CIPS Level 5 Advanced Diploma in

Procurement and Supply

Module title: Managing Teams and Individuals [L5M1]

Leading global excellence in procurement and supply

 Learning Outcome 1: Understand, analyse and
apply management and organisational approaches
1.2. Analyse contemporary approaches to management and
organisational behaviour.

Approaches such as:

▪ Organizations as a ‘socio-technical’ system

▪ The systems approach to organizational behaviour
▪ The contingency approach
▪ Postmodernism in organizations
All rights reserved. These slides are provided exclusively to CIPS Approved Study Centres for the sole purpose of teaching CIPS Professional Qualifications, they are not to be used for any other purpose and may not be altered, copied,
sold or lent to other parties. Copyright ©2018 CIPS

Slide 1
Leading global excellence in procurement and supply
Contemporary approaches to management
and organizational behavior
• There are several contemporary management and organizational
theories that are core to understanding organizational behaviour
(much of which is drawn from historical debate)
• Advances in technology has led to significant change in management
practices
• A new type of human organization (‘participation’) has emerged
which focuses on the disruption of business norms and challenging
organizational culture and now managers must consider how they will
manage individuals who are now less likely to be permanent staff
members
 Contemporary approaches to management
and organizational behaviour

Approaches to be discussed are:

1. Organizations as a ‘socio-technical’ system

2. The systems approach to organizational behaviour
3. The contingency approach
4. Postmodernism in organizations
1. Organizations as a ‘socio-technical’ system
• Trist and Bamford's (1951) research on the effect of technology on
workers led to this socio-technical theory. The research identified
how less efficient technical systems led to better performance: this
was because of high levels of group and teamwork.
• The socio-technical system allow people to work with technology in
ways that benefit society and advance organizational goals.
• This approach assumes that a system needs both effective technology
and the coordinating social dynamics, such as teamwork, work group
autonomy and work that is designed to be meaningful.
Organizations as a ‘socio-technical’ system
• The theory assumes that within any organization are people with
capabilities who work towards goals, follow processes, use technology,
operate within a physical infrastructure, and share certain cultural
assumptions and norms.
• However, Projects such as of (i.e. Lean, Six Sigma) focus on business
transformation and often ignore such interactions.
• The issue is most organizations prioritize the technical parts of change
so they can improve cost efficiencies.
Organizations as a ‘socio-technical’ system
• Many give little thought and attention to how employees will need to
change their behavior in order to use the system, yet it is people who
use these processes.
• The performance of a system for example, is optimized when both the
technology and the organization mutually adjust to one another until
a satisfactory fit is obtained.
• This means that rather than simply inputting people into existing
technical systems, workplaces should be designed in such a way that
both people and technology co-exist in harmony.
Organizations as a ‘socio-technical’ system

• It is the human factors that will determine whether the benefits of

the new processes will be fully realized.
• This approach does not view technology as a key factor in driving
positive work behaviors, but recognizes it has an impact on how
sustainable positive social dynamics will be.
• These criticism brought a people's led approach to organizational
design and management called the model of organizational balance
 Model of organisational balance

• Model of organizational balance – Foster (2018)

• This is a people-led approach to organization design (moving
on from the socio-technical approach)
• This approach focuses on the interrelationship between
human interactions within the organization and proposes that
it is the human system that determines organization
performance.
• The model aims to increase organizational performance and
develop a self-sustaining system by considering the following
interrelationships (refer to the diagram on the slide, lets
discuss each point , and explain how they relate to each other) Figure 1.8 Model of Organisation Balance (Source: Foster, C. (2018a),
Organizational Design
in Business: A New Alternative For a Complex World. New York: Business
Expert Press)

All rights reserved. These slides are provided exclusively to CIPS Approved Study Centres for the sole purpose of teaching CIPS Professional Qualifications, they are not to be used for any other purpose and may not be altered, copied,
sold or lent to other parties. Copyright ©2018 CIPS

Leading global excellence in procurement and supply

 Model of organizational balance
• Organizational purpose: The purpose of the organization – the reason why
it exists.
• The leader in me – two types of leader: leaders of people and leaders of
expertise.
• The talent within – investing resource into identifying, developing and
releasing talent.
• Harmonious communities – using a network of cohesive groups to manage
business-related tasks across functions.
• Organizational habitat – developing synergy within the organization to
help the organization react to and exploit opportunities as they occur.
• Organizational husbandry – a holistic framework in which solutions and
operational decisions are made with awareness of unintended
consequences and a commitment to environmental stewardship and
citizenship.
Model of organizational balance

➢Creative adaptation – empowering people to innovate and make

space for creative problem solving.
➢Energy transformation – the development of sustainable practices to
ensure that organizational interventions deliver positive disruption
and hold organizational actors accountable for outcomes.
➢Organizational cycling – the continuous process of change and
transformation within the organizational system in response to
environmental inputs that move the organizational towards the
balance prior to the arrival of the next disruptive force.
Other approaches to management and organisational behaviour
Activity
Research one of the following approaches:
• The systems approach to organisational behaviour
• The contingency approach
• Postmodernism in organisations

Find the following information:

• Key theorists, and year their theory was proposed
• Diagram to illustrate the theory (if appropriate)
• Brief description of theory
• Three key facts
All rights reserved. These slides are provided exclusively to CIPS Approved Study Centres for the sole purpose of teaching CIPS Professional Qualifications, they are not to be used for any other purpose and may not be altered, copied,
sold or lent to other parties. Copyright ©2018 CIPS

Leading global excellence in procurement and supply

2. The systems approach to organizational
behaviour
• The systems approach integrates the formal and informal organization
by emphasizing organizations as open systems.
• It introduced the idea of an organization as a complete whole, a
complex unit made up of interrelated parts: we cannot separate the
different parts of the organization.
• The systems approach recognizes the interdependence of each
function within the organization and the interrelationships between
the external and internal organizational systems.
2. The systems approach to organizational
behaviour
• This approach develop the idea that an organization must respond to the
demands from external context, adapting and improving its responses
• And that the organization system itself will have an influence(positive or
negative) on the external environment in which it operates
• An approach to individuals, groups or the organization must be considered
from the perspective of the whole not as separate parts- which can be
challenging- this is how a doctor operates when diagnosing patients: eg see
a complain as a symptom rather than a cause, investigate a cure and
understand what different parts are working together to cause the
symptom. This may require a deeper insight that simply fixing the problem
 2. Applying the systems theory in practice
Foster (2017) identified the following activities that a manger can carry out
in order to apply systems theory in practice; see page 28

✓Gain access to different views: use cross functional groups

✓Adopt a holistic approach and review action from a whole - organizational
perspective
✓Investigate connections with the help of line reports
✓Encourage collaborations
✓Expose individual team members and the team to forces in the external
environment using networking and field trips
 Influences on management thinking: Cybernetics
and Domino network management
• The systems theory opposes the scientific theory of management
and bureaucratic approaches to management.
• Recognizes the General systems theory which describes how to break
down things into parts and then to learn how the parts work together
in a system influencing management thinking in areas such as
Cybernetics and Domino network management.
• Cybernetics understands complex systems such as learning, cognition,
adaptation, communication and efficiency whereas
• Domino network management appreciates that incidents results from
a chain of sequential events.
3. The contingency approach
• Contingency theory suggest that the best solution to achieve behavioral
change and organizational effectiveness ‘depends’
• It doesn’t suggest that there is only one best way of managing people and
the organization.
• It all depends on a range of situational variables
• It can be seen as a form of “if-then’ relationship (if certain situational
factors exist, then certain variables in organizational structure and systems
of management are most appropriate)
• It suggests that the fix for improved organizational health is based on the
‘best fit’ with the context.
• From an organization theory and management thinking perspective, the
contingency theory has had a major impact in relation to organization
design & structure and organization-environment fit.
3. The contingency approach
• Fielder(1967) argues that the choices a manager makes in terms of
management methods depends on the level of group situational
favorability. This happen as a result of three factors; see page 29
1. Leader-member relations: the perception of co-operation and
leadership between the line manager and their line reports
2. Task structure: how easily tasks are structured, and processes are
standardized, and how easily outcomes can be assessed
3. Position power: the managers authority and power regarding
punishing and rewarding individual behaviour
3. The contingency approach
• The contingency approach recognizes the STAR model, whereby the
strategy of the organization is the contingency on which other elements of
the organization are aligned in order to structure the organization in a way
that will enable it to achieve its goals.
• Strategy itself depends on the external environment and the business
conditions that the organization is facing.
• There is no single best strategy in business, instead managers must
develop strategies based on what is happening in the competitive
marketplace and the limitations imposed on their response by the
resources available to the organization.
• The right response will depend on the circumstances that the organization
is facing.
• See page 30. figure 1.10 STAR model
3. The contingency approach
• The contingency approach is further enhanced by ideas about the
social and huma dynamics within the organization, making sure that
there is also a fit in relation to management style, job design, culture
and people practices.
• This approach recognizes that the nature of the Organization
Operating Reality (OOR) is fast moving and changeable and
organizations need to adapt from the current model to on that fits
better with the changing business environment.
• Foster (2017) suggest the need for agile leadership when managing
the contingencies resulting from the speed and diversity of change
3. The contingency approach: OOR elements
• Foster (2017) suggests the following four OOR elements to be understood
to allow managers to make decisions about how to structure the
organizations operations so it can remain competitive and relevant;
1. Connection
2. Interdependence
3. Dependence
4. Interconnection
See page 31 figure 1.11 the organization operating reality
In this era of digital economy, the OOR highlights the relevance of the
contingency approach. The current business environment is too unstable and
constantly changing.
3. The contingency approach: OOR elements
• The contingency approach offers a link between structure of the
organization as an influence on organizational performance, and
other forms of organizational design and systems of management,
based on what the organization is trying to achieve and the nature of
the environment in which it is operating.
• The biggest challenge for managers is to seek to understand the wide
range and huge number of contingencies that exist
• The only way to deal with the challenge is agility beyond simply
readiness to change but willingly building energy for continuous
change.
4. Postmodernism approach
4. Postmodernism approach
• Postmodernism is the most confusing framework that challenges
management to shift their own perspective to pay more attention to
the deep assumptions they hold about the world.
• It highlights issues about what we can consider to be the right way to
do things due to ideological effects of society, such as patriarchy,
misogyny, power, politics, racism, morality and ethics.
• It allows managers to understand employee motivations and improve
productivity: employees need to be needed, want to appreciated,
rewarded for their efforts, and work on task that are engaging
• This allow managers to understand these feelings and design tasks
that will deliver for the business and employees at the same time