An analysis of the role of soft systems methodology in the change process and the contribution of the facilitator within this process

This research aims to examine the effectiveness of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to enable systemic change within local goverment and local NHS environments and to examine the role of the facilitator within this process. Checkland's Mode 2 variant of Soft Systems Methodology was applied on an experimental basis in two environments, Herefordshire Health Authority and Sand well Health Authority. The Herefordshire application used SSM in the design of an Integrated Care Pathway for stroke patients. In Sandwell, SSM was deployed to assist in the design of an Infonnation Management and Technology (IM&T) Strategy for the boundary-spanning Sandwell Partnership. Both of these environments were experiencing significant organisational change as the experiments unfurled. The explicit objectives of the research were: To examine the evolution and development of SSM and to contribute to its further development. To apply the Soft Systems Methodology to change processes within the NHS. To evaluate the potential role of SSM in this wider process of change. To assess the role of the researcher as a facilitator within this process. To develop a critical framework through which the impact of SSM on change might be understood and assessed. In developing these objectives, it became apparent that there was a gap in knowledge relating to SSM. This gap concerns the evaluation of the role of the approach in the change process. The case studies highlighted issues in stakeholder selection and management; the communicative assumptions in SSM; the ambiguous role of the facilitator; and the impact of highly politicised problem environments on the effectiveness of the methodology in the process of change. An augmented variant on SSM that integrates an appropriate (social constructivist) evaluation method is outlined, together with a series of hypotheses about the operationalisation of this proposed method.

Using process mapping and business process simulation to support a process-based approach to change in a public sector organisation

A case study demonstrates the use of a process-based approach to change regarding the implementation of an information system for road traffic accident reporting in a UK police force. The supporting tools of process mapping and business process simulation are used in the change process and assist in communicating the current process design and people's roles in the overall performance of that design. The simulation model is also used to predict the performance of new designs incorporating the use of information technology. The approach is seen to have a number of advantages in the context of a public sector organisation. These include the ability for personnel to move from a traditional grouping of staff in occupational groups with relationships defined by reporting requirements to a view of their role in a process, which delivers a performance to a customer. By running the simulation through time it is also possible to gauge how changes at an operational level can lead to the meeting of strategic targets over time. Also the ability of simulation to proof new designs was seen as particularly important in a government agency were past failures of information technology investments had contributed to a more risk averse approach to their implementation. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding change in the public sector:a local authority case study

Increasingly managers in the public sector are being required to manage change, but many of the models of change which are available to them have been developed from private sector experience. There is a need to understand more about how the change process unfolds in the public sector. A case study of change in one local authority over the period 1974-87 is provided. The events surrounding housing decentralisation and the introduction of community development are considered in detail. To understand these events a twofold model of change is proposed: a short wave model which explains a change project or event; and a long wave model which considers how these projects or events might be linked together to provide a picture of an organisation over a longer period. The short wave model identifies multiple triggers of change and signals the importance of mediators in recognising these triggers. The extent to which new ideas are implemented and the pace of their adoption is influenced by the balance of power within the organisation and the political tactics which are used. Broad phases in the change process can be identified, but there is not a simple linear passage through these. The long wave model considers the way in which continuity and change feed off one another. It suggests that periods of relative stability may be interspersed with more radical transformations as the dominant paradigm guiding the organisation shifts. However, such paradigmatic shifts in local government may be less obvious than in the private sector due to the diverse nature of the former.

An institutional perspective on management accounting change in the public sector : a case study from Canada

This thesis reports on a four-year field study conducted at the Saskatchewan regional office of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, a large department of the Government of Canada. Over the course of the study, a sweeping government-wide accounting reform took place entitled the Financial Information Strategy. An ethnographic study was conducted that documented the management accounting processes in place at the regional office prior to the Financial Information Strategy reform, the organization’s adoption of the new accounting system associated with this initiative, and the state of the organization’s management accounting system once the implementation was complete. This research, therefore, captures in detail a management accounting change process in a public sector organization. This study employs an interpretive perspective and draws on institution theory as a theoretical framework. The concept of loose coupling and insights from the literature on professions were also employed in the explanation-building process for the case. This research contributes to institution theory and the study of management accounting change by recognizing conflicting institutional forces at the organizational level. An existing Old Institutional Economics-based conceptual framework for management accounting change is advanced and improved upon through the development of a new conceptual framework that incorporates the influence of wider institutional forces, the concepts of open and closed organizational systems and loose coupling, and the recognition of varying rates of change and institutionalization of organizational activity sets. Our understanding of loose coupling is enhanced by the interpretation of institutional influences developed in this study as is the role of professionalization as a normative influence in public sector organizations.

The role of personal advisors at Aston Business School

Aston Business School has moved away from a traditional Personal Tutoring model to the Personal Advisor model. During 2006, a review was undertaken of the existing system and proposed the new scheme. This session will present the current model of supporting students within Aston Business School’s Undergraduate Programme. It will discuss the research undertaken at the beginning of the change process which informed the decisions and structure of the Personal Advisor Scheme. It will also present evaluation research undertaken with students into their perceptions of the new scheme. The session will conclude with the plans for the future.

Outsourcing and offshoring engineering projects:understanding the value, sourcing models, and coordination practices

In this paper, we review recent developments in the field of outsourcing and offshoring and the implications for engineering management. We examine three aspects involved in outsourcing and offshoring, namely, sourcing models, coordination, and value extracted from outsourcing projects. We conclude that additional research is needed on recent trends in outsourcing and the impact of such change process on the practice of engineering management. © 2011 IEEE.

People-logistics' missing link

For any supply chain change process to be successful the people dimension needs to be an integral part of the overall SCM strategy.

The evolving role of information specialists:change agents in process redesign

The research investigates the past, present and potential future role of Information Specialists (ISps) in process oriented companies. It tests the proposition that ISps in companies that have undertaken formal process reengineering exercises are likely to become more proactive and more business oriented (as opposed to technically oriented) than they had previously been when their organisations were organised along traditional, functional lines. A review of existing literature in the area of Business Process Reengineering and Information Management reveals a lack of consensus amongst researchers concerning the appropriate role for ISps during and after BPR. Opinion is divided as to whether IS professionals should reactively support BPR or whether IT/IS developments should be driving these initiatives. A questionnaire based ‘Descriptive Survey’ with 60 respondents is used as a first stage of primary data gathering. This is followed by follow-up interviews with 20 of the participating organisations to gather further information on their experiences. The final stage of data collection consists of further in-depth interview with four case study companies to provide an even richer picture of their experiences. The results of the questionnaire are analysed and displayed in the form of simple means, frequencies and bar graphs. The ‘NU-DIST’ computer based discourse analysis package was tried in relation to summarising the interview findings, but this proved cumbersome and a visual collation method is preferred. Overall, the researcher contends that the supposition outlined above is proven, and she concludes the research by suggesting the implications of these findings. In particular she offers a ‘Framework for Understanding and Action’ which is deemed to be relevant to both practitioners and future researchers.

The process of strategic change:a management perspective

This thesis is concerned with the management processes concerned with complex strategic decision in organisations. The research has sought to explore these processes by taking as its focus the reconstruction of decision processes a) on the basis of an historical study of an industry and in particular a major company in that industry; and b) the perception and understanding of strategic decision processes and change by managers involved in companies in that industry. The main body of analysis and theoretical contributions arise from the detailed analysis of extended depth interviews with managers carried out in 1980 and 1983 which trace thirteen years of the strategic development of a firm. In so doing, extensive use is made of verbatim accounts by managers of events and their interpretation of events. This is then compared with data gathered from.similar interviews with managers of two other companies and examined in the light of existing research and theory in the field. The thesis both provides a detailed insight into the processes associated with the identification and resolution of complex strategic issues and also generates a body of theory concerning the mechanisms by which strategic decisions and the processes of strategic change are interwoven with the cultural and political fabric of organisations. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the background to the research, provid1ng a fuller summary of the purpose, structure and content of the thesis and a discussion of relevant previous research and the methodology employed herein. The second part mainly provides case studies of the industry and the main company studied. The third part is a detailed presentation and analysis of data. The fourth part is a synthesis of the findings and consolidation of the theoretical interpretation advanced in the thesis.

Land use change and the planning process in historic town centres

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Organizations driving positive social change:a review and an integrative framework of change processes

Academic and practitioner interest in how market-based organizations can drive positive social change (PSC) is steadily growing. This paper helps to recast how organizations relate to society. It integrates research on projects stimulating PSC – the transformational processes to advance societal well-being – which is fragmented across different streams of research in management and related disciplines. Focusing on the mechanisms at play in how organizations and their projects affect change in targets outside of organizational boundaries, we 1) clarify the nature of PSC as a process, 2) develop an integrative framework that specifies two distinct PSC strategies, 3) take stock of and offer a categorization scheme for change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices, and 4) outline opportunities for future research. Our conceptual framework differentiates between surface- and deep-level PSC strategies understood as distinct combinations of change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices. These strategies differ in the nature and speed of transformation experienced by the targets of change projects and the resulting quality (pervasiveness and durability), timing, and reach of social impact. Our findings provide a solid base for integrating and advancing knowledge across the largely disparate streams of management research on Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, and Base of the Pyramid, and open up important new avenues for future research on organizing for PSC and on unpacking PSC processes.

The impact of procurement-driven technological change on U.S. manufacturing productivity growth

As we enter the 21st Century, technologies originally developed for defense purposes such as computers and satellite communications appear to have become a driving force behind economic growth in the United States. Paradoxically, almost all previous econometric models suggest that the largely defense-oriented federal industrial R&D funding that helped create these technologies had no discernible effect on U.S. industrial productivity growth. This paper addresses this paradox by stressing that defense procurement as well as federal R&D expenditures were targeted to a few narrowly defined manufacturing sub-sectors that produced high tech weaponry. Analysis employing data from the NBER Manufacturing Productivity Database and the BEA' s Input Output tables then demonstrates that defense procurement policies did have significant effects on the productivity performance of disaggregated manufacturing industries because of a process of procurement-driven technological change.

Computer control of chemical process plants with special reference to distillation

A sieve plate distillation column has been constructed and interfaced to a minicomputer with the necessary instrumentation for dynamic, estimation and control studies with special bearing on low-cost and noise-free instrumentation. A dynamic simulation of the column with a binary liquid system has been compiled using deterministic models that include fluid dynamics via Brambilla's equation for tray liquid holdup calculations. The simulation predictions have been tested experimentally under steady-state and transient conditions. The simulator's predictions of the tray temperatures have shown reasonably close agreement with the measured values under steady-state conditions and in the face of a step change in the feed rate. A method of extending linear filtering theory to highly nonlinear systems with very nonlinear measurement functional relationships has been proposed and tested by simulation on binary distillation. The simulation results have proved that the proposed methodology can overcome the typical instability problems associated with the Kalman filters. Three extended Kalman filters have been formulated and tested by simulation. The filters have been used to refine a much simplified model sequentially and to estimate parameters such as the unmeasured feed composition using information from the column simulation. It is first assumed that corrupted tray composition measurements are made available to the filter and then corrupted tray temperature measurements are accessed instead. The simulation results have demonstrated the powerful capability of the Kalman filters to overcome the typical hardware problems associated with the operation of on-line analyzers in relation to distillation dynamics and control by, in effect, replacirig them. A method of implementing estimator-aided feedforward (EAFF) control schemes has been proposed and tested by simulation on binary distillation. The results have shown that the EAFF scheme provides much better control and energy conservation than the conventional feedback temperature control in the face of a sustained step change in the feed rate or multiple changes in the feed rate, composition and temperature. Further extensions of this work are recommended as regards simulation, estimation and EAFF control.

Envisioning innovation : the communication of technological change through graphic representation

Graphic depiction is an established method for academics to present concepts about theories of innovation. These expressions have been adopted by policy-makers, the media and businesses. However, there has been little research on the extent of their usage or effectiveness ex-academia. In addition, innovation theorists have ignored this area of study, despite the communication of information about innovation being acknowledged as a major determinant of success for corporate enterprise. The thesis explores some major themes in the theories of innovation and compares how graphics are used to represent them. The thesis examines the contribution of visual sociology and graphic theory to an investigation of a sample of graphics. The methodological focus is a modified content analysis. The following expressions are explored: check lists, matrices, maps and mapping in the management of innovation; models, flow charts, organisational charts and networks in the innovation process; and curves and cycles in the representation of performance and progress. The main conclusion is that academia is leading the way in usage as well as novelty. The graphic message is switching from prescription to description. The computerisation of graphics has created a major role for the information designer. It is recommended that use of the graphic representation of innovation should be increased in all domains, though it is conceded that its content and execution need to improve, too. Education of graphic 'producers', 'intermediaries' and 'consumers' will play a part in this, as will greater exploration of diversity, novelty and convention. Work has begun to tackle this and suggestions for future research are made.