Applying morphological analysis in the

social exclusion and diversity sector

Problem structuring | Consulting | Research

Outline

• Why is embedding diversity practices a wicked

problem?

• Case studies

I. Developing diversity intervention strategies for a top 20

London-based Anglo-American legal firm

II. Social exclusion in society: causes, variations, effects

and preventive measures for the Swedish National Police

Origin of the phrase

• Term coined by Prof. Horst Rittel - design theorist at University of Berkley

What is a wicked problem?

1. Socially and politically complex

2. Strongly stakeholder-oriented with strong political, moral and professional issues

3. No clear definition

4. Attempts to address the problem leads to unintended consequences

5. Has many inter-dependencies and causes

6. Does not sit conveniently within the responsibility of any one organisation

7. Problem continues to develop

8. Is characterised by chronic policy failure

9. The problem remains…

“Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning” (1973)

Policy Sciences 4: 155–169

Wicked problem: one with no obvious, readily available solution that

has shifting qualities that make it especially difficult to define

Diversity as a wicked problem

• The multi-dimensional aspects for mainstreaming diversity make it a

‘wickedly’ complex area for individuals and organisations to implement

• Workforce-planning, Embedding ethics, Evolving regulations etc.

• Who’s the owner of the problem: CSR, HR, C-level, Managers?

• Perspectives: what are the important drivers to successfully embed

lasting diversity organisational practices: business, societal or both?

Contemporary issues in diversity

1. Creating the right culture for people

to buy-in for diversity

2. Securing top level support

3. Embedding in management culture

4. Right training for staff

5. Fear of dealing with discrimination

6. Only seen for certain groups –

preferential treatment

7. No consequences for people who do

not implement

8. No clear ownership of the problem

9. Not sector specific: issue-based

across organisations

CASE STUDY 1

Diversity in legal firms: case study for top 20 London-based

Anglo-American legal firm

Construction of a (morphological) problem space containing 6400 unique possible pathways / options

Problem structuring the client’s problem identified 25 critical pathways

and 7 outcomes for implementation by the law firm

With expert facilitation and dedicated software,

25 critical paths identified with group consensus – one shown in red

The seven outputs for the law firm

1. No significant effect on the intended outcomes by the involvement of the

employees - what this means is that they are the recipients of the benefits but are

not the major actors for change. Instead the senior management team,

managers, HR and your team have to drive everything to achieve the outputs

2. The Government is not particularly significant. Instead meeting requirement of the

regulatory authorities and clients is much more important

3. Only certain actions seem to raise public image (a) diversity initiatives sponsored

by the senior management team, (b) external communication of successes and

(c) client involvement

4. Formal education helps to reduce legal issues but does not increase

organisational resilience

5. Informal education has a much greater effect and does increase organisational

resilience

6. Internal communication of success helps to increase organisational resilience

7. Clients view policies, compliance and external communication as a necessary but

not necessarily sufficient position for their law firm. What they want is the outputs

of a successful diversity strategy such as greater employee engagement

CASE STUDY 2

Social exclusion: causes, variations, effects and

preventive measures

The need for the exercise

Drivers

• Political

o Weak commitment to society

o Strain on democratic processes

• Sociological

o Creation of parallel societal

structures

o Criminal gang proliferation

o Racist organisations

• Economic

o Unemployment

o Hinders in supporting a family

o Lost taxes for state and

municipalities

Concerns from:

• Integration Agency

• Immigration Agency

• National Police Board

• Police specialists

• Crime prevention board

• University researchers

• Local government

• Schools

• The excluded themselves!

Courtesy of Dr Tom Ritchey | Swedish Morphological Society

Social Exclusion Model (for The Swedish Crime Prevention and The National Police Board)

Principle outcomes

• 1689 internally consistent paths isolated from a problem

space of 1,244,160 – a reduction of over 99.9%

• 6 types of people were ‘doubly excluded’

• Strong relationship between doubly excluded , sub-cultures

and transnational networks

• Described how social exclusion is maintained and

reproduced (self-feeding process)

• National Police Board reversed its tendency to centralise

police enforcement (i.e. understood which measures likely

to be counterproductive or have unintended consequences)

• More horizontal vertical integration of police, social services

and other agencies

• Described how measures should be applied, and who

should apply them (ownership)

Focused on measures that tackled the problem of ‘double exclusion’

Decision Support Modelling Under

Uncertainty

Problem structuring | Consulting | Research