SOFT SYSTEMS APPROACH TO HIGHER EDUCATION
ROOT DEFINITION & CATWOE MODEL
By
VIKRAM KARVE
ROOT DEFINITION
The first step in Soft Systems Methodology ( SSM ) is to formulate the Root Definition of the System you are studying, analysing or designing.
A Root Definition is a structured description of a system. It is a clear statement of activities which take place (or might take place) in the organisation being studied.
A properly structured root definition comprises three elements [what, how, why] and is of the form: A System to do X, by (means of) Y, in order to achieve Z.
X – What the System does
Y – How it does it
Z – Why it is being done
The 'what' is the immediate aim of the system,
The 'how' is the means of achieving that aim,
The 'why' is the longer term aim of the purposeful activity.
CATWOE analysis helps in proper formulation of a Root Definition. CATWOE is a mnemonic which helps identify and categorize all stakeholders [people, processes, environment, entities] of the System being analysed for formulating the Root Definition.
CATWOE MODEL
C = CUSTOMERS OR CLIENTS
A = ACTORS OR AGENTS
T = TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
W =WELTANSCHAUUNG or WORLD VIEW
O = OWNERS
E = ENVIRONMENT
To elaborate a bit:
C: The ‘customers of the system’ , clients or System Beneficiaries. In this context ‘customers’ means those who are on the receiving end of whatever it is that the system does. Is it clear from your definition of “C” as to who are the beneficiaries of the system?
A: The ‘actors’, meaning those who would actually carry out the activities envisaged in the notional system being defined. Actors transform inputs into outputs.
T: The ‘transformation process’. What does the system do to the inputs to convert them into the outputs?
W: Weltanschauung - The ‘world view’ that lies behind the Root Definition; the perspective from which the Root Definition if formulated. Putting the system into its wider context can highlight the consequences of the overall system. For example the system may be in place to assist in making the world environmentally safer, and the consequences of system failure could be significant pollution.
O: The ‘owner(s)’ – The person(s) who has commissioned the system and who has sufficient formal power over the system to stop it existing if they so wished (though they won’t usually want to do this).
E: The ‘environmental constraints’. These include things such as ethical limits, regulations, financial constraints, resource limitations, limits set by terms of reference, and so on.
EDUCATION SYSTEM CHARACTERISATION
CATWOE Analysis yields a more elaborate all encompassing Root Definition of the form:
A System owned by O to do W by A by means of T given the constraints of E in order to achieve X for C.
[A briefer version – a T system in which A do W for C]
Here is a CATWOE Model of a hypothetical Higher Education System [a University or College:
C – Students
A – Teachers
T – School Pass Outs are transformed into Graduates [Degree Holders]
W – Graduation [a Degree] is a means of assurance to potential employers that the Graduate [Degree Holder] possesses a specified standard of proficiency and skills in the domain of qualification.
O – The University or College Governing Body or Top Management
E – The Prescribed Educational, Academic Quality, Assessment and Accreditation Standards and Requirements.
Now this CATWOE Analysis may yield a Root Definition that this particular Higher Education Institution is a university owned system to award degrees to students (X) who successfully qualify assessment (Y) in accordance with prescribed standards in order to certify assurance (Z) to potential employers that the students possess the requisite proficiency, capabilities and skills.
Is this Root Definition okay or is there something amiss?
Suppose we define Potential Employers [or Industry] as CUSTOMERS [C] and include students as ACTORS [A] along with teachers – won’t we then get a more apt Root Definition and consequently realise a better Educational System in keeping with current needs and ground reality?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
At a recent alumni meet of a prestigious Engineering College I asked a few recently passed out alumni [who were working for a leading IT company for just over a year] as to how much of what was taught in his four year Engineering Degree Course in his college was useful in his work. They said: “Less than 5% (five percent)” – which means that his employer had to invest heavily [almost 95%] in his training and the rest he had to learn on the job.
Maybe the educational institution needs to introspect and have a relook at its CATWOE Model and reformulate its ROOT DEFINITION and restructure its curriculum and revitalize its pedagogic methodology to meet the challenges of current needs and envisage seamless integration of fresh BE and B. Tech. Engineering Graduates into the industry. A Systemic approach to education incorporating increased partnership and congruence between the industry and universities is the sine qua non of optimal human resource development in science and technology.
The disconnect between the industry and educational system must be bridged.
VIKRAM KARVE
http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com
vikramkarve@sify.com
Showing posts with label naac. Show all posts
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Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Time Management
TIME MANAGEMENT
by
VIKRAM KARVE
Unless time is managed properly, nothing worthwhile can be accomplished.
Time is unique resource.
It is indispensable, intangible, irreplaceable, irretrievable and therefore invaluable.
It is equitably and uniformly distributed.
The rich, the poor, the powerful and the weak, all get the same amount of time.
A day of every one consists of 24 hours only, no more and no less.
Every piece of work requires time. Difficult tasks may require ample time; after all Rome was not built in a day.
Time does not obey the laws of ordinary arithmetic.
4 minutes today and 3 minutes tomorrow do not add up to 7 minutes at a stretch.
Time without energy has not much value; for instance, if one is seriously ill the time duration of illness is practically useless.
Time is money.
Costs are related to the passage of time, such as interest on capital. Time is also a measure of effort.
Even a few minutes of time can be of critical importance.
Time lost is lost for ever and yet the easiest thing is to waste time.
We always tend to waste time and then regret that we are always short of time.
Time management is, therefore a vital aspect of management.
A Swiss gentleman summed up 65 years of his life as follows:-
(a) Spent in bed - 26 years
(b) Spent in Office/at work - 20 years
(c) Spent in eating - 6 years
(d) Spent in waiting - 6 years
(e) Spent in anger - 6 years
(f) Spent in toilet, bathing, shaving,
laughing, scolding children, blowing
nose and lighting cigar - 1 year
(g) No time apparently spent in
thinking, planning or achieving goals
Modes of Time
There are two modes of time for every person:
(a) Either you have a very “busy” mind, effectively employing human resources like working, thinking, remembering, reading, writing, watching, discussing, listening etc., in short, fully utilizing your senses. Here you are very busy and involved.
(b) Or at the other extreme, you have an “empty” mind – for example, whilst waiting for a bus or train, waiting for a doctor or friend, when you do not get sleep or listening to a boring speech or attending infructuous meetings – activities in which you are not interested or mentally involved but perforce have to be physically present.
In the first case time flies – you would say – “Oh. My God! One hour has passed. I thought just about 5 minutes have gone by.”
In the second case, imagine you are waiting for a doctor, or your friend at a Cinema Hall or awaiting a train, which is running late, at the railway station. You look right, then left, then at your watch. You curse your friend or the train for not coming on time. It seems ages. When the much-delayed person or train arrives at last, you shout “Why are you late? I am cooling my heels for hours.” Whereas actually only three or four minutes may have passed.
For a Busy Mind: Time Flies.
For a Empty Mind: Time Crawls.
Time Management
Time can be divided into three aspects for applying techniques of managing it:-
(a) Biological: Pertaining to bodily functions.
(b) Social: Pertaining to self, family and society.
(c) Professional: Pertaining to professional activities/time spent at work.
It is essential to maintain equilibrium between these three aspects. Any imbalance may prove to be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health and can adversely affect the individual in the long run.
It is essential, therefore, to allocate one’s time in balanced manner to the extent feasible to all these three aspects.
(a) Biological Time : Adopt the golden mean of moderation among:-
(i) Sleep
(ii) Food
(iii) Ablutions / Calls of nature
(iv) Sex / Recreation
(v) Physical Exercise
It is advantageous to establish regularity for all the above activities.
(b) Social Time : It is desirable to give time to yourself, your family and for society and the general guide lines are :
(i) Self development/self time – at least one hour per day should be kept for oneself for thinking, introspection, reading and other hobbies.
(ii) Family time – strong family ties and a happy domestic life are the foundations of success in both personal and professional life. One must spend some time with one’s family everyday and to co-ordinate activities of family members. Dinner time and after is suitable for this.
iii) Societal time – in order to live in society, one has to attend various social events like weddings, religious functions etc., where one is not the master of one’s own time. Social obligations may entail a substantial portion of time.
(c) Professional Time : In this aspect, if one is working, one does not really have a choice as working hours are generally fixed. The aim here is to optimally utilize the available time for maximum output/productivity and self satisfaction. It is, therefore, essential to plan one’s work and that of the subordinates in an efficient manner and also identify “Time Wasters” and make efforts to eliminate/reduce them.
Examples of Time Wasters are –
(i) Infructuous meetings.
(ii) Poor communication [including unnecessary mobile phone calls].
(iii) Unwanted visitors
(iv) Disorganized work due to lack of clear cut priorities, “Fire Fighting”/Crisis Management, duplication of effort, confused responsibility and authority, ineffective delegation, indecision and, in general, failure of Management of Work.
The basic cause of time wastage at work can be classified as follows:-
(a) Over-staffing is common cause of wastage of time. Since most of the people do not have clearly defined work for the whole day, they often obstruct each other and create unnecessary problems. According to Peter Drucker – “If a Manager or Supervisor is spending more than 1/10th of his time on human relations, on disputes and quarrels, it is clear indication of over-staffing”.
(b) Time is wasted on account of faulty organization of work. Work is not planned sufficiently in advance.
(c) There is enormous wastage of time and effort due to various meetings often at various locations, which are not properly directed and drag on interminably.
(d) Time is often wasted because the relevant information is not readily available or the information available is inaccurate. Similarly collection, storage and dissemination of unnecessary information is wasteful.
Though one has to evolve one’s own technique of time management depending on the circumstances, the three cardinal principles are –
(a) Span of Attention
(b) Provision of time in adequate chunks.
(c) Concentration.
(a) Span of Attention : There is a natural limit to how long one can concentrate on a particular activity or task. This is called span of attention. For example – One cannot obviously work continuously for a long duration without loosing effectiveness. Working beyond one’s span of attention becomes counter-productive. Work begins to suffer badly. In planning work, this requirement must always be kept in view.
(b) Provisions of time in adequate chunks : If any important work is to be done, time must be made available in sufficiently large chunks. For example – If a job takes 20 minutes, it is of no use to allocate time at the rate of 5 minutes a day for 4 days. Time used in such driblets is utterly wasted. For important work one requires sufficient time at a stretch.
(c) Concentration: Concentration is essential for effective utilization of time. This as a matter of practice is necessary to avoid all interruptions. It is also necessary to focus attention on one task at a time.
Conclusion
Time Management is essentially a matter of self-discipline, though it is affected by external factors.
Your aim should be to identify and minimize both internal and external Time Wasters to the extent feasible.
One has to cultivate the art of enjoying both essential work and leisure.
It is essential to maintain equilibrium between biological, social and professional time for improving one’s effectiveness.
In short: Time T = X + Y + Z,
where X = hard work; Y = play or rest; Z = keeping one’s mouth shut i.e. “Silence” for “Introspection”.
VIKRAM KARVE
http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
http://www.ryze.com/go/karve
vikramkarve@sify.com
Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
by
VIKRAM KARVE
Unless time is managed properly, nothing worthwhile can be accomplished.
Time is unique resource.
It is indispensable, intangible, irreplaceable, irretrievable and therefore invaluable.
It is equitably and uniformly distributed.
The rich, the poor, the powerful and the weak, all get the same amount of time.
A day of every one consists of 24 hours only, no more and no less.
Every piece of work requires time. Difficult tasks may require ample time; after all Rome was not built in a day.
Time does not obey the laws of ordinary arithmetic.
4 minutes today and 3 minutes tomorrow do not add up to 7 minutes at a stretch.
Time without energy has not much value; for instance, if one is seriously ill the time duration of illness is practically useless.
Time is money.
Costs are related to the passage of time, such as interest on capital. Time is also a measure of effort.
Even a few minutes of time can be of critical importance.
Time lost is lost for ever and yet the easiest thing is to waste time.
We always tend to waste time and then regret that we are always short of time.
Time management is, therefore a vital aspect of management.
A Swiss gentleman summed up 65 years of his life as follows:-
(a) Spent in bed - 26 years
(b) Spent in Office/at work - 20 years
(c) Spent in eating - 6 years
(d) Spent in waiting - 6 years
(e) Spent in anger - 6 years
(f) Spent in toilet, bathing, shaving,
laughing, scolding children, blowing
nose and lighting cigar - 1 year
(g) No time apparently spent in
thinking, planning or achieving goals
Modes of Time
There are two modes of time for every person:
(a) Either you have a very “busy” mind, effectively employing human resources like working, thinking, remembering, reading, writing, watching, discussing, listening etc., in short, fully utilizing your senses. Here you are very busy and involved.
(b) Or at the other extreme, you have an “empty” mind – for example, whilst waiting for a bus or train, waiting for a doctor or friend, when you do not get sleep or listening to a boring speech or attending infructuous meetings – activities in which you are not interested or mentally involved but perforce have to be physically present.
In the first case time flies – you would say – “Oh. My God! One hour has passed. I thought just about 5 minutes have gone by.”
In the second case, imagine you are waiting for a doctor, or your friend at a Cinema Hall or awaiting a train, which is running late, at the railway station. You look right, then left, then at your watch. You curse your friend or the train for not coming on time. It seems ages. When the much-delayed person or train arrives at last, you shout “Why are you late? I am cooling my heels for hours.” Whereas actually only three or four minutes may have passed.
For a Busy Mind: Time Flies.
For a Empty Mind: Time Crawls.
Time Management
Time can be divided into three aspects for applying techniques of managing it:-
(a) Biological: Pertaining to bodily functions.
(b) Social: Pertaining to self, family and society.
(c) Professional: Pertaining to professional activities/time spent at work.
It is essential to maintain equilibrium between these three aspects. Any imbalance may prove to be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health and can adversely affect the individual in the long run.
It is essential, therefore, to allocate one’s time in balanced manner to the extent feasible to all these three aspects.
(a) Biological Time : Adopt the golden mean of moderation among:-
(i) Sleep
(ii) Food
(iii) Ablutions / Calls of nature
(iv) Sex / Recreation
(v) Physical Exercise
It is advantageous to establish regularity for all the above activities.
(b) Social Time : It is desirable to give time to yourself, your family and for society and the general guide lines are :
(i) Self development/self time – at least one hour per day should be kept for oneself for thinking, introspection, reading and other hobbies.
(ii) Family time – strong family ties and a happy domestic life are the foundations of success in both personal and professional life. One must spend some time with one’s family everyday and to co-ordinate activities of family members. Dinner time and after is suitable for this.
iii) Societal time – in order to live in society, one has to attend various social events like weddings, religious functions etc., where one is not the master of one’s own time. Social obligations may entail a substantial portion of time.
(c) Professional Time : In this aspect, if one is working, one does not really have a choice as working hours are generally fixed. The aim here is to optimally utilize the available time for maximum output/productivity and self satisfaction. It is, therefore, essential to plan one’s work and that of the subordinates in an efficient manner and also identify “Time Wasters” and make efforts to eliminate/reduce them.
Examples of Time Wasters are –
(i) Infructuous meetings.
(ii) Poor communication [including unnecessary mobile phone calls].
(iii) Unwanted visitors
(iv) Disorganized work due to lack of clear cut priorities, “Fire Fighting”/Crisis Management, duplication of effort, confused responsibility and authority, ineffective delegation, indecision and, in general, failure of Management of Work.
The basic cause of time wastage at work can be classified as follows:-
(a) Over-staffing is common cause of wastage of time. Since most of the people do not have clearly defined work for the whole day, they often obstruct each other and create unnecessary problems. According to Peter Drucker – “If a Manager or Supervisor is spending more than 1/10th of his time on human relations, on disputes and quarrels, it is clear indication of over-staffing”.
(b) Time is wasted on account of faulty organization of work. Work is not planned sufficiently in advance.
(c) There is enormous wastage of time and effort due to various meetings often at various locations, which are not properly directed and drag on interminably.
(d) Time is often wasted because the relevant information is not readily available or the information available is inaccurate. Similarly collection, storage and dissemination of unnecessary information is wasteful.
Though one has to evolve one’s own technique of time management depending on the circumstances, the three cardinal principles are –
(a) Span of Attention
(b) Provision of time in adequate chunks.
(c) Concentration.
(a) Span of Attention : There is a natural limit to how long one can concentrate on a particular activity or task. This is called span of attention. For example – One cannot obviously work continuously for a long duration without loosing effectiveness. Working beyond one’s span of attention becomes counter-productive. Work begins to suffer badly. In planning work, this requirement must always be kept in view.
(b) Provisions of time in adequate chunks : If any important work is to be done, time must be made available in sufficiently large chunks. For example – If a job takes 20 minutes, it is of no use to allocate time at the rate of 5 minutes a day for 4 days. Time used in such driblets is utterly wasted. For important work one requires sufficient time at a stretch.
(c) Concentration: Concentration is essential for effective utilization of time. This as a matter of practice is necessary to avoid all interruptions. It is also necessary to focus attention on one task at a time.
Conclusion
Time Management is essentially a matter of self-discipline, though it is affected by external factors.
Your aim should be to identify and minimize both internal and external Time Wasters to the extent feasible.
One has to cultivate the art of enjoying both essential work and leisure.
It is essential to maintain equilibrium between biological, social and professional time for improving one’s effectiveness.
In short: Time T = X + Y + Z,
where X = hard work; Y = play or rest; Z = keeping one’s mouth shut i.e. “Silence” for “Introspection”.
VIKRAM KARVE
http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
http://www.ryze.com/go/karve
vikramkarve@sify.com
Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
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