Please make sure to bring all the lecture notes

Please make sure to bring all the lecture notes (up to week 10) – as I will be summarizing all the notes today

Decision Support & Executive Information Systems: LECTURE 10Amare Michael Desta

Organizational Leadership, Cultures and Process Maturity Closed System View of Org.: Many different perspectives - Closed system perspective • Organization as instrument to achieve defined goals • Efficiency • Effectiveness • Flexibility / adaptability • Job satisfaction - Four activities follow from the above • Complexity and specialization of tasks • Centralization of authority • Formalization of jobs • Stratification of employment levels

Closed System View - Criticism • View sees humans as machines • Resources are optimised • Not true in all cases • Responses fit into the defined plan • Environmental influence seen as only noise

Open System View of Organizations • Interested in both the objectives and responses to internal and external influences • Organizational activities (Weick) • Enactment, selection and retention • Results of these are • Understanding of the environment • Recognizing problems • Diagnosing causes for problems • Identifying policies to solve problems • Evaluating the efficiency of the policies • Selecting priorities for problem solving

Organizational Learning Model(Daft & Weick) Three major components - Scanning • Monitoring the environment - Interpretation • Translating observations - Learning • Knowledge about relations between organization’s state and environment • Actions

Generic Roles for Executives To achieve the defined goals FOUR different Rolesare needed by executives - Administration • Caretaking role • Management • Concerned with efficiency • Leadership • Setting of a vision and seeing it through • Governance • Stakeholder management

Organizational Topographies • Inactive organization • Tries to avoid problems • Waits them to go away • Reactive organization • Problem solving organization • Internal environment • Interactive organization • Tries to adapt to external environment • Development of responses to external environment • Proactive organization • Learning to learn better • Adaptive behaviour

Organizational Learning • Organizational learning is needed to anticipate changes and improve behaviour • Situation assessment • Problem detection • Solution • Evaluation of outcome • Resulting discovery • The learning is not always beneficial in practice • E.g. improperly simplified causal models

Theory of Reasoning, Learning and Action • Two major inhibitions to learning 1) Distortion of information • Quality of decisions affected 2) Lack of receptivity to feedback • Types of organizational learning • Single-loop • Present policies to achieve present goals • No questioning of goals • Double-loop • New understanding developed • Goals are put under scrutiny • Poor performance organizations usually use single-loop learning

Theory of Reasoning, Learning and Action (2) • There are other inhibitions to learning • Distancing • Not accepting responsibility • Disconnectedness • Limited information about theories in use and the associated actions • Five dilemmas • Incongruity • Inconsistency • Ineffectiveness • Disusability • Unobservability

Learning Organization • “Organization where people continually expand their capacity to create results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together” (Peter Senge) • Five disciplines enable this learning • Systems thinking • Personal mastery through lifelong learning • Shared mental models of markets and competitors • Shared vision • Team learning • Lack of capability in one of the five disciplines is called a learning disability

11 Laws of Systems Thinking • Future problems come about because of what were presumed past solutions • Every action has a reaction • Short-term improvements lead to long-term difficulties • Easy solution is no solution at all • Solution may be worse than the problem • Quick solutions lead to more problems • Cause and effect not necessarily closely linked • Best actions not obvious at first • Low cost and high effectiveness need not to be trade-offs • The entirety is more than the sum of its parts • Entire system must be considered together

How to Build a Learning Organization? • Leaders must be • Designers • Stewards • Teachers • Three pragmatic needs • Meaning • Management • Measurement • Five building blocks • Systematic problem solving process • Experimentation • Learning from past mistakes • Learning from others • Transferring the knowledge through organization

Problem Solving Process Assess situation and select problem for resolution Problem definition Generate solution options Evaluate options and select preferred option Implement solution Evaluate solution

Organizational Cultures • Culture closely related to learning • Socially transmitted behaviour patterns • Critical success factors of organizational character • Shared vision • Motivational faith • Distinctive skills • Change in culture must be controlled • Reasons for failure • No shared vision of impending crisis • No shared vision of a way out of crisis • Culture change produces wrong results • People learn in a wrong way

Changing Culture • Change is often resisted even though it is known to be needed • People do not know in which way or how to change • Poor abilities at double-loop learning • Past competence a path to success • Stereotypical thinking • Fall into ideological routines • Multiphase approach to change • Access corporate culture • Identify approaches to culture change • Negotiate a shared vision • Deploy the shared vision

Culture Clash • Three different cultures • Corporate culture stresses loyalty to organization • Professional culture emphasises given knowledge - Loyalty to profession greater than loyalty to organization • Social culture represents the values of individuals • Clash areas • Specialization • Managers <-> Employees • Overspecifying practice • Underspecifying the end • Employees want autonomy • Tight supervision • Formalization of control • Principles more important than practice • Short-term profits vs. ethics

Culture and leadership • A number of studies discuss the interaction of culture and leadership and the role of these in creating excellence • E.g Hickman and Silva suggest strategy and culture as foundations for excellence • They further identify six “new age skills” aggregated under three more generic (need) categories

Hickman and Silva • The need to forge a strong foundation for excellence through: • creative insight • sensitivity • The need to integrate organizational and individual skills through: • vision and • patience • The need for adaptation through: • versatility and • Focus

Kotter and Heskett • Kotter and Heskett identified several important cultural realities: • Organizational culture has a significant impact on the long term performance of an organization • The importance of culture will increase in the future • Organizational cultures that are debilitating to long term performance are not uncommon • Organizational cultures can be changed to allow enhanced performance • Effort is primarily concerned with identification of the characteristics of cultures that will be most supportive of excellence performance.

Leadership and management: Studies of individual and organizational leadership • Covey’s SEVEN habits of effective people • First three relate to individual concerns • Next three relate to group and organizational issues • The last concerns learning and renewal counterbalance independence and dependence relations

Covey • Covey also identifies THREE primary traits of effective leaders (a) integrity (b) maturity and (c) abundant mentality and THREE types of power: • Principle-centered power, based on honor • Utility power, based on fairness • Coercive power, based on fear • Related to various contexts for learning

Covey • FOUR paradigms that could be used as a basis for leadership: • The scientific management paradigm • The human relations paradigm • The human resources paradigm • The principle-centered leadership paradigm

Badaracco and Ellworth • Badaracco and Ellworth’s identified THREE leadership philosophies based on a set of fundamental assumptions about human nature and the resulting behavior patterns of people in organizations • Political leadership • Directive leadership • Value-driven leadership • Philosophies are also provided with suggestions for operational management and task control

Rothschild - identified FOUR major leadership roles • Risk-takers, often creators of an organization who have the dedication and talent to implement a strategic vision • Care-takers, who nurture an organization beyond its growth stage into a healthy maturity • Surgeons, who examine diseased portions of an organization and correct or remove those portions • Undertakers, who harvest and/or merge the organization in order to mercifully lay to rest an unsalvageable organization & rescue those portions that are capable & in need of rebirth in a new form

Kotter • Kotter has distinguished between leadership and management • Kotter indicates that leadership involves moving people from one state to a better state without transgressing on the rights of other • To do this, leadership involves three principal activities that roughly correspond to the definition, development, and deployment effort in systems engineering :

Kotter continues… 1. Agenda creation. Direction setting is needed to establish a future vision and strategies for the needed changes to enable realization of the vision. 2. Developing human networks. Communication of the vision and developing a set of shared assumptions and understanding the vision are needed to achieve an alignment of people who are committed to organizational progress. 3. Action implementation or execution. Motivating and inspiring people to move in directions appropriate to achieve the strategic vision despite the political challenges and bureaucratic barriers.

Cultural Framework Models • Sage introduces two separate works on cultural frameworks • Bolman and Deal’s (1991), and • Bergquist (1992). • They all are built for a university environment. • These are suggested to be applicable in a more general organizational setting.

Bolman and Deal’s Cultural Framework Model • Bolman and Deal (1994) identify FOUR frameworks for modeling organizational culture: 1) structural framework; formal rationality and analytical methodologic approaches are preffered for organizing 2) human relations framework; purpose of organization is support for the people in the organization

Dolman and Deal (cont.) 3) political framework; organization viewed as a coalition of diverse interests - most of which based on differing values and perceptions of reality 4) symbolic framework; sees that meaning, or interpretation, of the same event across subcultures will generally be very different • ambiguity in organization -> formal rational analysis becomes difficult -> humans create symbols that become surrogates for more fundamental and meaningful events.

Bergquist’s Cultural Framework Berguist (1992) divides organizational cultures into FOUR: 1) collegial culture;sees diversity of perspective and autonomy of effort -> supports academic governance -> supports disciplinary scholarship and research 2) managerial culture; closely associated with junior- college culture and any very strongly top-down leadership -> acceptance of detailed plans expected

Bergquist (cont.) 3) developmental culture; orgzns and their processes designed to effectively accommodate needs of university (organization) -> supports fulfillment of university (organization) mission 4) negotiating culture; very concerned with personal and financial needs of faculty and staff -> change takes place through confrontational efforts and effective use of scarce resources - often includesbargaining efforts

Cultural Dynamics Model of Oraganizational Forms • This model is developed by Henry Minzberg and aims to describe organizational forms, to helpdesign effective organizations. • FIVE mechanisms describe work coordination approaches in industrial organizations: • Mutual adjustment • Direct supervision • Standardization of work processes • Standardization of skills and knowledge • Standardization of norms.

Process maturity Process models 1) organizational lifecycle process maturity represents the extent to which specific processes are explicitly defined, managed, measured, controlled and effective in achieving their intended purpose 2) disciplined process, teams with common values, systems management infrastructure, strong Leadership process mature organization

Crosby • five stages of development of quality maturity • inspiration for the other maturity models • Uncertainty • Awakening • Enlightment • Wisdom • Certainty

Capability Maturity Model (CMM) • originally developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie-Mellon University • it provides software organizations with guidance on processes for developing and maintaining software • five levels with key process areas

1. Initial level • the process is not under statistical measurement control at even the operational level, and no systematic process is possible • no key processes

2. Repeatable level • a measure of thorough operational level product control is achieved through metrics associated with cost, schedule, and product configuration changes • basic program management processes are established

2. Repeatable level (cont.) • Requirements Management • SW Project Planning • SW Project Tracking and Oversight • SW Subcontract Management • SW Quality Assurance • SW Configuration Management

3. Defined level • the process has been understood and specified so that operational quality control is able to yield products with predictable costs and performance schedules • the organization has a set of standardized, consistent, and repeatable processes • process management is interactive and processes are well integrated five levels with key process areas

3. Defined level (cont.) • Organizational Process Focus • Organization Process Definition • Training Programs • Integrated Software Management • Software Product Engineering • Intergroup Coordination • Peer Reviews

4. Managed maturity level • comprehensive process-related measurements are possible and improvements in product quality are possible through the understanding and control • interactive process management processes are well in place • Quantitative Process Management • Software Quality Management

5. Optimizing level • the highest possible level of maturity is reached • the organization is able to make continuous improvements in products, services and processes • process management is highly proactive • there are also interactive and reactive controls and measurements

5. Optimizing level (cont.) • Defect Prevention • Technology Change Management • Process Change Management

Key process areas • Each of the key process areas have a set of SIX common features associated with them. • Goals • Commitment to perform • Ability to perform • Activities performed • Systematic measurement and analysis efforts • Implementation verification

Process Maturity: Conclusion • The majority of organizations in practice today are at levels 1 and 2, with very few at levels 3, 4, and 5 • There are only few programs which are at levels 4 and 5; the further research will focus on them and the evolution of the CMM at these higher maturity levels

Please make sure to bring all the lecture notes