A novel approach for institutionalization analysis based on fuzzy cognitive maps

Abstract

Nowadays, it becomes very important to know the level of institutionalization and as a result what improvements they can make for organizations. Though there are many conceptual studies of institutionalization in the literature, there is no study based on numerical methods that can provide a foresight about institutionalization. In this paper, a new model has been proposed by determining concepts that are effective on institutionalization from literature and expert opinions. Firstly, the relationships between the concepts are taken from the experts linguistically. Linguistic expressions are converted to numerical values using the center of gravity method (COG) used in fuzzy logic applications. Then, three different scenarios were investigated by using the Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) algorithm and the future states of the concepts were determined and interpreted. In the first scenario, an organization with poorly managed organizational concepts was considered. The institutionalization tendency in this organization has reached to 0,027 value which is the estimation calculated by FCM algorithm in the future. The second scenario and the third scenario represents a midlevel and good organization respectively. Institutionalization tendency values were 0.97 for the second and third scenarios. However, when the number of iterations representing the time period is examined, it is seen that the organization thought in the third scenario has reached this value before 9 iterations. This is because the organization in the third scenario is well managed in the current situation. With the developed model, the most effective concepts on institutionalization were also identified. It has been determined that the most important concepts affecting institutionalization are process management, information management and strategic management. Compared to the literature, the results seem to be consistent.