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Effective Management Decision MakingChapter 5Its second key attribute, especially necessary for managers making inclusive organisational decisions, is that through themethodology, different perspectives on a problem or opportunity are specifically sought. This is called the worldview (orsometimes described through the German word Weltanshauung). This concept describes the set of values, perceptions andindividual social constructs that allow individuals to derive meaning from their organisational activities. With the recognitionthat this mix of individual perspectives exists within the organisation’s human resources, there is a clear need to seek to identifywhat will help motive those resources to engage with and implement appropriate change in organisational activities. An aimtherefore of this system view of the organisation is to try to seek consensual change, where the human resources are activelyengaged with the decision making process and where their breadth of views and perceptions are recognized within that decisionmaking process. There is therefore not necessarily a defined strategic objective to be achieved through the methodology of tryingto identify an optimal solution or action for a problem or opportunity. Instead the objective is to progress towards an improvedcompetitive and co-operative position (both internally and externally to the organisation).The methodology, whilst having an analytical structure, still follows the three phased models imperative outlined inchapter 1, of not seeking to generate prescriptive interpretations of actions. An intervention in an organisation in Mode1 therefore commences with step 1 – entering the problem domain. This step is concerned with collecting appropriateinformation regarding the organisation and the problem or opportunity. This should involve both hard (quantitative)data and soft (human value) data. The second step is to translate this information into a rich picture. This is a visualrepresentation of all that is known about the problem or opportunity requiring action. It can include words, images, icons,arrows, flowcharts and so forth. It should be able to easily communicate to another viewer, what the emergent concernsand issues are that are shaping the operation of the organisation in the areas identified. This image therefore captures thenature of the relationships in the problem domain.Next, is the analysis of the image and data collected. This step can be most effectively addressed by not considering whatthe problem is in the rich picture, but by seeking to identify the scope of emergent perceptions of organisational activityand the aims of those activities. We can describe these as the holons of the organisational system. Two interpretations ofMode 1 are presented in this chapter for this – the original Checkland method and the Midgely and Reynolds (cited byWilliams and Hummelbrunner (2010) method. Firstly, the Checkland method asks the analyst to identify the followingfrom the organisational data:1) C- Customers – who/what is receiving the service/output of the organisational activity considered?2) A – Actors – who/what is performing the activity to deliver/produce the service/output?3) T – Transformation – what is being acted upon and being changed by the system activity?4) W – Weltanshauung – what is the worldview that gives meaning to those involved in the activity, to producethe service/output?5) O – Owners – who/what is in a position (internally or externally) to be able to stop/affect the activity ofthe organisation?6) E – Environment - who/what in the external environment of the organisation is in a position to be able toaffect / influence / halt the considered activity of the organisation?186Download free ebooks at bookboon.com
Effective Management Decision MakingChapter 5Clearly, it is important to realize quickly, the relationship between the T and W in this CATWOE analysis. They shouldbe identified as only being valid, when viewed from a paired perspective. Hence the change being sought through anorganisation must be valid (and desired) by some individual or entity of or by, the organisation. The analyst should alsoexpect to find a range of paired T-Ws deriving primarily from the C and A identified in the activity(ies) of the presentedsystem. One important issue to note in these stages of analysis, is the nature of T.A T (Transformation) being enacted by the system considered, needs to be viewed as fundamentally a change of state foran input in the considered activity. Returning to an earlier notion about systems analysis being concerned with the overallorderliness of that system, the change of state refers to an increase or decrease in that system order (sometimes describedas the entropy of the system). Above all else then, soft systems methodology is an interpretive paradigm (Brocklesby,1994). For example the following would be considered valid T, for appropriate C and/or A:1) Unplayed pitch → Played pitch (the pitch has been ‘transformed’ (gone from non churned up to churned up)through the activity of the game being played)2) Untired players → tired players (the players have had their energy levels reduced through the game being played)3) Unassembled car parts → assembled car parts (the parts have been acted upon through the activity of theorganisation (the production line) and rearranged into a whole (although they still exist as parts).4) Unresolved issue →resolved issue. This would be a generic transformation description.5) Time available →time taken up. This would be also a generic transformation description common in anorganisation (and typical of Mode 2 analysis discussed shortly).With an identified collection of descriptions now gathered for CATWOE, the methodology moves from the reality ofthe organisational activity, to the imaginary and considers what is the identified aim of the system considered whenselecting one pairing and T-W (and appropriate C,A,O and E therein). This is called a root definition of the systembeing considered. Again, as there are potentially a large variety of T-W pairings, there can also therefore be as many rootdefinitions too for a given system of interest.It is helpful to construct an identified root definition of the system considered, by bringing together the CATWOEdescriptions in the form of a single sentence statement. Such that the root definition can be stated as:To do W by A, by means of T given the constraints of E and O (in order to achieve X for C).Consider an example of a media company owned by an independent Foundation, producing news stories on organicand sustainable foods. From a data collection activity and rich picture generation, let’s assume the following CATWOEis generated:• Customers = sustainable agriculture lobbyists• Actors = project evaluators, farmers, retailers, Sustainable Food Collaboration staff• Transformation = preponderance of bad stories replaced by a preponderance of good stories• Weltanschauung = the belief that stories bring about pressure for social change• Owner = The Foundation• Environment = established practice, isolated area, poverty and lack of investment capital187Download free ebooks at bookboon.com
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