Complexity management
Complexity Management (ger .: complexity management ) designated management methods , but also the facts of a particular type of management , on dealing with uncertainties and probabilities and non-linear based dynamics.
A certain internal complexity of organizations is necessary in order to map the external complexity of the environment with sufficient accuracy. Too great a complexity can be prevented or reduced (e.g. through selection and filtering). If it is unavoidable, it must be mastered.
Management that aims to deal with complexity sees its own organization as a dynamic system that establishes contact with the environment via qualified instruments that enhance the internal systemic dynamics by forming quasi-objects (also: folders , attractors , objects of self-behavior ) stabilize.
In business life, complexity management means the cross-value chain control of complexity in the various complexity fields such as B. Product portfolio , technologies, markets and market segments, locations, manufacturing network, customer portfolio, IT systems, organization, processes. An important aspect is the recording and avoidance of complexity costs e.g. B. through process and variant costing.
Elements of complexity management
complexity
Complexity is a key concept in modern systems theory . Complexity does not mean complexity, but means that there are more elements in a system than it can precisely link together. A system must therefore choose which elements it relates to one another and how. This fact is also known as contingency in sociology . So people have to choose how they combine elements with each other: you arrange the files for the boss and play tennis with your friend and not the other way around.
human
The most complex element in organizations is the human being. Organizations that train people to solve complex tasks are correspondingly more complex. This results in social complexity . “A mechanism for reducing social complexity” is trust ( Niklas Luhmann , 1968), which is why, for example, the development of a culture of trust is part of the concept of management consultancies that are asked for help by companies struggling with complexity.
A human contribution both to complexity and as a response to complexity in organizations is micropolitics . Trying to combat politics in organizations is the most common approach to dealing with this complexity driver. As a rule, however, it does exactly the opposite of what is aimed at.
People have known the value of trust for generations and politics in organizations has been fought in vain for generations. The complexity of these issues as well as the underestimation of the conflict between cooperation (teamwork) and competition (struggle) in open communication is precisely the reason for the repeatedly observed failure of mechanistic approaches with comparatively low complexity that do not do justice to the realities of human thought. However, a real well-founded understanding of human thinking could only be developed in the recent history of brain research . An additional pressure to take into account the psychological possibilities and the resilience of people more seriously when planning work processes results from the recent implementation of European occupational safety in national occupational safety laws .
This results in managerial tasks that are difficult to cope with in view of the short length of stay of top managers in complex organizations.
environment
The environment is everything that a system can and can delimit itself from. The environment is not simply mapped in the system, but selectively reconstructed . These reconstructions are then assumed to be an evolutionary success, i.e. the system uses the functionality of a reconstruction to check whether it can stabilize itself with it.
system
Systems that are inherently dynamic are treated en masse today and, if you follow the literature, are also available en masse. Cells are just as dynamic as the immune system , the nervous system or parts thereof, such as B. the brain , the consciousness is self-dynamic, the society , the economy , the law , the art , and z. B. Organizations such as companies.
Systems are defined by the fact that they are able to maintain their demarcation from the environment, ie to break off contact with the environment in such a way that they no longer interact directly.
The system orders itself and creates its own causalities .
The job of management is precisely to create such causalities. Are z. If, for example, quality criteria are introduced, then there are constructed causalities that claim that a certain issue, a certain project , a certain goal promises success under these or that conditions.
Quasi-objects
The mapping of external complexity takes place in systems with the help of quasi-objects. Quasi-objects are called reconstructions or representations in systems that are used instead of objects or facts in the environment.
In the brain, as in management, stable objects are formed, which check their plausibility via their use . Quasi-objects are therefore evolutionarily formed probabilities that are stored or discarded due to their functionality and are networked with one another.
In companies these are e.g. B. Planning such as departments that represent certain market segments, projects, positions, files, data tables, quality criteria, etc.
Instruments
Systems guide themselves and thus run the risk of flying blindly past the environment. If systems were independent of the environment, this would not be tragic. However, systems participate in the environment by selectively absorbing the necessary elements from it. Market research has the internal systemic task of converting a specific environment of the company into data.
Methodological and transparency deficits are unnecessary drivers of complexity that can be avoided by developing appropriate instruments (e.g. variant costing , process costing , target costing ).
decisions
In complex systems, decisions are always fraught with risks. As Luhmann once said, you fly when the cloud cover is closed and you have to rely on your instruments.
Decisions are therefore no longer to be assessed as right or wrong, but as favorable or less favorable, whereby this depends on the evolutionary success of a decision. This also means that decisions reconstruct their conditions, but only find out their justification in the future.
In management, such decision uncertainties are z. B. through controlling , through continuous comparison of ongoing processes, through experience and knowledge or through meta-decisions. The latter serve to make new ad hoc decisions superfluous.
Programs
Another strategy for dealing with complex requirements is through programs. Programs are understood as adequately regulated processes. So are z. B. to create certain files in a certain way. Processes are to be treated differently under certain conditions than under other conditions. Plans are made in one way, but carried out in a different way.
Programs are also able to coordinate large numbers of people while minimizing their contact .
simulation
An increasingly important aspect in complexity management is simulation . These are in addition to simulation games are increasingly computer programs that simulate complex business situations. This enables the company to run through various developments ( scenario technology ) and then to plan and learn ( organizational learning ).
Complexity management in manufacturing companies
Complexity in the entire value chain
With increasing globalization, the ever increasing micro-segmentation of the markets and the spread of Industry 4.0, the increasing complexity in the entire value chain of manufacturing companies is becoming more and more important. The effects of complexity along the value chain in the sense of a cost and benefit analysis lead to an increasing importance of the management team of product complexity for the competitiveness of manufacturing companies.
External and internal complexity
External complexity arises from the interaction of market and customer needs as well as legal requirements and standards, all of which must be covered by the market services offered. It is expressed in the variance of the product range, which is determined by the products offered on the market and their variants. In contrast, internal complexity arises from the fact that the variance of the product range has to be generated in the internal value creation processes. This not only applies to processes that add value directly, such as production and assembly, but also to indirect processes such as procurement, production logistics and development.
Variant management
In the case of complexity management in the manufacturing company, the design, control and development of the diversity of the range of services (products, processes, resources) are considered. In contrast, the product or product range is the focus of variant management.
Variant management includes the development, design and structuring of products and services or product ranges in the company. The aim is to master the complexity arising from the product (number of parts, components, variants, etc.) as well as the complexity affecting the product (market diversification, production processes, etc.) using suitable instruments.
The aim of variant management is to best meet the complexity (external complexity) required by the market in the internal processes, i.e. H. to map cost and resource optimally and thus to generate the lowest possible internal complexity.
Product complexity
With increasing globalization, increasing dynamics of product and production technologies as well as customer demands for individual products, the subject of product complexity is becoming more and more important. Product complexity is understood as the combination of external, ie market-side, and internal, ie product-side diversity. In order to better manage product complexity, the external and internal product complexity should be considered, coordinated and finally mastered. The aim of managing product complexity is to keep the external diversity constant or to increase it in order to be able to address as many customers as possible, while at the same time reducing the internal complexity. On the one hand, the different customer requirements are to be covered, on the other hand, the aim is to reduce internal diversity and optimize costs. It makes sense to understand product complexity not only in terms of the product, but also as a whole. To do this, the complexity along the entire value chain, starting with the customer, through product management, development through to production and purchasing, must be recorded and considered.
Mistakes in thinking when dealing with complex problems
- Problems are objective and just need to be clearly formulated
- Every problem is the direct consequence of a cause ( induction problem )
- A doer can implement any problem solution
- To understand a situation, it is sufficient to take a photograph of the current situation
- With the introduction of a solution, the problem is over
- Behavior is predictable
- Problem situations can be mastered
Summary
Complexity management is the coordination of business activities under the condition of relative probability and reduced risk expectations. In order to be able to do this, companies (like all dynamic systems) develop quasi-objects with which they can stabilize their own dynamics and thus decide on success / failure.
Sources and Notes
- ↑ D. Deida, CA White, GC Berkowitz: Some Fundamental Aspects of the Indication Calculus and the Eigenbehavior of Extended Forms. In: Proceedings of the First Annual Conference / Workshop on Sign and Space, ed. GC Berkowitz, pp. 54-96.
- ↑ Luhmann, Niklas : Trust. A mechanism for reducing social complexity. Stuttgart 1968, ISBN 978-3825221850
- ↑ Jörg Bogumil, Josef Schmidt: Politics in Organizations , 2001, ISBN 978-3810030016
- ↑ Martin Schweer, Barbara Thies: Trust as an organizational principle. Perspectives for complex social systems. , 2003, ISBN 978-3456839783
- ↑ Karl Jaspers : "The intertwining of two heterogeneous origins [necessity of community work, the struggle between man and man] remains the basic character of ruling. Therefore, any true community that succeeds somewhere within limits for a common purpose but elsewhere as theory becomes a means of deception for interpretation and Concealment of the actual violence. Again and again things are named and hidden by their opposite. Thus, in the appearance of communication - the open discussion - one obeys and commands, in the appearance of freedom and voluntariness enforced, in the cloak of the purest ethos, evil is carried out, lied and betrayed in the pretense of truth, and all valid values are claimed or ignored depending on the situation. " ( On the Truth , 1948, Part 2, Chapter 3, II, B, 3, b)
- ↑ Manfred Spitzer : Learning , 2007, ISBN 978-3827417237
- ↑ about four years on average
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