T306A Managing Complexity: IKEA Case Study

This document presents a detailed case study analysis of IKEA, applying the hard system approach and CATWOE framework to understand the company's challenges and opportunities. The analysis includes problem definition, situation analysis, identification of constraints, and routes to objectives using the hard system approach. It also incorporates a spray diagram to visualize the key issues and a thinking process to develop solutions. The case study further explores the limitations of the hard system approach and applies the CATWOE framework to analyze IKEA's stakeholders, actors, transformation process, worldview, owners, and environmental constraints. The document concludes with recommendations for IKEA to improve its market position and operational efficiency.

Running Head: T306A Managing Complexity A System Approach
Business Ethics
T306A Managing Complexity a System Approach

T306A Managing Complexity A System Approach (1) 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Answer 1..........................................................................................................................................1
Answer 2..........................................................................................................................................8
Answer 3..........................................................................................................................................9
Answer 4........................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
IKEA is considered as an international brand famous for its latest and creative design of home
decorating goods. It was established during 1943, since then it has done amendable growth in its
domestic market as well as in international market. Today, it is considered as the largest furniture
retailer organization in the whole world. In this assignment, we will study the case situation of
IKEA and give our own recommendations and analyze the different situations of the
organization. It is mainly established to provide the high quality and creative products at low
costs to its target customers. It is dealing in more than 9,000 products, including accessories and
furniture goods. The mission of the organization determine the ways of working so that
predetermined objectives can achieve in the desired manner. The organization has different
stores through which it provides its products to its global customers. Low prices of products are
considered the main strength of the organization which enforces the organization to compete in a
challenging environment of today. The vision of the organization is to enhance the living
standards of citizens by providing them very creative, and designer goods and the organization
get success in accomplishing its vision. Quality and creativity of goods make it different from the
others.
Answer 1
The hard system approach is considered as a system that has a predetermine goal and objectives.
It is beneficial in designing solutions that will help an organization in attaining its predetermined
objectives. Hard system approach of IKEA is following:

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The situation of IKEA at different steps of the hard system approach is following:
 Problem definition: It is about giving an answer to the question "What is the opportunity
and problem". The opportunity for the IKEA is that it has a brand which is recognized
everywhere. Thus, the organization can think about expand its own business so that it can
serve a large number of customers in a fixed time period. This will enhance the size of
the organization and also enhance the level of profitability (Bricaud, 2012). And the
problem for the IKEA is that it becomes fails in offering a broad range of home
decorating products with good form and function at a low price. It mainly focuses on
three main dimensions good form, good function, and low price but not able to complete
this objective in a desired manner. Most designers of the organization accept that the
principal form of its products depends on their functions, but the others do not agree with
this statement. Thus, they face an unbalancing situation which reduces their performance

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and not able to attain their objective. The unbalancing situation is demonstrating various
unwelcome deviation in an expected performance of the organization. This is a problem
faced by the management of the IKEA and solution involves the restoration of the
satisfactory, and existing performance. The management of the organization can view an
opportunity as a chance to improve its existing performance. The main motive of the
initial step is to describe and identify the opportunity or problem of a specific
organization.
 Situation Analysis: This stage of hard system approach is the introduction of performance
level. IKEA performance level is good it is continuously enhancing its profit by
providing innovative and quality goods to its target customers. Today, the situation of the
organization is that it wants to deliver home decorating goods with good form, good
function and at low cost so that a low-income group can also avail the services of the
organization. But somehow, it failed in doing so. Its products are specially designed for
high-income groups. Due to high cost, normal people cannot afford its products, and they
are contributing the 65% of the whole population (Katz, 2015). So, the organization
missed a big opportunity of its success in future.
 Identification of constraints and objectives: This stage of the hard system approach is
related to explaining where one want to reach and what are the possible constraints in
achieving those specific objectives. The main objective of the organization is to deliver
products with high-level innovation, creativity, and design and at low cost. The whole
objective of the organization is influenced by the utilization of available resources and
needs and expectations of customers about the product. These two are the main
constraints which create hurdles in obtaining its predetermined objective. If the

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organization want to resolve these factors, it should utilize its raw material efficiently and
this can be efficiently done through proving training to its employees and should perform
continuous effort to win the confidence of the customers by providing satisfactory goods
to them.
 Routes to the objective: IKEA can achieve its objective by different routes which are
following:
 Providing low-cost goods with high quality
 Meeting the needs and requirements of its target customers
 Fulfilling different standards of environment (Ramanathan, 2015)
 Proper utilization of available resources
 Perform high effort to deliver a wide range of decorating products with good form
and good functions.
 Measure performance: After following all the routes the organization should establish its
different performance measures with which it can identify the exact performance of the
organization. This can perform by establishing different types of performance standards
which can compare later with the target performance. With the help of performance
measurement, the organization can successfully identify those areas which require huge
attention.
 Develop Options: At this stage, the organization need to define its different possibilities
at its positions in the existing market. After identifying potential possibilities to attain its
objective, the organization need to perform effort for implementation of these
possibilities (Zarei, 2013). For attaining its possibilities, IKEA needs to define its

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technical measurements which prove helpful in measuring costs and benefits of different
potential options.
 Evaluation of available option: IKEA can judge its available options on the basis of
following:
 The selected options will accomplish all the operational objectives
 They should organizationally feasible
 They will accomplish different financial objectives.
 Select option: IKEA should choose the one potential option which fulfils its overall
requirements (Torrisi, 2013).
 Implementation: It is about detailed design, installation, and development of selected
option which will bring profitability to the organization. Implementation should be done
in an effective manner because it influences the performance of an organization in a
significant manner.
Spray Diagram for IKEA Case Situation
It is a diagram which is similar the different diagrams of relationship. It is designed to give a
deep understanding of the case situation of IKEA. The circles in the below-mentioned diagram
mainly represent the main topic and subtopics of the paper. The main topic is IKEA design at
which the overall case is based, and the subtopics are key dimensions, environmental concerns,
and good focus, good function. Routes in the diagram faced different problems in fulfilling the
main requirements of the topic (Franzelli, 2016). They work like as hurdles in fulfilling the main
task of the organization. It is necessary for the management of the organization to take necessary
steps to resolve all these target problems. Focus on all such issues helps an organization to
resolve them on a timely basis to maintain the profitability and compatibility of the organization.

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Spray diagram is considered as an important means of structuring the available information
(Choi, 2013). With the help of spray diagram, one can easily understand all basic and core
objectives and problems of a specific organization. Spray diagram of IKEA case situation is
following:
Thinking Process
According to me, my thinking process mainly determines the problem and then selects and
implements the different solutions for resolving the specific problem. Thinking process mainly
focuses on understanding, thinking, doing, creating and need finding (Braun, 2014). Thinking
process mainly behaves like as a bias towards creation and action. Testing and creation of
thinking process help me in learning and improving my initial ideas. The thinking process
mainly focuses on following steps:

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 Empathize: At this stage, I am focusing on mainly understanding the problem and
situation of the case. This will be done through conducting an in-depth study,
observation, and interaction. This stage of the thinking process helps me in understanding
the root cause of the existing problem of IKEA so that I can suggest better solutions for
improving the existing situation of the organization.
 Define: At this stage, I am trying to define and synthesise my findings of the case of
IKEA. This will provide information about the viewpoint of the organization which can
successfully address while making suggestions and recommendations for solving existing
problem of the organization.
 IDEATE: At this stage of thinking process I am trying to explore a different range of
possible solutions for resolving the current situation or problem of the organization. A
large number of alternatives facilitate me in solving the problem in a significant manner.
 Prototype: At this stage of thinking process I tried to transform my final ideas in physical
form so that problem of organization can resolve efficiently (Limbach, 2014).
 Test: At this step, I come up with high-resolution products and services and use my
observation and feedbacks to refine prototypes in an efficient manner.

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It can be said that hard system approach, spray diagram, and thinking process helps efficiently in
understanding the existing problem of IKEA. These helps us in offering potential solutions to
resolve all existing problems in getting a competitive advantage in the available market.
Answer 2
Hard system method plays an important role in determining the existing position and possible
problems of an organization. With the help of hard system approach I am able to understand the
situation and problem of the IKEA mentioned in the existing case of the organization. It gives
me lots of new understandings and insights about its different phases on the basis of which
performance of IKEA organization is judged. I learnt that the hard system could utilized in
different business problems such as quantitative and qualitative problems. After understanding
its different phases, I am able to criticise the problem in an efficient manner. The phases of hard
system approach gives me following understanding:
 With the help of initial stage of the hard system, I am able to identify the opportunities
for organization prevailing in the existing environment. Opportunities give an offer of
expansion to a business organization (Bamakhrama, 2012). It also helps me in suggesting
the best way of exploiting the available opportunities prevailing in the existing
environment.
 It helps in identifying the situation of the organization because as per its current situation
various guidelines can suggest to the organization to improve them. It teaches me that
open discussion is the best way to measure the situation of the organization because it
gives an understanding of its root causes.

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 It gives me an understanding of the success of the organization in accomplishing its
objectives. It provides me with a matrices which can utilize to judge the performance of
the organization in achieving its goals and objectives.
 It also helps me in understanding the best alternative route for performing the different
business operations. The success of operations completely depends on the selection of the
appropriate route (Chou, 2016).
Thus, it can be said that hard system method gives me a high glimpse about the existing situation
and future of the organization.
Answer 3
Generally, it is considered that there is not any best methodology which can be applied to all
situations of a business organization. It is very difficult to implement hard system approach to an
ill-defined problem situation. It is because the analyst in that type of situation is uncertain and
unsure of the working system required for performing such types of problems (Zarei, 2014). The
success of the hard system method completely depends on the experience level of the user
because it requires huge analytical skills to implement it in desired or successful manner.
Another limitation of utilizing hard system methodology is that only a short explanation of
problem situation are given- in that case, there is a limited number of problem situation features,
and types that may be required while selecting the appropriate methodology.
Hard system methodology does not help the organization in the development of a particular
system. It is because problems are changing on a continuous basis as there were fuzzy at the
initial stage. It highly depends on the HSM people to perform the required work. It consumes

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huge time and money of the users due to which it loses its feasibility. Apart from all these the
following are some other criticism of the HSM approach:
 It requires from participants to follow the overall approach.
 It is difficult for an organization to assemble the richest picture, in the absence of a
predefined solution or structure for problem situation.
 People may face difficulties to interpret the overall environment of an organization in a
loose way. They often represent an over-urgent wish for a particular action (Wein, 2015).
Thus, it can be said that hard system approach also has some issues which may put an
organization in a hugely difficult situation. It is necessary to implement the system in efficient
ways and an organization should firstly study all concepts of the system which give an
understanding of the important aspects of the system.
Answer 4
CATWOE is considered as an efficient method for solving different types of problems. It is
mainly created by Peter Checkland who was a professor of system engineering (Richard, 2013).
CATWOE mainly stands for following:
C Customers
A Actors
T Transformation procedure
W Worldview
O Owner
E Environmental hurdles