Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
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The art of management lies in the ability to control the process of organizational development,<br />
which depends on the combined influence of numerous controllable <strong>and</strong> uncontrollable factors,<br />
spontaneous self-controlled processes, accidental fluctuations <strong>and</strong> dynamic chaos, both inside <strong>and</strong><br />
outside the organization.<br />
It is not necessary to know absolutely everything about recent <strong>and</strong> future processes <strong>and</strong> conditions<br />
in order to be able to make smart decisions. It is impossible to know everything in the world when<br />
the uncertainty of the present <strong>and</strong> future states is an inalienable attribute. However, one should<br />
take into account that a smart decision in the stochastic world is not the same as it might be if<br />
everything could be determined <strong>and</strong> known in advance. Any kind of uncertainty should be<br />
estimated <strong>and</strong> met with the most relevant response. The presence of uncertainty is an absolutely<br />
certain feature of nature. Thus, the ability of an organization’s leadership to deal with uncertainty is<br />
essential <strong>for</strong> its survival in the real world.<br />
Fortunately, it is not necessary to control everything to be able to control the direction of<br />
organizational development. Any one of many factors affects the direction. Thus changing one of<br />
the parameters or a few of them may be quite enough to ensure the necessary change in the<br />
overall direction. On the other h<strong>and</strong>, things <strong>and</strong> issues within organizations are interdependent.<br />
They are linked in cycles <strong>and</strong> chains <strong>and</strong> create a net of complicated cause-<strong>and</strong>-effect<br />
relationships. In this net, only a few ‘causes’ may generate many consequences.<br />
Some causes may be controllable <strong>and</strong> others may not. It may not be possible to directly affect<br />
everything that goes wrong. However, it is not necessary to deal with everything to ensure<br />
comprehensive control over the situation in an organization. When some causes are out of control,<br />
it may be necessary to address consequences; but there is no need to directly address all<br />
consequences. The factor that lies immediately beneath the uncontrollable cause but precedes the<br />
next sequential controllable consequence – should be dealt with first. In most cases, it is quite<br />
enough to eliminate the roots of deterioration <strong>and</strong> plant some new <strong>and</strong> healthy sprouts. The<br />
wisdom of management lies in a rational choice among the objects of influence. For that to<br />
happen, it is necessary to see everything that is seeable <strong>and</strong> <strong>for</strong>esee everything that is <strong>for</strong>eseeable<br />
in order to be able to choose key variables, <strong>and</strong> design <strong>and</strong> implement proper changes.<br />
Control capacity<br />
To be able to adequately respond to the multitude of situations, a controlling subject (director)<br />
should possess a variety of states or options not less than the variety of situations, which require<br />
different responses. It is known in cybernetics as the ‘law of minimal requisite variety.’<br />
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