Towards the Model Driven Organization

Modern organizations are faced with the need to rapidly respond to frequent changes arising from external business pressures. The effect of such continuous evolution eventually leads to organizational misalignment, that is, situations in which sub-optimal configurations of underlying systems significantly reduce an organization's ability to meet its strategic goals. Ensuring alignment of an organization's systems and its goals has been a concern of researchers and practitioners in the enterprise architecture (EA) domain. Unfortunately, current approaches do not adequately address alignment problems that modern organizations face. In this paper we propose that alignment concerns can be better addressed by making models the primary entities that stakeholders within and outside of an organization use to interact with the organization. We call an organization that maintains and uses an integrated set of models to manage alignment concerns a Model Driven Organization (MDO). In this paper we characterize the alignment problem, discuss the shortcomings of current alignment management approaches and present our MDO vision

Towards the model driven organization

Todays modern organization is faced with a need for rapid response to changes from external business pressures by updating systems and operational procedures. The effect of such continuous evolution eventually leads to sub- optimal configurations of its underlying systems. The management of continuous business change is compromised by uncertainty due to the inadequacy of existing mechanisms for responding to multiple change drivers thus leading to signifi- cant organizational costs. This represents a major opportunity for seeking greater efficiencies. To date, there has been little or no attempt to apply model driven principles or approaches to addressing these issues. We present a new vision of a Model Driven Organisation (MDO) that has the potential to increase produc- tivity by promoting integration of business processes and collaborations across the organisation whilst supporting safe and convenient adaptations that enable rapid response to change whilst maintaining integrity of the systems within the organisation. The approach proposed is based on the use of modelling languages and simulation technologies that support abstractions for understanding business goals through to specification of IT systems and ultimately to deployed systems. The paper motivates the problem and proposes a definition of the MDO. We val- idate the proposal through an illustrative case and conclude with a review of the state of the art leading to a roadmap of research and emergent grand challenges towards achieving the MDO vision

Democracy versus dictatorship in self-organized models of financial markets

Models to mimic the transmission of information in financial markets are introduced. As an attempt to generate the demand process, we distinguish between dictatorship associations, where groups of agents rely on one of them to make decision, and democratic associations, where each agent takes part in the group decision. In the dictatorship model, agents segregate into two distinct populations, while the democratic model is driven towards a critical state where groups of agents of all sizes exist. Hence, both models display a level of organization, but only the democratic model is self-organized. We show that the dictatorship model generates less-volatile markets than the democratic model

Training-induced criticality in martensites

We propose an explanation for the self-organization towards criticality observed in martensites during the cyclic process known as `training'. The scale-free behavior originates from the interplay between the reversible phase transformation and the concurrent activity of lattice defects. The basis of the model is a continuous dynamical system on a rugged energy landscape, which in the quasi-static limit reduces to a sandpile automaton. We reproduce all the principal observations in thermally driven martensites, including power-law statistics, hysteresis shakedown, asymmetric signal shapes, and correlated disorder.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A Mission-Driven Organization Case Study: The Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation

The purpose of this case study is to explore the development of the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation (JCMF), a young organization that is dedicated to becoming a fully mission-driven focused entity. The case study will investigate the organization’s ability to remain consistent to its mission. Furthermore, the case study will explore the importance of mission-focus within JCMF. Finally, it will identify the impact the organization’s commitment to mission-focus has had on the organization’s overall health. Using a qualitative approach, I examined JCMF and its effectiveness toward being a mission-driven organization. The findings and mission specific analysis of the case study revealed that the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation has made a successful attempt towards being a mission-driven organization. Using Bolman and Deal’s (2008) Four Frame Model, my research discovered the strengths and weaknesses of JCMF with their structural, human resources, political, and symbolic aspects. The study further revealed that while JCMF was currently operating successfully as a mission-driven organization, there was concern that organizational growth may inhibit its ability to continue prospering due to a lack of resources. The analysis and findings resulted in recommendations to ensure the JCMF organization would remain sustainably healthy and mission-focused. The recommendations included: creating a strategic planning external and internal analysis to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the organization from both perspectives, devising a succession plan in order to keep the organization strong and operational during a leadership transition, introducing a proactive open door policy for the organization to solidify the trusting environment and open culture, preparing a stronger fundraising and development plan to build financial resources to better serve the mission, and finally hiring additional staff members to assist and improve the JCMF in its mission-focused efforts. These recommendations from the study can be utilized within the JCMF organization to maintain overall good health and mission-focus

Language of Change

Changing organizational culture is a challenging undertaking, especially when it is attempted through a global change in systems and processes, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementations. During these transformations, organizations desire alignment between people at different levels and across various parts of the organization; and communication is considered a critical factor to developed shared meaning leading towards alignment. This research redefines alignment as a dynamic push-pull communication model for change in which the traditional top-down “push” communication frames the overall purpose and objectives of a change while the deeper-level “pull” communication helps employees make sense of the change—what the change means to them and their departments. Research was conducted through semi-structured interviews of employees of a global entertainment and media company that is doing an ERP implementation to change the culture of their home-video division from creative high-margin mindset to process efficiency driven organization can reduce its costs to improve its eroding profit margins. Various aspects of communication, such as boundary objects and stories, are analyzed to understand how they lead to alignment and misalignment as the ERP-driven change unfolds

Exploring the Role of Enterprise Architecture in IS-enabled Ot: An EA Principles Perspective

© 2016 IEEE. Although EA principles have received considerable attention in recent years, there is still little known about how EA principles can be used to govern the transformation of the Information Systems enabled organization. In this research-in-progress paper, we communicate our initial step towards answering the sub-question: how do enforcing EA principles contribute to IS-enabled OT? Based on a comprehensive literature review, we initially propose five testable hypotheses and a research model, which is a pre-requisite to developing a data-driven theory for this important area of research. It is anticipated that the ensuing theory will provide a basis for further research studying the impact of EA on IS-enabled OT. The tested research model will also provide guidance to practitioners on how to effectively design and use EA principles in managing transformative changes caused by IS within their organizations and overall industry sectors

Reaction-driven Diffusiophoresis of Liquid Condensates: Mechanisms for Intra-cellular Organization

The cellular environment, characterized by its intricate composition and spatial organization, hosts a variety of organelles, ranging from membrane-bound ones to membraneless structures that are formed through liquid-liquid phase separation. Cells show precise control over the position of such condensates. We demonstrate that organelle movement in external concentration gradients, diffusiophoresis, is distinct from the one of colloids because fluxes can remain finite inside the liquid-phase droplets and movement of the latter arises from incompressibility. Within cellular domains diffusiophoresis naturally arises from biochemical reactions that are driven by a chemical fuel and produce waste. Simulations and analytical arguments within a minimal model of reaction-driven phase separation reveal that the directed movement stems from two contributions: Fuel and waste are refilled or extracted locally, resulting in concentration gradients, which (i) induce product fluxes via incompressibility and (ii) result in an asymmetric forward reaction in the droplet's surroundings (as well as asymmetric backward reaction inside the droplet), thereby shifting the droplet's position. We show that the former contribution dominates and sets the direction of the movement, away from or towards fuel source and waste sink, depending on the product molecules' affinity towards fuel and waste, respectively. The mechanism thus provides a simple means to organize condensates with different composition. Particle-based simulations and systems with more complex reaction cycles corroborate the robustness and universality of this mechanism