The seven stages are:
1 The problem situation unstructured;
2 The problem situation expressed;
3 Root definitions of relevant systems;
4 Deriving conceptual models;
5 Comparing conceptual models with the "real" world;
6 Defining feasible, desirable changes;
7 Taking action.
Stages (1), (2), (5), (6) and (7) can be regarded as working in the real world, while stages (3) and (4) can be considered to be systems thinking about the real world.( A. Platt, S. Warwick, 1995)
Problems In the Company. Why use SSM ?
The Company had to face many problems in employing employee relation the situation within the production function itself was also at crisis. Traditionally Merchem’s Managements felt that employees didn’t work hard and impose close supervision and control over subordinates. This had thus degenerated into management by threat as market pleasures and procedures being enforced. There were many errors and mistakes leading to high levels of waste, spoiled works and low quality problems, and this has increased cost. Morale was extremely low and often resulted from the poor quality materials with which they were worked, they refused to collaborate with their supervisors and industrial relation problems between management and unions or shop stewards were frequent.
The Problems faced by the company has to be viewed in terms of the SSM methodologies. The inbuilt differences in management systems prevailed in the company have concentrated small issues that could have been solved easily into big problems that cast a lasting shadow on the company as a whole itself. This state of affairs of the company can be explained in terms of the problems it faces.
Some of them are listed below:
- Decreased market share
- Profit has declined
- Low employee morale
- Frequent individual actions
- Hostile environment
- Decreased Quality
- Failure to the cope with the emerging trends as a result of liberalization and globalization.
If the Company could address these problems effectively it can come out of this mess. These problems are basically structural in nature, not technological. Hence by using SSM Methodology these problems could be tackled.
In terms of external and internal problems the company could have done with a well-trained and highly aware management team. Infact this was lacking .The management jobs were specialized and there was little team spirit or there was not a will to change
Environmental Problems
It was all working fine for the company when the people staying in the local area started agitating for closure of its major factories due to pollution issues. Due to this production had to be stopped for a couple of months, during which the company lost nearly 12 lakhs rupees a day. The Factories had to be then locked, after the court gave order for closure of factory due to pollution. However again after two months the company obtained a stay order from high court with conditions of not producing some chemicals until some checks have been made. This led to low production and low capacity utilization, which affected the company’s overall financial results.
Even though the company was able to solve its problems in courts, it was not able to settle issues with the agitating people in the local areas who always tried to create problems there, which in turn reflected the company’s image. Agitations led to low level of productions and company’s competitors began to improve their market presence
The company didn’t maintain a good public relations and it didn’t have anyone in the top Management to deal with these issues. The Company didn’t have good communication with the outside world. It Public relation was so bad that it didn’t do any thing to respond to the news which came on newspaper and televisions.
Political Problems:
Due to heavy agitation on pollution issues, some local political organization began to extend their support and sympathy to those people keeping in mind the vote bank of that area. Also the state is dominated by many trade unions, which are communist, and soon political groups soon started creating problems for Merchem. A Company, which was for years talking care of its employees by themselves, found it hard to deal the situation as its management has less experience in dealing with political parties
The management was not able to deal nicely with the unions and they felt humiliated. The unions hence began interfering in all the company activities
SSM For Management.
One of the major reasons for the problems of the company was the management’s inability to understand the complex situation in the organization. Unlike many companies it was not professionally managed but was managed by family. The management was actually driven away by the firm’s previous success and assumed that the company’s present name would keep the company going on. They were wrong, because market changed, people changed not the management
Using SSM for Human resources
One of the major areas where we had to use SSM and where we didn’t use SSM was Human Resources management’s. SSM can be used as a vehicle for developing competitiveness in human resource management. The benefits of SSM are based on its underlying interpretive assumptions, the distinctive way in which conceptual models are used to create learning and insight, and other aspects of systems thinking, notably the guidance embodied in its technology, and its use of the systems concepts of hierarchy and holism. Any information, which is a potential source of insight about the kinds of competences, needed, either currently or in the future, are relevant and should be included. In most organizations people hold differing opinions on the aims being pursued and the problems and issues in the situation as it currently exists, or as it might exist given certain defined scenarios. The rich picture should embody the full diversity of these viewpoints ( John Brocklesby, 1995). At this point there should be no attempt to deny the applicability or relevance of minority opinions, or opinions which run counter to the official line. In fact, counter-viewpoints can lead to creative insights, which may not emerge if discussion is limited to perspectives compatible with the currently prevailing ideology. In the rich picture it should be possible to visualize how individual activities, issues or problems fit into the broader context within which these are located.
After the initial rich picture has been developed and broad themes identified, a range of task and issue models based on different Weltanschauungen should be constructed and contrasted with the real world situation. In most SSM projects, a combination of task and issue systems is included, and this is advocated here. Task systems represent official pronouncements about the identity of an organization or what a particular job involves. Issue systems may represent continuous aspects of a job or contain ideas about what it means to be a member of a particular organization, which are not formally sanctioned. Often, when individuals are being questioned directly about competences, these unofficial aspects of work do not surface. They can, however, be very important. Cultural and political aspects of work, for example, are especially important, and often warrant further attention. Sometimes achieving a better "fit" between individuals and these contextual and informal features of their work is more important than ensuring that individuals satisfy technical competence criteria. ( John Brocklesby, 1995)
The problem is most noticeable when a group of individuals are placed in a focus group and asked to recount their ideas about the competences required in their work, or to describe the differences between good and bad performers. Difficulties arise when such beliefs are abstracted from the broader pattern of ideas and worldviews, which give them meaning. When the data are aggregated, as they usually are, much of the meaning is lost. In SSM, the concern, always, is with wholes and the underlying worldviews, which provide the crucial meaning. Meaning is explored and made explicit. It is not neutralized through a process of aggregation. (John Brocklesby, 1995). If one accepts the idea that potentially there are a number of possible ways of doing a job well, aggregating data does not make a lot of sense. The results can be costly. Potential recruits may slip through the net because they fail to match aggregated criteria, which, at best, may bear only a tenuous relationship to the way in which the job would be done. At worst, the criteria may be completely irrelevant. Equally, current staff can become dissatisfied and disillusioned when meaningless criteria are applied in evaluating their performance. (John Brocklesby, 1995)
To the extent that any aspect of the HRM process privileges a particular worldview and takes this as a given aspect of the design brief, it suggests an orientation towards hard systems thinking. Often HRM appears to assume that the overall aims and objectives of the organization, or any of its sub-units, may be defined unequivocally without any serious investigation or reflection on the veracity of dominant viewpoints. Moreover it often appears that analyzing job or organizational requirements is largely unproblematic, that these may be defined objectively and unambiguously. To some extent this is true. There are basic skills associated with the job of brain surgeon that are fundamentally different from those required of a social worker, for example. Clearly as one move away from broad technical competences into the domain of attitudes, values and behavioral styles, the idea that such requirements may be defined objectively becomes increasingly less tenable.
SSM on quality
Merchem being a big player in chemical industry the problem was always maintain the quality issues. The company was able to maintain quality, but due to problems it was not able to maintain consistency in quality. The company has to establish a prevention approach to quality. The aim should be to get the right things from output requirements that should be regulated immediately. Nonconformance to requirement was eliminated. Employees should be motivated to own quality themselves
SSM for marketing
Marketing knowledge is accumulating in an inexorable, although slow, process, through the exchange of knowledge, mainly via the print media (systems). Various journals have taken an explicit interest in this process (Bush and Grant, 1994; Finn and McQuitty, 1994; Hubbard and Armstrong, 1994; Madden et al., 1995). The inputs to this are primarily submitted or commissioned articles/books (product) - generically the expression of ideas. The communication organs - primarily books and journals - generally involve independent editorial (including double-blind refereeing) (technique) and organisational and financial inputs (transactions). Through the conventions of attribution of sources, the stock of knowledge potentially passes into collective ownership (implementation).
According to Check land (1985, p. 826): A root definition is well formulated if it covers the elements in the mnemonic CATWOE.
C:(customers). Who are the system's victims or beneficiaries?
A:(actors). Who would do these activities?
T:(transformation process). What input is turned into what output?
W:(Weltanschauung). The worldview that makes this definition meaningful.
O: (owners). Who could abolish this system?
E: (environmental constraints). What does this system take as given?
Nevertheless, the written expression of a root definition should be concise and capture a particular, but not the only, view of the human activity system. The creation of a root definition should interact, through iteration, with the step where there is comparison of the conceptual models with the problem situation as expressed.
The firm has poor communication with its markets and plays no role trying to nurture its environment. Merchem marketing has been far too passive in the face of aggressive tactics from competitors. It sales force lacks proper training and professionalism and doesn’t seem motivated to establish and develop customer relations. Sales people are not able to service customers properly because of the simple lack of knowledge about what the company can offer.
Real world Situations.
We must gain a focus for the real world(fig :2). We must use “structured thinking, which aims to bring about improvements in a situation.” We
(fig : 2)
Must express a paradigm that is “in terms with epistemology.” No automatic assumptions can be made, and “each approach must be made with concise on moving from one world to another.” This approach, which was designed to be used in many different situations, may be “interpreted differently by each user.” This system as explained above is used or derives from what our own worldviews and language are. “It is meant to be interpreted rather than expressed from the paradigm.” (Yolles, 2002) Meaning each person is to make his or her own viewpoint, not one viewpoint for everyone. Each person must take the paradigm/concept given and make his or her own ideas
Stakeholder Analysis: From the Rich Picture we gain an accurate representation of the main stakeholders that are in the process. Here it is important to understand each stake older and what role they have to play in. They should also make sure that they communicate their vision to senior management as well as stakeholders
Weltanschauung: The different stake holders on the company views the problem in their own perceptive. The management throws the entire blame on the employees, where as the employees return the same coin.
Root Definition: A statement that is a combination of Weltanschauung partners using the CATWOE
Conceptual Model: It depends on integrated synchronized and harmonious present alias, which can give us an instinctive perception about the ideal system.
Real World Vs Concept Model: It is quite natural that the real world will definitely be at the variance with the concept ional model. This will enable us to analyse the gap and take and steps to bridge the gap.
Recommendations:
This is the recommended courses of action that take place in order to improve the process, based upon the real world and conceptual comparison.
Every company can change if the management begins taking interest for improvement. Most companies fail, because management forgets to give the due attention it needed. The company forgot to organize itself. Also family members ran Merchem’s activities, as it was a family owned company. However the company had to bring in professional to take care over the day-to-day activities as they are much qualified and has the experience to manage such situation
The Company needs to give focus on positioning based on priority. The first one is quality, which is very important for the company to survive on. Secondly it should concentrate on Staff training and human resources
Quality:
There are many dimensions to quality with definitions that vary among the organizations. By definition program evaluation is "the systematic assessment of the operation and/or the outcomes of a program or policy, compared to a set of explicit or implicit standards, as a means of contributing to the improvement of the program or policy" (Weiss, 1998). One of the major reasons for the instability of the organization was the fact that the company was not able to maintain the right standard in quality systems. Ensuring consistent quality, safety and protection of environment should be its major quality objectives. High standards of quality and product consistency should be maintained by a comprehensive system covering raw materials, production processes and end products. The management should analyze the situation and come out with suggestions for an enhanced quality management program based on assumptions and comparison of how the existing and the enhanced versions would address the problem situation confronting the firm. The firms should also try new approaches like using systems that might help them to improve its quality program.
Human resource and training:
Human resources planning are related to the assignment of the right number of people at the right place and time, in order to perform efficiently the job to be done. Many are the steps in the planning process (from forecasting or recruitment, to rostering definition) in order to achieve these overall objectives (Rampton et al., 1999). The concern with the workforce allocation problem, that is, the task of determining staff numbers in order to provide minimum coverage. Baker (1976), and more recently Mason and Ryan (1998), present a brief survey of some quantitative methods to approach that problem in different settings. These latter authors, for instance, apply heuristic algorithms and simulation for the integrated staffing problem for the Customs at the Auckland International Airport. Cruz-Cruz (1997) proposes the use of expert systems in the staffing decision-process. For the Company, it is very important to train the staff so as they can give better service to the people. Also staff attitude also matters in service for growth. Staff has to consider there jobs are service oriented, and concentrate more on improving. Also these staff works in a very stressful environment. So they have to be trained in such a way that they can overcome their tensions.
Traditionally in Merchem it has been a common practice to prepare detailed job descriptions and profiles of the "ideal candidate" based on some supposedly impartial reading of what a job involves. Today this practice is less appropriate. Work environments are more volatile than before, and individuals are now required to take personal initiatives in responding quickly to meet the needs of local, and often unforeseen circumstances. Here, tight job descriptions are manifestly dysfunctional. In recent years, Merchem have become more decentralized in response to the need to cope with increasingly competitive environments and hierarchies have been flattened, pushing decision making closer to the customers. Centralized bureaucratic control and tightly defined job descriptions are giving way to more subtle forms of control which has led to discretionary content being dispersed throughout organizations. In the recent past discretion has tended to be associated with senior positions. Today individuals are being given more license to define job boundaries themselves. Even in relatively stable environments, the belief that jobs must be done in a particular way, or that individuals must possess a particular set of aptitudes in order to perform a job well, is being questioned. Women and those promoting the cause of minority groups have been particularly vocal in this regard.
The occupational stress indicator (OSI) can be used to enable seven different aspects of the stress/strain relationship to be assessed in Merchem. In the company the employees reported greater pressure or stress at work than is the normal, and at higher levels than in day shift, and were experiencing significantly higher levels of mental and physical ill health as a consequence.
Job dissatisfaction was revealed as a major problem for the company as most workers reporting far less satisfaction at work than.
Environmental and political issuses: one of the major problems the company faced was the Environmental issue. The company has to find whether it really pollutes the area and what the company can do about reducing or decreasing the pollution .It should enter in talk with people in the nearby surroundings to enter into agreement, so that the company can work with the people and solve the problem.
The company should talk with the union leader and make them understand that instead of being part of any trade union, it would be better if the company has one union, which will look into the employee benefits. Management should try to implement some programs, which will take the employee in their confidence
Use of information Technology:
Perhaps this is where the company had lacked back. Even thought being a big company it didn’t have good IT infrastructure. The Company’s Information Technology was managed by its IT team, which didn’t do much to improve anything
The Company has four factories and it head office all of them which are in different geographical location but within a 25-mile range. Most people in head office are administration and marketing people while the people in factory are workers and supportive staff. Since people in head office who do the marketing and sales, they need to have good knowledge of the stock position etc
First of all the Company need to integrate its manufacturing, marketing and payroll and make it into a single integrative system by using Enterprise resource planning. SAP would be the best version to go as this as a lot of features and it’s a lot flexible and the company can tailor it to its needs. However such an implementation should be done with proper planning with help from IT Consultants as the investment here is too much and the company cannot effort to make a mistake. Once the Erp is installed the manager can check the stock position, the details of stock manufactured the dates of shipments and how the factory is responding to needs.
Intranet & Email:
Information should flow through the nerves of the organization as it is information that guides the company and perhaps the intranet is what the company cannot afford to miss. Much of the problem at Merchem was that people were not getting the required information at the right time. For example the, management was not knowing the problems of the organization as information was flowing late in the organization.
The intranet can solve this problem. The CEO can get up to date information of the current productions of each factories, the daily sales chart, the order remaining and other areas, which requires attention. Employees can benefit from the intranet by going through the companies policy, refer the employee manual, check their pay slips and other service like, how the companies competitors are doing etc.
Email the new artillery in cyber world is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way of communication. All most all employees other than factory worker should be given access to it and it should be effectively used
B2B E-Commerce:
To face challenges in the new business world the company can open an e-com site a B2B site so that the company can do more business not only with its Indian client but also to it international clients.
Different system approaches helps us in using the theoretical and methodological levels. Critical systems thinking uses all available metaphor to gain a better understanding of problem situation .The Merchem case the culture, management, employee relation and technology has been taken, and a change is needed to bring in a change in the organization
I would suggest that once company bring in the recommended changes it should then try to deal with it and make sure that a effective change has happened and that these changes will help the company not to repeat the mistakes it made before
Self-Reflective Learning
Complexity in organization is very common these days and they are growing, because as organization grows it is difficult to manage and understand the complexities. Change management help me to realized the complexities and problems that actually stopped the organization to grow, and the methodologies for improving the situation.
Studying managing information helped to understand change management without much difficulty. Mr. Yolles book was a very good book to start with. This book gives a foundation for systems theory and method, in particular, viable systems theory, that explicitly addresses complexity. The book is very good for a beginner to understand as each things are described in details and simple. Overall the book is excellent for management students, with its variety of case studies.
The website site of MR. Yolles was very good and informative. It had all the information for covering the subject. The Liverpool city council case study, the NHS case studies give a good idea on learning each methodology. The case studies presented are from real world complex situation
I also believe some video lectures should also be available on the website. Since the subject is strong and in depth analysis is needed, video lectures are always good to refresh memory. Group participation and seminars are the ways of improving learning and they get a chance to learn more
This subject has greatly attracted me. When I worked I was faced with real world situation. However I was never sure of these methodologies.. My work experiences and my visit to Merchem as a member of the audit company where I worked help me to do this course work. My jobs have helped me a lot in learning management skills and the experiences I learned there helped me in learning this subject easier. Also my sincere thanks to Mr. Yolles who has shown lot of patience and understanding in helping me to understand a relative very new, very difficult subject by his easy way of teaching, his example’s, which made us understand the methodologies and the valuable information he has passed on to us.
I also realized that methodologies like SSM could help in Improving HRM and marketing. Overall to be frank I enjoyed studying the subject as it was relatively new to me and it was interesting .The experiences I learned from this subject will help me in playing a big role in the company I will be working for identifying and solving problems.
