MGT603 Systems Thinking - Assignment Help on Rich Picture, CATWOE and Root Definition Report

Introduction

Organisations are complex systems involving several different groups within them and affecting many different groups and environmental elements. These groups are usually called the organization's stakeholders–those who participate in their activities. Certain of these parties involved is important to the organization's successful functioning; some are important due to the impact the organization has on it. In both cases the organization must be aware of and manage those stakeholders effectively, first because of efficiency, the latter because of legitimacy and ethics. In this paper, we report on a systemic methodology developed to identify and analyse the relationship formally among relevant stakeholders at all levels of the organization. The method is based on the methodology of soft systems (SSM). The resulting discussion as a platform requires students to analyse and synthesize the impact of various stakeholders involved while achieving their objectives and goals by implementing their policies. The problem of TESLA’s production, delivery challenges, poor financials, and legal battles is created with a rich picture for the problem identified and CATWOE is used for translating the developed rich picture which forms the root of the problem definition.

Rich Picture

A systemic perspective is used to recognize a diversity of stakeholders. Churchman (1968; 1971) stressed that the principle of all those influenced by the development must be' involved' into processes, not just those directly involved. The idea has been stressed. The explanation is that every point of view and perception is unavoidably restricted and we should thus aim to simplify as many views as practicable for a reasonable or strong layout. Freeman (1984), seen as "stakeholders in a system" in his initial stakeholder theory. Likewise, Ackoff (1974) argued that all stakeholders should be interested in tackling system problems (especially soft systems with human activities). Simmons (2003) and Simmons, Iles, & Yolles, (2005) considered the design of organizational systems by combining the stakeholder analysis with SSM. Soft systems methodology (SSM) was initially introduced by Checkland in 1972 (Checkland, 1972). The concept for a soft system was created in biology and science, which was primarily designed to address hard concerns (with clearly defined goals). Nevertheless, conventional "hard" systems modelling has not been able to address soft problems considerably (Freeman & Reed, 1983). Management of stakeholders and recognition of stakeholders include various weak factors such as human activities, confrontation, feelings, etc. SSM based on the assumption of "open-world": not only acknowledging the existing situation but understanding and structuring the complex problem (through a rich picture, root definitions, and conceptual models). A rich picture is a way to visualize, understand and describe a scenario in which a conceptual visual model can be represented in diagrams. A rich picture helps to open up the debate and to create a clear, common knowledge of the situation (Lewis, 1992). In the rich picture below that the manufacturing process of tesla is highly dependent on its suppliers which manufacture special custom parts for the tesla model, also special battery is produced for the tesla cars, the customers give orders directly to the company as there are no dealerships, following the page out of amazons book of dealing with the customer directly and deliver timely cars, requires effective planning for the whole procurement process, the legal battle for the dealership has created hassles for the parent company tesla which have to convince all its stakeholders especially the investors which are dependent on the brand image and financial performance of the company with added speculation about the company and its issues it gives a major advantage for the competitors to step in and further hurt the brand image of the company. The overall impact where the customer suffers from timely delivery is the point of concern and the major issue which has a ripple effect on creating all the issues. This Rich Picture distinguishes strongly between the problem situation in the real world for Tesla and the system thinking conceptual world. A range of particular buildings is used to develop learning for change in the conceptual world and then compared to the complex and chaotic real-world issues. This rich picture is holistic and shows all key player elements and a structured view by placing the factor influencing the process in context.