Managing Complexity
Compulsory module
10 credits
This module aims to provide students with conceptual tools and frameworks for thinking about the complexity of organisations with a special emphasis on the role of information and information systems. In any organisation the design of organisational systems, such as e-business systems, has to begin with an exploration of the organisation and how it perceives itself and its world.
At the end of the module, students should have a broad understanding of the nature of organisational complexity especially in the context of the acquiring, processing and disseminating information efficaciously, efficiently and effectively. Students will have an appreciation of the general tools for the pre-analysis and structuring of complex organisational situations and a practitioner level of skill in the use of SSM. The module will provide a framework of concepts, which will help link the organisational analysis of e-business with the issues of technical implementation. As a result it is anticipated that the module will have a significant contribution to the team-based organisational business project.
Syllabus
This module will be taught in a mixture of lecture sessions, which will include problem-based learning. Class contact will be a total of 20 hours, consisting of 10 2-hour sessions and delivered weekly throughout the Lent Term. The syllabus will be in two main parts: (i) general approaches to structuring problematic situations (10 hours), and (ii) SSM-based organisational analysis (10 hours).
General approaches
Included here are some selected tools and frameworks that help managers understand and reflect on the context they are in and the possibilities for action in these contexts. The ideas draw largely from the domains of Soft OR and Organisational Learning, such as:
- Kolb's learning cycle
- SODA and Cognitive mapping
- Multi-criteria decision analysis
SSM-based analysis
(a) Introduction to SSM. In this first part of the syllabus, the underlying principles of SSM and the basic concepts are explored. Topics include:
- Creating systems – fundamental systems properties
- Inputs and outputs
- Root definitions, Rich Pictures and CATWOE
- SSM analyses 1, 2 and 3
(b) SSM and Information Systems. In this second part of the syllabus, the emphasis is on the use of the above ideas developed at Lancaster over the last 20 years in the areas of information requirements analysis and information systems. Topics include:
- Conceptualising data, capta and information in the context of 'meanings'
- Issue-based and primary task models
- Served and serving systems
- Activity models and information inputs and outputs
- 'Contemporary SSM' and Vickers Appreciative Systems
Select bibliography
Checkland, P.B. (1999) Systems Thinking, Systems Practice (2nd Edition), Wiley.
Checkland, P.B. and Scholes, J. (1990) Soft Systems Methodology in Action, Wiley.
Checkland, P.B. and Holwell, S. (1998) Information, Systems and Information Systems, Wiley.
De Bono, E. (2000) Six Thinking Hats, Penguin.
Pidd, M. (1996) Tools for Thinking: Modelling in Management Science, Wiley.
Roenhead, J.V. and Mingers, J. (2001) Rational Analysis for a Problematic World (2nd Edition)
Wilson, B. (1990) Systems: Concepts, Methodologies and Applications (2nd Edition), Wiley.
