Patterns of Relationships Between the System inhabitants

Oshry has found and 3 patterns of relationships that always occur in organizational systems, whether it is the organization, classroom or family. These are called Top/Bottom, End/Middle/End, Provider/Customer.

Top/Bottom A Top/Bottom relationship is characterised by one where the Top has designated responsibility for the system or a piece of the system (e.g. the organization, department, section, meeting, project, classroom etc.) and the Bottom party is a member of that system (e.g. worker, subordinate, meeting participant, team member, student, etc.)

In a Top/Bottom relationship pattern, the top feels responsible for the system. The Bottom will usually take the position that yes, the Top is responsible for the success of the system and hence pushes the responsibility to the Top. In reality, it looks like this: It could be between manager and worker where the manager becomes responsible for the operation while the worker is not responsible. It could be the team leader become reponsible for the team, and the team member not responsible. Or the management becomes responsible for the profitability of the plant and the union not responsible. Or the teacher becomes responsible for the classroom and student not responsible. Or the parent becomes responsible for the family and child not responsible. Is such pattern takes hold, the Tops become increasingly responsible and this is unhealthy. While they may complain about it, they cling on to it for fear of losing control or for fear that others won’t be as responsible or as skilled or as committed as they are. Meanwhile the Bottoms complain about the “oppression” or control of the Tops, their insensitivity or incompetence, but refuse to accept their roles as a possible central players in the system because they cling on to the position that The Top is responsible and are paid to take the heat.

In an organizational system, whether you work in the private sector, public sector or non-governmental organization (NGO), every member plays a certain role in that system. We could be someone at the top of the organization, the CEO, chairman, regional manager, country manager, etc. We could be someone in the middle, a middle manager, principal/senior consultant, or supervisor. We could be someone in the bottom rung of the organization (e.g. the janitor, operator, rank and file worker, junior consultant, etc). The relationship between the organization (system) and environment (i.e. outside the system) is usually one between a service/product provider and customer. The organization serves the public or the consumer.

The role we play is determined by the job we do – whether we realize it or not, the role we are in (e.g. CEO, middle manager, rank and file worker or customer) establishes our “position” in the system. And we behave in accordance to that role. Systems theory research by Barry Oshry showed that there is a pattern to how people behave depending on their position in the system. Lets define the positions as Top, Middle, Bottom and Customer. A Top is someone who has overall responsibility for some piece of action. A Middle position is someone caught between conflicting demands and priorities between (e.g. between the Top and Bottom). A Bottom is a position we occopy if we are at the receiving end of initiatives over which we have no control. In other interactions, we are Customer, looking to some other person or group for a product or service that we need.

How do get out of this dance of blind reflex, as Oshry puts it? Before we go there lets look at the End/Middle/End relationship.

End/Middle/End

An End/Middle/End relationship is one where two or more parties (Ends), with their separate and conflicting agendas look to a common party (Middle) to move their agendas ahead. Examples of Middles are supervisors, middle managers, department heads and section heads. A End/Middle/End relationship could also be an internal support department like Procurement in between the internal department like Manufacturing and the supplier organization.

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