CAS

Find a company which reflects Morning Star and St Luke’s image of a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) and reflect in your blog what the implications are for you and your present organization (or any organization you are familiar with). Identify what you believe are appropriate actions to move your organization forward.

            As I was reading the description of what the Complex Adaptive System entails I was definitely reminded of the organization which I currently work for, BNSF. The part that stood out to me the most is the fact that there is a great emphasis on personal responsibility and under-performance is not tolerated for long – “they are not necessarily a ‘nice’ place to work” (Oblensky, 2014, pg. 27).This stands out me in a big way because I currently experience this at my current job. It is a high stress job which does not tolerate any accidents, people are let go on a daily basis if they are not cutting it. It seems that at my company they instill this fear on day one, during indoctrination you are told that if you commit a couple of mistakes, you will be let go. This is especially true during the probation period and from day one you feel as though you are just a number. Making employees feel as though they can be easily replaced or that they are not cherished is something which the company that I work for needs to improve.

            I believe that the culture of the organization is the problem, this type of culture creates a high turnover rate. Many employees feel that their position at my company is not a permanent one, a large portion of the employees feel that it is a temporary organization to work at until they find something better. Working for BNSF with this type of culture is one of the reasons that I ended up perusing a Master’s degree, as long as I have been employed by BNSF I have always felt as though I needed a backup plan.

            The rail road which I work for does have a lot of very similar characteristics to the CAS organization, one which I often find is the teams which are formed at this organization. Many times teams will be formed for projects and then they are disassembled, this is the way of the railroad ad in many ways I can understand why they have to keep this system. The railroad works across thousands of miles in the U.S, this makes it very difficult for employees to follow where the company works. Due to the nature of the business this is why teams are created and then torn apart one the project is complete, this also leads to a lot of furloughed employees, only the best employees are hired as managers to travel where necessary.

            Because of the nature of this CAS organization, this style of running a business is compared to Taylorism. “Taylor saw organizations as machines which leaders could run in a deterministic way, Pulling the right levers would ensure results could flow” (Obolensky, 2014, pg. 28). Although this system tends to work for some organizations, I do not believe that organizations should be run like machines if we are to spark creativity and innovation. I believe that the problem with running an organization like a machine is that we are not allowing the organization to take its own personality.

            Overall I believe that the CAS organizational system seems to me like it is an older way of doing business. I believe that it does not spark creativity among employees and it also does not give off a good working environment. Businesses that are thriving in today’s world like google, believe in a more free, open, and employee friendly way of doing business. If I were in charge of my organization I would ensure that we take a path where our employees are more appreciated and felt wanted, I would also try to empower my employees and give them the confidence needed to come up with new ideas.

References:

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty. Farnham, Surrey: Gower.