application to cultural change

["Jennifer Espey"]

I was wondering if anyone knew of an application(s) of system dynamics to cultural change. Work I am doing in policy area includes the notion that generally, the function of cultural is to operate as a reinforcing feedback loop.However, clearly, there must be negative loops operating to elicit change over time.

Demographic changes as well as other economic, environmental and social factors are emphasizing the need for us to understand social cohesion and cultural change in order to form cohesion around different practices/values etc. that can accomodate difference and transform social values. I would appreciate any and all references or ideas that would shed light on how this area could be sketched in systems terms. Thanks,

Jennifer Espey
From: "Jennifer Espey" <espey@rcgi.com>

[Bill Harris]

Jennifer Espey wrote:
>
> I was wondering if anyone knew of an application(s) of system dynamics to cultural change.
Jennifer,

Here are a couple of quick possible references.

Peter Stackelberg did some work on organizational and individual
resistance to change about 5 years ago. The only email address I have
is ApplFutrs@aol.com.

You might find "Institutionalization and the Reform Process: A System
Dynamics Perspective" by Don R. Morris in _Educational Policy_, Vol. 10,
No. 4 (12/96), pp. 427-447 of interest.

You can also take a look at Bill Powers Perceptual Control Theory
(http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/csg/sites.html). Its SD applied to personal
change, but it seems related.

Bill
From: Bill Harris <bill_harris@facilitatedsystems.com>
--
Bill Harris 3217 102nd Place SE
Facilitated Systems Everett, WA 98208 USA
http://facilitatedsystems.com phone: +1 425 338-0512

[John Sterman]

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Re models of culture:

Nelson Repenning and I have a paper, just published, that presents a
feedback theory and case studies illustrating how certain erroneous
attributions about the causes of low performance in an organization can
become self-confirming, contributing to the development of a strong
corporate culture that thwarts efforts to improve fundamental processes.
We also discuss a successful change effort that altered long-held and
widely shared beliefs in the organization. The citation is:

Repenning, N. P. and J. D. Sterman. Getting Quality the Old Fashioned Way:
Self-Confirming Attributions in the Dynamics of Process Improvement. The
Quality Movement and Organizational Theory. R. Scott and R. Cole. Newbury
Park, CA, Sage.

The manuscript is also available on my website, http://web.mit.edu/jsterman/www

John Sterman
jsterman@mit.edu

[Stephen Wehrenberg]

Jennifer Espey wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone knew of an application(s) of system
dynamics to cultural change.

Peter von Stackelberg built an interesting model of resistance to
change that might inform you about one aspect of cultural change.
Ive done a lot of "systemic" thinking in this area, but havent
yet applied SD directly ... yet ...

See Peters work at http://appliedfutures.com/change_model/ ... model.html

Steve
--
Stephen B. Wehrenberg, Ph.D.
HR Capability Development, US Coast Guard
Administrative Sciences, The George Washington University
wstephen@erols.com

[Khalid Saeed]

Following paper addresses aspects of organizational culture, in particular,
the types of authority, and the local and cosmopolitan orientations:

Saeed, K. 1998. Maintaining Professional Competence in Innovation
Organizations. Human Systems Management. 17(1): 69-87.

Khalid Saeed

_____________________________________
Khalid Saeed
Professor and Department Head
Social Science and Policy Studies
W. P. I., 100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609, USA

Ph: 508-831-5563; fax: 508-831-5896
email: saeed@wpi.edu

SSPS Dept: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/SSPS/

["John Gunkler"]

Jennifer Espey asks about SD and cultural change. I thought some
definitions might help.

An organizational culture consists of "norms" which are "patterns of
sanctioned (expected and supported) behaviors that characterize how people
typically act" in various situations. A norm can be stated by completing
the following phrase:

"When [description of a situation], around here we ...."

A trivial example of a norm is, "When having lunch in the cafeteria, around
here we do not remove the plates from the trays while eating." A less
trivial example of a norm is, "When a claim form arrives in the department,
around here we wait for the secretary to log its arrival before anyone works
on it."

"Sanctioning" means that people or organizational institutions both reward
(accept, acknowledge) behavior that conforms to the organizations "norms"
AND punish (or possibly ignore) behavior that does not conform.

As you know, a system dynamics model only requires two kinds of things:
rates (flows) and levels (stocks.) I think of norms as being like flow
equations that determine the patterns of change in certain stocks over time.
The forces of sanctioning that keep people from deviating from the flow
equation must have their effects included in the rate equation.

For most modeling purposes, it is enough to include flow equations that
involve existing norms without detailing the mechanisms by which the culture
maintains the norms -- unless, as in Jennifers case, you are explicitly
modeling how cultures change.

I can say that in 15 years of helping change organizational cultures, I have
discovered that sanctioning mechanisms continue to operate but they are
applied to different norms. In addition, in many cases it is necessary to
create additional sources of reward and punishment and apply their force
more consciously and consistently to support the new norms.

As odd as it may seem, norms are essentially agreements among people to
sanction certain behavior. What makes them difficult to deal with, and
change, is that they are very often tacit agreements -- the people who
enforce them every day are not aware of the norms nor are they aware of
their sanctioning behaviors. The good news is, being essentially agreements
among a group of people, norms can be changed by first making them explicit,
then discussing them (judging their effect, positive or negative, on the
groups "mission"), then agreeing to sanction different patterns of behavior
... then (and this is where many culture change efforts fail) actually
applying positive and negative sanctions effectively (and, during the
transition period, very frequently.)

Jennifer, if you or anyone else wishes to discuss culture change in more
detail please contact me here or directly and Ill be happy to do what I can
to help.


John W. Gunkler
jgunkler@sprintmail.com