| Session Title: Organizational Models for Interpreting Project Operations: Loosely and Richly Joined Systems |
| Expert Lecture Session 581 to be held in Room 106 in the Convention Center on Friday, Nov 7, 10:55 AM to 11:40 AM |
| Sponsored by the Systems in Evaluation TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| Michael Lieber, University of Illinois Chicago, mdlieber@uic.edu |
| Abstract: Ross Ashby described complex systems with multiple component hierarchies as having two possible models of organization: (1) hierarchical subsystems are connected at the top but share no connections at component levels or (2) the hierarchies are connected at the top and at the component levels. The first model is a loosely joined system, typical of insect nervous systems, while the second is a richly joined system, typical of mammalian nervous systems. Social systems can be loosely or richly joined. I examine one loosely joined system, a health initiative in Chicago organizationally similar to a bureaucracy in its 'silo' structure, to learn three lessons¼--(a) silo structures may be adaptive responses to an organization's environment, (b) ambiguous messages rapidly amplify into communicative crises, and (c) silo structures can be can be enriched at lower levels may eventually alter the higher order regulatory structures in the system. |