21926 Chap.3 Drivers of Change and the Organisation as an Open System
Drivers of Change and the Organisation as an Open System
The organisation as an open system
Week 2 treats an organisation as an open system that takes resources from its environment, transforms them and returns goods and services. Feedback keeps the system near a dynamic steady state, sub-units multiply as it grows, and equifinality means one goal can be reached by several routes.
A change in one part therefore ripples into the others, and the boundary between an organisation and its environment keeps thinning.
Eight families of drivers
Pressure to change comes from inside and outside at once. The lecture groups drivers into workplace demographics, technology, globalisation, industry and market change, organisational growth, organisational decline, institutional upheaval and crises.
Sorting the pressures on an organisation into these families shows which changes can be planned and which must be made quickly.
Five styles of managing change
Knowing why a change is needed still leaves the question of how to lead it.
Education and delegation, collaboration, participation, direction and coercion each trade speed and control against support and ownership, and each has disadvantages a manager should plan for. Choosing a style is therefore part of the analysis, not an afterthought, and the same change can need different styles at different stages.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The organisation as an open system
- 02
Feedback, entropy and equifinality
- 03
Environmental drivers of change
- 04
Internal drivers of change
- 05
Five styles of managing change
- 06
Matching a style to the situation
Worked example · free
Trace one environmental shift around the open system loop
- 1Inputs: the resources entering from the environment change, since the operator must buy electric vehicles and secure charging capacity instead of fuel.
- 1Throughput: the transformation process changes, because cleaning, maintenance and vehicle turnaround now include charging time and new servicing skills.
- 1Outputs: customers receive trips in electric cars, possibly with booking limits while vehicles charge.
- 1Feedback: collect customer ratings on availability and charge levels, and data on idle charging time, so the operator can correct the process before the ban takes full effect.
Key terms
- Open System
- An organisation viewed as importing resources from its environment, transforming them and returning goods or services to that environment.
- Equifinality
- The principle that an organisation can reach the same result from different starting points and by different paths.
- Negative Entropy
- Effort that slows or reverses a system’s natural decline, achieved by importing fresh energy and resources.
- Change Driver
- A pressure, inside or outside an organisation, that makes some change necessary, such as new technology or a crisis.
- Directive Style
- Leading change by having leaders decide what and how to change, which is quick and clear but risks weak commitment.
Drivers of Change and the Organisation as an Open System FAQ
Why does the subject treat organisations as open systems?
Because an organisation depends on its environment for every resource it uses and every customer it serves. A shift outside, such as new regulation or technology, soon becomes pressure inside, and a change in one sub-system affects the others. The view also explains why there are usually several workable paths to a goal.
What are the main drivers of organisational change?
The Week 2 lecture lists workplace demographics, technology, globalisation, industry and market change, organisational growth, organisational decline, institutional upheaval and crises. Growth and decline arise largely inside the organisation; the rest press in from its environment, though institutional change can also come from a firm rewriting its own policies.
What is the difference between a driver and a change?
A driver explains why change is needed, such as an ageing workforce or a new regulation. The change is what the organisation decides to do in response, such as a retraining program or a new reporting process. Analyses that confuse the two never say what will actually be done.
Which style of managing change is best?
None is best everywhere. Education and collaboration build support and ownership but take time; direction and coercion are quick but risk weak commitment and resistance; participation sits between them. Deadlines, the depth of the change and how much staff knowledge is needed decide which style fits.
Why is participation sometimes seen as manipulation?
Participation involves employees in how to deliver a change that leaders have already chosen. Because the main decision is fixed, staff may feel their involvement is for show. The lecture lists this perception as the style’s main disadvantage, so be clear about what is open to influence.
Assessment move
Pick an organisation you know and draw its open system on one page: inputs, throughput, outputs and the feedback it collects. Then list one current pressure from each of the eight driver families and mark whether it comes from inside or outside. Choose the two pressures that leave the least time to respond and say which style of managing change each calls for.
Repeating this for two or three organisations before Week 3 makes it much faster to open an assessment with a clear account of why change is needed. Keep the notes: the documentary and the folio both open by explaining why the chosen organisation must change, and a well-sorted list of drivers makes that opening precise and evidence-based.
Working through Drivers of Change and the Organisation as an Open System in 21926? Sia is AskSia’s AI Management tutor — ask any 21926 Drivers of Change and the Organisation as an Open System question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how 21926 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.