In Class...

For the past 2 lessons, we have been talking about the “7-S Matrix” which is a part of the Strengths and Weaknesses(internal factors) of a business. And this lesson, we learned

what it is and deeply analyzed it with many examples. I now

know how to generate strengths and weaknesses by looking at 7 –s and how they’re related to each other and whether the relation is powerful.

The dictionary meaning of “matrix” is the material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or structure.

In terms of business, the 7-S Matrix represents represent actually the same thing.

First of all, we started with the core of the matrix: shared values. To make it more clear, Mr.Sen asked us what values do we share? We replied: Friendship, respect, ho

nesty as positive values and prejudice, hate, intolerance, selfishness etc. for the negative values. And then Mr.Sen said do we steal? Do we claim that we can win

by pushing someone on the ground? The only way to succeed is to kick the next guy down? Do we all agree that that is a good/bad thing? Yes. That’s why it is called “shared” values. And we saw that the reason why shared values are so central was that it illuminates and shapes up everything else, all the other elements of the matrix.

Mr.Sen gave the example of a human body; organs, cells, skeleton, location of the organs, digestive system, respiratory system formed a 7-s matrix of the body.

We discussed and figured out why 3-s were on the top and why the other 3 were on the bottom. Strategy, structure and systems are the top 3; they are more powerful, less changeable, and related to the organization itself. Style, staff and skills are the bottom 3; they are related to the human beings of an organization who create the top 3 and use that framework, it is more changeable. The top 3 are created because the people in the bottom 3 decided that they need them. Looking at it that way, it made sense to me because I saw that you cannot have an organization without people in it, once there are people, then th

e top 3 can be created.

We started by giving examples from our school to the top 3.

STRUCTURE; it is the departments and sub departments. For the school’s hierarchy, we can say that there are employes, stud

ents, teachers and deans.

SYSTEM; in school, there are service bus, purchasing, academic, grading,

exam, food, extracurricular activities, data management (ara karne, e-okul) systems. Also, we stated that filling up a CAS form, keeping track of students what they’re doing where are procedures that belonged to a system. Additionally, our school had a system of reporting parents ab

out the students; conferences.

STRATEGY; we already know that it is the answer

to the 3^rd question of planning (How do we get there?) It is to improve the performances of the students.

The bottom 3: This part is in more detail since we were divided in groups during class and our group was responsible from the bottom 3.

STAFF; it means all the employes, teachers, deans working in the school and the students, their genders etc. The employees, teachers’ and students’ genders are approximately at equal rates. The Koc School provides face-to-face and close interactions between students and teachers. Every student can take appointment from his/her teachers any time. Teacher/student ratio is high, which provides a better education.

SKILLS; Teachers, deans and the management board are at least university graduates. The school is well known for its IB Program. There is a high average of sending students to good universities.

STYLE; Teacher-Student relationship is more informal compared to other schools. Disrespectful behavior is not tolerated, however, there is a friendly environment in classes. Even though teachers are centralized by their department heads, they are also decentralized with the way they send students to detention, or the way they teach. Teachers’ actions are restricted by ministry of education. This sometimes prevents teachers from going their way.

EXTRA NOTES FROM THE CLASS

While discussing the 7-S Matrix, some topics got deeper and shifted to other important points, so I decided to write them apart from the matrix explanation.

Shared values are like a light in a drawing room : light is the way the drawing room looks : everything looks gentle and bright because of the lighting it has.

While analyzing the systems, Mr.Sen said that in some countries, there is nothing calle

d “grades”(!!!). We were all surprised to this fact. However, he said that the teachers were writing reports to the parents whenever is needed saying this is what we did in class, this is where your kid could improve, this is where she/he’s going, which is a method that is very efficient to the parents.

Then Mr.Sen started a good TOK discussion .

He said that structure is looking at students, and system captures one tiny aspect.

You enjoy writing, instead of capturing your ability, you are given an exam, given a passage from 1895 and are expected to comment on it in 40 minutes.

OR

You have the ability to think mathematically, but are given a problem “evaluate this expression: 10u3901p39743974 infinite, is that supposed to be good?

Social skills are the quality of your mind. The education system does not work, nobody’s bothering to change it! Shared value is “It’s good to keep things the way they are.” They silently collaborate with each other and teach the things the way they are. We are used to a system which is predictable, ordinary, and we became just like machines. Every question has an a

nswer; if a question is a bit out of the ordinary, we say it is a problem. What is a rubric? Why do you do what you do? We have no clue!

In Harvard University, at a conference of educators, they are complaining; “You don’t know how bad our education system is.” The education system is terrible!

The weaknesses outnumber the strengths except a few exceptions; Singapore, Finland; their strength is that they are considered with what the students are going to be able to do for the future? They are much more future-based, they don’t worry about sitting and solving long set of problems, they teach useful stuff, they teach students to be able to be comfortable with

new situations. Any system that is not teaching students for the unknown is failing. Their goal is wrong; it should be the future life, not the karne gpa. Whatever is known now is going to be obsolete for the students. Also, students have to see that it is GOOD to be confused. Confusing subjects with facts are like confusing piles of bricks. And what makes the piles construct a building? The 7 – S Matrix. Just like a building is more than just a pile of bricks, every single organization is more than just a collection of people.

Even the nature of the work system is changed, learning how to learn, think and analyze are the keys to a successful life. While hiring someone to a job, almost everyone tries to see how you can solve a problem, how do you approach to certain things, are you socially interactive. Your GPA comes after that.

Another subject we talked about was that the 7-S’ were all interconnected. We cannot say this definitely belongs to this element or that; it’s difficult to differentiate between the

elements of the matrix.

If there is an engineer in an organization, it means that there are specialists, therefore departments which form the structure part of the matrix and this is called departmentalization.

We also talked about how external factors can influence internal factors; economic crisis can cause change in systems, structure and so on.

Then we talked about the terms centralized and decentralized.

I looked up the meaning and saw that centralized meant that there was a single authority, whereas there were more authorities in decentralization. To be honest, I couldn’t understand these terms clearly until Mr.Sen enlightened us with various examples.

Example 1) You go to a bank for a loan, you ask for $100 000 to buy a house, they say “I’ll go to the headquarters”. It is obvious that getting a decision will take you a while. So you say “I don’t like it”. You go to another bank, they say “You want this loan? Okay, sign this, here it is!” Then we saw that the first bank was centralized; the employee could not make the decision him/herself, whereas the second bank was decentralized; the employee made the decision and provided the loan quickly. We thought that the second bank was better. For customers; decentralization is better. But for the bank, centralization is better.

PAR = power, authority, responsibility all together. If they’re located in few places in the business, the business is centralized; people low down have no discretion to “do”, they can only propose.

Example 2) Suppose I want to teach the IB program in my school, I need to take approval from The Ministry of Education, who sit and decide on what should be thought etc.

The 7-S Matrix, centralization and decentralization terms are now very clear to me and more and more, I’m beginning to understand the business concepts and how they work.