PT3 Form

Arab Open University

Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)
Academic Year
2014
2015
Branch: KSA
Course Title: Managing Complexity II
Student Name: Maryam Kamran Ahmed

Semester: Second
Program: Business Studies - System Track
Course Code: T306B

Section Number: 6101

Tutor Name: Mrs. Syeda Fahmeedunnisa

Student ID: 601009215

Total Mark:

Awarded Mark:
Mark details

Allocated Marks

Allocated Marks

Question
s
Weight
Marks
Criteri
a

Q1

Q2

Q3

60
50

20
17

20
18

Presentat
ion -4

Marks
100

Referenc
ing -5

Total
85
Word
Count -3

2
Students Total Mark

ELibrary
-3

Total
-15
2
83

Notes on plagiarism:
A. According to the Arab Open University By-laws, the following acts represent cases of cheating and
Plagiarism:
Verbatim copying of printed material and submitting them as part of TMAs without proper
academic acknowledgement and documentation.
Verbatim copying of material from the Internet, including tables and graphics.
Copying other students notes or reports.
Using paid or unpaid material prepared for the student by individuals or firms.
B. Penalties for plagiarism ranges from failure in the TMA to expulsion from the university.
Declaration: I hereby declare that the submitted TMA is my own work and I have not copied any other persons
work or plagiarized in any other form as specified above.
Student Signature

Maryam Kamran Ahmed

Tutors Feedback

Dear Maryam. Your performance is good. Your answers have encouraging features. You should
have paid attention to diagrams. Please see the notes below for more detailed comments. All the
Best.

Maryam Kamran Ahmed- 601009215

Tutor Name: SYEEDA

FAHMEEDUNNISA

Employee Turnover in
Saudi Arabia

Tutor Signature:Syeeda
Fahmeedunnisa

Date returned: 14/05/2015

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1. Acknowledgement:
I would like to pay my utmost thanks to the Almighty Allah first
and then to the teachers and friends who helped me during my
four years of study at Arab Open University in Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, Dammam Branch. During this period, I met a lot of
amazing people who influenced me to develop skills and
knowledge optimistically in many aspects. I am grateful to Arab
Open University which gave me an opportunity to achieve my
goal of obtaining a Bachelors in Business Studies. A special
thanks to my tutor Mrs. Syeda Fahmeedunnisa for her support and
guidance for T306B course and she did not hesitate to provide
any assistance required while formulating this project.
2. Abstract:
The main objective of this project is to discuss about the factors
that contribute to the Employee Turnover in Saudi Arabia over
the past years and propose viable solutions which can help
reduce the consequences faced by the turnover and improve the
situation. Applying the concepts from T306B course, I am going to
use the Soft System Methodology to tackle as the situation is a
mess. This project report is going to consist of three parts:
1) Tutor Report: In which the situation will be expressed by the
systems practitioner through applying BECM and also by using
diagrams and the Soft System methodology.
2) Client Report: In which I will comprehend the problem situation
to the client in non-systems manner to make them understand
the messy situation.
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3) Project Log: This is the last part which contains two subsections, weekly logs and the overall summary, of the process
time for preparing this project.

Ethicality Statement:
An ethical statement consists of the values, objectives and ethics
that a systems practitioner must aspire in their work. While
applying the BECM, a systems practitioner in ball B should be
aware and should be ethical and must take into consideration the
overall problem rather than in parts. In my ethical statement I
have taken into consideration certain crucial factors such as:
Respecting the perspectives of the other stakeholders which
are crucial in understanding the situation even better.
Accessed only trusted online information sources.
Views are not partial or biased about the turnover of the
employees, instead it is an overall view taken using the
reductionist approach.
My project will help give improvements and resolutions to
the people who face such problem situation.
It is confidential and is not shared with anyone who is not
part of the research.

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Introduction:
Saudi Arabia has been one of the major oil exporters in the world,
attracting millions of overseas labors to work on their land. In the
past years, Saudi Arabia has been dominated by the foreign
labors which resulted in many socio-economic problems faced by
the country because of relying on the expatriate labor force while
the citizens are still unemployed.
The private sectors have suffered from the Saudi and the nonSaudi turnover and are forced to implement the Saudization
program (which now has been replaced by the Nitaqat program)
which had unidentified targets aimed at imposing 30% of Saudi
nationals into the private sectors irrespective of their size and
activities. Nitaqat program, therefore, is a program which will take
into consideration the activity and the size of the entities over a
13 weeks period with Saudi nationals employed in accordance
and then dividing the entity into four bands: 1) Excellent, 2)
Green, 3) Yellow, and 4) Red.
There are many reasons for the high turnover faced by the Saudi
nationals as well as the expatriates such as technological
advancements. The main reason for the private sectors to recruit
the non-Saudi labor is that they cost cheaper than the Saudi
nationals, and as the entities in the private sector are undergoing
the development stage they need to grow and make profit while
still keeping their expenses low at first. Comparatively private
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sectors tend to pay less than the public sectors. The main
difficulty faced by the private entities is that it is impossible to
retain the Saudi employee as soon as they get trained. And due to
the unemployment among the nationals, Saudization has been
imposed on the private sectors.

Tutor Report:
There is a major need to address these issues of turnover in Saudi
Arabia for the sustainable development of the country.
Sustainable development is mainly concerned with the social,
economic, physical and environment aspects keeping present as
well as future in mind.
An aware systems practitioner analyzes and understands the
situation using the tools, concepts and methods to find the
solution to the problem situation. Since the situation is messy,
Soft System Methodology will be applied. According to the
author Nandish V. Patel (1995),
The methodology is simple to use, requiring no elaborate
tools except pen and paper, and yet it is quite
comprehensive and incisive in its ability to identify
problem areas (for instance, lack of information flows)
and to generate recommendations for improving the
expressed problem area.[1]
SSM is used with BECM approach and systems map, spray
diagram, sign-graph, influence diagram and control model to
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illustrate, understand and analyze the messy situation in order to

find the most effective solution.
Applying BECM Approach:
BECM is the abbreviation for Being, Engaging, Contextualizing and
Managing characteristics which are to be juggled together by an
aware practitioner to be able to analyze the situation effectively.
BECM concept is used in assessing the weaknesses surrounded by
the system providing the ultimate ethical assistance needed to
make problem solution which is the main goal of this project.

The first ball Being focuses on summarizing the entire situation

which is going to be solved by the system practitioner. An aware
systems practitioner it is important to recognize the possibilities
and the constraints that an environment can possess. Thus, in this
case, the situation is messy and it is not clearly visible what the
problem situation is. So, therefore, in order to improve the
impacts of employee turnover (problem situation) this is a
consequence due to number of reasons. The main reason for
employee turnover among the expatriates and Saudi nationals is
the Saudization which is imposed by the Government on every
private firm in order to employ Saudi nationals so they could stop
the unemployment among its domestic people. The problem
situation faced was that due do Saudi Arabia being dominant by
the expatriate workers it was difficult for the small businesses to
cope up with the law as it demanded cost to be incurred to fall in
the category to continue their work in smooth and legal manner.
Localization in the private sectors was also necessary for the
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economic growth and initiating the local people to take up jobs

instead of sitting idle.

A Spray diagram is made to illustrate a situation into more

precise and reflective manner:

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System Map:

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The second ball Engaging is concerned with how a system

practitioner engages in the real world situation to look into the
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complexity faced. As a systems practitioner, it is important to

explore the situation as to find whether the situation is a mess or
a difficulty. As this case is a messy situation, it encourages looking
at perspectives of different stakeholders to help look at the
situation carefully. A concept from T306 course, the systems
practitioner is encouraged to have a system of inquiry in order to
immerse in the situation. As the situation is a mess, the problem
situation is too ambiguous and not clearly defined because of
which Soft System is implemented to help improve the problem
situation.

Influence Diagram
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Multiple-cause Diagram:
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Closed-loop control model Diagram:

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The third ball Contextualizing is where the method is used on the

situation to propose viable solutions. In this case, Soft System
Methodology is used on the messy situation to find improvements
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for the problem situation. Soft System Methodology deals with the
human emotions and different perspectives and consists of seven
stages which are applied and comprehended below:
Stage 1: Problem situation unstructured:
The first stage is important as to explore the problem situation
and finding diverse perspectives of the other stakeholders to find
improvements for the problem situation
Wali Rahman and Zekeriya Nas (2013) suggested in their
article that:
There are two widely acknowledged perspectives on
turnover intentions. They are the human capital theory
and social exchange theory. Understanding these
perspectives are considered powerful tools for
understanding workplace behavior (Malik et al., 2011).
The former rests on the assumption that education is
highly critical and instrumental in improving the
production capacity of a population.[2]
Saudi Arabia is a land which was previously said to be dominated
by foreign labor that are considered to have skills and experience,
flexible with the working hours and can be hired on low wages. As
per the Saudization and Nitaqat program most of the private
sector companies were obliged to hire a certain number of Saudi
nationals to create job opportunities for the nationals which lead
to the employee turnover for expatriates who had to lose their job
as it was necessary for the Saudi nationals to be hired. As a
consequence, it increased costs for the developing smaller firms
to shut down as they couldnt achieve the rules imposed by the
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Government. The basic reason why Saudization was a partial

success was the difficulty in employing the number of nationals
that were expected by the Government. Public Sectors already
have Saudi employees hired as they only hire Saudis who can
speak Arabic and are trained by Government. Another reason for
the employee turnover is the technological advancements that
are replacing the human aspect. It is considered that is one time
cost which is incurred in the technology which can help the
organization to save time, effort and cost of hiring and retaining
employees.
The drawbacks of this turnover due to Saudization can have
negative impacts on the economy as they remain de-motivated to
work hard and achieve their position as an individual. They are
given the advantage by their Government to be hired in the public
and private sectors without any criteria based on their skills,
experience or working hours. No education background is needed
for them to be hired as the law imposes every organization to hire
Saudi nationals. Because of this law it is experienced that the
Saudi nationals are asking for higher wages as they have the
choice to work for whom ever pays them the most as every small
business is required the number of Saudis it must possess. This
can lead to decrease in the economic growth in the socioeconomical aspects. According to this problem situation it is
necessary to improve the situation to make awareness in the
people for improving the economy of the country.

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Stage 2: Rich picture, issues and primary tasks.

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Stage 3: Root definition of relevant systems:

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This stage it is necessary to come up with relevant systems to

help deal with the problem situation by reducing different reasons
that are causing the problem such as the technological, social,
economic and cultural aspects. All the stakeholders are
encouraged to give their perspectives on the situations that are
the root causes of the problem situation and it is also encouraged
that they try to work hard in order to achieve best changes for the
current situation.
The relevant system that could be implemented is the system
which will help the Government to implement the Saudization or
Nitaqat Program much effectively by keeping the turnover factor
in attention and also by spreading awareness among the
economy on how important it is to work. The root definition
involves considering the factors that will work towards increasing
the job opportunities with a decrease in the socio-political and
economic instabilities.
The relevant systems are chosen on the basis of how much they
can improve the problem situation. The relevant system is
developed from a root definition which includes relevant CATWOE
elements. The CATWOE is a mnemonic which is identified by
people, processes and environment that are connected to the
situation, issues and its problems that we need to evaluate.

CATWOE checklist below is used to check if all the

stakeholders agree with the relevant system:

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Customers

These stakeholders are directly affected by the

employee turnover. For instance, foreigners or
expatriates who are the existing employees,
Saudi nationals or the future generations.

Actors

These are the actors who can take decisions

and act upon them and can also change the
inputs into outputs. Such as entrepreneurs,
Government etc.

Transformation

This deals with the system process which

changes the input to outputs which in this case
can be the good law and order, strict rules and
regulations imposed by the Government that
can help improve the situation.

World view

The situation is considered in a holistic way,

like such as providing trainings and education
to the future generations so that no law is
imposed for them to be hired.

Owner

This can be the Government who is the official

authority to implement changes on the case of
employee turnover.

Environmental
Constraints

The reputation of the Saudi nationals is that

they have to be imposed to work, less skills
and education background is not appropriate.

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Stage 4: Conceptual Model for improving problem

situation for the case Employee turnover:

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Stage 5: Comparison of real-world situation with

conceptual map:
Conceptual
model

1)
Determining
the root
causes of
employee
turnover
caused by
the
Saudization
2) Improving
laws and
regulations

3) Seeking
for the
resources
required

Present in
the real
world
situation
Yes,
Government
authorities are
already
working on
improving the
systems.

Comment

Agenda

The ministry of
labor is already
working on
improving

No

Yes

Government
must
encourage the
technical skills
required for
jobs.

Yes

No, limited
resources are
there in the
private sectors

It is hard for
private firms to
provide high
wages to the
nationals,

Yes

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which is a
requirement
causing them
to shut down.
4)
Encouraging
the small
businesses to
take Saudi
nationals

Yes

Small
businesses
play a key role
in creating job
opportunities
rather than the
bigger firms.

Yes

5) Improving
the
situations for
the
prosperity

Yes, it is
partially
successful but
needs
improvements

Awareness of
education and
trainings must
be given to the
nationals so
that there is no
need for
imposing small
businesses to
hire them.

Yes

6) Motivating
the Saudi
nationals to
work hard

No, it is not
there in the
current
situation but
needs to be

It is important
to motivate the
current people
to help future
generations to

Yes

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follow the
footsteps for
prospering the
country.

Managing is the last ball of the BECM approach it deals with the
overall performance. It helps in managing the complex situation
looking at it in a holistic manner with respecting the perspectives
of the other stakeholders who are involved in the situation and
who will be a part in proposing viable solutions. There are three
choices to manage the engagement with the stakeholders; 1)
decide for other stakeholders, 2) decide with other stakeholders,
and 3) enable stakeholders to decide. According to Thomas N.
Garavan (1995), he stated in his article that:

Stakeholders may also be HRD activity claimants in that

they depend on the function for the realization of some or
all of their goals. The activity in turn depends on its key
stakeholders for the full realization of its mission. Because
of this mutual dependency each stakeholder is in effect an
advocate that furthers the goals of the HRD function. [3]
Stage 6: Debating with the stakeholders:
After discussing the root causes and getting an idea of
improvements that have to be made in the current problem
situation in order to make decisions it is necessary to make
agreements with the other stakeholders who are involved in the
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situation to make improvemennts. The different perspectives are

respected so that the most viable solutions can be found.
Here we will be using the choice enabling stakeholders to decide
by enlightening them with the agenda that will help in improving
the situation and let the stakeholders decide on their decision. It
is the duty of the Government of Saudi Arabia to make it
improvements in its law and order to cope up with the
complexities that arise. Saudization had a marginal success on
employing the nationals but it is required of the Government to
look into areas where it can incorporate the awareness among the
Saudi nationals for the need to work hard and achieve their own
identity. Saudization law imposed by the Government has lead to
shutdown of many private firms that cannot cope up with the
costs that it requires to hire the Saudi nationals as they require
good salaries with benefits and with not much work load.
Localization in the private sectors has lead to expatriates turnover
as to adjust the companies with not increasing its cost.
Consequently, this has lead to companies lose its effective
position in the market as the Saudi labor forces are not required
to have any skills or education background but are imposed in the
organizations to fulfill the quota of Saudi employees. This can lead
to de-motivation to work hard and build an individual identity in
the business world, gain education and polished skills as the
Saudi people are already being recruited without any of the above
mentioned criteria. The future generations will follow the
footsteps of their adults and will do the same. For the purpose of
sustainable development it is necessary for the people of any
country to work towards achieving it by themselves instead of
having it on the plate.
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These small private firms are much more important for the
economic growth than the bigger firms as they produce more
jobs. These small firms allow innovation to the business
entrepreneurs. Motivating and training the people on-the-job and
off-the job can help in improving the skills and people must be
encouraged to study, be productive and also encouraged to find
the area in which they have their interest and work for it with
passion to achieve it.
Stage 7: Action to improve the problem/situation:
At this stage, the root cause of the problem is found with the
conceptual map being made it is now recommended that the
discussion is transformed into action plan to improve the current
situation or eliminate the factors causing it. These following
changes will then lead to a decrease in employee turnover and
increased awareness among the other different sectors and
people.
Conclusion:
According to Alexandre Ardichvili (2012), he suggested in his
article that:
The first possible objection is that even in organizations
that are mindful of sustainability issues in their strategic
choices and business operations, HRD practitioners are
usually not hired to advance the sustainability agenda;
instead, they are asked to focus on immediate goals of
performance improvement. I agree that this is a realistic
assessment of the current situation in the majority of
business organizations.[4]
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As the situation is messy, there is no clear or definite solution.

However, measures can be taken to reduce the effect of problem
situation and failures experienced. Educated people must try to
spread awareness among the other people and try to make a
change so that they are not given the laws that can question their
abilities. On-the-job and off-the-job trainings must be encouraged
to motivate the employees towards understanding the need to
achieve something with hard work rather than just getting it
without any effort as to become role models and individuals with
identity for their future generations to learn from. Lastly, it is
encouraged to keep in mind the sustainable development which
can be done so by bringing the physical, ecological,
environmental and social factors together with future in mind to
prosper as a whole.
The other tools for maintaining the position of businesses are
SWOT analysis, The TOWS matrix, Porters Five Forces analysis,
PEST analysis, critical success factors and Log Frame. Log frame
can be used to shape up the plans, suggest designs and then
implement to check what will be the results. This framework is
also known as Log Frame. This framework helps in comparing
two methods and often results in common understanding, better
decision making between the managers, decision makers and
other stakeholders.

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Client Report:
To the Ministry of Labor,
I am a student of Arab Open University KSA branch, majoring in
Systems Practice, while doing my final year project on
Saudization: A root cause of foreign employee turnover, I have
come across many issues that need to be addressed to improve
the current situation. As you know that at present Saudi Arabia is
facing issues regarding employing its local people within the
private and the public sectors. The Saudization program which
has been implemented by the Government has only been partially
successful as it caused the turnover of expatriates who were
dominant in the jobs aspect of Saudi Arabia. The main issues that
the Kingdom can face are the shutting down of the businesses
due to ineffective and unskilled labor. This can cause the
suppliers or businessmen from the other countries to lose interest
in Saudi Arabia because of its strict laws and order and the
volatility of job due to Saudization in private sectors which is very
hard to keep up with. The main purpose of Saudization was to
give jobs to the locals but it has to be dwelled in gradually as the
private sectors can have negative impact of it. The lack of English
language among the locals and the fact that they are less inclined
towards manual work and cannot be fired or replaced is the main
challenge faced by the Kingdom.
I have come up with a few recommendations on improving the
current situation of chaos among the labor sectors for the
prosperity of the country being the sole purpose. The people must
be encouraged to be fluent with the English and have some
education background related to the job they will be hired for.
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Saudization is being cruel to Saudis in a way that it doesnt

provoke the willingness of work among them and they are not
encouraged to prove themselves as individuals instead they are
being imposed on being hired. Saudization overlooks the
credentials and qualifications that are necessary for a job and
only requirement is the Saudi nationality to get a job which is not
making the people determined towards hard work instead it is
making them discriminating the other foreign nationals. Lack of
interest in achieving success and not motivated towards putting
efforts because they will get it in the end because they are
Saudis will only encourage the thought of remaining uneducated
and inexperienced.
To summarize the situation, as being a systems practice student
and a systems practitioner, I suggest that apart from seeing the
situation in a systemic way the situation must be reviewed in a
systematic way also to widen the knowledge about the problem
situation that lies in the parts instead of considering the whole
system. The Ministry of Labor should consider the flaws that
already exist in the system by improving its relationship with the
stakeholders involved in the situation. The perspectives of
individuals must be respected and taken into account to widen
the knowledge about the potential solutions available.
(499 words)
Best Regards,
Maryam Kamran

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Project Log:
It took me 5 weeks to complete my project along with all the
research work and diagrams. Below is the summary of tasks I
completed each week:
Week 1:
In the first week, I did a lot of research on what current situations
are in the business world in Saudi Arabia. In relevance to the
current situations, I choose my topic and collected some basic
information about it and wrote an email to my supervisor to get
her acceptance on the topic by explaining all the data I collected
with how I will be dealing with the complexity. Luckily, my topic
got accepted and was advised to discuss about it in accordance
with the business rather than social issues only. Later, I did a
thorough research on the topic to collect vast information about it
to write in my report and get aware of the consequences. Often I
changed my mind about the topic as I questioned its relevance
with the business world. But the supervisor encouraged us to be
patient and deal with the topic she has approved. I did my
research and searched almost every website that had the
material about employee turnover in Saudi Arabia and started
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writing my report. And after all this I wrote my Weekly log for the
first week.
(187 words)
Week 2:
I started with revising my systems knowledge I gained from T205
course and T306 course. In this week, I started writing and
designing the cover page for my report. I wrote my abstract,
acknowledgment and ethicality statement which was the
reflection of my ethics which I was supposed to follow in my
project. Now I was ready to start with the Tutor report giving an
introduction about the case I was going to improve the situation
for with a brief discussion on BECM. After discussing about the
BECM, I had to decide what is my problem situation and how am I
going to solve it. According to the case, in my opinion I chose Soft
System Methodology to solve the case because the situation was
messy and was too ambiguous to clearly define what the cause
was for it, solution could not be found but changes can be made
to improve the current situation. I started with the SSM stages out
of 7; I did first 2 stages in this week. After this I updated my
weekly log in order to capture my weekly progress.
(185 words)
Week 3:
In this week, I did a preview of the stages I did in the previous
week and tried to complete the first 4 stages of SSM and also
discussed the CATWOE for root definition. I started making the
conceptual map and wrote the details about the conceptual
model and found some e-library resources to add in my project
and did referencing for it. Also I tried to make the comparison of
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conceptual map with the real world situation. And as I was

supposed to be studying for my Midterms, I had to stop and
concentrate on my midterms but tried to update my Weekly logs
so that I dont lose track of this project.
(117 words)
Week 4:
As I stated in my previous week log that I completed the 4 stages
of the Soft System Methodology, one of my midterm got due
because of the sandstorm but I had to study for the other
midterms so I had to take a gap to continue my project. I tried to
start constructing my diagrams. I made Spray diagram, Systems
map, Influence diagram, Control model, and multiple cause
diagrams of the situation that I chose. Diagrams helped me
understand the situations more accurately as this is the reason
why we were encouraged to make the diagrams for this course by
our supervisors. The diagrams will help anybody who looks at the
project in a way to gain benefit and will make their knowledge to
increase about the case even more.
(131 words)
Week 5:
In this week, I was supposed to review my work that I have done
so that I can rectify if there is any mistake or any issue that I have
missed in my discussion. I continued writing my Client report
which was basically about addressing the issue to the authority
who can make these improvements in the real situation while
keeping in mind the stakeholders that were involved including me
(systems practitioner in this case). I tried to complete this project
log which will give my supervisor the idea about how I did this
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project with the research work and diagrams. After this I wrote the
overall summary and completed the referencing and organized
my project on Word so that I can review it for one last time before
submitting it on the LMS.
(134 words)
Overall Summary:
This overall summary is going to tell how this course T306 has
helped me in grooming my knowledge about how real-world
situations can be assessed and how can they be improved and
solved if any problem arises. This course has helped me shape my
knowledge in a way that how the tangible and intangible aspects
of the real-world situations faced by organizations can be
problematic. T306 course has helped me look at the real-world
situations as a complexity which is a systems approach. It has
helped me in refining my systemic thinking rather than the
systematic thinking that we have been taught throughout our life
to solve any problem that may occur. This course has helped me
in learning different techniques through which you can tackle
situation. This course also helps you in getting familiar with how a
human can solve problems and manage complexities which are
essential in the business management. It has given me the
chance to act as a system practitioner and provided with the
opportunities to implement the concepts, methods, techniques,
strategies, and tools to improve and rectify any situation from the
real world. This course helps the systems practitioner to solve any
case at the right time in a right manner by using different
diagrams, methodologies, methods, ideas, tools and concepts,
and also describes the different cultures and environments that
may influence the organizations.

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The most important thing in this course and the most emphasized
concept I learnt was the BECM. The metaphor that they used for
the systems practitioner is the juggler. It is the duty of an aware
system practitioner to maintain the four balls while solving any
situation. These four balls are; Being, Engaging, Contextualizing
and Managing. These four balls emphasize on being aware of the
current situation and engaging in the situation and once you get
engaged in the situation and choosing on which method to choose
to solve the problem. We are supposed to reflect on the situation
by understanding and solving with the best suitable method in a
systemic way. Systemic approach is the approach which takes into
account the whole system rather than the part. Systematic
approach whereas takes in account the situation by dividing it into
parts. An aware systems practitioner evaluates the problem
situation in systemic way which takes in account all the aspects
that make up the system rather than just the part of the system.
In this course I learnt a lot about the information systems and
information technologies including the Data, Capta, knowledge
and information. This course encourages on reflection. Reflection
is of three types; reflection before action, reflection on action and
reflection in action. Reflection before action, for instance, can be
the time I started discussing the topic for my project. Reflection in
action, for instance, can be the time when I found the complexity
but faced a problem in solving it so had to change my perspective
on it. Reflection on action can be the example of when I finish my
project I will reflect on my action by reviewing it and making
amendments. All these aspects in the end have been reflected
through my project. The values, beliefs and circumstances were
also a topic in the T306 course it helped me in implementation of
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SSM in the stage where I was suppose to analyze the interest of

the stakeholders in the CATWOE. It has helped in respecting the
world views, others perspectives are of equal respect as to your
own. The concepts about stakeholders helped me solve the 6 th
stage of SSM as it required some knowledge which was not
something common. It had three ways in which the stakeholders
can debate; 1) debating for stakeholders, 2) debating with other
stakeholders and 3) enabling stakeholders to debate. In my
problem situation I chose to leave the decision on the
stakeholders with all the information that it required for decision
making and in order to show respect for their perspective on the
problem situation without imposing my perspectives.
Consequently, I faced problems while doing this project. Firstly, I
was taking T306 part A and part B together so the concepts were
completely new for me and I didnt have any previous knowledge
about managing the complexities. So I had to put in extra effort to
study through the material and try my best to do it accordingly.
Secondly, being completely new at drawing the rich picture I
found it difficult to draw the rich picture as I am not too
expressive when it comes to drawing. It was very hard for me to
draw the conceptual map and find the root definitions which were
not clear in my situation as the situation was messy. But with the
help of the Blocks (T306 course material) and some research on
the internet it helped me in overcoming these problems.
Another way of dealing with the situation is through the Hard
System Method which is clearly identified from the situation, the
quantitative aspects are there so it is easier to implement this
methodology to solve the problem.
(843 words)

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Referencing:
[1] Nandish V. Patel, (1995) "Application of soft systems
methodology to the real world process of teaching and
learning", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 9
Iss: 1, pp.13 23 [Online]. Available from: http://proxy.aouelibrary.com:9797/MuseSessionID=0910047m3/MuseProtocol=htt
p/MuseHost=www.emeraldinsight.com/MusePath/doi/full/10.1108/
09513549510075998 [Accessed on 30th April 2015]
[2] Wali Rahman, Zekeriya Nas, (2013) "Employee development
and turnover intention: theory validation",European Journal of
Training and Development, Vol. 37 Iss: 6, pp.564 579 [Online].
Available from: http://proxy.aouelibrary.com:9797/MuseSessionID=0910047ld/MuseProtocol=http/
MuseHost=www.emeraldinsight.com/MusePath/doi/full/10.1108/EJ
TD-May-2012-0015 [Accessed on 30th April 2015]
[3] Thomas N. Garavan, (1995) "Stakeholders and strategic
human resource development", Journal of European Industrial
Training, Vol. 19 Iss: 10, pp.11 16 [Online]. Available from:
http://proxy.aouelibrary.com:9797/MuseSessionID=0910047m3/MuseProtocol=htt
p/MuseHost=www.emeraldinsight.com/MusePath/doi/full/10.1108/
03090599510095825 [Accessed on 30th April 2015]
[4] Alexandre Ardichvili, (2012) "Sustainability or limitless
expansion: paradigm shift in HRD practice and
teaching", European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 36
Iss: 9, pp.873 887 [Online]. Available from: http://proxy.aouelibrary.com:9797/MuseSessionID=0910047m3/MuseProtocol=htt
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p/MuseHost=www.emeraldinsight.com/MusePath/doi/full/10.1108/
03090591211280946 [Accessed on 30th April 2015]
[5] Christine Blackmore, Ray Ison, Jake Chapman, Rosalind
Armson and Simon Bell (2005), Managing Complexity: a systems
approach, T306 Course books (Blocks 1-5).

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