SYSTEM THEORY

 What is system theory

 The second foundation of O D is system theory
which views organization as open system in active
exchange with their environment
 Definition of System
A system is an arrangement of interrelated
parts; the word arrangement and interrelated
describe interdependent elements forming an
entity that is the system

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 System Theory
 To summarize – system denotes interdependency,
interconnectedness and interrelatedness among
elements in a set that constitutes an identifiable
whole
 The Nature of system
 All open system are input- throughput- output
mechanism
 System take input from the environment in the form
of energy, information, money, people, raw
material etc
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 System Theory
 They do something to input via throughput,
conversion or transformation processes that
change the inputs and that goes to environment as
output
 All these three should work well if the system is to
be effective and survive
 Open system have purposes and goals and the
reasons of their existence; these purposes must
align with purposes and needs in the environment
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 System Theory
 The organization’s purpose will be reflected in its
output and if the environment does not want these
outputs, the organization will cease to exist
 The law of entropy states that system run down
and disintegrate unless they reverse the entropic
process by importing more energy than they use.
 Organizations achieve negative entropy when they
are able to exchange their output for enough
inputs to keep the system from running down
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 System Theory
 Information is important to systems in several ways,
feedback is information from the environment about
system performance
 System require two types of feedback
a) Negative
- Negative feedback measures whether or not
the output is on course with the purpose and goals, it
is also known as deviation-correction feedback
b) Positive

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 System Theory
- Positive feedback measures whether or not the
purpose and goals are aligned with environmental
needs
 Hanna whose perceptions of system theory are very
valuable states ‘ usefulness of the two concepts is
that they demonstrate that it is not enough to merely
measure our outputs versus the intended targets
 Survival of the system is equally influenced by
whether or not the targets themselves are appropriate

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 System Theory
 Congruence among system elements
 To understand system thinking application in O D
David Nadler developed the congruence model for
appreciating organizational dynamics
 This model depicts the organization as an input-
throughput-output system
 Three major input factors –
- The environment – which imposes constraints and
opportunities about what the organization can do or
can not do
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 System Theory
- Resources available to the organization such as
capital, people, knowledge and technology
- History- consists of memories of past successes
and failures
 Outputs are performance at the total organizational
level and individual level
 Elements of the organization level the strategy –
what the organization is trying to accomplish and
how it plans to do it

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Normative –Reeducative Strategy

 Concept – Normative reeducative Strategy

 O D involves change and it rests on a particular
strategy for change that has application for
practitioners and organizational members alike
 Chin and Benne describe 3 types of strategies
- First is empirical- rational strategies, based on the
assumptions that people are rational, will follow
their rational self-interest and will change if and
when they realize that change is to their advantage
- The second group of strategies is normative
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 Normative ----
- reeducative strategies based on the assumptions that
norms form the basis for behavior, and change comes
through reeducation in which old norms are discarded
and supplanted by new ones
- The third set of strategies is the power coercive
strategies based on the assumptions that change is
compliance of those who have less power with he
desires of those who have more power
 Evaluated against these 3 change strategies O D
clearly false within the normative reeducative category

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 Normative------
 Although Often O D represents a
combination of normative reeducative and
the empirical-rational strategies
 Thus norm help determine individual
behavior and normative reeducative
strategy of changing pervades the practice
of O D

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 Action research
 Action Research a process and approach
 It is a process and
 Problem solving approach
It is data based problem solving methods
 Action research is a method that combines
learning and doing – learning about the
dynamics of organizational change and
doing or implementing change efforts
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 Action Research
 Definition
Action research is a process of
systematically collecting research data about an on
going system relative to some objective, goals and
needs of that system ; feeding these data back into
the system, taking action by altering selected
variables within the system based on both the data
and on hypothesis; and evaluating the results of
actions by collecting more data.
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 Action Research
 Thus action research is a sequence of events and
activities
 Key Aspects of Model
a) Diagnosis
b) Data gathering
c) Feedback
d) Data discussion
e) Action planning and action
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 Action Research
 Significant elements of a design for action research
a) Identification of a problem area about which an individual and
group is sufficiently concerned to want to take some action
b) The selection of a specific problem and formulation of a hypothesis
or prediction that implies a goal and a procedure for reaching it
c) The careful recording of action taken and accumulation of evidence
of evidence to determine the degree to which the goal has been
achieved
d) The inference from this evidence of generalization regarding the
relation between the action and the desired goals
e) The continuous retesting of these generalization in action situation

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 Inter-group and Third Party
Intervention
 Inter-group conflicts
 When tension, conflicts exist among groups they behave
negatively
 Each group sees the other as enemy and communication
among the groups decrease
 Each group believes that it can do no wrong and the other
group can do no right
 In certain situation this can reach to a very ugly stage
where groups can indulge in sabotage acts against each
other
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 Inter-Group------
 Strategies for reducing inter groups conflicts
 To reduce the conflicts, outside object or group can
attempt to bring the groups closure
 Increase the interaction and communication among
the groups
 These mechanism do not surely work and may
sometime miserably fail to break any ice.
 The question still remains as to how we can
implement conflicts reducing mechanism
successfully
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 Inter group----
 Inter group team-building interventions
 The focus of team building group of OD intervention is on
improving inter group relation
 The goals of these activities are to reduce the amount of
dysfunctional competition and reduce parochial
independent point of view and emphasize on the necessity
for interdependence
 This will reduce misunderstanding, miscommunication and
misperception among the groups
 This can Further be improved by giving emphasis on unit
goals attainment, inter group cooperation etc
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 Structural Intervention
 What is structural intervention
 Structural intervention are aimed at improving
organization effectiveness through change in the task,
technology and goal processes
 This include changes in how the overall work is divided in
the units, method of control, arrangement of equipment
and people, work flow arrangement and change in
communication and authority
 These structural intervention have been conceived and
categorize in different forms
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 Structural----
 Types of structural intervention
( Hard copy given)

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 Consultant Client Relationship
 A Issues in consultant client relationship
 number of interrelated issues can arise in consultant-
client relationship in O D activities
 These issues need to be managed appropriately so that
adverse effect can be checked and avoided
 These issues tend to center on the following important
areas:
1) Entry and contracting
2) Defining the client system
3) Trust at various levels

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 Consultant-----
4) The nature of the consultant,s expertise
5) Diagnosis and appropriate interventions
6) The depth of interventions
7) On being absorbed by the culture
8) The consultant as a model
9) the consultant team as a microcosm
10) Action research and the O D process
11) Client dependency and terminating the relationship
12) Ethical standard in O D
13)Implication of OD for the client
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 Power, Politics and O D
 What is power in an organization
 Power is the intentional influence over the beliefs,
emotions and behavior of people----- one person exerts
power over another to the degree that he is able to exact
compliance as desired
 Thus it is the act or ability of influencing others and
outcomes favoring one party over the others
 Two faces of power
a) Negative - this is characterized by primitive unsocialized
need to initiate others
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 Power------
b) The positive face of power is characterized by a socialized
need to initiate, influence and lead
 Theories about the sources of social power
 R. P. French and Bertram Raven have suggested five
sources or bases of social power as under
a) Reward power
b) Coercive power
c) Legitimate power
d) Referent power
e) Expert power

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 Power----
 What is organizational politics
 organizational politics is the management of influence to
obtain end not sanctioned by the organization or to obtain
ends through non sanctioned influence means
 Thus organizational politics involve intentional acts of
influence to enhance or protect the self interest of
individuals or groups
 It also involve those activities taken within organization to
acquire, develop and use power and other resources to
obtain one’s preferred outcomes in a situation in which
there is uncertainty or dissensus about choices

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