René Van Someren

Fundamental aspects of organisational processes

What are the fundamental aspects of an organisation's functioning, or of organisational processes? How can those aspects be measured and how can useful information be derived from those measurements?

Posted December 15th, 2014

Adapted from: Someren, R., 2014, Aptitude and Attitude as Constraints and Enablers of Organisation Development: An Elementary Model of Organisational Processes, ISBN: 978-90-79641-08-6 / EAN: 9789079641086, Van Someren

Related article: The Elementary Model of Organisational Processes (EMOP): The essentials of all organisations, and how they mutually correlate.

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What are the fundamental aspects of an organisation's functioning, or of organisational processes? How can those aspects be measured and how can useful information be derived from those measurements? These are the main doctoral research questions that René Van Someren addressed in his recently published doctoral dissertation titled: Aptitude and Attitude as Constraints and Enablers of Organisation Development: An Elementary Model of Organisational Processes".

One of the things this dissertation shows us, is that Leadership never links directly to an organisation’s results. By definition, within organisational processes, leaders must incite others to achieve desired results. However, organisation members’ behaviour is guided and influenced by more than leadership alone. Central to this dissertation are the elementary aspects of organisational processes.

Part of Van Someren's research consisted of examining what influences organisation members’ behaviour, how this takes place and how organisational results come about. These aspects are brought together in an Elementary Model of Organisational Processes (EMOP), which also illustrates how those aspects tend to relate to one another. A method is developed to quantify those elements and to measure them within organisations. Furthermore, examination has taken place into practical application of such measurements on behalf of leading and developing organisations.

Next to the elementary aspects of organisational processes, behaviour of organisation members is affected strongly by their aptitudes and by their attitudes with regard to certain aspects. As such, those aptitudes and attitudes both enable and constrain organisation development. To achieve optimal leadership effectiveness, organisation development and organisation effectiveness, organisation members’ aptitudes must be relevant within an ensemble of available and suitable procedures and tools, and this unity must be directed towards reaching commensurable goals.