Modeling Organizational Systems: Banathy's Three Lenses Revisited

The inherent complexity of organizational systems defies full understanding by inquirers. This condition often causes organizational inquirers to become mired in convoluted deliberations, unable to attain the consensus among the inquiring community that is needed to advance the research forward to a meaningful conclusion. Consequently, many practitioners and researchers employ models of organizations to aid in simplifying the system's complexity and to reach shared agreement. Because no single model can fully capture the complexity of an organization, Dr. Bela H. Banathy therefore proposed using three types of interrelated models to give a multidimensional view of a human system under study. Since Banathy first introduced his three lenses approach, the concept has been employed in many educational and organizational settings. This article examines the author's experience using Banathy's three lenses and integrates their usage with some other popular modeling techniques, providing a comprehensive view of how Banathy's three lenses can be effectively employed in contemporary organizational settings.     

From Fitness Landscapes to Knowledge Landscapes

Based on the complexity theory concept of fitness landscapes, this article develops and discusses the concept of knowledge landscapes. A knowledge landscape is a metaphor describing the ever-changing potential knowledge peaks and valleys that surround each one of us. Individuals, communities, and organizations move on their own knowledge landscapes by simultaneously climbing local peaks and exploring other visible peaks. The higher one climbs, the harder it is to climb still higher. Our ability to climb is also limited by our identity, who we are, which on an organizational level is linked to the tightness of organizational interconnectedness. Coevolutionary struggles between individuals and organizations can lead us to climb potential knowledge peaks faster. Moreover, our knowledge landscapes exist on many levels of scale, meaning that what appears to be one peak is actually a series of subpeaks on a smaller level of scale.     

基于NK模型的突发事件应急管理组织系统适应性研究

突发事件的发生发展具有高度不确定性,机械的应急管理组织系统缺乏适应性,难以有效应对.基于NK模型,以适应度景观的复杂性和动态性刻画应急管理决策情景的不确定性,研究简单稳态、复杂稳态、简单动态、复杂动态情景下,集权、分权和层级等决策模式的组织系统的适应性特征,以及组织文化、决策者能力、信息流等因素的影响机理.结果表明,简单稳态情景下,应采用分权模式且促进信息共享;复杂稳态情景下,宜保持适度集权;动态情景下,应采用层级模式并加强信息沟通.决策者能力与决策重心相一致,能有效增强组织系统的适应性.当信息流超过决策者能力时,具有合作文化的分权模式适应性较好.研究为中国应急管理体系顶层设计与模式重构提供理论方法.     

技术系统复杂性的类型分析及设计启示

复杂性技术系统的类型：一、构成复杂性：1.组分复杂性2.类别复杂性;二、结构复杂性：1.组织复杂性2.层次复杂性;三、功能复杂性：1.操作复杂性2.规则复杂性。基于以上认识,探索减少技术复杂性的设计方法进而降低伴生复杂性的可能风险。     

信息处理与组织结构的理论研究及数值模拟

外部环境是组织有效运作所必需应对的各种不确定性的主要来源,现代组织所面临的环境比以往具有更大的不确定性.将组织看作是一个信息处理网络,组织绩效用组织结构价值来度量,建立数学模型,研究组织结构与组织环境如何相互作用决定组织绩效,以及信息费用对组织结构设计的影响.基于形式模型的理论分析和数值模拟,为理解不确定环境中组织结构设计提供了新的解释、视野及管理学上的含义.     

A multidimensional perspective of organizational change

This paper discusses some key societal changes which are pressuring organizations to find new ways to use their workforces more creatively so that they can face increasing environmental and internal complexity. It is argued that we should use a multidimensional perspective to promote the multifaceted organizational change needed in today's society, since each existing approach gives a distinctive but partial contribution to the understanding of organizational phenomena. A multidimensional training and intervention technique we have begun to develop to promote organizational change is then presented, and this is compared and contrasted with Critical Systems philosophy, principles, and methods of intervention.     

供应链复杂性对组织学习和运营竞争力的影响

供应链上的企业越来越认识到组织学习对其基本生存与持续发展的重要性,然而组织学习面临着内外复杂环境的影响.从供应链内部复杂性、上游复杂性和下游复杂性三个维度探讨了组织内部学习和外部学习,并探究了两种组织学习对企业运营竞争力的影响.基于全球10个国家的317家高绩效制造(high performance manufacturing,HPM)企业的一手数据,采用结构方程模型方法,提出并验证了"复杂性-组织学习-运营竞争力"的模型.结果表明,供应链上游复杂性对内部学习和外部学习均有负面影响,下游复杂性对内部学习有负面影响,而内部复杂性对内部学习和外部学习均无显著影响;内部学习显著提升了运营竞争力中的交付、创新、客户服务,而外部学习显著提升了质量和客户服务.     

复杂性科学中复杂性根源的研究

复杂性科学是近年来系统科学中的一朵灿烂的奇葩 .然而 ,诸如什么是复杂性根源的问题等一些基本命题仍有待解决 .事实上这些问题也阻碍着复杂性科学研究的发展 .本文在一般系统研究的范畴内 ,在原有一系列研究成果的基础上 ,探讨什么是复杂性根源的问题 .研究结果表明 :复杂性是由系统基层次之上的关系环引起和支配的 ,即系统基层次之上的关系环是复杂性的根源 .另一方面 ,2 0世纪 90年代在复杂性科学研究中异军突起的复杂适应性系统 (CAS)的发展已经在物理、化学和生物系统建模方面取得丰硕成果 ,并开始突破经济学中的某些议题 .不过 CAS概念在组织和管理领域的应用仍处于起步阶段 .照理 ,系统理论、数学和计算机科学的每一步成就都应当毫无例外地为管理科学所利用 ,组织的演化或重组最后当集中于开发内嵌优异软件包的适应性企业或事务模型之中 .文中对此表达了作者们的希冀 ,也是为了怀念许国志先生和继承许老的遗愿.     

Managing Complexity—The Path Toward Intelligent Organizations

Coping with complexity is at the heart of management and leadership in the turbulent environments faced by the organizations and societies of our day. The systems approach provides transdisciplinary theories and tools for dealing with this challenge more effectively than efforts merely based on disciplinary insights or pragmatic recipes. In this paper, a concept of "intelligent organizations" is introduced. A framework for the design of intelligent organizations is proposed that links three organizational cybernetic models: the Model for Systemic Control, the Viable System Model, and the Team Syntegrity model.² The proposition is that a combined use of these models, guided by the integrative conceptual framework, enables a more effective response to complex situations than merely pragmatic approaches to "integrative management." Provisional empirical evidence gathered from applied research indicates that the proposed framework is capable of enhancing such superior potential for effective response. As such, it promises to meet the specific needs of the new types of organizations that have already begun to emerge in the knowledge societies.     

一类生物演化模型的统计特性

在给出的生态系列演化模型中 ,首先 ,每次只让适应度最小的物种发生变异 ,直到其适应度比原来高为止 ,对此我们给出了每一次变异所需时间的数学期望 ,并证明了最小适应度序列是几乎必然收敛的 ;然后 ,逐渐增加相互作用的强度 ,通过数值模拟表明 ,相互作用是生态系统多样性的根源.     

Evaluation of Organizational Learning Ability Based on Fuzzy C-means and Unascertained Measure

The purpose of objective and quantitative evaluating the organizational learning ability is to make the enterprise have reliable criterions and operable procedures during the process of improving the organizational learning ability and founding learning organization. In this paper, an evaluating indicator system is established by analyzing the whole process of organizational learning; both qualitative and quantitative analyses are used, and a new combined evaluating method is presented. A measurement case involving twenty enterprises is given to prove the validity of this method. In conclusion, learning strategies are presented according to measurement result. This paper applies 4 models synthetically. The evaluating effect is superior to other methods.     

和谐管理的耦合机制及其复杂性的涌现

在遵循和谐管理理论的研究框架下,通过借鉴Wright的适应度景观概念和Kauffman关于生物系统进化的NK模型,在界定了和谐景观后,利用系统分析和模块化设计的思想,将和谐管理中的和谐主题,和,谐以及环境等四个核心要素作为组织系统的四个模块或维度,并针对这些模块间的相互关联性以及互动程度的变化对组织系统绩效的影响,进行了仿真,仿真结果表明:和谐管理的耦合机制具有在局部最优和全局最优之间"适应性游走"的特征,并涌现出值得关注的复杂性.     

基于协同进化算法的导弹与飞机追逃对策

研究了导弹与飞机在复杂动力学约束下的三维追逃对策.阐述了协同进化的理论基础,根据追逃双方运动的数学模型设计了混合追逃策略以保证进化过程的推进.在简单适应度和共享适应度的基础上提出了混合适应度,利用协同进化算法对三维环境下导弹和飞机的追逃策略进行进化.仿真结果表明,进化的飞机能有效规避比例制导策略的导弹,并且在进化过程中导弹和飞机的策略表现出一定程度的改善.     

基于高拉伸度遗传算法的相关干涉仪测向算法

针对相关干涉仪测向中相位差模糊导致的强非线性问题,提出一种基于高拉伸度的改进遗传算法,该算法以遗传算法中择优选取机制为基础,通过定义拉伸度,根据相关干涉仪测向中相关函数及其对自变量的偏导数在目标方向附近均趋近于0的特性,设计新的适应度函数,增大全局最大值附近适应度函数的拉伸度,扩大与其他方向的适应度的差距,从而实现对选取机制的优化。仿真实验表明,该算法复杂度低,当测向精度基本相同时,测向时间约为网格法的1/600,且具有良好的适用性,可以广泛应用于其他求解最大值的问题中。     

Constancy and change: Flexible organization structures

Management organization structure is the most sensitive characteristic displayed by a business organization in the process of its adaptation to the changing environment. It is well-known, however, that excessive changeability of the structure makes the management system unstable and leads to less effective organizational behavior. The author believes that the reason lies in the fact that the structural changes almost always involve the management system's composition too. This shortcoming is rarely found in matrix management of goal-oriented programs. However, application of this type of management structure is limited as complexity of management increases disproportionately. Systems analysis of the problem situation leads to two new conclusions: (a) the variety of management organization structures required by business organizations to adapt to the changing environment can be extended if the organizational relations are regarded as part of organizational/economic symbiosis and their interrelated change; and (b) enhancement of the program component in the matrix structure makes it possible to design stable manage-management structures with a dynamic composition. Implementation of this concept in large-scale business systems brought about essentially new forms of production units' self-organization that became known as state production associations. It makes the large-scale business organizations' structures far less complex and increase their flexibility without disturbing the management systems' resilience. The newly developed principles of organizational design are universal.     

Auditing as a Trust Creation Process

This paper offers an account of a process to build up relations of trust as a necessary condition for developing a new concept of auditing. The conceptual base of the discussion is centered upon the idea of managing complexity. Specifically, trust is observed not only as a form of reducing the complexity of our world relevant to each of us, but also as a most powerful amplifier of social complexity. In the paper the distinction is made between contextual trust and responsible trust. It is argued that responsible trust is necessary in order to accept diversity and increase the organization's performance in a demanding environment. This, in turn, suggests the necessity to move from hierarchical organizations to recursive organizations. The system in focus in this work was the Colombian State and, in particular, the National Audit Office of Colombia, which has begun a process to support the development of self-controlled organizational systems.     

城市、分形与空间复杂性探索

首先阐明空间复杂性的来龙去脉，包括复杂系统与复杂性的关系，空间复杂性与自组织临界性的等价性等。其次论证分形是刻画空间复杂性的有效工具：由于城市系统是一种具有分形性质的复杂空间系统，而分雏则是联系复杂性度量的重要参量，借助分形思想探索城市地理系统的复杂性和奇异性顺理成章。最后阐述城市系统空间复杂性的临界判据和研究方法。3大判据(分形结构、1/f噪声和位序-规模分布)对应着城市系统的3类空间结构，空间复杂性和复杂化研究必须将数学模式、理论探讨和模拟实验乃至计算方法有效结合才能取得实质性的理论进展。     

Diagnosis of Organizational Soft Problems in a Peruvian Financial Institution by Systemic Thinking

Managing financial institutions in an underdeveloped economic context has become a real challenge nowadays. In order to reach the organization’s planned goals, they have to deal with structural, behavioral and informational problems. From the systemic point of view, this situation gets even worse when the company does not present organizational boundaries and a cohesive identification for their stakeholders. Thus, European countries have some special financial lines in order to help the development of micro credit in Latin communities in an attempt to help the local economy. However, institutions like Caixa dos Andes in Peru present management problems when dealing with this complexity. Based on this, how can the systemic eye help in the diagnosis of soft problems of a Peruvian financial company? This study aims to diagnose soft problems of a Peruvian financial company based on soft variables like identity, communication and autonomy and also intends to identify possible ways to redesign its basic framework. The (VSM––Viable System Model) method from Beer (1967), applied in this diagnostic study, was used in a practical way as a management tool for organizations’ analysis and planning. By describing the VSM’s five systems, the creation of a systemic vision or a total vision is possible, showing the organization’s complexity from the inside. Some company’s soft problems like double control, inefficient use of physical and human resources, low information flows, slowness, etc. The VSM presented an organizational diagnosis indicating effective solutions that do integrate its five systems.     

一类动态消费系统建模复杂性的先验分析方法

本文基于线性系统的度量复杂性理论，通过描述消费过程的一个机理模型，研究了一类消费系统的建模复杂性问题．利用系统量度复杂性理论中的Ｋｏｌｍｏｇｏｒｏｖｎ－宽度和辨识ｎ－宽度等概念，给出一类经济计量模型的建模误差及辨识误差与观测信息多少之间的关系，并证明了此类经济计量模型关于模型阶数和观测信息多少具有一定的鲁棒性．