Systems Theory And Change Management Information Technology Essay

Systems Theory And Change Management Information Technology Essay Change Management is important for any business transformation like new technology implementation, merger or acquisition. A common framework breaks down change management into three stages: Freeze, Change, and Unfreeze. This paper explains the concept of change management and relate it to the concepts in general systems theory. The case study on an organization is based on my experiences while implementing the change management. This case study is my understanding and analysis of the respective organization as a system of people, process and technology. This analysis will help students and change management consultants to broaden their view and correlate the general systems theory for effective change management. Whenever we have a business transformation within an organization, it impacts the process, the people and technology (Larkin, 2003). Change Management emphasis on the people side of change. Mc Kinsey and Company recently surveyed 1546 business executives from around the world, asking them if they consider their change program completely/mostly successfully: Only 30 percent agreed (Isem, Joseph and Pung, 2006). The change management approach for an organization was based on three stages: Freeze, Change, Unfreeze (Nickols, 2007). The key to the success of a change initiative is to access the previous changes and implementing the change by learnings from previous experiences and by avoiding repeating errors. To analyze the organizations readiness for a change we interact with the people who are responsible and are part of this change. In this paper we will discuss how the steps followed in change management to implement a change are also explained by Bertalanffy in General Systems Theory. We will discuss my experiences to access organizations readiness for change and correlate them with General Systems Theory. Systems Theory would enhance the understanding of an organization that would help to implement an effective change management. II. Theoretical Background: Change Management in Organizations. The first and foremost definition of change management refers to the making of changes in a planned and managed or systematic fashion (Nickols, 2007). A change within an organization could be a business transformation like implementation of new technology, merger or acquisition, layoffs etc. These changes not only affect the process and technology of an organization but also the people affected by this change. A business process transformation impacts the process, people and the technology (Larkin, 2003). Change management concentrates on the people side of change. Change Management is a process through which an organization can achieve its objective. In a conventional approach the various steps through this journey may be delineated but change management facilities to align these steps in a systematic manner to achieve success. It has not been determined whether change management is an art, science, a profession or a discipline. It is more likely composed of a little of each and a totally separate entity in itself (Ledez, 2008). It is a process through which we can predict the success of a change initiative by assessing the readiness of the organization towards change and then implement strategies to achieve the transition from the present scenario to the final transformation. Another definition of change management refers to the efforts it takes to manage people through the emotional ups and downs that inevitably occur when the organization is undergoing massive change (Sieber, Nah, 1999). With the increase in competition and technology it is necessary for an organization to initiate business transformation. The most crucial stage in the change management methodology is Freeze. As a change management consultant my focus was based on assessing the organizations readiness for change. To analyze the organizations readiness for change, we assess the change history, cultural conduciveness of the organization and the overall perception of the senior management towards this change initiative. Systems Theory and Systems Thinking. Systems Integrity is one of the underlying concepts of systems theory emphasizes on understanding the intricacies of a system before making any changes to it. A system becomes more complex with the advancement of technology. As the systems become more complex it is imperative to understand the system as a whole and the interactions within the system. Systems theory focuses on the relationships between parts and the properties of a whole, rather than reducing a whole to its parts and studying their individual properties (Ackoff, 1971). A system is defined as an entity which maintains its existence through mutual interactions of its parts (Bertalanffy, 1976). The interactions within a system occur due to its hierarchical order. The different sub-systems within a system have a particular role to play within a larger system of which it is a part (Sanford, 2004). The underlying structure of which is a nested hierarchy of increasing orders of complexity (Sanford, 2004). Ackoff believes that a systems theory concept approach is fundamental to the study of organizations, so he translated von Bertalanffys original definition of a system to organizational context (Chun, Song, Arling, Granados, 2008). A system is composed of subsystems that interact with each other. At any given time, a system or its subsystems exhibits a state, defined as its current properties or characteristics (Chun, Song, Arling, Granados, 2008). A change in the state of a system is called an event (Chun, Song, Arling, Granados, 2008). In simple terms, an event is any observable occurrence. The behavior of a system can be regarded as an event. Behaviors are events that initiate other events(Chun, Song, Arling, Granados, 2008). For example, providing incentives to the employees is a behavior that will cause another event to motivate the employees. A process is a sequence of behaviors within a system that can lead to reach its final goal (Chun, Song, Arling, Granado s, 2008). This is also related to the concept of equifinality. Equifinality is an idea that suggests that in an open system a similar result may be achieved in many different ways (Cumming, Worley, 2005). Any system that interacts with the external environment is an open system. The open systems interact with the sub-systems within or external environment through feedback mechanism. The final goal or objective of a system can be achieved by the various subsystems in an open system through different ways, paths or procedures. This concept of an open system is called Equifinality. Towards a Systems Theory approach in Change Management. The backbone of change management is composed of a variety of hard and soft sciences drawn upon psychology, sociology, business administration, economics, industrial engineering, systems engineering (Nickols, 2007). It is imperative to study the long term cultural and behavioral patterns of a system to analyze the scope of change within that system. Change Management theory includes a series of models, beliefs, concepts and principles known as General Systems Theory (Nickols, 2007). The concepts of systems theory enhances the effectiveness of change management in an organization. We will now describe the research methodology and the case study of the company where I implemented change management. Lets call that company as LSD (hypothetical name). III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: CASE STUDY The organization as a whole can be considered as a system with various departments within the organizations acting as subsystems interacting among each other and the outside world. The people within an organization are the integral part of this system. Change is also a psychological even and any organizational change may involve some real and perceived threat of personal loss for the people involved. This event may lead to the resistant behavior by the people involved in the change initiative. The success of a change program can be brought about by appropriate connections of many activities related to human behavior. Change management in all about predicting the future. To analyze and predict the success of a change initiative within an organization we need to assess the long term patters or history and behaviors of events within the organization. Current State Assessment consisting of evaluation the change history and assessing the Cultural Conduciveness for the change will provide suggestions how to manage the change within the organization. Organizational readiness assessment will help LSD to determine how prepared they are for the future. Current State Assessment and Organization Readiness Assessment were based on the following inputs- (1) Discussions/ Interviews with the top management, (2) Dialogue with the Core Team i.e. people working on the new technology, (3) Workshops and Questionnaire administration among the key stakeholders i.e. people who are either affected by the change program or can have an impact on the successful implementation of the change program, (4) Workshops and Questionnaire administered to the Core Team , (5) Questionnaires administered among the larger work force across all the offices in the country. Workshops were conducted to sensitize the stakeholders about the importance of the change initiative (ERP implementation) prior to the questionnaire administration. In all 90 responses were collected from all the departments and offices across the country. Also a variety of designations ranging from C-Level executive to lower staff , were covered to gain a comprehensive understanding of LSDs Change History , Culture and Organizational Readiness. IV. CHANGE MANAGEMENT AT LSD LSD is one of the leading government organizations in the power and energy sector. The organization has around twenty three offices across the country with four head offices in metropolitan cities. With the growth and expansion in the last twenty years the company is deciding to switch from the paper-work procedure to ERP implementation. This implantation will streamline and shorten their business processes to cope with the industry standards and competition. I was part of this change management team that facilitated this challenging transformation. Out team included four third-party change management consultants and ten change agents across the organization. These change agents were the employees who were influential within LSD. Applying Systems Theory to Change Management at LSD. We will now correlate the methodologies used by us in change management with the concepts in systems theory and systems thinking. The approach we used to implement this change included both the quantitative analysis (i.e. by administering questionnaire and analyzing the scores) and qualitative analysis (i.e. by conducting interviews and workshops with the employees). In the change readiness assessment we included the survey from all the employees across the country that would be part of this change program. All these employees are part of the whole change management system and relates to the concept that the focuses on the relationship between parts and the properties of a whole (Ackoff, 1971). Change History Assessment. We assess the history of the previous changes within the organization to understand the system better before altering it. The analysis of previous history data will provide us with the previous trends, patterns or behavior of the system. This helps a change management consultant to predict the system better in case of any future changes and manage the system accordingly. The parameters used in the change history assessment are:- Stakeholder Identification and Commitment It is imperative for us to include all the people as a subsystem to interact within the system as a whole. Resistance Analysis and Management The change from one event to another may cause some change in behavior. When we consider the people as part of a system, changes in human behavior is also predominant. Resistance analysis is to gauge the human behavior within our system. Benefits Identification and Management This is one of the parameters that play a very important role in a balancing process. The change management approach is a goal-seeking process that tends to reach the equifinality. The various departments and the people across the organization work together to reach the final change. The resistance from the employees may imbalance the system and diverge it to reach the final goal. Benefits Identification and management is a balancing act to make the resistant employees realize the benefits for them from this change initiative. This will lead the whole system to balance and reach the objective. Communication effectiveness This is also an important variable in any change management process. As the organizations become more complex and large the effectiveness of communication is a challenge. The more effective is the communication, the more aware and supportive the employees are. We can also explain this balancing process through the diagram below: Cultural Conduciveness: Culture is something that is difficult to define accurately, but everyone knows when they sense it. The pattern in the culture helps a change consultant to sense the mindset of the organization. The culture of the organization was assessed on the basis of the following parameters like trust , team work, openness , interpersonal learning , respect for the individuals , organizational support , rewards and recognition. After realizing the problem areas from previous history assessment, we had interviews with the stakeholders to understand the story of the problem. These interviews provided very useful information on the viewpoints of the employees with respect to this change initiative and their perspective on the culture of the organization. This helps the change management consultant to be a part of the system and sensitize to the structure of the organization. The key findings of my project were: The culture for rewards and recognition was less prominent and didnt motivated employees to be enthusiastic about any developments within the organization. The lower level employees felt alienated by the senior level executives. The communication and trust between the senior and lower management was missing. This lead to dissatisfaction among the lower level and they never took in the organization activities.

Sunbeam Case

The Chicago Flexible Shaft Company In 191 0, diversified into small electrical appliances and, with the launch of the Princess case 19 Case 20 case 21 Case 22 Case 23 case 24 Think design and performance-?think Sunbeam Cafe Series Banger Dance Theatre-?The Sydney Swans: a ‘Cousins' relationship What happened to Pokemoon? The evolution of cafe groupies Dick Smith-?the great adventurer Apple's renaissance-? the agreement that works electric iron, it laid the foundation for the small electrical appliance industry. The diversification strategy was aimed at offsetting the seasonal nature of the sheep-shearing industry.In 1 914, the company purchased the Australian operation, and the company Cooper Engineering Co. (CE) was born. Seven years later, in 1921, the introduction of the Sunbeam brand reflected SEC's core business shift to electrical appliances. After World War II, CE changed its company name to Sunbeam Corporation and it introduced the slogan ‘Best Electric Appliance Made'. The first Australian appliance, the Sunbeam misstates, was launched. Despite the fact that it cost more than an average Australians monthly wage, it was an immediate success.Within its first 10 years on the market, the Sunbeam misstates generated sales in excess of 725 000 units. In 1 950, Sunbeam exported its appliances to New Zealand. With international exposure, the growing company needed further manufacturing capacity and it acquired a second manufacturing site in the Sydney suburb of Campsite- In 1952, with the benefit of its sustained success, the company listed on the stock exchange and became Sunbeam Corporation Limited. Expansion continued with the New Zealand operation becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sunbeam Corporation Limited in 1960.Today, Sunbeam is owned by the United States company, GUT Holdings Limited, a manufacturer of pumps, filters and security products. GOD's acquired Sunbeam in 1996. After catering for predominately female needs, it was the male p opulation's turn to benefit from Sunbeam's innovations. The electric shaver-?asseverates-?was introduced to the market. Despite heavy international competition, Asseverates became a market leader shortly after its launch. The appliance revolution continued to penetrate he Australian market. Consumers were introduced to the pop-up toaster, the electric affray, and the dry iron.Over the years, models were replaced and the Toastmasters was introduced in 1960. In 1972 Sunbeam sold more than 1 million products. By 1973, Sunbeam had sold 3. 5 million affrays, one for every three Australians. Aiming to be the first in the market with product innovations, Sunbeam introduced a range of new appliances-?including an iron that featured a patented safety cut-out mechanism; the first plastic jug-style title and a fast-boil kettle, the Express kettle; the Oscar food processor; Quantum, a cordless automatic kettle; and the Toast ‘N' Crumpet toaster.Many of the new products became top sellers, and their excellence in design and function was recognized with several Australian design awards. Sunbeam realized that to maintain its competitive edge, its consumers needed more than just an innovative tangible product. The first 12-months replacement guarantee was implemented by Sunbeam across its entire product range, demonstrating Sunbeam's ointment to quality and performance.

Equality of Condition Essay

In his book â€Å"democracy in America†, Alexis de Tocqueville provides a thorough study of the equality of condition as a distinctive feature of the democratic America and discusses some of the consequences it might have. He begins his writing by introducing the reader that during his stay in America the equality of condition struck his attention the most. In America, the democracy has reached another level that has never been seen before or experienced in any of the European countries but that are slowly progressing towards it. This level of democracy has created a society in which all persons are legally understood to be socially and politically equal. Despite all the benefits that the equality of condition brings to the society, it also tends to isolate people from one another and cut them off from the social beliefs and values. When this form of isolation is transformed into an extreme form of individualism, it creates selfishness and egoism among people. When these people come together to form a majority which in a democratic society enjoys a great amount of power, it might cause the tyranny of majority – de Tocqueville’s main concern. The concept of equality of condition is more complex than it first seems and a society based on this fact poses a threat to freedom. De Tocqueville argues that â€Å"the influence of the equality of condition extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country and it has no less empire over the civil society than over the government, it creates opinions, gives birth to new sentiments, founds novel customs and modifies whatever it does not produce† (â€Å"Democracy in America† Heffner ed., 26). It is important to depict from this quote that a society based on the equality of condition, above all, creates the common opinion. In an equal society, the fact that all the members are resembled enables them to trust and support the common judgment and opinion. Furthermore, de Tocqueville argues that all the inhabitants of the democratic society are individually equal and independent to each other but if one individual alone tends to contrast the â€Å"totality of his fellows†, he will find himself insignificant and weak. Therefore in a democratic society, the public has, as de Tocqueville calls, â€Å"a singular power† where it enforces certain opinions and infuses such opinions in the intellect of their mind. Considering that in a democratic society, it is the majority that takes decisions, the public opinion will then become the law creating political omnipotence. Therefore, de Tocqueville claims that in the US the majority comes up with opinions and the individuals although they develop their personal thoughts have to adopt those that the majority offers since they, alone, are unable to contrast them. This, in turn, discourages and in a way prohibits them from developing their own intellectual thoughts. Thus, the equality of condition that gives rise to the majority opinion poses a great threat to the individual freedom of thought. During his stay in America, de Tocqueville discovered that the American people appeal only to their own individual effort of its own understanding. He has found that in America the tie which unites generation is broken and that nobody traces or cares about the ideas of their forefathers. In a society where everybody is equal and classes tend to disappear, no man can have an intellectual influence in the mind of another man since nobody looks at his fellows as being superior. Therefore, de Tocqueville argues that in a society based on the equality of condition, not only the trust of one man on another is destroyed but also the intellectual authority on any man. In absence of such intellectual authority, people develop their own believes and judgments within themselves different from the rest of the society. In the absence of an intellectual trustworthy authority capable of imposing social beliefs and values, people are left to seek the truth alone and when they fail to do so or such truth is against their personal judgment, they simply ignore it. Thus, an equally conditioned society tends to isolate people from one another and cut them off from a common set of social beliefs and values. This isolation that results from the equality of condition has dangerous consequences if it reaches extreme levels which de Tocqueville calls individualism. As a result of the individualism, the selfishness and the egoism of people will be born. The egoism and selfishness cause people in this society to develop a love for material gratification a love for richness. They want to acquire everything for themselves even if it is done in the expense of other people. Furthermore, according to de Tocqueville, these individuals do not change their character as they unite with each other or grow in number. In fact, they tend to enforce those selfish opinions but on a greater scale. The majority they create will then act as one selfish individual and in a pure democratic society is given the power to make laws and take decisions on behalf of everybody. Therefore, such a majority consisting of egoist people who fulfill their needs and greed in the expense of the other people composing a minority creates the tyranny of majority. In a democratic society, the ultimate reason that the tyranny of majority occurs, is the individualism which separates people from each other and from the social values and beliefs and allows people to establish selfish opinions that hurt the other people. Therefore, de Tocqueville argues that the establishment of â€Å"family†, â€Å"religion† and â€Å"patriotism† are necessary protections against such tyranny because they bring people together and enforce on them social and moral values. Families bind people together and connect them with each other. Members of the family are taught to sacrifice some of their personal gratification for his ancestors and descendants. Therefore, the establishments of families attempt to fight the selfishness that individualism has created. The members of the family in their childhood are taught morals and social values. The elderly in the family can influence the young ones because they are perceived to have some intellectual authority. Therefore, the family brings people close to each other, where one member of the family cares about the others, and to the social values avoiding the isolation. Patriotism also fights the selfishness and brings people together. De Tocqueville sees patriotism as one citizen making a personal sacrifice for the greater welfare of the public. He also argues that in a patriotic society people do not fail to faithfully support each other. A patriotic person believes that it is his duty to make himself useful to other fellow citizens. Therefore, patriotism also creates a strong community where the members care about one another. It breaks the isolation and consequently the individualism that the equality of condition creates. Religion also brings people close to each other and to the social and moral values. De Tocqueville argues that every religion places the object of men’s desire above any treasurer in the earth. Every religion imposes duties on men towards his fellow citizens and draws him away from the contemplation of himself. Furthermore, the main concern of religion is to purify and restrict the excessive and exclusive taste for well being which men in the periods of equality wishes. Man cannot be cured by the love of the riches but they may be persuaded to enrich themselves by none but honest means (â€Å"Democracy in America† Heffner ed., 152). Thus, religion serves as a superior intellectual authority which brings people together to each other and also enforces on them moral values that people abide to. In essence it fights both the isolation and the selfishness of people. The â€Å"family†, â€Å"patriotism† and â€Å"religion† fulfill the absence of a superior intellectual authority, create a strong community and bring people close to the social and moral values which lack in an egalitarian society. De Tocqueville emphasizes the importance of associations in a democratic society. In his opinion an association consists of a group people united by a common interest and who agree to promote their ideas in a certain manner. Simply, associations guide a group of people with divergent minds towards achieving a specific end. In order for an association to exist it has to have the liberty to create an opinion and the freedom to meet which a democratic society grants to them. De Tocqueville distinguishes between two types of associations; the political association and the civic association. The political association besides having the two liberties mentioned above, they also have the liberty to unite into electoral bodies and chose their representatives. A political association acts as a government within a government where the delegates of the association represent the collective force of their party just like the delegates of the majority. The civic associations include a large number of organizations starting from building inns, churches, schools and hospitals. While the political associations have one major goal that they try to achieve by electing delegates; the civic associations are less formal, include a larger number and attempt to improve the social life in the society. Political associations are sometimes used to organize revolutions like those in Europe whereas the civic associations are voluntarily created and peaceful in their nature. The political associations are similar to the political parties today who elect their delegates and compete for offices. The civic associations are very similar to the interest groups where a group of people form an organization and express their point of view in certain issues and attempt to influence those who already occupy offices. The civic associations like the interest groups include a greater variety of interests. De Tocqueville goes further to argue that the political and civic associations are necessary to retain an active community life in a democratic society. De Tocqueville argues that in a democratic society all the citizens are independent and feeble and they, alone, cannot do anything and cannot oblige another person to assist them. They all become powerless if they do not learn to help each other voluntarily. If they do not form associations, which are simply artificial ways of binding people, they might preserve their wealth but their independence as well as their civilization will be in jeopardy. Furthermore, in a democratic society, as I have discussed earlier, people tend to get isolated from tone another. Therefore, since civic associations are very diverse, they are necessary to voluntarily bring people together and create ties among them. Thus, they are crucial to retain an active sense of community life. The political and civic associations are very important in a democratic society in the attempt to avoid the tyranny of the majority. The minorities can create political associations and elect their delegates in order to directly fight the oppressive laws created by the majority. The civic associations can also be used by minorities to create a larger group and then together voice their opinion. The associations are also used to bring people together and avoid the creation of individualism which is very likely in a society based on the equality of condition. Political and civic associations are, therefore, necessary schools for democracy because they teach us how to avoid the tyranny of majority in advanced democracies. De Tocqueville’s philosophy is still relevant for our own time. Nowadays, the political and civic associations play a very important role in creating communities. As countries become more democratic, the number of associations in those countries increases because people as individuals become powerless and they are unable to defend their beliefs on their own. Today, the political and civic associations are very common and much more active that they have ever been. The political and civic associations enable people to unite and become active members of the society. As people join different organizations, they agree to help and support other fellow citizens. People unite and form associations because they have strong feelings for a cause they fight although such a cause might not directly affect them. Therefore, political and civic associations tend to correct and remove selfishness from the people. The existence of a large number of associations is the reason why we have not exp erienced the tyranny of majority although a number of countries have reached advanced levels of democracy.

Canon Shape Structure in Jewish and Christian Bibles

Judaism and Christianity are derived from different times and places in the world. They share a lengthy past and many of the same books. However, these communities are divergent in their beliefs. The fundamental differences lie within the literary composition of each theology’s sacred texts. The shape and structure of the Jewish and Christian canons are arranged to substantiate each community’s religious beliefs. Jews and Christians arranged their canons differently to obtain a specific outcome in relation to their fundamental beliefs. First off, the Jews arranged their books in the Hebrew Bible to reflect their covenantal relationship with God. The 24 books are organized by genre of scripture and tell the history of God’s relationship†¦show more content†¦These passages from the Book of Malachi emphasize the people’s disobedience towards God and desperate need for redemption, or as the Christian community would interpret it, a savior. For Jews, this is a call to action and to return to God from devious ways. The Book of Malachi’s place in the middle of the Hebrew Bible reflects its significance as a moral lesson and warning. In the Christian Bible, having this book placed last and the Gospels following it, there is a fulfillment of the prophecies. For Christian communities, continuity is established through the prophecies of Jesus Christ. â€Å"In almost every case, the location of a biblical book relative to other canonical books, whether in terms of the grouping in which it is placed, or the book(s) that follow or precede it, has hermeneutical significance for the reader who seeks meaning in the text† (Goswell, 688). For Christians and Jews, their understanding of scriptures purpose is derived from religious texts. The textual arrangement portrays and supports an entirely different meaning to each community. For the Jewish community, the canons reveal their belief in God and their role with the divine entity. 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