Ruminations

__Note__ Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972) has been on of the most acute minds of the XX century. Here is a miscellanea of passages from his General System Theory. The first part of the text focuses on the function of the theory of systems and on the main features of closed and open systems. The second part presents a conception of the human being not as a robot or a moron aiming at reducing tensions by satisfying biological needs, but as an //active personality system// creating his own universe, who revels in accepting challenges, solving problems and expressing his artistic inclinations. __Beyond the mass robot__ The concept of man as mass robot was both an expression of and a powerful motive force in industrialized mass society. It was the basis for behavioural engineering in commercial, economic, political and other advertising and propaganda; the expanding economy of the 'affluent society' could not subsist without such manipulation. Only by manipulating humans ever more into Skinnerian rats, robots buying automata, homeostatically adjusted conformers and opportunists (or, bluntly speaking, into morons and zombies) can this great society follow its progress toward ever increasing gross national product. Modern society provided a large-scale experiment in manipulative psychology. If its principles are correct, conditions of tension and stress should lead to increase of mental disorder. On the other hand, mental health should be improved when basic needs of food, shelter, personal security, and so forth, are satisfied. World War II – a period of extreme physiological and psychological stress – did not produce an increase in neurotic or psychotic disorders, apart from direct shock effects such as combat neuroses. In contrast the affluent society produced an unprecedented number of mentally ill. Precisely under conditions of reduction of tensions and gratification of biological needs, novel forms of mental disorders appeared as existential neurosis, malignant boredom, and retirement neurosis, i.e. forms of mental dysfunction originating not from repressed drives, from unfulfilled needs, or from stress, but from meaningless of life. There is the suspicion that the recent increase in schizophrenia may be caused by the 'other-directedness' of man in modern society. And there is no doubt that in the field of character disorders, a new type of juvenile delinquency has appeared: crime not for want or passion, but for the fun of it, for 'getting a kick', and born from the emptiness of life. Even rats seem to 'look' for problems, and the healthy child and adult are going far beyond the reduction of tensions or gratification of needs in innumerable activities that cannot be reduced to primary and secondary drives.

For similar reasons, complete relaxation of tensions as in sensory-deprivation experiments is not an ideal state but is apt to produce insufferable anxiety, hallucinations, and other psychosis-like symptoms. Prisoner's psychosis, or exacerbation of symptoms in the closed ward, and retirement and weekend neurosis are related clinical conditions attesting that the psychophysical organism needs an amount of tension and activity for healthy existence.

ISEG Program Center for Professional Education Organization Systems: Leveraging for Sustainable Innovation Professor W F Becker

ISEG Program Center for Professional Education Organization Systems: Leveraging for Sustainable Innovation Professor W F Becker

**//Purpose://** You are near the end of your MBA studies, and have certainly examined many cases. These cases are often several years old and written by professional case writers and most importantly may take a narrow view of the business challenge/issue rather than a whole system (organization) view. In today’s world, change is moving at the speed of light and all parts of an organization are interconnected for better or worse so a different case analysis process is required.

**This process is designed with three purposes in mind**:

1. To help you stay current and analyze from a system perspective the situations you read about online/ in the press and in the business publications 2. To apply theory to actual practice 3. To articulate what you read in a way that: · explores underlying issues · opens discussions for collaboration with others who are involved · helps others learn · avoids laying blame or acting as an expert problem solver

**//Process://** In your consulting company teams: each team is to find and prepare one current organization challenge (a case example) requiring change gleaned from print and the web: newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal; magazines such as the Forbes, Economist, Business Week, Fortune, Fast Company, etc. Each team will present and lead a discussion on their case beginning week 3 (see Syllabus). The cases should be about organizations that are (or should be) anticipating or going through significant change. Some meta-change-themes to consider are:

1. Coming out of the garage: moving from entrepreneurship to a managed business 2. Competition and customers: dealing with a changing market for products or services 3. Ramp as fast as you can: growing with control 4. Lean and Mean: downsizing or reframing an organization 5. Moving into a larger market: going national or globalizing

Your consulting company team will present **each week for 5 minutes**, applying the theme of that week to your case (for instance, the first round of presentations incorporates defining the business challenge, your approach to consulting, and contracting with the  client – your model of consulting). The following weeks you will be learning additional models and probably modifying your presentation to include what you have learned from that weeks readings to your case.

For example: Whole Foods Market was chosen as a case company by one of the teams. It represents category //5, Moving into a larger market: going national or// // globalizing //

Reading articles about Whole Food’s CEO and any other public information about their marketing approach, financials, customers, employees, technology, HR practices will give you background information to understand how successful they may be in going global. Sources are their corporate website; getting a Morningstar report on their stock; doing a Google search on other writings, interview a store manager and other executives and employees if possible. Once you have gathered sufficient data, apply it to the theme of the class: what is their strategy of change, or how have they/you diagnosed the situation/leaders, etc.

Your weekly presentation (Power Point, no more than ten slides taking 5 - 7 minutes) should apply the readings to the case and you should **provide at least two questions** ** for discussion by the entire class. Each of your team will have an opportunity to be ** ** the client and consultant. **

** Weekly presentations will give you practice for the final presentation of your case ** ** the last week of the week of the semester (see Syllabus for date). **

** Final Case article writing and presentation **

Each consulting company will give a **15minute oral presentation and lead a 15 minute** **discussion or exercise (total of 30 minutes)** with the class regarding your diagnosis of your case company and proposed approach, as well as a candid reflection on how well you acted as a team and a one page executive summary for Professor Becker.

**Executive Summary:** provide a one page executive summary to Professor Becker at the beginning of class at which you are making your final presentation. (No Dates)

** Oral Presentation of Case: **

**Prepare an interesting presentation.** Allow the class to take an active role. That is, encourage participation through role-plays, experiential activities or case analysis. Involvement of class members will strengthen interest and help reinforce key learning.

In addition, each team is to provide a short case article or reading for class members one week prior to the presentation. To stimulate interest, include a few questions in the handout. The article and questions offer a glimpse of the company so that classmates are better able to become involved in the discussion. Vicki, can’t this be the same as the one pager for the professor the day of the presentation?

** Written Case Article Format: **

Each of your consulting company team members represents a company function, i.e. CEO, marketing, supply chain, finance, HR, communications, etc. All of the major functions need to be described, to the degree you think they are important, in developing your case article.

For writing the case article you will each need to do research on the function you represent and how it relates to the business challenge.

** A. ** You will then be responsible for writing ** that ** section of the case article. One single spaced page is sufficient for background on each functional area. Be sure your name is  part of that section, // Marie Godot – Marketing // // . // ** B__.__ **__ All __ of your team __contributes to writing up the diagnosis and the recommended OD__ __ process __ you will use with the client. This section should __not be more 3 pages.__

** C. ** One page describing how well you worked together – reflection on the process.

If there are five on your team, the complete written case will be no more than 9 pages.

Your paper is to be written, APA style – (Merron 2004) after any quoted statements.

A good case article captures the readers’ interest and pulls them in to a story in the first few sentences. Think of this case article as if it were to be published in Fast Company Magazine or Fortune. And remember, your classmates will have the opportunity to read the case article before your presentation.

** Due date is exactly 7 days before your final presentation. Published to your teams’ wiki page by midnight. **