Evaluating Usefulness of a Fractal Enterprise Model Experience Report

2021

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There are several ways of defining organizational identity and identity management. This article considers a less exploited one, namely, defining identity as a set of structural couplings that the organization has, and identity management as an activity aimed at maintaining these couplings. The concept of structural coupling comes from biological cybernetics, and it means that a system during its evolution becomes entangled with few other systems. The system at hand evolves together with these systems, adapts to them and causes them to adapt to it. The concept of structural coupling is applied in a study of an institution of higher education. To identify structural couplings, the authors use a so-called Fractal Enterprise Model that presents both internal structure of an organization and its business environment. The article analyzes to which elements of the environment an institution of higher education is structurally coupled and how the identity maintenance is arranged. The article provides examples of how well maintaining identity works in practice based on reflections on the authors' experience of working in the department. The article concludes with suggesting a generic procedure for identifying structural couplings and defining a strategy of maintaining these couplings.

Section: Generalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Essential customer, new rule based on [4], an example is presented in [30]. Added here to cover all types of structural couplings listed in [4]…”

Section: Section 43mentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity Management in an Institution of Higher Education: A Case Study Using Structural Coupling and Fractal Enterprise Model

2021

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“…The result of this research produced more than a solution to the original problem, as FEM includes not only relations between the processes, but produces a map of assets usage and management in the organization. Therefore, we continue our work on FEM looking for other problems/challenges that can be solved using FEM; and enhancing FEM when necessary [37]. One example of a specific application of FEM is using FEM for business model innovation, see, for instance, [32].…”

Section: Fractal Enterprise Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Just Finished a Cycle of a Design Science Research Project: What’s Next?

Johannesson

2020

The article is devoted to developing a methodological support for planning Design Science (DS) research projects. More exactly, it is aimed at developing a classification of a particular kind of cycles, inherent to DS research projects, and guidelines on how to choose the next cycle in a specific project. The classification and guidelines are based on results from an analysis of DS literature and a reflective analysis of our own research practice. As far as own research practice is concerned, two DS projects have been analyzed in detail. The analysis revealed that though both projects included cycles, the nature of these cycles was different. In the first project, cycles concerned finding a better problem to solve, while in the second project, cycles concerned finding a better solution for more or less the same problem. Both projects concern developing methodologies in the area of socio-technical systems, and the guidelines on how to choose the next cycle have special provisions related to such systems. In conclusion, the article presents examples of other projects that followed the suggested guidelines and discusses the difference of the suggested approach from other approaches to conduct DS research projects.

“…Readers who are interested in viewing examples from specific organizations are referred to other works devoted to FEM technique, e.g. [12], [17], [18].…”

Section: Yamcc -Just Yet Another Management Consulting Companymentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Enterprise Models to Explain and Discuss Autopoiesis and Homeostasis in Socio-technical Systems

Regev

2020

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The article links two seemingly different fundamental theoretical concepts of autopoiesis and homeostasis and tries to apply them to the realm of socio-technical systems with the use of the Fractal Enterprise Model (FEM). Autopoiesis is the property of a system that constantly reproduces itself. Homeostasis describes a way a complex system constantly maintains its identity while adapting to changes in its internal and external environment. To be able to use FEM for this task, the original version of FEM has been extended by adding special elements for representing the system's contextpart of the environment to which the system is structurally coupled. The approach taken in this article differs from other works in the same field in having the focus on the "body" (concrete elements being reproduced) of the socio-technical system, as well as on identifying concrete processes that reproduce the system, and demonstrating concrete ways of how a specific system adapts or can adapt to the perturbations in the environment (i.e. internal and external disturbances that affect the system).