MGMT 8035 Final Project

Student: Roseline Iruoma Ojinta, roseline.ojinta@waldenu.edu

Student ID # : A00576165

Program: PhD in Management

Specialization: Leadership and Organizational Change

Faculty: Dr. David Gould, david.gould@waldenu.edu

Walden University

September 12, 2015

 Abstract

[Text begins here. This abstract should not exceed 120 words. Note that abstracts in APA format

are not indented. Write the abstract at the END of the project. See the section on abstracts in

Chapter 2 of the APA Manual for guidelines and details. Note: An abstract is not an introduction

to the paper.]
 Table of Contents

MGMT 8035 Final Project 1

Organizational Description (Week 2) 1

Organizational Diagram Error! Bookmark not defined.

Organizational Description 3

Systems Theory 3

Supporting Research 4

Systems Dynamics (Week 3) 4

Stocks and Flows 5

Feedback Loops 6

Recommendations 7

Supporting Research 8

Systems Disciplines (Week 4) 9

Disciplines 10

Inform Leadership 12

Recommendations 13

Supporting Research 13

Systems Archetypes (Week 5) 14

Archetypes 15

Recommendations 17

Supporting Research 17

Networks (Week 6) 18
 Networks 18

Recommendations 18

Supporting Research 18

Adding Complexity (Week 8) 19

Organizational Diagram 19

Organizational Description 19

Recommendations 19

Supporting Research 20

Resilience (Week 9) 20

Resilience Matrix 20

Supporting Research 20

Summary and Conclusions 21

References 22
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MGMT 8035 Final Project

[Text begins here. Provide a brief introduction to the Final Project and tell the readers

what will be covered in this document. The assignment is: Your consultancy firm has been hired

by the executive leadership of an organization to model and describe the organization based on

recent developments in systems and leadership theory for the purposes of improving

understanding and decision making. The executive leadership has chosen your firm for its ability

to support your recommendations with current research and literature on systems and

leadership/management theory.
For this assignment, select an organization with which you are familiar. The organization

can be a corporation, a small business, a nonprofit, a community organization, a government

agency/subagency, a military organization, an educational institution, or something else

involving people, resources, and goals, such as a city, county, state, country, society at large, or a

selected subset. Note: The name of the organization should not be provided; use something like

the ZYX organization instead.

Delete the instructional material within these square brackets and replace with your

material.]

Organizational Description (Week 2)

Organizations today operate in a very turbulent and complex environment, according to

Bolman and Deal, (2013), and this complex environment is making organizations become more

pervasive, dominant, and harder to understand and to manage (p. #). Organizations have been

perceived as a networked system of interrelated agents similar to a living organism (Kaspary,

2014, Meadows. 2008). As such, organizations are made up of parts and have the ability to grow.

These parts are interdependent, interrelated, and interact within the system and affect the whole.

Leader/managers are to develop the skill of having a broad view of these parts and their
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interactions as it affects the whole as it will help them interpret patterns and occurrences within

the organization. Examining organizations from diverse view/framework helps managers create

broader, systems-level perspective (Howard, Logue, Quimby, & Schoeneberg, 2009). This work

is the introductory part of a Consultancy Report for the executive leadership of Hilmark Plastic

Manufacturing Company; it will introduce the organization, showing the organizational model,

its interpretation and explaining how general systems theory and Bouldings hierarchy of systems

might inform the executive leaderships understanding of its organizations and

leadership/managements thinking.

Organizational Diagram

Information (investment capital, customer preferences, variety of molds, suppliers, research)

Material (Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polystyrene, Molding machines, polymer, monomer)
Energy (Generators, electricity, Diesel gas,)

Thresholds

(Bankrupcy)

Hilmark Plastic Manufacturing Company

Primary process (Plastic production)

Information (income, expenses)

Material (Plates, buckets, tables, chairs, school lockers, jerry cans, plastic containers, trash)
Energy (waste heat, plastic waste)

Figure 1. Plastic manufacturing company. This show the tipping point caused by bankruptcy. Adapted from
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014). Coffee Shop System: A Coffee Shop from a Complex Adaptive Systems
Perspective. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Organizational Description

The inputs of Hilmark Plasctic Manufacturing Company are in the form of information

comprising of money which is made up of investment capital and for recurrent expenditure, the
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preferences of their customers who will want their products customised, the varity of molds for

customers to chose from, the suppliers of the raw material and all the other materials needed for

the efficient running of the company as well as research for more efficient ways of

production/efficient product.

There are raw materials comprising of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene,

polymer, monomer and different variety of molding machines. Energy is in the form of power

generating sets, conventional electricity and diesel gas.The change in production/product

specification will produce a tipping point within the organization resulting to changes in

processes, the production patterns and even changes in the inputs and output of the organization

Systems Theory

Systems theory shows the interdisciplinary nature of theories, models, principles, concept

and how they can be applied in understanding organizations and resolving its complex dynamics.

Systems theory gives the framework within which organization maybe analyzed through proper

description and explanation. Bouldings hierarchy of systems help leaders understand the

interrelationship of parts of the system and the hierarchy of its complexity so that leaders will

have a broad perspective when viewing and handling organizational issues in order to explain

and predict occurances. How so? And why would this be important?

Supporting Research

System theory exposes the interrelationship of different parts of a system and how this

knowledge would inform leadership decisions when viewing or handling organizational issues.

Say more. According to Uhl-Bien, (2006), relational leadership theory could be applied in

understanding and in handling complex organizational issues. Relational leadership theory view

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leadership as a social process through which systems change by structuring of roles and

relationships( Uhl-Bien, 2006).need page numbers for direct quotes

The interrelationship, interaction, and the interconnectedness of the parts of the system

creates complex system within the organization and the need for organizations to adopt complex

adaptive theory. Gallo, (2013), used the complexity theory to portray the importance of system

thinking and modeling. The important of this information to my organization is for the leadership

to know that in handling organizational issues, that there are variety of theories which could be

applied so as to understand the system, make appropriate analysis, and informed decision.
Try to support major assertions with evidence. A good start, directionally correct, with

easy spelling and APA improvements.

85%(90)=77

Systems Dynamics (Week 3)

System dynamics is a technique for understanding complex issues in organization. It

helps with the understanding of the parts of the system and their interrelationship,

interdependence and interaction that affect the whole so as to make informed decision and avoid

unexpected consequencies. Nielsen, & Nielsen, (2015) defined it as a perfect discipline for

describing and evaluating business strategy. System dynamics identifies problems in an

organization and their perceived possible causes through the feedback loop so as to offer

adequate solution and prevent future occurrence. I will identify and describe stocks and flows

within plastic manufacturing company, the feedback loops, and how the understanding of stocks,

flows, and feedback loops may improve decision making within organizations.

Stocks and Flows

A stock is any entity of the organization that accumulates and depletes overtime. A flow

is the rate at which the stock changes.

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Investment
---- -------- ------------
Inflow Outflow
capital
Figure 2. The flow of investment capital

The investment capital is a stock, into which flow deposits from sales and out flow wages

to employees.

Customer
-------------- ---------------
Inflow Outflow Preferences
Figure 3. The flow of customer preferences

Customer preferences is a stock into which flows information about customer desired

product and out flows are information to develop customers desired products.

------------ ----------------------------
Raw materials
Inflow Outflow

Figure 4. The flow of raw materials

Raw materials is a stock, into which flow supplies from suppliers, and out flow materials

for production.

Feedback Loops

Investment Depreciation
Investment

capital
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----------------------------------------------------

annual B

investment output capital lifetime

fraction output per unit capital

Figure 5. The balancing loop of investment capital

The balancing loop of investment shows that when capital is invested, it depreciates over

the capitals lifetime, creating a depletion in the capital stock. The annual output yields more

capital which is reinvested to replace the stock.

Customer
----------------------------------------------------
preferences
Inflow Outflow

Discrepancy Desired customer

products

Figure 6. The consumer preference loop

The customer preferences feedback loop, when the customers give information about

their required preferences, there is a discrepancy in what is produced and what the customer

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desires, here, information flow in for adjustments in production to what the customer desires.

The descripancy show the time lag between what is produced and what the customer prefers, this

gives a negative feedback loop.

Recommendations

In this complex business world, organizations ability to respond quickly to the changing

business conditions is very important for its survival, adopting systems dynamics modeling will

be a key facilitator for enhancing organizations dynamic capabilities and competitive

advantages. System dynamics creates an opportunity to guide management decision makers to

model casual structures so as to make informed decisions. According to Campuzano-Bolarn,

Mula, & Peidro, (2013), system dynamics help managers provide casual structures through an

effective symbolic language. The managers use these casual structures as study tool to make

forecasting policies and strategic decisions (Campuzano-Bolarn, Mula, & Peidro, 2013.

P.3164).
As noted by Mula, Campuzano-Bolarin, Daz-Madroero, & Carpio, (2013), it is best to

use system dynamics in solving organizational problems where feedback produces dynamic

changes and will guide future occurrences (p. 3164).

Following from the above the knowledge and understanding of stocks, flows, and

feedback loops could improve strategic decision making and policy forcasting within the

organization, managers are to model organizational dynamics so as to understand changes in the

system and gain some insights for decision making.

Supporting Research

System dynamic modeling is of great advantage to organization as Mula, Campuzano-

Bolarin, Daz-Madroero, & Carpio, (2013) posited, that it simplifies data required for analysis,

making it easier for the simulation model to be built and also reducing the execution time of the
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process. They further noted that it is a feasibility tool for checking different strategic, tactical or

operational decisions to discover recurring errors and wrong management policies (p. 4102).
Adopting systems dynamic modeling is of essence to organization so as to avoid

recurring errors and to see through the structure some wrong policies organizations may have

made in the past and start off the process of correction. Nielsen & Nielsen(2015), noted its

powerful contribution to problem solving in management (p. 17).

Mula, Campuzano-Bolarin, Daz-Madroero, & Carpio, (2013) in their work stated the

advantage of systems dynamic as having the ability to model system elements to come close to

real ones. The model identifies and defines variables and parameters susceptible to changes

allowing management to analyze and discern the effects of such variables and parameter on the

organization. They further noted its flexibility and simplicity in representing system elements

and its help in simulating and obtaining performances within the system.
Adopting system dynamics modeling is essential to having a broad view of organizational

problem and its possible solutions.

Good work here. Clarify some use of language, work on grammar and APA, and you will

have it put together! 95%(90)=86

Systems Disciplines (Week 4)

Systems discipline help us make sense of the reality of the interaction and interdepence

that exists in the organization as they operate in a highly compex business environment caused

by the rapid changes of our time (Dominici, 2015). Organizations portray the characteristics of

living organisms; they grow, change and adapt through their interaction, interdependence,

autonomy and dependency, self-organization and self-production (Kaspary, 2014). This weeks

work will summarize Senge, (2006) fifth discipline of personal mastery, mental models, shared

vision, team learning, and systems thinking, and provide examples of where these disciplines

exist in my organization. good

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Disciplines

Personal Mastery
Without individuals learning, no organization will learn as organizations learn

through individuals who learn (Senge, 2006,). Personal mastery is a phrase for the discipline of

personal growth and learning (Senge, 2006,). Personal mastery is defined as the discipline that

continually clarifies and deepens the personal visions of employees while making them to focus

their energies, it creates the awareness of personal weaknesses, growth, objectivity and the

persistent willingness to pursue self-development (Senge, 2006; Di Schiena, Letens, Van Aken,

& Farris, 2013). This helps us to be objective in assessing our strength and weaknesses and to be

committed, motivated and persistence in gaining knowledge and skill in any situation.
Personal mastery is series of practices and principles that must be applied so as to be

useful (Senge, 2006). Senge identified these principles as personal vision which is more of a

vocation rather than a good idea, creative tension which is being aware of the gap between the

vision and reality, emotional tension, structural conflict and commitment to the truth. People with

personal mastery have the capacity to execute extra ordinarily complex tasks with great ease.
There are other subtler aspect of personal mastery like integrating reason and intuition,

ability to see the connectedness to the world, compassion and commitment to the whole.

Personal mastery is a process and a life long discipline of self-awareness. An example is for

employees to create their personal vision and set goals and objective on how to achieve it.
Mental Models
Mental models help us understand the world and the actions we take by clarifying deeply

ingrained assumptions, generalizations, pictures and images that influence us. Unearthing such

assumptions, generalizations pictures and images is key to organizational change and learning as

these pictures are exposed and scrutinized.

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Mental models are active in that they shape the actions of people and organizations and

help employees to learn new skills and develop new orientations so as to foster change in

organization.
Mental models balance inquiry and advocacy making people open their thinking to the

scrutiny of others and for influence. An example is to debunk most generalization of this is the

way we do it here or every female staff is lazy.

Shared vision
This discipline is the ability to create a shared picture of the future the organization want

to create and it has the power to foster genuine commitment and engagement. Shared vision is a

common identity that binds an organization together as they have a sense of purpose and

coherence in undertaking their activities. Senge, (2006), stated that leaders are to see building of

shared vision as a central element of their daily work (P. 199).

Leaders must develop the ability to translate their personal visions into shared visions.

When vision is shared and accepted, it becomes clearer, generates enthusiasm and commitment

that rub off on all the other members of the organization.

Team learning
Team learning is the ability of an organization to harness the energies of individual

members to work towards common purpose. Senge (2006), opined that such learning is a process

that aligns and develops teams capacities so as to create a mutual result. Organizations helping

their employees to build mental models, personal mastery and shared vision are not enough.

Employees should be able to act and learn together so as to commonality of direction and

harmonized energies as Senge, (2006) noted that unaligned team is wasted energy(p.217).

Team learning starts with dialogue and discussion, here assumptions are suspended as team

members open up themselves to thinking together and recognizing patterns of interaction that

could undermine their learning (Senge, 2006).

Systems thinking

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Systems are made up of parts and system thinking helps us to understand and see clearly

those parts that made up the whole so as to effectively change.

Systems thinking are frameworks that identifies patterns, interconnectedness and inter-

relationships of elements in a system by making clearer the parts that make up the whole,

avoiding over-simplification, overcoming linear thinking and dealing with issues holistically and

comprehensively (Di Schiena, Letens, Van Aken, & Farris 2013).

Inform Leadership

In Senge five disciplines, learning is not an individual thing but rather a double-loop

process that can be shared (Cladwell, 2005). Here, leadership is seen as distributed leadership

which is learning-centered rather than leader-centric. In learning organizations, leadership is by

all as learning is treated as a feedback process and leadership as a transmission mechanism

within an overall normative system of shared meaning (Cladwell, 2005). According to Senge,

(2006), the participation of all in learning, opens up the capability of leading to all as leadership

is viewed as a process of influence.

Employees having personal mastery and mental model will make for shared vision, team

learning and system thinking. Leaders are to create conducive environment where employees

would be free to develop their personal mastery and mental models.

Recommendations

Creating the environment necessary for learning will expose employees to developing

personal mastery and mental models, these two wil make for vision sharing and team learning.

This kind of environment will open up knowledge of the different parts of the organization that

make up the whole, their interrelationship and interconnectedness so as to help the organization

to make improved decision.

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Supporting Research

BASF (India) in adopting the five disciplines noted that it makes for continuous learning,

growth, innovation, and enables organizations to create an engaged workforce (Tiwari, Prabhu,

and Doshi, (2015, p.66). Also, Senge five disciplines presented learning organization as an

innovative model of continuous change and system transformation (Cladwell, 2005).

Di Schiena, Letens, Van Aken, and Farris, (2013), in their work sought to understand the

characteristics of a learning organization in the context of military organizations, with focus on

the role of different leadership styles and found correlations between learning organization,

transformational leadership and transactional leadership.

Leadership is a process of influence as such, learning organizations adopting the five

disciplines will open them up to innovation, efficient decision making process, creating engaged

workforce and building both transformational and transactional leadership styles in the

organization. The value of this information to my organization is for them to work and develop

an environment for the utilization of the five disciplines.

Please work on APA, grammar, clarity, spelling, content ideas, .. please proof read

before the next submittal.

65%(90)=59

Systems Archetypes (Week 5)

Archetypes are common patterns of behavior that manifest themselves in organizations.

Senge (2006) noted that they are responsible for success or failure of systems as they help in

identifying recurring problems, understanding system behavior and performance in an

organization. Systems archetypes are generic models that represent a wide range of situations

(Nguyen, & Bosch, 2013). According to Braun, (2002), archetypes are effective tools that

managers could use to gain insight into the underlying problems in an organization and its

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knowledge helps managers see leverage points where changes could be made to achieve

sustainable change in the behavior of the system.

Senge, (2006), identified ten system archetypes namelybalancing process with delay,

limits to growth, shifting the burden, shifting the burden to the intervenor, eroding goals,

escalation, success to the successful, tragedy of the commons, fixes that fail, and growth and

underinvestment. This weeks work will identify and describe three systems archetypes and

analyze the problems indicated by these problems as well as develop potential solution for the

organization.

Archetypes

The three systems archetype identified and described are : limits to growth, escalation,

and shifting the burden.

Limit to growth
Limit to growth is a point to which an intended growth could occur and it will start

pushing back as every growth has restricted positive reinforcing behavior. The restricted positive

reinforcing behavior occurs as systems experience a reinforcing process of accelerating growth.

As efforts to grow an effect continues successfully over time, at some point, growth will begin to

lose its effectiveness and will encounter a balancing process as it approaches its limits, have a

flattened growth, stops eventually and may even reverse.

Initially, Hillmark Plastic witnessed a rise in growth in the sale of its product, over time,

its had saturated the market with its products. At this point, managers should have been proactive

to design another product in other to sustain the market instead they continued to push in more

products to the market and this resulted to a decline in the sale volume of the organization.

Managers being ignorant of such limit to gowth and do not plan for it will result in failure in that

aspect of organization growth.

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Managers are to make adequate plans to map out engines of growth together with the

growth potentials, as this is vital for maintaining circles of growth, anticipating future problems

and eliminating them from becoming potential threats. The potential solution to limit of growth

is to change the behaviour of the organization by identifying and changing the limiting factors

(Senge, 2006, p. 100). In this case, Hilmark is to launch an improved or new product.
Shifting the burden
Shifting the burden involves adopting short-term solution in place of a fundamental long-

term solution. Here, there is an attraction to use a relatively easy and low cost symptomatic

solution rather than the use of a fundamental solution that may be difficult and probably very

high in cost. Utilizing long-term solutions is an uphill task as it test the patience, resilence and

ability of managers. According Braun, (2002), adopting a long-term solution needs a deeper

understanding and learning of the underlying problem, commitment of large fund and a lot of

time for its formulation in the face of pressure to fix the problem promptly. Adopting the easy

way out is more convenient, saves time and fund but will create a bigger problem over time as it

only alleviates the problem.

Hilmark could experience such problem when reaching its production targets as a result

of changing production requirements or making adjustment in the production process. If the

production staff are not given adequate training to handle such problems as they arise

(fundamental or long-term solution), and people who are not part of the production are always

invited everytime they encounter such problems (symptomatic solution), this will affect both the

production staff and production. The potential solution is for management to identify high-

leverage actions from both the fundamental solution and the symptomatic solution which in this

case is to train the production staff to be handy at every point there is a need.

Escalation

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Escalation occurs when there are perceived competition between organizations and such

competition is considered a threat. Escalation occurs when an organization wants to mount

appropriate response to the action of its competitor. The action taken by these competitors are

similar. An example could be an organization trying to gain market share, having a rival product

in the market or even trying to maintain its competitive advantage. One party may decide to

lower the price in order to gain market share and the other in order to keep up its market share

will follow suit. These organizations may escalate to the point where it is harmful to their

organization and reduce the value to customers, stakeholders and shareholders (Braun, 2002).

Potential solutions for escalation could be for management to create a system of collaborative

competition.

Recommendations

Understanding system archetypes are essential to the success and workings of the

organization as its knowledge alert managers of future unintended consequencies as a result of

patterns of behavior of the archetype in the system overtime so as to make informed decisions.

Expand to a full paragraph; 3-5 sentences.

Supporting Research

Braun, (2006), noted that managers could use it as a diagnostic and prospective tools as it

helps managers gain insight into how systems behavior emerges, aid in planning, test policies

and structural behavior. Setianto, Cameron, and Gaughan, (2014), stated that system archetypes

have leverage points where an intervention strategy could be proposed to improve the situation.

The importance of this information to my organization is for them to know that without explicit

understanding and knowledge of these archetypes, it would be very difficult for managers to

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identify leverage points that would bring about change in the structure and sustainable change in

the behavior of the system.

Mostly good work; tidy up some APA, clarification issues, and singular/plural. Easy to

do; the hard stuff is understood. 95%(90)=86

Networks (Week 6)

Indent Organizations operate in ever increasing, unpredictable and competitive

environments that are pushing organizations to change. Eisenberg, Johnson and Pieterson,

(2015), posited that managing such change lies in the ability of leaders to communicate the

desired change and develop regular sources of feedback. Leaders cannot achieve this without a

proper network. Eisenberg, Johnson, and Pieterson (2015), defined a network as a set of actors

connected by a set of ties communicating relationships and the flow of information. Thus, a

network reveals links and defines relationships within organizations; providing members the

opportunity to understand how communication flows, how tasks are shared, the working

standards and the culture that exists within the organization. According to Denning, (2004), a

network is a set of nodes and links, representing various types of relationships within a system.

The essence of this weeks work is to identify and describe three different networks found

in Hilmark plastic company, explaining how each of these three networks might inform decision

making in leadership in the company. The work will recommend how Hilmark plastic company

could improve with a better understanding of the networks or network structures and provide

brief discussion of value or importance of this knowledge to my organization. ok

Networks

Identifying and decribing organizational networks are vital for managers to understand

how the interplay of the interaction of organizational members could enhance or diminish their

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performance (Soda and Zaheer, 2012). The three network that exists in Hilmark plastic company

are formal network, informal network (social network) and documentary network. Networks in

organization help in promoting organizational success as they help in communicating strategies

and providing feedbacks about the effectiveness of the strategy (Battilana and Casciaro, 2013,

Eisenberg, Johnson and Pieterson, 2015).

Formal Network
Soda and Zaheer, (2012) defined a social network as interactions and connections

among members of the organization which comprised of organization structure, process and

work flow (p. 755). The connections help members of the organization to access, exchange and

transmit information and resources vital to the workings of the organization like approvals,

directions, culture, shared goals, and values. Formal networks generate patterns of interaction

through which organizational actors coordinate efforts and access resources that contribute to

organizational performance (Soda & Zaheer, 2012). Goals, strategies, innovative ideas, and

organizational change cannot be achieved no matter how good unless they are communicated in

a way that will be understood and accepted within the organization and formal network sets the

structure for such communication. Eisenberg, Johnson and Pieterson, (2015) noted in their work

that transformational change inntiative most often fail due to lack of employee support resulting

from lack of adequate communication (p. 145) and this is what network could bridge. All I

need here is an example of a formal network in your organization

Informal Network
Informal networks in most cases are referred to as social network and defined as

channels that carry information and connect members of the organization through routes not

prescribe by the organization (Huning, Bryant, & Holt, 2015, p. 20). In an informal network,

people are drawn to each other by interpersonal attraction, interests, common background and

tasks. Huning, Bryant, and Holt (2015), noted the view point in informal network that the whole
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is greater than the sum of the individual members contribution (p.21). Informal networks can

exist along side formal network in an organization, according to Soda and Zaheer, (2012), they

are the invisible and behind the scenes processes that interact with formally designed

organizational processes and procedures to the extent that they compliment and supplement each

other to influnce organizational performance. Informal network could be emerge out of

friendship like from a coffee shop, with great and innovative ideas flowing from it.
I know what networks are and what the function is. What I am looking for are some

examples in your organization: [Identify and describe three different networks found in your

organization
Documentary network
A documentary network includes documentation such as the processes, procedures,

values, culture, approvals, decisions and resources of the organization that are vital for the

workings of the organization. Soda and Zaheer (2012), converted organizations processes and

structure into network. A documentary network shape organizational processes such as

communication and resource mobilization as it communicates to the members of the organization

and leadership of past processes, procedures, structures and outcomes to guide them in making

future decisions and consideration.

Recommendations

The need to understand network and network structures cannot be over emphasized.

Eisenberg, Johnson and Pieterson (2015), noted the ability of using network data to determining

information flow, identifying areas of collaboration and silos and identifying individuals that

could play key roles in strategic change. Thus, the understanding will help Hilmark management

to identify high opportunity and high risk individuals that would drive the organization. In the

event of employee turnover, it makes for easy replacement as the management had already

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known the ability of people in its network. It also encourages and enhances knowledge sharing

and transfer which the organization requires for growth and sustainability to face complexity and

challenges

Supporting Research

There is need for leadership in organizations to leverage network as it enhances

organizational success and outcomes. According to Eisenberg, Johnson and Pieterson, (2015),

network explains patterns of interaction, offering great insights on the flow of communication

within the organization and on how strategic change in the organization could be monitored.

Network promotes knowledge sharing and provides access to new and innovative ideas as it

fosters collaboration within the members of the organization. Huning, Bryant and Holt, (2015),

noted that a lot of work done in organizations are as a result of social relationship and that

network offers explanation to organizational issues such as social capital, knowledge transfer,

organizational learning, and leadership. Understanding these organizational phenomena is vital

for leadership as they operate in an ever increasing complex and dynamic business environment

that requires new and innovative ideas which network offers through knowledge transfer and

organizational learning. The value of this work to my organization is for leadership to leverage

the knowledge and the impact of network on organizational outcomes. Soda and Zaheer, (2012),

explained that in the face of uncertainty, networking help members of the organization to access

requisite information neeed so as to make sense of the realty as behaviors are influenced by

socially shared interpretations of events and actions.

Complexity (Week 8)

Todays business environment is characterized by chaos, turbulence and unpredictability

and how organizations respond to these pressures determine its sustainability. Uhi-Bien and
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Marion, (2008), defined complexity theory as the study of the dynamic behavior of a complex

system, its interactions, interdependence and adaptive nature as they respond to internal and

external pressures. Systems are complex and are made up of the family, organizations, economy,

government and society. These are agents who interact with other agents in the system through

feedbacks and form interdependent and dynamic network. Complexity theory helps us

understand how order emerges in such complex and nonlinear system and how they possess the

ability to adapt to their changing environment. This weeks work will show agents and their

relationships within the system and how the understanding of these various structures and

processes could improve the organization. The work will also provide a brief discussion of the

value of such knowledge to my organization.

Organizational Diagram

Hillmark Plastic Manufacturing Company

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Organizational Description

The Hilmark plastic manufacturing company is a complex system that contains structures

(boundry and network) and processes and these exbihits patterns and behaviors. The organization

has network of agents comprising of the suppliers, the customers, the customer service manager,

the production manager and marketing manager. The customer service manager and production

manager are the detectors that sense the environmental stimuli (the order placed by the

customer), through the processes which includes but not limited to taking delivery, taking

customer orders, processing payments and moulding pastics.

The effectors are the production manager and marketing manager who expresses output

to the environment. They make available the product to the customer. The suppliers provide

materials and information to the production manager, who responds through acceptance and

payment of money. The customer places orders of the plastic (information) through the customer

service manager, who then takes the information (orders, money) and acknowledges it. The

customer service manager informs the production manager the specifications of the products

ordered by the customer as well as informing the marketing manager of the order. The

production manager produces the product and makes available to the marketing manager for

onward transmission to the customer and who then acknowledges. The agent are aggregated by

hierarchy and type. The agent are grouped as managers and the production manager is higher in

rank than the rest of the managers.

The positive feedback loops are the monthly deposits and the earned interest that

increases the stock of capital over time. The negative feedback loop is the difficulty in accessing

and maintaining thermo plastic enginers. The sublevels are accessing customer specification,

producing the mould, moulding the product and delivering to the customer. Accessing customer

specification entails taking the specific requirement of the type of plastic required by the
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customer and finding out whether it will be customized (adding of pictures and specific write up,

colour, design, size and quantity). Producing the required mould entails forming a mould that

will give the exact shape of the order made.

Recommendations

Understanding complex adaptive systems provides insights into change that affect

organizations. Complex systems are composed of structures (boundaries and networks) and

processes (the interaction and relationship that exists among agents) understanding this has

implication for leadership. According to Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, (2007), this dynamic

network of interaction of agents within the system create opportunity for ideas to emerge, adapt

and change leading to adaptability, creativity and learning. Understanding complexity will enable

both agents and leadership within the organization to understand the relationship that exists

between the agents, the flow of information, material and energy within the organization, and the

various feedback loops.

Supporting Research

Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, (2007), stated that leadership under complexity is a

complex interactive dynamic from which adaptive outcomes emerge through the interactions of

agents, such outcomes are adaptability, learning and innovation. Complexity makes room for

network dynamics where ideas emerge, adapt, change and increase complexity resulting in

creativity, learning and adaptabity. Osborn and Hunt (2007) noted that the need for leaders in

complex systems to establish dynamic system where bottom-up structuration emerges will move

the organizations to a desired fit. The value of this discussion to my organization is for them to

understand the impact of the interaction of various agents within our complex system

(organization) and the need for the leadership of the organization to influence the intereaction.
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The knowledge will help organizational leadership to establish dynamic system that will be able

to respond appropriately to environmental stimuli as Osborn and Hunt, (2007) posited that it

increases long-term viability of organizations (p. 321). My organization will benefit by

understanding the structure and processes of their dynamic system as this improves the

organization.

Resilience (Week 9)

Organizations as complex systems are made up of the interaction of agents through series

of feedback, thereby forming interdependent and dynamic network that increase the complexity

of organizations in addition to the turbulent and unpredictable business environment. These

challenges of complexity being faced by organizations have made it necessary for organizations

to want to be resilient. Resilience then is defined as the ability of a system to maintain its

functions and structure in the face of pressures from forces within the system and or external to

the system (Allenby & Fink, 2005). Boin and Van Eeten (2013) noted that it is the potential

solution to the challenges faced by organizations as a result of crises and disasters. It is the

ability of organizations to absorb shocks and bounce back after internal or external

disturbances.This week, I will explore resilience in Hillmark Plastic Manufacturing Company

using eight cells form the intersections of the matrix of five subsystems and five components

developed by World Economic Forum to measure resilience. I will also make explanations to the

executive leadership discussing the value or importance of resilience to the organization. This

weeks work will further summarize the entire project and provide concluding remarks.

Resilience Matrix

The resilience matrix is made up of 25 cells comprising of the intersection of economic,

environmental, governance, infrastructure, social subsystems and five components of robustness,

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redundancy, resourcefulness, response and recovery. I examine eight cells of

economic/robustness, redundancy/society, resourcefulness/environment, response/environment,

recovery/economic, recovery/environment, robustness/infrastructure,

resourcefulness/governance.
Economic/robustness
Resilience in economic subsystems entails the ability of a system to maintain core

functions during shocks or hasten the speed of recovery of a system from changes or shocks

(Adam & Krausmann, 2003). Robustness discribes the state of a systems resilience and is the

ability of a system to absorb and or withstand perturbations. Robustness helps a system maintain

its functionalites during disturbances and crises. Roboustness measures the organizations

financial situations and how organization will maintain its functionalites in the face of drastic

changes in the level of economic activity that might affect its economic wellbeing. With changes

in the business environment in Nigeria occasioned by the changes in the monetary policies of the

government, these are bringing shock waves to organizations and threathening their very

existence. My organizations place monitoring systems that assesses the quality of the

organizations economic subsystem to ensure its reliability. My organization will also put

amechanism in place to prevent this shock from spreading to other parts of the organization that

would not have been affected and also will have measures to have the right investment and

incentive structures to overcome competing interests. In the case of policy in the importation of

petro-chemicals for the production of plastics, my organization is diversifying in order to reduce

the shock and not go extinct.

Redundancy/society
Redundancy measures organizations excess capability and back-up to with stand shocks

and maintain core functionality. Redundancy entails having a back-up team or succession plan

for managers, organizations will have such excess capability through training and staff
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development and will be resilient in this aspect in the face of perturbation. My organization

engage in in-house training and sponsoring of staff to attend seminers, conferences and

responsibility switches as a means of buiding and developing employees so that there is no much

gap in employees general knowledge and competence. Any employee in the same category

could take up any assignment in the absence of another.

Resourcefulness/environment
Resourcefulness/environment is the ability to be flexible and adapt to changes and

perturbation in the environment. As have been noted in economic/robustness, in the case of

government policies that are affecting the importation and provisions of vital raw material, my

organization is flexible and adapt to these environmental changes by limiting the production of

some products that are not in high demand and have alternative plans for diversification.

Example is limiting the production of most products that they relied heavily on imported raw

materials to produce and are not also in high demand to produce more of one they substitute

locally made raw materials.

Response/environment
Response/environment shows organizations ability to mobilize quickly in the face of

distubances in the environment. Organizations may have a number of locations where it can

move in the face of natural disaster, urbanization, or government policy for relocation due to

environmental concerns like pollution. There should exists effective communication line devoid

of ambiguity and lack of trust in the organization to be used in such instance. My organization

do not have such plans for now but intends in the future to be located in different parts of the

country as the threat of insurgency is threating its current location.

Recovery/economic
Recovery/economic shows the ability of organizations to regain certain degree of

normalcy after perturbations. The question here is on how flexible is organizations in adapting to

the new conditions or changed circumstances. What are the internal and external coordination
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aspects, what are the duration of the business crises and restart time for full operation. These are

questions to be answered by a resilient organization. My organization has not been faced with

such pertubations but ther are plans on the way to tackle such, should it occur.

Recovery/environment
In the case of natural disaster or relocation due to environmental issues, recovery shows

how fexible are the organization in adapting to its new conditions. My organization is making

plans of being located in different parts of the country and this could be a strategy for recovery.
Robustness/infrastructure
Infrastructure deals with the communication systems, energy, transport and health of my

organization. Robustness is the ability to absorb and withstand disturbances and crisis. My

organization have an alternative power generating system in the case of power outage to prevent

the losses that they would incurred as a result of the power outage. My organization have

alternative to diverse infrastructure to prevent or reduce losses during disturbances or crisis.

Resourcefulness/governance
Governance is the art of leadership, policies, government and the rule of law while

resourcefulness has to do with the capability to self-organize, to be creative and innovative. In a

complex system, an organizations level of adaptability show the extent of its creativity and

innovative ability. The leadership of my organization creates an enabling environment for

knowledge sharing among employees making way for creativity and innovation. They achieved

this by adopting a flat structure of team membership and adopting a culture where employees

knowledge are valued.

There are also processes that the leadership had put in place to prevent or ameliorate the

impact of crisis and disturbances that distort the equilibrium of the organization. The leadership

of my organization will use this information to improve its decision making not only in the

recovery processes but also to improve resilience indicators.

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Supporting Research

Resilience is a key factor for leadership to make effective decisions in the face of

disturbances and crisis. Resilience gives the leader and the organization the ability to adapt

effectively to sudden changes that could have ordinarily affected the organization negatively.

Boin & Van Eeten, (2013) posited that organizations that are resilient will maintain a high level

of performance in the face of pressures, threats and uncertainties. Also according to Hamel and

Vlikangas (2003), resilience will spur organizations and eadership to recognize impending

dangers, learn on the spot, work in joint teams and high spirits, and improvise their way around

excruciating setbacks and emerge from crises stronger and better.

Disturbances and turburlence abound in the business environment and proactively

tackling these actors that inhibit organization performance is of great importance to leadership

and the organization. Resilience will guide my organization to creativily and innovatively adapt

to changes in the five subsystems as well as adopting the five components.

Summary and Conclusions

The emphasis in the past has been on competitvenes and sustainability of organization but

the study of complex system, its interdependence and interaction of the agents in this system

which has created opportunity for ideas to emerge, adapt and change leading to adaptability,

creativity and learning. Sudden shocks and disturbances are affecting the ability of organizations

to survive and bounce back after crisis and this has made the study of resilience vital for

organizations. Creativity, adaptability and innovation is vital for organizations to reduce

vulnerability and enhance resilience and this has implication for decision making process of the

leadership of Hillmark. Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, (2007) defined leadership under

complexity as a complex interactive dynamic from which adaptive outcomes such as

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adaptability, learning and innovation emerge. Knowledge of complexity theory and resilience

will aid the leadership of Hillmark Plastic Manufacturing Company in their decision making

processes.

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