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The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach
This thesis is concerned with the effectiveness of change agents within organisations. The argument presented is that the effectiveness of change agents depends on their ability to develop an understanding of the complex situations they are faced with. This includes a rich understanding of their own...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Mechanical Engineering
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613265602805760 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Topp, Warren Kent |
| author2 | Strumpfer, Johan |
| author_browse | Strumpfer, Johan Topp, Warren Kent |
| author_facet | Strumpfer, Johan Topp, Warren Kent |
| author_sort | Topp, Warren Kent |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This thesis is concerned with the effectiveness of change agents within organisations. The argument presented is that the effectiveness of change agents depends on their ability to develop an understanding of the complex situations they are faced with. This includes a rich understanding of their own role within the situation. The systems approach described by Churchman (1971, 1979) and further developed by Ulrich (1983) provides methods that aid the development of a rich understanding of, inquiry into, and intervention in complex socio-technical situations. The structure of the paper will take the following form: Part 1: Appreciative systems and the systems approach. Performance criteria for change agents are declared. The key role of appreciation ineffective change management is highlighted. An explanation of appreciative systems and how the systems approach can make them more effective is presented. Finally an appreciative frame for human populated (social) systems is explained. Part 2: Investigating sources of purpose in traditional Business Process Reengineering (BPR).Before developing the complete the appreciative framework in Part 3, our understanding will be consolidated by applying the human populated systems frame to organisational change (business process reengineering) as a system. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18878 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:23.204Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| publisherStr | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18878 The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach Topp, Warren Kent Strumpfer, Johan Industrial Administration Business Process Reengineering This thesis is concerned with the effectiveness of change agents within organisations. The argument presented is that the effectiveness of change agents depends on their ability to develop an understanding of the complex situations they are faced with. This includes a rich understanding of their own role within the situation. The systems approach described by Churchman (1971, 1979) and further developed by Ulrich (1983) provides methods that aid the development of a rich understanding of, inquiry into, and intervention in complex socio-technical situations. The structure of the paper will take the following form: Part 1: Appreciative systems and the systems approach. Performance criteria for change agents are declared. The key role of appreciation ineffective change management is highlighted. An explanation of appreciative systems and how the systems approach can make them more effective is presented. Finally an appreciative frame for human populated (social) systems is explained. Part 2: Investigating sources of purpose in traditional Business Process Reengineering (BPR).Before developing the complete the appreciative framework in Part 3, our understanding will be consolidated by applying the human populated systems frame to organisational change (business process reengineering) as a system. 2016-04-13T14:30:20Z 2016-04-13T14:30:20Z 1995 Master Thesis Masters MIndAdmin http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18878 eng application/pdf Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Industrial Administration Business Process Reengineering Topp, Warren Kent The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach |
| title_full | The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach |
| title_fullStr | The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach |
| title_short | The organisational change agent as an appreciative system : increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach |
| title_sort | organisational change agent as an appreciative system increasing effectiveness in business process reengineering through the systems approach |
| topic | Industrial Administration Business Process Reengineering |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18878 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT toppwarrenkent theorganisationalchangeagentasanappreciativesystemincreasingeffectivenessinbusinessprocessreengineeringthroughthesystemsapproach AT toppwarrenkent organisationalchangeagentasanappreciativesystemincreasingeffectivenessinbusinessprocessreengineeringthroughthesystemsapproach |