Systems Approaches

1
Systems Approaches

• COMM 254 Organizational Communication

2
Prescriptive to Descriptive Shift

• Prescriptive Communication as a strategic tool
  for achieving specific goals to be predicted and
  controlled.
• Classical
• Human Relations
• Human Resources
• Descriptive Communication as an ongoing,
  everyday, natural, but usually taken-for-granted
  phenomenon to be understood.
• Systems
• Cultural
• Critical

3
Foundations of Systems Theory

• Work originally began in the field of Philosophy
  in 19th century
• Was applied in many different fields
• Ludwig von Bertalanffy
• Canadian biologist
• Primary influence on the development and
  application of systems theory
• Published General Systems Theory in 1968

4
Key Characteristics of Open Systems

• Interdependent Wholeness

5
Key Characteristics of Open Systems

• Hierarchy

6
Key Characteristics of Open Systems

• Environmental Interchange
• (Permeability)

7
System Processes

• Input
• Process (or Throughput)
• Output

8
System Processes
Self-Regulation for Goal Attainment

• Systems Goals
• Homeostasis (balance)
• Morphogenesis (adaptability)
• Feedback The mechanism for self-regulation
• Negative feedback Indicates undesirable
  deviation that threatens homeostasis.
• Positive feedback Indicates desirable deviation
  that supports morphogenesis.

9
System Properties

• Holism
• Equifinality
• Negative Entropy
• Requisite Variety

See p. 79
10
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• Theorist Karl Weick, Professor of Organizational
  Behavior and Psychology
• Basic premise Organizing is a communicative
  activity directed toward the reduction of
  equivocality in information

11
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• An organization must process information about
  its environment in order to function effectively
  (maintenance or adaptation).

12
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• Information is equivocal when it can be given
  many different interpretations.

13
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• Equivocal information may be ambiguous or
  conflicting.

14
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• Equivocal information may be ambiguous or
  conflicting.

So what do you think of my new look?
WellI think its very interesting.
15
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• Equivocal information may be ambiguous or
  conflicting.

Wow! Its really great!!
So what do you think of my new look?
Thats just about the ugliest thing Ive ever
seen!
16
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• In an environment of unequivocal information
  (certainty), organizations can rely on
  established rules (assembly rules) and procedures
  to guide decisions and actions.

17
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• All organizations face equivocality, and the
  degree of equivocality in the environment is
  constantly increasing...the world in becoming
  more and more complex.

18
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application

• A quote The activities of organizing are
  directed toward the establishment of a workable
  level of certainty. An organization attempts to
  transform equivocal information into a degree of
  unequivocality with which it can work and to
  which it is accustomed.
• Weick, K. (1969). The social psychology of
  organizing. Reading, MA Addison-Wesley.

19
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application
Evolutionary Process of Organizing

• Stage One Enactment
• Enactment is creating the environment by what you
  notice and how you assign it meaning
• Environment is not whats out there but what
  we know or believe to be out there
• Organizational environments are socially
  constructed

20
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application
Evolutionary Process of Organizing

• Stage Two Selection
• Assembly rulesorganizational response recipes
• Acceptable in unequivocal environments
• Communication cyclessystems of double-interacts
• Act, response, adjustment
• Why has there been so much turnover in our sales
  force lately? The new sales manager is really
  awful to work with. I hadnt heard that. Ill
  have to have a chat with him sometime soon.
• Necessary in highly equivocal environments.

21
Equivocality Reduction TheoryA Systems
Application
Evolutionary Process of Organizing

• Stage Three Retention
• Retrospective Sense-Making
• Rationalized vs. Rational Behavior
• Impacts future enactment and selection (p. 83)

22
Network Analysis

• A network is
• a functional communicative structure.
• a purposive pattern of message transmission.

23
Two Network Traditions

• Positional Tradition
• A network is a system of established pathways
  through which messages may flow.

24
Two Network Traditions

• Relational Tradition
• A network is a system of interconnected
  individuals who are linked by observable patterns
  of message flow.

25
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Links
• Strength

26
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Links
• Strength
• Symmetry

or
27
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Links
• Strength
• Symmetry
• Multiplexity

Task
Social
Innovation
28
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Roles

29
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Roles

30
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Roles
• Member

??
31
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Roles
• Liaison

32
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Roles
• Bridge

33
Analyzing Networks

• Communication Roles
• Isolate

34
Analyzing Networks
Network Qualities

• Size
• The number of nodes (people) in a network

35
Analyzing Networks
Network Qualities

• Content
• The nature of the stuff flowing through the
  network connections

36
Analyzing Networks
Network Qualities

• Mode
• The mediums or channels through which linkages
  are maintained

37
Analyzing Networks
Network Qualities

• Centrality
• The degree to which individuals have access to
  each other

38
Analyzing Networks
Network Qualities

• Connectedness (Density)
• The ratio of actual to possible links in the
  network

39
Analyzing Networks
Connectedness
100
70
40
Analyzing Networks
Centrality vs. Connectedness
41
Analyzing Networks
Application
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