Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Block 04 Week 04
Managing within Organizations
Concept File 04
Section IV Development & Section V Culture & Climate
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
The four key hologram-like properties: G. Morgan
The capacity to get the whole into parts
2. The creation of connectivity and redundancy
3. The simultaneous creation of specialization
and generalization
4. The capacity of self-organization
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LEARNING
TO LEARN
HOLOGRAPHIC
ORGANIZATION
Principle of requisite
variety: provide
guidelines for the
design of the whole
relations showing
exactly how much of
the whole needs to be
built into a given part
REQUISITE
VARIETY
Lebanon Branch
MINIMAL CRITICAL SPECIFICATION
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Redundancy of Functions
A self-organized system needs an element of
redundancy: form of excess capacity which, when
appropriately designed and used creates room for
maneuver
Without such redundancy a system has no real
capacity to reflect on and question how it is operating
and to change its mode of functioning in constructive
ways or has no capacity for intelligence in the
sense of being able to adjust action to take account
of changes in the nature of relations within which the
actions is set.
T205B-Systems' Thinking & Practice - AOULebanon Branch
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Two methods for designing redundancy into a system
1.Redundancy of parts:
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
2.
Redundancy of Functions:
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Examples: Two methods for designing redundancy into a
system
Redundancy of parts:
EX: supervisors have fixed roles to perform so when a
problem arises outside their role, it is typically viewed as
someone elses problem
Redundancy of functions:
EX: here, the parts take their specific shape at any one time in
relation to the contingencies and problems arising in the total
situation (members acquire multiple skills so they are able to
perform each others jobs and substitute for each other as the
need arises)
This organization design possesses flexibility and a
capacity for reorganization within each and every part of
the system
T205B-Systems' Thinking & Practice - AOU28
Lebanon Branch
Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Requisite variety (question)
How much redundancy should be built into any
given part?
(excess capacity designed and used to reflect and
question how it is operating and change its mode of
functioning in constructive way: by using special
additional parts added to the system for the purpose of
control or by using extra functions added to the
operating parts)
Holographic principle suggests that we should try & build
everything. But in modern organization, the range of
knowledge and skills required is such that it is
impossible for everybody to become skilled in
everything, so what
do we
do?
T205B-Systems'
Thinking
& Practice - AOU29
Lebanon Branch
Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Requisite variety (Answer)
The idea of requisite variety becomes here very
important (things needed and required by circumstances
or for success)
W. Ross Ashby suggestion: (cybernetician)
Any control system must be as varied (full of changes or
variety) and complex as the environment being controlled
Holographic design context:
All elements of an organization should embody (include)
critical dimensions of the environment with which they
have to deal to self-organize to cope with the demands
they are likely to face
T205B-Systems' Thinking & Practice - AOULebanon Branch
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Questions & Answers
Holographic design context
To pay close attention to the boundary relations
between units and their environments
To ensure that requisite variety always falls
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Questions & Answers
Holographic design context
Can all the skills for dealing with this environment be
possessed by every individual?
If (yes), you should build multi-functioned people as in the
model of autonomous work group
If (no), you should build multi-teams that collectively
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Organization can be developed in a cellular manner around
self-organizing, multi-disciplined groups having the
requisite skills and abilities to deal with the environment
in a holistic and integrated way
Implications of requisite variety on every aspect of
organization:
Very important implications in favor of a proactive
(supporting) embracing (using) of the environment in all
its diversity
The principles of redundant functions and requisite variety
create systems with a capacity for self-organization
(capacity to be realized)
The coherent direction to assume: the principle of minimum
critical specificationT205B-Systems'
and ofThinking
learning
to learn
& Practice - AOU33
Lebanon Branch
Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
Minimum Critical Specification
To preserve flexibility by suggesting no more than is
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
- Minimum Critical Specification
- The principle of redundant functions creates flexibility
and the more we pre-design, the more we erode this
flexibility
- EX: if organizational designers adopt a facilitating role
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
- Minimum Critical Specification
- The principle of minimum critical specification
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Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
- Learning to learn
- A systems capacity for coherent self-regulation and
Reading 22
The Holographic Organization
- Learning to learn
Ex: strong tendencies created in modern organizations
through the introduction of micro-processing technologies
diffusing information, communications and control.
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1.
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3.
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4.
Person-centered cultures
This form of cultures is unusual in traditional profit
making organizations, it is important when there is a
need to find new ways of operating.
They exist for the people within them such as families,
social groups, and barristers chambers.
They are democratic and take time to make decisions,
and best suited for small groups operating in a
changing environment.
T205B-Systems' Thinking & Practice - AOULebanon Branch
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Reading 25
Defensive and Supportive Climates
An organizations climate affects its ability to learn. In this
context we can distinguish between two sorts of
climates:
Defensive climates and supportive climates.
25.1 Defensive climates
In their book Organizational Learning Argyris and Schon
argue that many organizations are reluctant to probe
into their mistakes and fail to learn from them due to
their existing culture of rewarding success and
rejecting failure.
They mentioned what they call the unwritten rules that
govern organizational relationships:
T205B-Systems' Thinking & Practice - AOULebanon Branch
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Reading 25
Defensive and Supportive Climates
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3.
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Reading 25
Defensive and Supportive Climates
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6.
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Reading 25
Defensive and Supportive Climates
A defensive organizational climate limits the
organizations learning ability.
When discussion of important issues is discouraged
double-loop learning cannot be achieved.
In order for the organization to be able to deal with a
defensive climate two conditions must be met:
1. Being able to recognize when people are behaving in
accordance with the unwritten rules of a defensive
climate.
2. Having a clear idea of what a viable alternative looks
like.
T205B-Systems' Thinking & Practice - AOULebanon Branch
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Reading 25
Defensive and Supportive Climates
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7.
Reading 25
Defensive and Supportive Climates
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Reading 26
Bates Study of Organizational Culture
In the late 1970s Paul Bate conducted a study of
three UK companies, a chemicals company, a
footwear company, and a dairy products
company to test their problem solving
capability.
In his findings he concluded that six factors in
organizational culture hinder the
organizations ability to solve problems, these
factors include:
T205B-Systems' Thinking & Practice - AOULebanon Branch
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Reading 26
Bates Study of Organizational Culture
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