Understanding Complexity in Organizations

Behavioral Systems

Timothy Ludwig, Ramona Houmanfar, Timothy Ludwig, Ramona Houmanfar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317986935
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Organizations are complex entities that must adapt the practices of their employees and management to meet the demands of a dynamic environment. Organizations are behavioral systems that coordinate interactions among its members and environment. Changing practices in one area of an organization can generate a reaction throughout the entire system, thus affecting the behaviors of those working within other areas, the experience of customers, and important organizational results. Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) focuses on these complex contingencies from the macro system all the way down to individual behavior.

This book contains articles by internationally recognized experts in Behavioral Systems Analysis who discuss the role of organizational practices in their study of performance improvement and cultural change from both practical and conceptual perspectives. Business and non-profit managers will find tools and case studies to help understand and diagnose their organization's dynamics. Scholars will appreciate articles' theory and real-world descriptions when considering their own research direction. Finally, all students of management theory, behavior analysis, and human resources will find this collection a thought-provoking tool for their understanding of behavioral systems and their application in organizations.

This book was published as a special issue in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.

Introduction: Understanding Complexity in Organizations*

TIMOTHY D. LUDWIG

Appalachian State University

RAMONA HOUMANFAR

University of Nevada, Reno

 

Organizational systems are adaptive entities that survive by meeting environmental demands (consumers, competition, economy, governmental policies, etc.) through the development and maintenance of subsystems ultimately designed to manage behavior. Thus, organizations are behavioural systems that encompass complex patterns of behavioral interactions among their members and the environment. For instance, a change in practices of one area of the organization may bring about a ripple reaction throughout the entire system, thus affecting the behaviors of those working within one department. Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) focuses on these complex response patterns, and seeks to understand the critical aspects of the system involved in the controlling relationships between the organization and contingencies. Behavioral systems analysts also analyze the role of organizational practices in their study of performance improvement and cultural change.

Even though the literature and technology associated with the behavioural systems perspective can be traced back to the early 1960s, the development of conceptual as well as experimental work in this area has not evolved as rapidly as other areas of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM). The last decade, however, has seen a reengagement of interests in behavioural systems analysis through an increased demand by practitioners and leaders in organizations as they experience these complex phenomena.

In that regard, this book serves not only as a tribute to the work of our pioneering colleagues (Brethower, 1982; Malott, 2003; Rummler, 2004), but also as a source of inspiration and ideas for future research and practice. We have drawn well-known theorists, researchers, and practitioners from around the world together to present their most recent work on behavioral systems.

This book is divided into two parts. In Part 1, the interrelated themes of behavioural systems range from analysis of multiorganizational contingencies to case studies, from practical processes to measurement tools of systems analysis. The issues discussed in Part 2 range from analysis of leadership practices in organizations to behavioral systemic views of our scientific field.

Part 1 starts with Diener, McGee, and Miguel’s overview of BSA as a technology for organization-wide improvement by offering a series of practical process analyses and measurement tools. Krapfl, Cooke, Sullivan, and Cogar offer a view on engineering the reciprocal relationship between those who would intervene in a system and the behavioral systems, a world in which the behaviorist is not only the observer but the participant. This analysis is demonstrated through an organizational case study. Next, Mihalic and Ludwig offer a field report depicting a measurement system failure and its systemic and behavioral implications in a distribution organization. The next chapter by Cloyd Hyten sets the stage for a systems-oriented and results-focused approach to Organizational Behavior Management that meets the demands of the business world.

William Abernathy’s chapter reviews BSA in light of Skinner’s Walden Two classic and promotes the use of organizational systems instead of social communes as a way of realizing this utopian vision of behavioral science. Part 1 closes with the examination of interrelations among individual behavior, group alignment, and eventually organizational performance in longitudinal analyses of self-insurance systems by Alavosius, Getting, Dagen, Newsome, and Hopkins.

Part 2 opens with Anthony Biglan’s analysis of the cultural practices proposed to change government’s influence on costs (externalities) that corporations’ actions impose on society. In line with this approach on socially appropriate organizational practices, Thomas C. Mawhinney provides a behavioral systemic view of ways by which dysfunctional and latent deadly practices may be replaced by functional practices.¹ With regards to functional organizational practices, Houmanfar, Rodrigues, and Smith offer an analysis of effective leadership in relation to communication networks in organizations. Ingunn Sandaker discusses how different processes and communication structures in the organization serve as environmental contingencies favoring variability of performance in organizations.

Next, Tosti and Herbst provide a behavioral systems approach toward customer-centered organizations by using examples and reports from the field. The final chapter by Hayes, Dubuque, Fryling, and Pritchard offers a behavioral systemic overview of behavior analysis as a scientific discipline with a focus on ways to increase its share of the psychological market, sustain its veracity, and assure its long term.²

ENDNOTES

1. We would like to thank our guest editor, Cloyd Hyten, for his contribution to the editorial process on Tom Mawhinney’s contribution.

2. We are indebted to the contributors of this book for inspiration and ideas for future research and practice. We welcome commentaries on the concepts and tools presented in these chapters as submissions for further dialog on behavioral systems in the pages of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.

REFERENCES

Brethower, D. M. (1982). The total performance system, In R. M. O’Brien, A. M. Dickinson, & M. P. Rosow (Eds.), Industrial behavior modification: A management handbook (pp. 350–369). New York: Pergamon Press.

Malott, M. E. (2003). Paradox of organizational change. Reno, Nevada: Context Press.

Rummler, G. A. (2004). Serious performance consulting according to Rummler. Silver Spring, MD: International Society for Performance Improvement.

 

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*We dedicate this book to the memory of Dr. Geary Rummler, a pioneer in the field of Behavioral Systems Analysis and inspiration for many generations to come.

An Integrated Approach for Conducting a Behavioral Systems Analysis

LORI H. DIENER

Performance Blueprints, Rochester, New York, USA

HEATHER M. McGEE

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

CAIO F. MIGUEL

California State University, Sacramento, California, USA

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how to conduct a Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) to aid in the design of targeted performance improvement interventions. BSA is a continuous process of analyzing the right variables to the right extent to aid in planning and managing performance at the organization, process, and job levels. BSA helps to build alignment among activities within an organization to better provide value-adding products or services to the organization’s consumers, which ultimately determines its survival. This paper provides an overview of the BSA approach, a Behavioral Systems Analysis Questionnaire (BSAQ) to guide the performance analyst, and an example of the BSAQ applied to an organization.

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR CONDUCTING A BEHAVIORAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

Businesses in nearly all industry sectors are continuously faced with competitive pressures influencing customer service expectations, resulting in increased organizational complexity (McElgunn, 2007). Organizations adapt to these pressures by changing their systems and processes to add value for their consumers. However, these changes can be costly when organizations focus on the wrong part(s) to “fix” or neglect to design the necessary behavior change of individuals who participate in the processes and systems being changed. The Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) approach to performance improvement described in this article provides the “how-to” for viewing an organization as a whole system and understanding how its many parts interact. By taking this approach, the performance analyst will be able to help his or her organization target its efforts and adapt more readily to change, which could lead to increases in profitability, customer satisfaction, market share, and more (Redmon & Mason, 2001).

BSA sets itself apart from other approaches to performance improvement by focusing on sustainable results through analyses of all components of the system that could impact performance (Brethower, 1982, 2000, 2001, 2002; M. E. Malott, 2003; Sulzer-Azaroff, 2000). BSA can be contrasted with the more commonly applied organizational behavior management interventions also known as Performance Management (PM). PM involves improving individual or group performance by directly manipulating the environment. The PM process typically involves the analysis of antecedents and consequences supporting the behaviors of individuals (or groups of individuals) within the organization and altering these variables to either decrease unproductive or increase productive performance (Austin, 2000; Daniels & Daniels, 2004). PM is consistent with the science of behavior analysis whose principles have been developed over the last 50 years (Skinner, 1953). Common PM interventions include goal setting, feedback, job aids, token systems (earning points that can later be redeemed for valued items), lottery systems, and so on (Redmon & Wilk, 1991). Although PM interventions have been shown to deliver robust results in the near term, there has been little evidence to show that their positive impact can sustain over long periods of time (Redmon, 1991; Sigurdsson & Austin, 2006). It is critical to build PM interventions that sustain behavior change since it is ultimately the behavior of individuals within an organization that carries out organizational goals (Brown, 2000; Daniels, 2009; M. E. Malott, 2003).

There are two primary aspects of PM interventions that affect sustainability: (a) the environment—of which the PM intervention is a part—experiences constant change; and (b) the PM intervention participants may change and/or managers, coworkers, and external customers of the organization may desire different products and services as an outcome of the intervention. Thus, PM interventions should be considered in context of the overall organizational system to which they belong, so they can be adapted as changes in the organization occur. The design of a PM structure that adapts to shifting demands on the organization is one that will be sustainable because it can account for changes in individual and team contingencies due to variance in the greater organizational system.

The BSA method involves outlining how the components of the system interact, including how each individual contributes to the overall functioning of the system. BSA involves multilevel solutions that may include PM interventions, but also process design, automation, changes in policy, changes in resource deployment, strategy development and/or realignment, development of incentive systems, organizational restructuring, and managing the manager initiatives, to name a few (McGee, 2007). The value of BSA is that it allows us to analyze the o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1. Introduction: Understanding Complexity in Organizations
• Part 1 Understanding Complex System Contingencies in Organizations
• Part 2 Understanding Complex Cultural Contingencies
• Index