rules, and procedures for appraisal and reward, selected for the best pursuit of a strategy. Structures develop due to the need to organize behavior in a meaningful way and provide orientation for organizational members to set actions that comply with organizational strategy, organizational culture, and, as a result, accepted patterns of behavior. The behavior of an organization is usually guided by its strategic and tactical goals. Behavior and performance
The structure of an organization's social system can be represented logically by logical actors such as organizational units and positions as systems, and their relationships. In creating social network models of real world situations, we adopt as a premise that the social world is unknowable and uncontrollable with respect to the behavior of "actors" (human agents, individual or groups of individuals). Organization structure provides a visual explanation of the decision rights, clarifies roles and responsibilities, allocates human resources, and ensures a level of flexibility to respond to unexpected circumstances.unfolds as observable manifestations (phenomena) of predefined strategies as regulated by organizational structures.
Interactions
Interaction refers to the manner in which each component functions with other components of the system. Interactions between actors can occur to satisfy goal intentions common to the actors, or global goals which pertain to the organization (or society) as a whole and lay outside the scope of any one individual actor.
Logical Actor Dependency Relations Model
The central conceptual modeling construct in modeling social systems as abstractions of real world situations is the "actor". It is an abstraction which is used to refer to people (the active elements/entity) that is capable of independent action. The actors in a social system are connected by strategic goal dependency relationships to form a social network. The semantics of the interactions encoded on the dependency relations between two actors/social systems is through goal models. The dependency relations between actors are defined as directed network links, and the direction expresses the direction of exchange of value in terms of “value assets” during the interaction between for example, provider and customer, supplier and organization, etc.
Strategic Goal Dependency Relations Models
The strategic goal dependency relations models define declarative high-level network models of social systems' strategic objectives and goals. The goal models are linked to the actors and they express the expectations of each of the parties to the relationship. The organization goals express organization's purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the organization actors (stakeholders, managers, employees, etc.). The notion of “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) in social systems is a goal to be achieved. Members in that society (social system) have to subscribe to that goal which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. The strategic goal dependency relationships models enable the development of social systems and social networks' models of business, government agencies, and community organizational social systems that represent abstractions of real world organizations and institutions.
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is the collective behavior of humans who are part of an organization, and the meanings they attach to their actions. Culture includes the organizational values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. It is important to note that culture is not overt behavior or visible artifacts that one might observe if one were to visit a company. It is not even the philosophy or value system which the organization articulates or has written down in various "charters". It is the assumptions which lie behind the values and which determine the behavior patterns and viable artifacts such as dress code, office layout, etc.
Culture manifests itself in the particular way things are done in an organization including how decisions are made. It affects who gets hired, how they get trained (formally or informally), what behaviors get rewarded, who gets promoted, and virtually all organizational procedures and administrative protocols. Organizational culture can be supportive of the following: Learning and Development (Growth), Participatory Decision-Making, Power Sharing, Support and Collaboration, Tolerance for risk and conflicts.
Organizational Policy and Procedure
Organizations depend on norms and rules - policies to guide behavior. Policies are recognized descriptions which act as enforcement mechanisms to restrain individual behavior and regulate all sorts of organizational interactions such as delegation, dependency relationships with internal/external organizational entities as well as defining concepts within the organizational setting. Policies and procedures enable how organizations operate to help them cope with their environments. The purpose of these rules is to allow the organization to make decisions using "standard operating procedures" as a guideline and hence make decisions more consistent.
Institutional Arrangements
Institutional arrangements refer to the policies, procedures and processes that allow systems to function and interact effectively and efficiently in an organized setting. Such arrangements/relationships can be rules which may be binding, e.g., legislation or contractual arrangements, or non-binding, e.g., codes of conduct, norms, and values that are unwritten but are widely accepted. Within the enabling environment, institutional arrangements are policy and legal frameworks; at the organizational level, they include strategy, processes, and technology that enable operations, as well as internal accountability mechanisms.
Feedback Loop
The feedback loop is a process in which a system receives internal/environmental responses to its behavior and in turn, reacts to those received responses by accommodating and assimilating the energy/information received, by altering the system's structure, and then engaging in altered exchanges of energy/information. Feedback measures output against a standard in some form of cybernetic procedure that includes communication and control. Feedback can be positive or negative; routine or informational. Negative feedback generally provides the controller with information for action. Positive feedback reinforces the performance of the system, and is routine in nature.
<< Social Systems Modes >>
Organization Social Systems Modeling Methods
Organizations as systems can be modeled as social systems using the Organization System Network Structure modeling editor which is the integration of the Organization Relations Modeling Editor and the Goal Network Modeling Designer/Editor. This integration of modeling methods allows users to create social systems that define the organizing view of particular organizations with focus on an organization's purpose, actors and their various relationships and interactions, as well as behaviors aligned with achieving the intended purpose.
Modeling Organization System Entity
Organization Entity is a modeling abstraction that denotes a particular organization being modeled and acts as a reference to the concept of the whole system. It is comprised of a configuration of a complex of actors (people and/or groups) that according to commonly agreed rules, and procedures strive to realize one or more preset objectives of the entity.
Modeling Organization Purpose/Mission
Organizations as social systems have “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) which may be expressed as a goal to be achieved. Members in that organization (social system actors) have to subscribe to that goal; which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. Obviously, their beliefs, motivations, etc., can also be influenced by culture (organizational, and environmental), as well as “self-awareness” (as it shapes learning and impacts decisions). In this formulation, “self-awareness” is an “internal” critical factor that can be expressed as a "health" metric.
Modeling Organization System Elements - Actors
The central conceptual modeling construct in modeling social systems as abstractions of real world situations is the "actor". It is an abstraction which is used to refer to people (the active elements of a soacial system) that is capable of independent action. Actors represent the perspectives and objectives of the individuals responsible and accountable for establishing the vision and direction of the organization, formulating and implementing the organization's design and strategy, and executing the implemented strategy, resulting in creating and delivering value to customers to increase customer satisfaction and stakeholders' value.
Modeling Organization Social System Structure and Organization Relations Editor
The Organization Social System structure is a network of actors (social system eklements) that define the organization entity of interest and its environments. The network is comprised of structured actors such as organization units that define the organization system, and external environment entities such as organization and institutions whose actions influence organization behavior. The social system network is defined using the Organization Relations Editor which allows users to create relationship links (selected from a template of relationship types) among organization units as well as between organization units and external environment entities such as markets, competitors, regulators, legislators, etc.
The network structure essentially depicts an organization as a network structure of organization units (logical structured actors) connected to its environment through a pattern of relationship types. The organization relationships types supported include "Business Function" relations,, "Task Dependency" and "Resource Dependency" relations.
Modeling Organization System External Environments
The external environment is denoted by an external environment entity model. The concept of Environment Entity is an abstraction that is used to define forthcoming developments (either inside or outside of the organization) which are likely to have important impact on the ability of the organization to meet its objectives. The Environment Entity is also an abstraction over the concept of strategic issue, and the concept of influencer in Motivational Modeling. The category of Environments Entities (Influencers) is large and inclusive. Every business has hundreds of potential Influencers. There will always be too many Influencers to model. The decision as to what Influencers to model is determined by the Influencers that impact the organization's strategies and tactics, and affect the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization.
External Organization Entity and Properties Editor
The Environments Entity Text Editor provides the capability to create Environments Entity objects. The External Organization Entity modeling editor allows users to create External Organization Entities such as suppliers, vendors, competitors, consulting companies, etc., as well as customers, markets, etc. The properties editor allows users to define and add to an external entity its intentions expressed in terms of goals models. The properties editor allows users to define and add to an external entity its intentions expressed in terms of goals models.
Environments Network Models & Organization Relations Models Editor
The External Organization Entity modeling editor allows users to create External Organization Entities such as suppliers, vendors, competitors, consulting companies, etc., as well as customers, markets, etc.
The Organization Relations Editor allows users to create relationship links between and among organization units, external entities, and environments factors (influencers). This essentially defines a network structure that depicts an organization system structure and its environment. The organization relationships types supported include "Value Chain" relations, and "Supply Chain" relations,
External Organization Entity Properties Editor
The properties editor allows users to define and add to an external entity its intentions expressed in terms of goals models.
Modeling Organization System Interactions
The Organization System Relations Editor enables users to create actor dependency networks that express the interactions of actors that comprise a system in achieving the objectives/purpose of the overall system of interest.
The editor supports a number of different dependency relations such as "value chain", "shared business function", etc. The dependency relations between actors are defined as directed network links, and the direction expresses the direction of exchange of value in terms of “value assets” during the interaction between for example, provider and customer, supplier and organization, etc.
The semantics of the interactions encoded on the dependency relations between two actors/social systems is through goal models.
- Task Dependency - This dependency defines a sub-model in which the dependum is stated as an activity (process). The depender wants the dependee to perform the service as specified by the description of the activity. For example, Engineering depends on Production to produce the product according to some process. Production can be further constrained by a “Conform To Specification” dependency with Engineering. A task/process denoted by a process contributor that is specified through BPMN process model. Process Contributors have contributions links to functional goals/softgoals indicating how they contribute to achieving those functional goals or qualities (positively or negatively, with what strength) respectively. High level softgoals are refined into more specific softgoals through AND, OR combinations as well as partial contributions.
- Resource Dependency – This dependency defines a sub-model in which the "dependum" is an entity (information or material object). The depender wants the dependee to furnish the entity so that it can be consumed as a resource, but is not concerned about the activity or any problem solving that may be needed to produce the entity. For example, Engineering treats product concept as a resource from Marketing, and the Customer treats the final product from production as a resource.
Strategic Goal Dependency Relations Models & Editor
The strategic goal dependency relations designer enables the creation of strategic goal dependency relations diagrams. These diagrams define declarative high-level network models of social systems' strategic objectives and goals. The goal models are linked to the actors and they express the expectations of each of the parties to the relationship. The actors in a social system are connected by strategic goal dependency relationships to form a social network.
The strategic goal dependency relations models define declarative high-level network models of social systems' strategic objectives and goals. The goal models are linked to the actors and they express the expectations of each of the parties to the relationship. The organization goals express organization's purpose, motivations, beliefs and intent of the organization actors (stakeholders, managers, employees, etc.). The notion of “purpose” (as in purposeful endeavor) in social systems is a goal to be achieved. Members in that society (social system) have to subscribe to that goal which gives coherence to their motivations, decisions, actions, and behavior. The strategic goal dependency relationships models enable the development of social systems and social networks' models of business, government agencies, and community organizational social systems that represent abstractions of real world organizations and institutions.The strategic goal dependency relations supported include:
- Goal Dependency – This dependency defines a relationship between Organization Units) logical actors in which the “dependum” is stated as an assertion (goal). The depender wants the dependee to make the assertion true, without specifying how it is to be achieved. In a goal dependency, the dependee is free to adopt any course of action, as long as the goal is achieved. The depender does not care how it is achieved. For example, Marketing depends on Engineering to have a product designed. Engineering has the freedom to choose how to do the design, as long as the goal of getting the product designed is achieved.
- Softgoal Dependency – This dependency defines a sub-model in which the dependum is a quality attribute (expressed as softgoals), such as “fast”, “cheap”, “reliable”, “secure”, etc. A softgoal dependency is similar to a goal dependency except that the criteria for achievement of the quality goal is not sharply defined a priori, but may require elaboration and clarification. Consultation between depender and dependee may be required. For example, Corporate Management’s softgoal dependency on Marketing for profitable products indicates that Corporate Management chooses among the different ways which Marketing believes can achieve profitable products.
The strategic goal dependency relations models may be contrasted with process models employing dynamic ontologies. Unlike typical process models based on activity diagrams and data flow diagrams which focus on workflow, control flow, and information flow; the SD (strategic goal dependency relations) models depict what actors want from each other, and the freedoms that each actor has. For example, actors may possess knowledge that enables them to achieve specific goals and perform certain tasks, but this knowledge is not made explicit in the SD model. SD models depict external relationships among actors, while remaining silent regarding the internal makeup of actors.
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Organization System - Logical Model View
A system is an orderly grouping of interdependent components linked together according to a plan to achieve some specified objective/mission. The system elements include:
Outputs and Inputs
The outputs of a system define the value produced by the system from its inputs for the benefit of the system's users. The determining the output is a critical step in is specifying the nature, amount, and regularity of the inputs needed to operate the system.
Processors
These are the elements of a system that actually transforms inputs into outputs. These may include resources such as people/human resources, equipment, etc., which can be organized according to how work gets done, i.e., processes for creating and delivering value, and how they are managed i.e., organization functions, divisions, etc.
Process
A process is an orderly grouping of interdependent activities/tasks linked together according to a plan (flow chart) to achieve a specific objective (produce an output of a specified type). An activity is associated with assignment policies that defines the rules and criteria for match between role definition and the specification of the required skills and qualifications to perform the activity/task. The policy can be resolved at run-time to any available resource with the requisite skills and qualifications. These resources may be tangible assets/resources such as human resources (people), capital assets (i.e., property, plant and equipment).
Organization Unit
The Organization Unit is an abstraction of the logical structured actors that represent business entities such as business units, business functions, departments, bureaus, teams, groups, divisions, etc. An organization unit policies define the criteria for a group of people that are members of the organization. The criteria for the grouping may be based on function (people with similar skills), product develop, division, etc. An organization unit is an ordered grouping of interdependent positions linked together according to a plan (reporting relationships) to achieve specific objectives. Organizational Units can be categorized according to certain characteristics such as responsibilities and obligations of a set of employees. They group organizational controls, people, processes, culture, assets such as applications, and knowledge, and information to reflect the realization of the organization's effective strategy. When the Organizational Unit reaches its lowest level of decomposition it is represented by a Position.
Positions - Skills, Knowledge, and Capabilities
Positions as Logical Actors are social concepts employed by organizations for abstracting from specific human actors in the organization. Positions represent the part of the organizational design which specifies the competencies and services necessary to achieve the society (business enterprise) objectives. Positions define how the organization aims at implementing its design through the specification of the behavior of particular individuals or group of individuals.
Organization capability defines “what” a business does at its core, and can be denoted by the level-1 functions of the organization. It expresses the capacity to deploy resources or efficiently and effectively assign organization activities in creating and delivering value to customers. Organization capability is defined operationally, in terms of the dynamic relationships between organizational culture, the outcomes of operational processes, institutional arrangements, structure, and the organization’s resources. It expresses the potential capacity to deploy resources, or efficiently and effectively assign organization activities to the right “actors” (socio-technical systems) in creating and delivering value to customers.
Feedback
The feedback loop is a process in which a system receives internal/environmental responses to its behavior and in turn, reacts to those received responses by accommodating and assimilating the energy/information received, by altering the system's structure, and then engaging in altered exchanges of energy/information. Feedback measures output against a standard in some form of cybernetic procedure that includes communication and control. Feedback can be positive or negative; routine or informational. Negative feedback generally provides the controller with information for action. Positive feedback reinforces the performance of the system, and is routine in nature.
Environment
The external environment modeled as a network of Organizations - complexes of people ans/or groups that according to commonly agreed rules and procedures strive to realize one or more preset objectives; and Institutions - complexes of norms and behaviors that persists over time by serving collectively valued purpose.
. The external environment is modeled by the external entity abstraction is an abstraction over the concept of influencer (as in Motivational Modeling) that can be used in modeling external organizations and institutions. The concept of organization can denote concepts such as regulators, competitors, market forces, customers, technology, etc. Institutions can be concrete (e.g., government, schools, airports, banks, law courts, churches, etc.); or abstract (e.g., the law, maekets, unwritten social rules in a community, marriage, money, etc.).
The category of external entities (influencers) is large and inclusive. Every business has hundreds of potential influencers. Influences can be political, economic, ecological, societal, and technology. There will always be too many influencers to model. The decision as to what influencers to model is determined by the influencers that impact the organization's strategies and tactics, and affect the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization.
Boundary and Interfaces
A system is defined by its boundaries - the limits that identify its components, processes, and interrelationships when it interfaces with another system.
A system is an orderly grouping of interdependent components linked together according to a plan to achieve some specified objective/mission. The system elements include:
- Output and Inputs
- Processors
- Control System
- Feedback Mechanism
- Environment
- Boundaries and Interfaces
Outputs and Inputs
The outputs of a system define the value produced by the system from its inputs for the benefit of the system's users. The determining the output is a critical step in is specifying the nature, amount, and regularity of the inputs needed to operate the system.
Processors
These are the elements of a system that actually transforms inputs into outputs. These may include resources such as people/human resources, equipment, etc., which can be organized according to how work gets done, i.e., processes for creating and delivering value, and how they are managed i.e., organization functions, divisions, etc.
Process
A process is an orderly grouping of interdependent activities/tasks linked together according to a plan (flow chart) to achieve a specific objective (produce an output of a specified type). An activity is associated with assignment policies that defines the rules and criteria for match between role definition and the specification of the required skills and qualifications to perform the activity/task. The policy can be resolved at run-time to any available resource with the requisite skills and qualifications. These resources may be tangible assets/resources such as human resources (people), capital assets (i.e., property, plant and equipment).
Organization Unit
The Organization Unit is an abstraction of the logical structured actors that represent business entities such as business units, business functions, departments, bureaus, teams, groups, divisions, etc. An organization unit policies define the criteria for a group of people that are members of the organization. The criteria for the grouping may be based on function (people with similar skills), product develop, division, etc. An organization unit is an ordered grouping of interdependent positions linked together according to a plan (reporting relationships) to achieve specific objectives. Organizational Units can be categorized according to certain characteristics such as responsibilities and obligations of a set of employees. They group organizational controls, people, processes, culture, assets such as applications, and knowledge, and information to reflect the realization of the organization's effective strategy. When the Organizational Unit reaches its lowest level of decomposition it is represented by a Position.
Positions - Skills, Knowledge, and Capabilities
Positions as Logical Actors are social concepts employed by organizations for abstracting from specific human actors in the organization. Positions represent the part of the organizational design which specifies the competencies and services necessary to achieve the society (business enterprise) objectives. Positions define how the organization aims at implementing its design through the specification of the behavior of particular individuals or group of individuals.
Organization capability defines “what” a business does at its core, and can be denoted by the level-1 functions of the organization. It expresses the capacity to deploy resources or efficiently and effectively assign organization activities in creating and delivering value to customers. Organization capability is defined operationally, in terms of the dynamic relationships between organizational culture, the outcomes of operational processes, institutional arrangements, structure, and the organization’s resources. It expresses the potential capacity to deploy resources, or efficiently and effectively assign organization activities to the right “actors” (socio-technical systems) in creating and delivering value to customers.
Feedback
The feedback loop is a process in which a system receives internal/environmental responses to its behavior and in turn, reacts to those received responses by accommodating and assimilating the energy/information received, by altering the system's structure, and then engaging in altered exchanges of energy/information. Feedback measures output against a standard in some form of cybernetic procedure that includes communication and control. Feedback can be positive or negative; routine or informational. Negative feedback generally provides the controller with information for action. Positive feedback reinforces the performance of the system, and is routine in nature.
Environment
The external environment modeled as a network of Organizations - complexes of people ans/or groups that according to commonly agreed rules and procedures strive to realize one or more preset objectives; and Institutions - complexes of norms and behaviors that persists over time by serving collectively valued purpose.
. The external environment is modeled by the external entity abstraction is an abstraction over the concept of influencer (as in Motivational Modeling) that can be used in modeling external organizations and institutions. The concept of organization can denote concepts such as regulators, competitors, market forces, customers, technology, etc. Institutions can be concrete (e.g., government, schools, airports, banks, law courts, churches, etc.); or abstract (e.g., the law, maekets, unwritten social rules in a community, marriage, money, etc.).
The category of external entities (influencers) is large and inclusive. Every business has hundreds of potential influencers. Influences can be political, economic, ecological, societal, and technology. There will always be too many influencers to model. The decision as to what influencers to model is determined by the influencers that impact the organization's strategies and tactics, and affect the achievement of goals and objectives of the organization.
Boundary and Interfaces
A system is defined by its boundaries - the limits that identify its components, processes, and interrelationships when it interfaces with another system.