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Created 8 January 2001

Using a Gap Analysis to show Risks of Power in our "untidy" Network Relationships.

Authors: John D. Hughes, Julian Bamford, Evelin Halls, Lisa Nelson, Santi Sukha.

Glossary of terms

Network research is about the identification and explication of communicative relationships.

Acquainted ship volume:

The total number of individuals any given persons knows.

Boundary spanner:

An individual whose role puts him or her in contact with those outside the group or organisation's boundaries.

Clique (cluster):

A group of individuals who are in contact with each other more frequently than with others outside of the group.

Connectedness:

The degree to which network members are linked to one another. These links can be direct or indirect. The length of the connections may be long Vs short; direct Vs indirect.

Gatekeeper:

An individual who is both a primary member of a cluster and the cluster's link to external clusters.

Grapevine: The pattern that informal messages travel. This is used through personal relationships at times to warn persons of abuse of interorganisational relationships.

Star:

The most connected member of a network.

Using a Gap Analysis to show Risks of Power in our "untidy" Network Relationships.

Communication is not just one more "function" of organisations. It is not just one more box you put on the organisation chart-parallel to this, subordinate to that. The fact is that none of that other stuff that gets top billing in organisations-manufacturing, marketing, engineering, managing, etc-none of that stuff can be done except in and through communication. Everything - everything that an organisation does, and everything that an organisation is - depends ultimately upon communication. The point is that 'communication' is not a magic salve. It is the basic process in the making, the making-go, the guidance, the very life of any organisation, (just as it is of every individual). (Thayer 1990, pp.7 & 8) (More, E (1994). Chapter 3 "Internal corporate communication". In "Managing corporate communication).

Small-world research has revealed interesting data about the size of our acquaintance networks. A person may be part of a sub-culture without being aware of it. As structural networks interlock, cultural stagnation may occur through the perpetuation of closed value systems. Network research has shown that the world, truly, is very small.

We know how to distinguish between "tidy" networks and "untidy" networks. We need to pay more attention to ensure our organisation does not become a part of the sub-culture of "untidy" organisations.

All our external representation is performed by boundary spanners.

They buffer the organisation, filter organisational outputs and represent the organisation.

If a boundary spanner fails to accurately scan a hostile environment, or inaccurately portray the inner organisational environment to the outside, our organisation could easily find itself in serious trouble by networking with an "untidy" organisation.

When we get propositioned by an "untidy" organisation to use our resources and our good name to publicise their plans, we do not explain ourselves but simply do not reply. If they persist and look like they are teachable, we may reply politely cautioning them against their "untidy" operations. The most obvious example of an "untidy" operation is charging for Dhamma Teachings. Another obvious example of an "untidy" operation would be to have fundraisers where alcohol was offered for sale.

We need to have a very clear data collection system to form the basis of such a value judgement as "untidy". In the absence of such evidence, we must assume the organisation is "tidy".

How do we rate organisations? We use our experts to advise us in such delicate matters and we place a number between 1 and 5 on a scale.

There should be one standard deviation between each number.

What mind do we use to fill in this rating table?

The ability to participate in multiple structural configurations is a quick route to visibility, influence and power. Multiple structural configurations appear in second arupa jhana knowledges in an almost infinite array. However, some of these arrays belong to Mara and should be avoided.

The Mara viewpoints will lead to information overloads within the organisation.

Some of the solutions may look like a honey-ball, but in reality they are poisonous. By establishing powerful refuge in the Triple Gem we will not be duped by these solution sets. We will only use solution sets that are conducive to our wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.

We use a mind in second arupa jhana (sphere of infinite knowledge) with the help of the Deva of Learning to protect us against false data. An organisation that we give a rating from 1 to 3 is good enough for us to want to get closer. We would publicise their activities from our websites, we would encourage them to build systems to globalise their organisation if they appear mature enough and had done some extraordinary performances and were becoming visible.

We define an "untidy" network as becoming close to an organisation that conduces to self-hurt and conduces to the hurt of others and it conduces to the hurt of both and it is destructive of intuitive wisdom, associated with distress and not conducive to nibbana. This arises because the thought of malevolence within an organisation is not conducive to good will. If we persist in communicating within our network with such an organisation, our body will soon become weary and our minds will become disturbed because unless unslugghish energy can be stirred up by us, we have no chance of attaining unmuddled mindfulness.

We must block of the treacherous roads and we must unblock or open up the good roads. The treacherous way is a synonym for the eightfold wrong way, that is to say, wrong view, wrong thought, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong way of living, wrong endeavour, wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration.

In the discourse of the Twofold Thought (Dvedhavitakkasutta) the Buddha advised that there is a way that is secure, safe, leading to rapture and this is a synonym for the Ariyan Eightfold Way, that is to say, right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right way of living, right endeavour, right mindfulness, right concentration. (3)

By not being slothful, we will not become remorseful later.

How do we devise a gap analysis to find out what organisations we should become closer to and include in our information database?

As our organisation gains more influence it becomes more tightly coupled to the hopes, aspirations and wishes of others.

We must manage more things in our database more often.

Our work-in-progress paper database contains about 1000 references to organisations we may wish to become close to. Our electronic database has about 640 entries of organisations. This database is the traditional mailing list for the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review.

What we have done.

There are 137 WFB regional centres on our database. Ipso facto we want to shorten the distance between us and each of these regional centres. The advantages are obvious. We do not have to rate the WFB Regional Centres on a tidy/untidy scale because this has already been done by the EXCO Committee.

Traditionally, we keep a record and minute details of our incoming and outgoing correspondence for our General Meetings. This record now includes faxes, e-mails and courier delivery.

We see a need to automate such external entity information onto our filing systems. When the fax server is complete, we will be able to receive faxes in digital format. Our plan is to scan every incoming document and include this into our database so that we can call them up online within a shorter time frame.

We have another complete system that collects internally generated correspondence. This includes task unit reports, working do lists and quarterly financial reports and performance indicator reports. These extend back to inception and contain successful project management reports.

What we must do next

We also have internal e-mail reports that average about 850 messages per month to individual Members. Selected e-mails and internal reports are collated about every 10 days to form the Brooking Street Bugle.

Commencing in December 2000 we put our Brooking Street Bugle on our www.companyontheweb.com/buddhamap website. By this means, we shorten the space between ourselves and external organisations that become informed of about 70 % of our activity at the same time as our ordinary Members. For anyone who wishes to become close to us they become virtual members by reading the same information as our ordinary Members read at the same time.

Using the Honey-Ball

In the Madhupindika Sutta (The Honey-Ball), Venerable Kaccana the Great explained the situation that occurs when there is manifestation of perception, one will recognise the manifestation of reasoning.

When there is the manifestation of reasoning, one will recognise the manifestations of a number of obsessions and perceptions.

The situation does not occur that when there is not a manifestation of reasoning one will recognise a manifestation of a number of obsessions and perceptions.

But were we to write down that there is nothing here to rejoice in the number of obsessions and perceptions that assail a person, that there is nothing to welcome, that there is nothing to catch hold of, this is itself an end to propensity to pride, this in itself is an end to the propensity to ignorance, this in itself an end to the propensity of taking the stick, of taking a weapon, of quarrelling, contending, disputing, accusation, slander and lying speech. (3)

As a result, these unskilled states can be stopped without remainder.

With more and more information being placed on our eight websites, we are becoming more and more visible within the world. This visibility brings us into tighter coupling with organisations that have coordinated activities that require our publicity power.

The equivalent value of our webmasters is $750,000 per year.

Buddha approved of Kaccana the Great's discourse.

The Venerable Ananda then said if a person overcome by hunger and exhaustion come across a honey-ball, each bite he might taste would give a sweet flavour. But, even so, from each bite that he or she would examine with wisdom as to the meaning of this disquisition on Dhamma, he or she would get delight and satisfaction of mind.

Buddha approved that the disquisition be termed the Honey-Ball.

Systems that have less in common with each other or, are more independent, remaining loosely coupled, allow the organisation to persist rather than respond to every environmental shift compared to the situation with a tightly coupled organisation that is less "localised" and more "globalised".

By staying aloof from the needs of others, participants in a loosely coupled system may experience greater fulfilment and power than those in a tightly coupled system because they have a small honey ball.

What a loosely coupled system gives.

A loosely coupled system having a small honey ball is less expensive than the alternative having a series of honey balls because the loose system does not have to monitor constantly all of the paths.

But by giving more attention to the satisfiers of others, the size of the honey ball increases but the price is more analysis around the enactment stage of the managerial process.

Weick's Sociocultural Evolution Model revolves around four key components: change, enactment, selection and retention.

Enactment is more than recognising a change in environment; it is an active process of defining that change.

Enactment is the activity of directly engaging the environment.

From enactment comes selection to overcome the imported level of ambiguity and uncertainty.

Retention refers to information storage.

It refers to the organisation's capacity to call upon previously unused selection strategies and to store new ones.

How do our Members get to recognise and locate our experts globally?

We need to scan photographs of our experts into our Photolan and archive them into our Photolan database. The process of archiving and information retrieval are automated so that we can provide curriculum vitae's on people within 3 minutes.

At this stage the distance between us and that person or organisation has shortened. We have personalised the relationship.

This is what we do when we attend the WFB conference.

So when we have our global consultant records, our Members can access their CV's, and the distance between us and them then shortens. The type of information that we can access increases and the speed at which this type of information is accessed goes up accordingly.

We can then connect like-minded scholars with like-minded scholars, like-minded entrepreneurs with like-minded entrepreneurs, for mutual benefit and continuity.

With retention, the maps of the past can be imposed on the present to make sense of new input. The process of selection is referred to as a series of assembly rules.

How does an organisation remember a number of successful interpretation schemes for use in a given situation?

Organisations must have a search process to distinguish it from lower systems because it is impossible for the behaviour of a single, isolated individual to reach any degree of rationality.

The number of alternatives he or she must explore is so great; the information he or she would need to evaluate them is so vast, that even an approximation to objective reality is hard to conceive.

One of the greatest limitations on objectivity is the amount of organisation law identification felt by the decision maker.

The "Organisation" creates the role filled by the worker who assimilates this role and the expected behaviour.

A decision can easily be organisationally correct and contrary to the best interests of society at large.

One can carry this reasoning a step further and suggest that organisational leaders and members behave in ways that are the result of underlying psychological tensions, childhood traumas, and various other non-obvious maladies. (Kets de Vries 1991)

The Abilene Paradox

The label is coined from the story of a family who disrupts a pleasant afternoon in Texas in order to undertake a long, hot, dusty trip to eat at a restaurant in Abilene. None of them actually wanted to go but all agreed because each assumed the others wanted the trip.

This resulted in an "untidy" outcome.

The values of agreement and consensus, togetherness and teamwork may actually lead the group off its course and into unanticipated problems.

Decisions about product improvement, image and style will always be considered in organisational boardrooms.

What should not be managed?

Concern over how the decision may affect company culture if the managers start to consider "managing" beliefs and values could ratchet the style of the organisation onto a downward path towards a very "untidy" outcome.

The most powerful primary mechanisms for culture imbedding and reinforcement is what leaders pay attention to, measure and control.

The visible of culture is fairly easy to manage. The substructure at a less visible level is that of shared values.

Our organisation is very sure of our visible culture and our shared values.

Put simply, we discount unskilled states of mind.

The need for "extraordinary" performance

We do not wish to be remembered by "extraordinary" performances in the field of contrary concepts that can arise from unwise negation of otherwise reasonable things.

For example, we do not want to propagate such errors as "You could not even hear a pin drop".

In this age, there are some very unwise propositions put forward to solve social problems. For example, a suggestion that drug dealers be jailed for life in a Australian State where the most common drug is petrol sniffing can be seen as misguided thought. Some of the costs estimated for the care of brain-damaged young persons are between $5 to $33 Million.

We need to promote the precept of no intoxicants that cloud the mind with much more vigour in this Dhamma ending age.

But we also need to accept that there are "untidy" communities appearing for whom we can offer little hope at an affordable cost.

It may not be popular to label a given section of society as having little hope of leading a decent life because of things done in the past lives of those unfortunate enough to be born into that section of society.

Because our resources are limited, and we spend our own money not government grant money, we must invest wisely if we are to encourage the attainment of "Bodhisattva Parami" in this life for our Members and Friends and help usher in a new Buddhist era for the benefit of the majority of human beings living on this planet.

From this view we must drive towards our vision of helping connect ourselves to more "tidy" organisations rather than dissipate our funds by directing them towards "very untidy" organisations.

The Western economic rationalist society is characterised by phrenetic consumerism and drug addiction is merely another form of consumerism.

Were we to weaken phrenetic consumerism to mild consumerism we would also weaken the consumerism of drug addiction. Therefore, we cannot be moved by the big, messy conflicts of society that arise when a doctrine of personal irresponsibility is labelled as a "disease".

By a vigorous policy of bringing ourselves into tighter relationship with "tidy" organisations, we throw light on the path that leads out of suffering.

Because of this strength, from time to time we can put on examples of "extraordinary" debtless performance on the job.

Why extraordinary?

Structurally, power is "accumulated as a result of performance-the job related activities people engaged in" (Kanter, 1977).

But these activities must fulfil three criteria:

They must be extraordinary.

For the performance of routine jobs, doesn't give their performers an advantage. If the job is predictable, expected, then no matter how well it is carried out the person doing the job, workers low in the organisational hierarchy, custodians and so forth are replaceable by ordinary persons.

Second, visibility is crucial for an activity to enhance power, not just visibility to anyone, but visibility to those with influence of their own.

The most visible performers in organisations are boundary spanners.

The ability to participate in multiple structural configurations is a quick route to visibility, influence and power.

We must train more boundary spanners.

Third, the key to the importance of extraordinary performance and visibility as sources of power is relevance.

Activity for activity's sake is no more interesting to the organisation than lack of activity.

For activities to enhance power, they must be relevant to identifiable issues and problems.

We want to be understood as moving towards "tidier" relationships.

Three problems face any network researcher who wants to understand how to move towards "tidier" relationships with others.

These are:

* Information overload

* Sampling

* Boundary specification

The more turbulent the environment, the greater the need for boundary span. The boundary spanner as an inter cultural communicator will play a critical role in the transmission of cultural meanings from one group to another. The boundary spanner must function successfully in both worlds and as a resident of multiple, sometimes competing cultures, takes on a role of immense power and importance.

We observe organisational actors in their daily transactions perpetually bargaining, repeatedly forming and reforming coalitions and constantly availing themselves of influence tactics. Corporations, Universities and voluntary associations are areas for daily political action. (Bacharach and Lawler (1980).

The meaning of power

Power is not a component of individual makeup. Rather, power is a dimension that exists between entities that is developed over time. In short, power would be a relatively uncomplicated, straightforward concept if it were not relational.

Persons are not given Nobel Prizes for ordinary feats.

According to H. Irwin and E. Moore, the pace of change in today's world is greater than at any time in history. Political, legislative, economic, social and technological change is occurring so rapidly that the world of the 1990's is very different from that of the 1980's. The world will be different again as we enter the twenty-first century. The changes are so wide-reaching that it is now being predicted that China and India will both surpass the United States and become the world's leading economies by mid-century (Irwin, H and More, E, editors (1994) Chapter 1, "Corporate communication today", In Managing corporate communication) (1).

Our 3 Models for Organisation Development

To deal with this pace of change our Teacher has chosen three models of orientation to organisational development of communication. These are three of many other perspectives:

1. Traditional;

Traditionalists regard organisations as objects that can be studied with the concepts and methods of traditional social science. Since traditionalism has changed over the years, it is useful to distinguish between its early and most recent forms.

2. Interpretive;

The third perspective is the interpretive perspective, which regards organisations as cultures (Pacanowsky & O'Donnell-Trujillo, 1984). According to anthropologist W.A. Haviland (1993), "Culture consists of the abstract values, beliefs and perceptions that lie behind people's behaviour's". (2).

We prefer the definition of 'culture' as, "The way we do things around here".

3. The critical perspective;

At the risk of oversimplification, we might say that critical scholars are concerned simultaneously with social structure and with symbolic processes. Organisational oppression does not reside in structure alone in symbol s alone. It resides in the relationship between structure and symbols. (2). The rule system is the deep structure of the organisation. It defines power relationships. Some of the symbolic forms that we find in organisational communication function to "produce, maintain and reproduce these power structures". (Mumby) (2). This occurs through the systematic distortion of communication (Deetz, 1982) (2).

Scholars have found it difficult to create an identity for the field (2).

Is it now clear what the newest perspective of globalisation means?

Where are we in our connectedness this year?

We are 40% on the way to where we want to be in communication management of "untidy networks".

Our newest perspective of globalisation means we will strive to close the gap and move 30% closer to outside "tidy" organisations this year.

The Corporation is being re-invented along the lines suggested by Naisbitt and Aburdene (1986).

Change in corporate culture and objectives is ongoing and accelerating. Further change is likely to be extensive rather than minor and sooner rather than later. Change has been accompanied by accelerated experimentation and innovation in management practices. (2)

As we move from a managerial society to an entrepreneurial society (Drucker, 1985), there is a shift from management to leadership (Beenis & Nanus 1985).

Culture here suggests the following interrelated aspects (Cushman et al. 1988):

* Conceptual reality-specific ways of thinking and core values providing a world view and sense of belonging; and

* Phenomenal reality-culturally specific patterns of behaviour, providing a sense of direction, and revealing what is appropriate and inappropriate organisational behaviour. (3).

Conclusion

It is imperative to understand and deal with load issues to get the 30% closure we want in organisational communication this year.

If we delay this, our load will increase because we are dealing with untidy organisations too much at present. More load on our Members would have a detrimental effect on organisational climate at the individual and our system wide level.

Our websites are designed to state our position and deter "untidy" organisations from approaching us.

We believe we will close the narrow gap without undue load.

This is our version of best practice in a Dhamma ending age.

References:

1. Pepper, G.L. "Communicating in Organisations, A C

2. ultural Approach". McGraw Hill

2. Daniels, T; Piker, B and Pap, M (1997) Chapter 1, "An orientation to organisational communication". In Perspectives on organisational communication. 4th Edition)

3. Horner, I B, translator (1987) "The Middle Length Sayings (Majjhima-Nikaya)". The Pali Text Society, Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Prepared by John D. Hughes, Lisa Nelson, Julian Bamford, Santi Sukha, Evelin Halls.

This is a cgr task unit project.

Created by John D. Hughes. Created on 13 January 2001 17:22