Stephen Billing’s Blog

Alvesson and Sveningsson have a useful potted summary of open systems thinking which I will briefly explain in this post. It is useful because this thinking is so strongly embedded in most thinking about organisational change. And this thinking is, in my opinion, largely responsible for the reported widespread failure of organisational change projects.

Organisations as Systems

The open systems way of thinking emphasises the organisation-wide view rather than just what is going on in work groups. Organisations are seen as a set of systems and sub-systems that are interconnected. In a well-functioning organisation there is fit and harmony between these sub-systems.

The organisation is seen as an open system, in interaction with the wider environment in which it exists, which is itself a larger system. Change in the macro environment system causes change in the organisational system and sub-systems.

The soft elements of people, culture and values need to be aligned to the harder elements of technology, strategy and structure. In fact, the term "alignment" is a giveaway that the person speaking is coming from a systems perspective. Common aspects that are said to need to be aligned include people, process and systems.

Respected organisation development pioneer Noel Tichy, for example, identified in his TPC model three mutually dependent systems: technological, political and cultural. McKinsey’s popular "7S" model is another example where they formulate organisations as the interdepedency of seven systems each of which begins with the letter "S."

A change in any one of these will also involve a change in the others because they are interdependent. Systems thinking emphasises understanding the linkages between the different sub-systems.

In systems thinking, an organisation is seen as a system.

In a further evolution of systems thinking, organisations came to be seen as living systems, in other words, as organisms. In this metaphor, organisations are seen as being like biological life forms, having the ability to think (head), ability to feel emotion (heart) and the ability to take action (hands). In this way of thinking, actions taken should be determined by rational thought (of the top managers or "head"), carried out by the workers ("hands"), with passion. If any of these are missing, then projects are initiated to capture the hearts and minds of staff.