ORGANIZATIONS AS FLUX AND TRANSFORMATION 28.2 2012

1. ORGANIZATIONS AS FLUX AND TRANSFORMATION 28.2 2012 Agenda: Organizations as flux and transformation Morgan’s method – instructions for the written exercise Forming of groups Assignment: Let us get started

2. UNFOLDING LOGICS OF CHANGE • How can we describe change? • Four theories, three inspired by the natural sciences, one by • social sciences (economy, history, sociology) • Autopoiesis • Chaos and complexity, attractors • Cybernetic ideas about logic of mutual causality • Dialectic thinking ( historical materialism)

3. RETHINKING SCIENCE-INSPIRED METAPHORS • New insights criticize some of the basic assumptions in the • mechanical and organism/brain metaphors: • The possibility of an external viewpoint • A simple idea of causality • Passive adaptation • BUT still • focus on order, now ordering processes: From the idea of rule • governed processes to the idea of rule producing processes at • a dynamic system level – “Order out of chaos”

4. AUTOPOIESIS ( MATURANA AND VARELA) • The idea of a closed ( biological) system which reproduces itself • through relations, marked by • autonomy (at the organizational level, not isolated) • circularity (maintain circular patterns of interaction) • self reference (interaction as a reflection and part of its own organization) • Each element simultaneously combines the maintenance of • itself with the maintenance of its environment • To discover the nature of a system you have to interact with it.

5. AUTOPOIESIS • Reframes the brain metaphor: • Information processing systems approach (early AI, Herbert • Simon) , as if the brain is operating on representations of the • environment, recording and modifying it, is not a satisfying • description • The brain creates images of the environment and interact • with them as an extension of itself, relations with any • environment is internally determined.

6. ENACTMENT AS ‘NARCISSISM’ • Methodological implications: • (Morgan turns to psychological • terms) • Organizations interact with projections of themselves • They have to develop a flexible identities in order to survive • Survival is about redrawing boundaries, embracing patterns of both organization and environ- • ment,’systemic interdependence’

7. SHIFTING “ATTRACTORS”: The Logic of Chaos and Complexity • Complexity theory developed using • computer simulations as metaphors for • understanding what happens in nature: • Complex nonlinear systems are characterized by multiple systems of interaction, both ordered and chaotic. • Random disturbances can produce unpredictable events and relationships. • Coherent order emerges. • The butterfly effect

8. METHODOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS • Rethink the idea of organization as in hierarchy and control: Not top down, but ad hoc facilitation • The art of managing and changing ‘context’: How to reframe a problem so that it can be tackled in new ways • Small changes might have large effects: Search for ‘doable initiatives’ that can trigger a transition from one attractor to another (successful prototype) • Living with continuous transformation and emergence as a natural state of affairs: Boundary management, protect new experiments • Be open towards new metaphors

9. loops not lines: Cybernetic ideas the logic of mutual causality • Cyberneticians (Magorah Maruyama • work with the idea of mutual • causality: not from A to B, but • A and B as co-defined, belonging to • the same system of circular relations, • Used as a method for modeling • phenomena in the social sciences, the • world economy, among others: • “Limits to Growth.”

10. How systems engage in their own transformation • Positive feed back: • More becomes more, and less less: • Escalates patterns of system change • Negative feed back: • A change in a variable initiates • counteracting forces. Important in • accounting for stability. • Focus on Deviation-amplifying • processes, not only equilibrating (as • in early cybernetics)

11. Methodological implications • What are the significant loops defining a system? • Are there principal subsystems that hang together? What are the connections, key patterns? • What are the generative forces that produce certain problems? • Can we find manageable initiatives that will change the generative pattern, (adding or removing certain feed backs loops ) • How can we learn to ‘nudge’ key aspects to create new contexts • Look at Exhibit 8.7 page 269.

12. contradiction and crisis: The Logics of Dialectical change • The idea has a long history. • Yin & yang in Taoism (dark and • sunny side of a hill, the way) • Heraclitus (500BC) Plato: The • dialectical method is a dialogue • between two or more people • holding different points of view • about a subject, who wish to • establish the truth of the matter by • dialogue, with reasoned • arguments. ‘Socratic’ approach.

13. Karl Marx (1818-1883) • Influenced by the German • philosopher Hegel, French • revolutionary and socialist politics, • and English economics. His life’s • work reflected his efforts to • explain the extra ordinary social • transformations that were • occurring at the time: • Industrialization, Capitalism, Urbanization, Democracy

14. Dialectical method • Key features • It does not see a simple, one-way cause and effect among the various parts of the social world: Inherently relational, both within and across time – emphasis on history • Social values are not separable from social facts: Not only impossible, but undesirable • Concern with conflict and contradiction: Emphasizes ideas of social change (rather than stability) and how social entities exist in far from harmonious ways: Focus on key economic actors of his time

15. Marx’s view on history • “Circumstances make men just as much as men make • circumstances.” - Marx and Engels (1845-1846) • “Men make their own history, but they do not make it • under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under • circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the • past.” - Marx (1852)

16. Human potential, the creative capacity of human beings: Activity • Consciousness is a characteristic of people and shaped out of • human action and interaction, a social product: • Allows humans to control activity in ways that animals cannot – the ‘means by which people appropriate objects from nature.’ • Provides a conceptual tie to notions of ‘work’ and ‘creativity’. Work relates to material production. Creativity to the ability of people to make unique products. • Activity involves the process of objectification, the production of objects. Affirms a ‘materialist’ orientation.

17. Morgan’s dialectic principles • Friedrich Engels definition of a • “Dialectic of Nature” • The mutual struggle, unity of opposites • The negation of negation • The transformation of quantity to quality • Newer directions: Activity theory, Yrjö Engeström. The Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. Michael Cole, http://lchc.ucsd.edu/

18. Methodological implications • Dialectics in management: • Think of primary contradiction ( profit/cost; use- / or exchange value) and consider secondary contradictions in the light of this • Paradoxes will necessarily flourish ( it is not either or, but innovate - avoid mistakes; decentralize – retain control; think long term – deliver results now; reduce staff - improve teamwork etc. • Which ones are most important? Find ways of creating contexts that can retain desirable qualities on both sides

19. exercise on class • Imagine you are working in a • design team in an organization. • How would you describe your • activity and relations to users in • a flux/ transformation perspective? • Activity theory: watch the video on • youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oG0ZvkhzCY

20. THE CHALLENGE OF METAPHOR • Organizations are many things at once: Complex, • multifaceted, paradoxical - managing is not easy! • In the constant flow of new management theories/ • concepts people tend to sell the positive insights of a • metaphor while ignoring the limitations and distortions it • creates. • Ways of seeing are ways of not seeing at the same time. • There can be no “correct theory” for structuring everything • we do. • The point is to find appropriate ways of seeing , • understanding and shaping the situations with which we deal.

21. METAPHORS CREATE WAYS OF SEEING • Various perspectives have a simultaneous presence, reality • cannot be reduced to one. • The manager’s dilemma: What you see depends on the • perspective you apply. In any given situation there are many • potential objectivities: Some perspectives might resonate with • the observed reality in powerful and evocative ways, others • not. • Seeing and reading is not neutral. It influences how we act. • Insights of different metaphors often support and reinforce • each other.

22. Reading and shaping organizational life • To see, to understand, and to act go together • Diagnostic reading: • Apply the various metaphors in order to generate ideas and interesting approaches • Create a ‘storyline’ and implicitly a perspective and ‘a unit of analysis’ (a certain practice on an organization) Notice that Morgan’s example focuses on a controversy • Frame the analysis based on certain metaphors (dominant frame/supporting frames) Remember to describe the concepts you put to use in the analysis • Critical evaluation: The analysis and the result