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Organizational Change from a Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective: A Case Study of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor CorporationChiang, Hong-Quei 24 July 2006 (has links)
To deal with rapid and ever-changing environment, many scholars argue that the abilities of organizational change have been one of the essential core competencies for organizations. TTW, which has been a state- owned business for more than 60 years, initiated an upgrade program of product quality in September 2003, to improve its competitiveness whilst undergoing privatization. This paper aims to apply complex adaptive system theories to provide a new practical approach for organizational change. To accomplish this, it shall study various processes; including decision, implementation reflection and transform of the program.
In the first stage of initiated changes, TTW applied a top-down approach to implement the organizational change following an established blueprint. These exercises included three elements, which are (1) enhanced autonomous quality inspection of first-line operator, (2) More control check-items and higher standards, (3) Promotion and implementation of quality audit system. However, after half-year implementation of the new program, both performances of interior process quality and exterior product evaluation of consumer satisfaction have gained no substantial progress. By observations and interviews with the participants, it was found that there existed a commonly shared rigid mental model amongst organizational members. It encompasses deeply embedded positional authority, behavior of defensive psychology, lack of implicit knowledge and pre-formulated responses. It exhibited the learning and innovative abilities of organizational members, subsequently, which caused the stagnation of quality improvement.
The researched organization learned from the reflections derived from the first stage change process, tried to breakthrough the rigid mental model of organizational members, thereafter provoking substantial participation and execution. The targeted field was moved from business office to a factory. At the beginning of second stage change process, the organization applied simple generating rules derived from the complex adaptive system, to initiate a patching change process, which included (1) ice-breaking initiatives, (2) real- time information exchange, (3) time-pace conditioning, and (4) maintaining motivation and orientation. In the second stage change process, there appeared a few minor improving effects which were gradually being imitated and expanded across the whole organization. By the interpretations of the participants, it was found that there existed an evolutionary mental model of organizational members. It unfolded different features, such as: the willingness of experimentation, the generation of new experiences, the shaping of mutual trust by interaction, the delivering of implicit knowledge and expansion and evolution across functional units. By the effects of evolutionary mental model, some unanticipated innovative behaviors were emerging in the organization, which substantively, upgraded the quality performance of the entire organization.
Applying the perspective of complex adaptive system, this paper reviews the nature and the dynamics of the whole changing process and provides some theoretical implications. It is argued that innovative behaviors are the emerging process which can not be fulfilled by top-down managerial intention, but rather can be provoked by evolutionary mental model and autonomous self-organization. In addition, some practical implications were proposed that suggested the managers should focus on the changes of the relations of interaction in organizations. To effectively manage the changing process and continuously induce innovative behaviors, managers should (1) shift the commonly shared mental model to focus more on individual mental model and fostering diverse interaction, to help the emergence of new ideas and innovations, (2) shift the existing relations to focus more on real-time interaction, which can promote the expansion and evolution of innovative ideas, (3) shift the control relations to focus more on mutual trust relations, which can generate shared confidence levels and encourage the execution of innovations under uncertain conditions.
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