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Organizations as flux and transformationOrganizations as flux and transformationViewing organizations as flux and transformation takes us into areas such as complexity, chaos and paradox. This view of organizational life sees the organization as part of the environment, rather than as distinct from it. So instead of viewing the organization as a separate system that adapts to the environment, this metaphor allows us to look at organizations as simply part of the ebb and flow of the whole environment, with a capacity to self-organize, change and self-renew in line with a desire to have a certain identity. This metaphor is the only one that begins to shed some light on how change happens in a turbulent world. This view implies that managers can nudge and shape progress, but cannot ever be in control of change. Gareth Morgan says, ‘In complex systems no one is ever in a position to control or design system operations in a comprehensive way. Form emerges. It cannot be imposed.’ The key beliefs are:
This leads to the following assumptions about organizational change:
What are the limitations of this metaphor? This metaphor is disturbing for both managers and consultants. It does not lead to an action plan, or a process flow diagram or an agenda to follow. Other metaphors of change allow you to predict the process of change before it happens. With the flux and transformation metaphor, order emerges as you go along, and can only be made sense of after the event. This can lead to a sense of powerlessness that is disconcerting, but probably realistic! See Shaw (2002) and Stacey (2001) for further reading on this metaphor. STOP AND THINK!
A―All staff memo from management teamThe whole organization is encountering a range of difficult environmental issues, such as increased demand from our customers for faster delivery and higher quality, more legislation in key areas of our work, and rapidly developing competition in significant areas. Please examine the attached information regarding the above (customer satisfaction data, benchmarking data vs competitors, details of new legislation) and start working in your teams on what this means for you, and how you might respond to these pressures. The whole company will gather together in October of this year to begin to move forward with our ideas, and to strive for some alignment between different parts of the organization. We will present the management’s vision and decide on some concrete first steps. B―E-mail from CEOA number of people have spoken to me recently about their discomfort with the way we are tackling our biggest account. This seems to be an important issue for a lot of people. If you are interested in tackling this one, please come to an open discussion session in the Atrium on Tuesday between 10.00 and 12.00 where we will start to explore this area of discomfort. Let Sarah know if you intend to come. C―E-mail from one manager to anotherJohn seems to be in cahoots with Sarah on this issue. If we want their support for our plans we need to reshape our agenda to include their need for extra resource in the operations team. I will have a one to one with Sarah to check out her viewpoint. Perhaps you can speak to John. Our next step should be to talk this through with the key players on the Executive Board and negotiate the necessary investment. D―Announcement from MDAs you may know, consultants have been working with us to design our new objective setting process which is now complete. This will be rolled out starting 1 May 2003 starting with senior managers and cascading to team members. The instructions for objective setting are very clear. Answers to frequently asked questions will appear on the company Web site next week. This should all be working smoothly by end of May 2003. 1524
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