Whole system design (WSD): the shifting focus of attention and the threshold challenge
Article Abstract:
Rapid and repeatable redesign of business processes, supporting systems, and structures is one response to increasing competitive pressure. However, threshold challenge occurs when attention shifts from the technical system design (business process/work flow and equipment) to the social system design (roles, measures, and structures). During technical system design, strong emotions about loss - of status, authority, and certainty - can be suspended, but starting design of supporting social elements tends to unleash these concerns. The authors' thesis is that successful implementation is most likely when (a) the people who do the work are the ones engaged in the redesign of both the technical and social systems; (b) individual and structural change is addressed systematically among organizational development, information technology, and business process reengineering professionals; and (c) the predictable midpoint challenge (the threshold challenge) associated with shifting the focus of attention in whole system design (WSD) is understood and managed effectively. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1998
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A multilateral negotiations challenge: international management of the communications commons
Article Abstract:
The community of nations faces the task of governing many global commons issues, including information access and availability, and common property resources. One approach to addressing this challenge arises from current efforts to create an international legal regime for the global communications commons. The context for international collaboration involving a communications commons regime is defined by identifying aand describing (a) the stakeholders; (b) the characteristics of a global commons and a communications commons; (c) the prevailing political, economic, and legal principles that influence behavior in both the international system and the communications commons; and (d) typical barriers to collaboration. The evolving governance structure of the global communications commons is analyzed, and suggestions are offered for creating effective legal regimes to manage similar challenges in international relations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1991
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Managing around roles: building groups in labor negotiations
Article Abstract:
Although the formal role structure of labor negotiations is explicitly confrontational, informal relationships and attempts at problem solving may develop among members of the opposing negotiating teams during the course of negotiations. Effective management of negotiations, it is argued, is a process of managing around formal role structures so that negotiators can interact openly and informally. The intervening variable that makes this possible is the creation of "joint" team identity among labor and management negotiators. The process of managing around roles is illustrated by a comparison of two labor negotiations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1991
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