=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3857/paper4
|storemode=property
|title=Exploring barriers to effective organisational change using combined approach: Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and ETHICS (a socio-technical design approach)
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3857/paper4.pdf
|volume=Vol-3857
|authors=Ijeoma Ojukwu,Peter Bednar
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/stpis/OjukwuB24
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==Exploring barriers to effective organisational change using combined approach: Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and ETHICS (a socio-technical design approach)==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3857/paper4.pdf
Exploring barriers to effective organisational change us-
ing combined approach: Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)
and ETHICS (a socio-technical design approach)
Ijeoma Ojukwu 1, Peter Bednar2,3
1
School of Applied Management, University of Westminster, UK,
2
Department of Informatics, Lund University, Sweden
3
School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, UK
Abstract
This paper aims to show how systems thinking can be used to investigate barriers to
organisational change management. The case study described in this paper would be useful
to managers who want to implement change in their own organisations. Soft Systems
Methodology and ETHICS were used due to their flexible, responsive, and emergent
nature. Also, soft systems methodology (SSM) and ETHICS (Effective Technical and Hu-
man Implementation of Computer-supported Systems) were used as a sense-making pro-
cess while carrying out the investigation.
Findings – SSM and ETHICS can help in addressing ill-structured problems faced by
managers, in collaboration with stakeholders using questioning and reflection. The ap-
proaches lead to an increased understanding of the problem situation exploring barriers to
organizational change. The difference is that SSM uses a more structured approach while
ETHICS is emergent in its application. SSM practitioners advocate that researchers would
benefit by declaring in advance an intellectual framework to guide their research. These
methodologies are appropriate for studying and investigating human activities as they cre-
ate ways through which the complexity of human interaction and dealings can be ex-
amined, described, and made sense of. The adopted methodologies are interpretative, with
an emphasis on the participants. The lack of employee ownership and involvement in
change management procedures has long been a concern and it has been disregarded or
only partially addressed by organisations. Actors need to take ownership and control over
their own change process. This paper would be useful to managers interested in a rigorous
methodology to implement organisational change. It demonstrates ways of combining SSM
and ETHICS, resulting in a powerful research tool to carry out rigorous research.
Keywords 1
Organisational change management, soft systems methodology, ETHICS, socio-technical
design, systems thinking.
1. Introduction
The inquiry incorporated soft systems methodology (SSM) and ETHICS (a socio-technical design
approach, STD) into investigating the barriers to achieving effective organisational change. SSM and
ETHICS (a social-technical approach) to understand and explore change management. These
approaches are all applied in a social setting and are participative and reflective and these are im-
portant, in organisational change design.
Social-Technical Perspective in Information Systems, August 16–17, 2024, Jonkoping, Sweden
EMAIL: angybab2012@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0003-4899-6241 (A. 1)
© 2024 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
CEUR
ceur-ws.org
Workshop ISSN 1613-0073
Proceedings
77
The author of this paper feels that this research would help other researchers and practitioners
who plan to solve real problems in their workplace using SSM and ETHICS. The author has a back-
ground and responsibility in developing and managing systems for change management in her
present and past careers. Hence, she had an interest in finding ways to use systems thinking [14] in
the research as well. The author believes that using systems thinking, particularly soft systems
thinking, shouldn't be limited and should be integrated with different approaches. The investigation
was guided by the two main questions below:
• What are the barriers to achieving effective organisational change management?
• How can human activity systems (HAS) sustain effective Change Management processes in an
ever-changing environment?
The foundation of this investigation was built on Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and Socio-
Technical Design (STD), and the empirical material was obtained through a jointly acceptable ethical
framework. SSM and STD involve the collaboration of the researcher and the participants. This
approach is useful for understanding any system – particularly those systems that involve human
activities which lead to complexity and result in multiple perspectives of how a problem is viewed.
SSM and STD approaches could be practical and effective for researchers or project managers who
desire to do research in their own organisations or projects [17].
The success of applying SSM and ETHICS to real-world problems is acknowledged in this paper.
1.1. Background - Change Management in organisations
Scholars describe change in organisations in a variety of ways, according to their perspectives,
for example, Burnes [4] defined change as a constant feature of organisational life and managing it
is regarded as a core competency of successful organisations. Another definition states that change
in an organisation can refer to any alteration in activities [13]. This study believes that change is an
ongoing and never-ending process of organisational life and considering the purpose of this study,
the researcher paid attention to change management and its issues. Many researchers have sugges-
ted that organisations are complex systems and to survive must respond to changes. Organisations
are continually faced with change challenges [3], thus, organisations must be more prepared to ad-
apt their organisational environments to those changes if they are to remain in the business. Mum-
ford [19] argues that change is more likely to be difficult than easy [2][8].
To study organisational change, this study looks into soft systems methodology (SSM), and
ETHICS (a social-technical approach) to understand and explore change management in the
organisation. These approaches are all applied in a social setting and are participative and reflective
and these are important, in organisational change design. There is not much clear empirical evid-
ence that supports a chosen change management approach [15][25]. Research on organisational
change has attempted to demonstrate the difficulties that come with both planned and unplanned
changes, but not completely. The planned change model has come under increasing criticism since
the early 1980s, [27]. Critics raised concerns about how is executed (simplistically, [5]) and how
change occurs in an organisation. Schein criticises planned change for focusing on isolated change
and failing to incorporate radical change [1]. The planned approach [8] is much more problematic
for human systems because it frequently comes off as a huge imposition "from on high" and ap-
pears to take little account of workplace complexities. The planned approach according to Bamford
and Forrester is based on the notion that everyone in the organisation agrees to work together.
Todnem, claims [27]) that this assumes that issues can be resolved quickly, thereby ignoring organ-
isational politics and conflicts. Mumford [19] argues that just because a group of employees agrees
to participate in the design process does not mean they are convinced of the management's inten-
tions. SSM in this case takes into account the political aspects of the organisation during a change
[10, 12] and also considers employees at all levels.
Change management combines organisational norms, tools, and techniques to assist employees in
making successful personal progressions that result in change implementation and realisation. The
socio-technical (ETHICS) approach focuses on incorporating the organisational technical and human
78
structure with the view to achieving effective change management. Mumford [21] provides a his-
torical overview of socio-technical design, she highlighted that the world of socio-technical design
is democratic, humanistic and provides both freedom and knowledge to those who are part of it
[20]. The socio-technical design had an important democratic component, employees' involvement
and participation in determining the required quality of working life improvements.
In exploring the barriers to achieving effective organizational change, Bednar & Welch [2] remind
us that organisational change is complex and that individual roles change as a business system
changes, these changes must be discussed and looked into in ways that are both agile and adaptive:
agile because tasks and systems are complicated, and adaptive because boundaries are changing.
2. Approach and research method
This section summarises the research protocol adopted for this study. Described in the subsection
below are the case study and the specific theoretical propositions used to develop data collection
processes. In the second subsection, we report the semi-structured interview, including information
on the data collection.
2.1. Case study design and data collection description
This case study focuses on a project in a multinational telecommunication company in Switzer-
land. Their solutions serve the network requirements of a wide range of organisations, including
start-ups, medium businesses, major corporations and the public sector.
The study used SSM and ETHICS to study the challenges of change management that stakehold-
ers face in real-world problematic situations. No single approach could possibly capture the depth
and complexity of organisational reality, different methodologies and ideas will be required [22].
Drawing from the chosen approaches provides a process of creatively exploring problematic situ-
ations, and implementing them. This study also draws on the approaches to understanding human
complexity, providing guidelines for implementation, intervention, evaluation of the processes, and
studying different stakeholders' worldviews. The investigation was iterative and consisted of differ-
ent stages which were made up of planning, recruiting participants, introducing the research ap-
proach, and collaborating and defining the situation together with the participants. SSM and
ETHICS recognize that participants view the same situation differently and provide tools (for ex-
ample interviews, rich pictures, CATWOE, etc.) to explore the different views of the situation. Six-
teen employees at different levels and different roles were interviewed. The semi-structured inter-
view form was chosen as it enables a broader understanding of the thoughts and experiences of
each participant on change management. This allows participants to talk freely, where the inter-
viewer is responsive and listens actively to ask relevant follow-up questions, and new information
and new perspectives can thus be brought up. The interviews were used to understand the problem
situation as richly as possible. The researcher got to know who was involved and identified roles,
boundaries, relationships, authorities (formal and informal), and influences (e.g. policies).
The study was a real-world investigation where the information collected was based on human
perceptions, feelings, and opinions, therefore, ethics issues were crucial. Ethics refers to rules of
conduct; typically to conformity to a code or set of principles according to Isreal cited by Robson and
McCartan [26]. For this investigation, examples of ethical issues were pressure, time issues, and
worry. Ethics provided guidelines for addressing these problems and for the responsible conduct of
the investigation. Aspects like consent, anonymity, data storage, and confidentiality played an im-
portant role during the investigation and when the findings of the investigation were circulated.
The organisation and the participants were asked for consent, and both parties granted it,
protecting the participants' and the organization's identity and confidentiality.
79
2.2. Incorporating Soft Systems Methodology and ETHICS
SSM was used in this research as an initial approach to understand the problem situation based on
the work of Checkland and Scholes [12] and Checkland [6, 11]. To intervene in the real-world
complexity of change management, SSM is one suitable methodological framework for planning
change. It is a powerful sense-making tool for gaining an understanding of human complexity. SSM
is built on system models, which leads to the choice of purposeful action. In SSM, the (social) world
is taken to be very complex and the participant’s worldviews are created and recreated by their
thinking, talking and taking action.
Firstly, the seven-step version proposed by Checkland [12] was adopted and adapted to fit the
investigation. These involve an inquiry-based process through social learning that works its way to
taking action to improve and help the participants make sense of their experiences through interac-
tion and dialoguing. SSM was also used in the sense-making mode (Mode 2, as an internalized
model) in this study, see Checkland [19], and the value is that the researcher has become an insider.
This development was the emergence of what became known as Mode 1 and Mode 2 usage of SSM
[9, 12]. See Fig 1 below for SSM in use in Mode 1 (intervention) and SSM in use in Mode 2
(interaction).
Figure 1: Mode 1 and Mode 2 of SSM (adapted from Checkland and Scholes, [12])
Figure 2 below shows how the inquiry process was developed and applied. Although some setbacks
(described later) were encountered. This process was then applied several times as required, for
example, the first cycle of application of the inquiry process shown in Fig 2 was understanding the
problem situation. The second application was understanding participants’ worldviews and
analyzing setbacks, the third application was decision-making and recording lessons learned, etc.
The key concepts of an SSM intervention are drawing rich pictures, context analysis using
CATWOE (a mnemonic for a checklist for problem definition), and root definition. Rich pictures
representing the problem were created to help understand the problem situation. Using the
CATWOE mnemonic (customers, actors, Weltanschauung (worldview), transformation, ownership
and environmental constraints) a root definition was formulated. Creating rich pictures enabled the
researcher and the participants to form an impression of the state of the situation by analysing the
intervention and the situation as a social system and as a political system.
80
Figure 2 - SSM application in practice (source: adopted and adapted from Checkland (1989))
Data were also explored through interviews, observations, documentation, etc. as shown in Figure
2. The justification for adopting SSM was based on SSM being used for problem structuring in messy,
ill-defined problem situations, it provides a set of principles for intervening in human problem situ-
ations in order to bring about improvement. Checkland’s SSM is used to provide an organized,
planned, and rigorous approach to real-world messy situations [8].
Steve Clarke (an independent consultant in Checkland) [7] explains one of the greatest, if not the
greatest wants of human beings is to be heard. People in a changing environment frequently believe
that they have not been heard adequately, if at all. Through participation and collaboration, SSM and
ETHICS encourage actors to express themselves clearly and to hear what others are saying without
unnecessary conflict. This study also agrees that by participation, all those affected by the change
will be able to play some part in its definition, design and in agreeing with plans for its execution
[23].
ETHICS method followed the socio-technical approach of user participation which is an import-
ant feature of the design. The socio-technical design has an important democratic component, this
component encourages employees' involvement and participation, and thus, influencing their de-
cision making [20]. The socio-technical approach focuses on incorporating the organisational tech-
nical and human structure in the view to achieve effective change management.
ETHICS in this study encouraged participants to be able to influence the design of their own
environment. The ETHICS step-by-step stages as described by Mumford [19] and Jayaratna [16] were
adopted and adapted to enable all participants to participate and contribute to the investigation (see
Table 1 below). These steps were achieved through interviews and meetings.
Steps Methodology steps Applied through interviews and meetings
1 Why change? Questions to determine whether the participants are informed why there is a need
for change
2 Systems Are the participants aware of those to be affected or will be affected during and
Boundaries after the change is implemented?
3 Description of the Questions to find out the issues in challenges that they are currently facing in the
existing system current work system.
4 Definition of key What is the mission of the department? What are the key tasks?
objectives
5 Diagnosis of job Diagnosis of job satisfaction needs: Determine users’ perception of the current
satisfaction needs in system regarding job satisfaction. This would be carried out via the use of
regard to change questionnaires. The results of the questionnaire would be drawn into the actual system
management design
6 Future analysis An analysis of the future requirements of the system is undertaken, this is to
ensure that the system design covers possible areas of potential change.
The new system must meet future needs as well as the present. The researcher asked
questions in meetings and interviews to find out what the participants wants or lacked.
81
7 The organisational Develop a design of the system that focuses upon the issues identified relating to
design of the new efficiency, job satisfaction, etc.
system
Table 1 ETHICS Step by Step approach: Adopted and adapted from (Jayaratna, 1994, p. 152; Mumford, 2003, p. 269-273)
The interview also served as a reflective exercise for the participants, the participants reflected and
thought about their answers. The interview protocol was flexible and adaptable. The major areas
of questioning were organisational change management (and its challenges), participation, and
collaboration. Table 2 below shows participants and examples of interview questions.
Participants Semi-structured interview Age Interview Time
A Face-to-face 25-30 60 mins
B Face-to-face 25-30 60 mins
C Face-to-face 25-30 55 mins
D Face-to-face 25-30 60 mins
E Face-to-face 25-30 45 mins
F Face-to-face 31-40 50 mins
G Face-to-face 31-40 50 mins
H Face-to-face 31-40 60 mins
I Face-to-face 31-40 60 mins
J Face-to-face 31-40 60 mins
K Face-to-face 41-50 60 mins
L Face-to-face 41-50 50 mins
M Face-to-face 41-50 45 mins
N Face-to-face 41-50 55 mins
O Face-to-face 51-60 60 mins
R Face-to-face 51-60 60 mins
Examples of interview questions
Are you informed clearly and on time about changes that will affect your work?
Does your job provide you with the opportunity to make decisions during a change?
Can you tell me how changes (project and organizational) are communicated to the employees?
How do changes affect your job?
Why would you not be willing to agree to a change?
Are you trained before or after a change or both?
How do you know about the organisational changes or any type of change?
Are you informed before a change or after a change?
How do you feel when changes are implemented?
Has there been any time you resisted a change? (If yes, why?)
Table 2 Participants interviewed and example of interview questions
At the start of the investigation, the researcher’s initial expectation was that the inquiry processes
developed (SSM and ETHICS approaches) would form the key stages and would somehow be separ-
ated from the daily work of the participants. However, as the investigation progressed, the focus of
the approaches narrowed to deal with ethical/process issues and capability development. In the pro-
cess, SSM and ETHICS gradually became integrated daily into the activities of the participants to
aid reflective practice. Checkland’s SSM evolved to focus on human interactions, relations, needs,
aspirations, perceptions and assumptions to bring about the process of the participants accommod-
ating each other’s views. ETHICS helped in the formulation of the interviews and meetings expos-
ing different participants’ worldviews and roles. This was achieved by using the iterative nature of
the research process in their current reality, this is to facilitate the improvement of the world they
live in. Reviews were conducted on the data collected by the researcher and it became evid-
ent that information was missing, for example, after a review, the rich picture and root definitions
were updated.
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Figure 3 – Sample of Rich Picture
The researcher also discussed the CATWOE and root definition with the participants and cor-
rections were made. The researcher, together with the participants carried out a role analysis, social
system analysis, and political analysis. The role analysis clarified the roles of the client, problem
solver and problem owner, see Table 3 below.
Roles As described by Checkland and Project Alpha (Real World)
Scholes (1990, p.47)
The role ‘client’ The person who caused the study to (Main) The Researcher
take place (Secondary) Case study organisation
The role ‘would-be Whoever wishes to do something The Researcher
problem solver’ about the situation in question Case study organisation (participants)
The role ‘problem No one is intrinsically a problem The Researcher
owner’ owner Case study organisation (participants)
Table 3 – Sample of Analysis One: Types of Roles
The social analysis established the norms and values. The political analysis identified formal
authority, intellectual authority, personal charisma (or lack of) and reputation.
This experience caused the researcher based on the analysis, to reflect on the process of investig-
ation and realize that
• The frequent reviews and verifications of the process establish coherence among
participants and the researcher.
• Achieving a sense of understanding of the problem situation is based on several cycles of
application of the inquiry process.
• Participation of the team members contributes to the identification of change management
issues and probably solutions – by sharing their worldviews and exploring solutions.
As the investigation progressed, it became more obvious the philosophical similarities between
SSM and ETHICS as applied in a real-world environment, even though at the start the approaches
were chosen because they were developed from Action Research. It is interesting that the re-
searcher first thought of SSM as a process to implement an information systems project but realized
during the
83
investigation that it is a process that promotes a better understanding of the situation. ETHICS, like
SSM, was also used to help reflect on the research problem.
3. Findings and Discussions
The research findings provided a better understanding of the participants’ use of SSM and
ETHICS for real-world investigation of change management and how participants accommodated
each other's perspectives and interpreted their problems [23]. So, using soft systems approach, the
participants gained insights into their situation, learning how to use the soft systems approach for
further inquiry (i.e. for the future).
In the investigation, the (social) world is taken to be very complex and the people’s worldviews
are created and recreated by their thinking, talking, and taking action. The research methodologies
facilitated changes by employing the iterative creation of shared frameworks concerning parti-
cipants' perceived and everyday reality. The study draws on the work of Mumford [19] which ex-
plains that successful effective change involves understanding the real-world situation into which
change is being introduced and identifying the factors in it that will either help or hinder success.
SSM provided a set of principles for the intervention into the problematic situation (as shown in Fig
1) in order to bring about what would be judged to be improvements and sustain it.
While conducting this study from an information systems perspective, the findings are linked to
participants' problems of change management. It is vital to note that the processes highlighted ac-
ted as a catalyst for identifying organisation's change management issues and processes. ETHICS
recognises that different individuals and groups have various needs, interests, and values and that
these must be satisfied if employees are to readily and enthusiastically accept change [25, 26]. Six-
teen employees were interviewed, and all participated in the investigation and each participant has
different view on how change is managed, how they want it to be managed and how they feel
about change in the organisation. Also, this study shows that all participants want to be heard in
one way or the other.
The rich picture and interviews conducted illustrated poor communication of change. It also
shows that leadership characteristics or politics may affect the process. Trust, job security, particip-
ation, and motivation were seen as critical issues. Participants emphasised the importance of
change awareness; they believe that raising awareness and training participants (before, during and
after a change implementation) will help in the achievement of successful change management.
They revealed that face-to-face communication would be more effective when introducing a
change. Also, this study revealed that participants would like to get involved in decision-making
during a change. An important finding of this study is that individuals and their sense-making
activities should be included in the change management processes for decision-making in order for
human activity systems to sustain effective change management. During the investigation, the re-
searcher used strategic thinking and various communication techniques while keeping in mind the
influence of organisational politics in systems involving human activity. This helped to reach vari-
ous participants of different roles and levels. The research findings address the research questions
in section 1.
According to the study, soft systems helped the participants fully understand their current situ-
ation and guided them while also giving them access to a variety of tools to ensure that their efforts
to manage change were successful. The study relied on multiple sources of data collection tech-
niques to provide a complete and detailed picture of the problem situation. This allowed for reflec-
tion on each technique and also analysed daily experiences. It provided good tools for communica-
tion and interaction; it also gave a complete holistic view of the environment. Combining the ap-
proaches, helped to keep track of participants’ concerns and suggestions, for example, the use of
rich pictures was used to capture the researcher’s and the participant's concerns pictorially for dis-
cussions and the use of ETHICS step-by-step for structuring the interviews allows for further prob-
ing.
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4. Conclusion
Checkland and Mumford provided much evidence that SSM or ETHICS can be used successfully in
organisations for change management and information systems work, but in this study, both are
combined. However, the participants' acceptance in the first place and commitment took some time
due to a lack of confidence or knowledge.
In regard to this research, the contribution of this paper lies mainly in deepening participants’
understanding of organisational change. It focuses on all aspects of human sense-making as the
situation develops in the context of information systems. ETHICS and SSM in this study identify
structure, task, technology, and participants to explain how to improve the effectiveness of organ-
isational change. Tasks refer to organisational services, missions, and other work done to achieve
organisational goals, whereas structure refers to both organisational structures and norms. Employ-
ees are the participants; technology provides the tools for participants to complete their tasks.
Change management combines organisational norms, tools, and techniques to assist employees in
making successful personal progressions that result in change implementation and realisation.
The research design and interventions demonstrated that SSM and ETHICS require engagement
and involvement of the participants during the investigation. This study shows that participant’s
weltanschauungen change (as they participate and contribute in the investigation), and this in-
volves reflection and sense-making resulting to decision making. The process of sense-making was
embodied in meetings, conversations, and interpretations through the research methodology.
Even though SSM enables the researcher to understand the participants, and can guide man-
agers in managing the ever-changing environments, the process was complex and time-consuming.
The process of record-keeping was a significant lesson learned in this study because it was used for
reflection, for example, for making rich pictures. These were regularly brought back to the parti-
cipants for discussion and revision. Having in mind that socio-technical approach recommends the
participants of all level groups get involved in decision-making.
The insights of this paper have encouraged the researcher to further discussions about the re-
newed importance of systems thinking in investigation of change management issues and how to
overcome these issues. An important lesson learned in the process of the investigation is that the
participants needed to understand the methodology, in order to evolve from theory to practice.
Future planning for the researcher might involve involving more participants and trying with
other methodologies, as this could aid in the discovery of more perspectives.
85
5. Acknowledgements
Thanks to the employees of XPG Ltd who voluntarily participated in the study and assisted in the
research.
86
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