Unfolding of Complexity: Modelling the Transformation’s Complexity

Abstract

Showing how to carry out the second and third steps of the Viplan Method is the purpose of this chapter. We assume that the organization in focus can be described in terms of a transformation process needed to produce the products or services implied by its ascribed name. Our concern now is finding the activities, and their relations, that are necessary to carry out this transformation process. These activities (and their relations) can be described or designed by using technological models. Each activity is a chunk of complexity including highly interconnected sub-activities. Together they offer a strategy to manage the complexity of the organization’s value adding transformation. But not only technology drives the way in which an organization chunks its complexity. The organization may have to take into consideration the localization of its activities; does it matter whether they are close or distant to their markets? Does it matter to differentiate between customer and product segments? How do time factors influence the structure of their technological activities? These are all complexity drivers for grouping their activities. Producing these technological and structural models is the second step of Viplan. The third step is studying the organization’s unfolding of complexity. This activity is at the core of working out an organization’s recursive structure. This chapter offers a discussion, supported by a wide range of examples, of the convenience and necessity of enabling autonomy or primary activities within the organization. This study is driven by the technological and structural models. This chapter debates the organization’s strategy to manage the complexity implied by its stated name.