A Comparison of SSM with an Organisational Learning Model..pdf

89 A Comparison of SSM with an Organisational Learning Model. A W Barnden and P Darke School of Information Management Systems, Monash University, Australia E-mail: andrew.barnden@sims.monash.edu.au peta.darke@sims.monash.edu.au ABSTRACT: Checkland has said that the process of doing Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) provides the means by which an organisation can define itself through learning what it is which characterises the organisation. (Checkland and Scholes, 1990, 311-312) If the process of doing SSM is a learning system then in SSM an organisation has a means of instituting organisational learning. Respected authors (specifically Argyris and Sch?n) in the domains of management and organisational psychology have written on the topic of the Learning Organisation and provided definitions or indicators for such. These include Theory-of-Action, Organisational Ecology and Action Learning Perspective. In order to determine if SSM conforms as a valid means for organisational learning from the perspective of management and psychology, the process of doing SSM is compared with the indicators proposed by Argyris and Sch?n. The framework for analysing SSM developed by Barnden, Smith and Watson, (1995) is used to structure the comparison. The framework is a capability maturity model for the SSM process. Keywords: SSM, organisational learning, theory-of-action, systems thinking, methodology. INTRODUCTION Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is described by Checkland and Scholes as a learning system (1990, 277) because it is a self-reflective cycle of purposeful action leading to experiences that inform peoples knowledge of the domain in which they have taken action (1990, 3-4). Their 1990 text documents cases in which SSM has been applied in studies within organisations where those organisations have ultimately made changes to their structures and processes on the basis of the study results (1990, 59-79, 205-234). The reader of these cases would certainly conclude