Assessing Organizational Complexity Using Tree-Attribute-Matrix Models

Purposefully designed organizations like businesses or public administrations tend to become more complex during their lifetime, making them increasingly harder to manage effectively. It is therefore desirable to have available methods and tools to assess the organizational complexity of a system, presenting a first step towards reducing that complexity to enable more efficient management. This paper presents the Tree-Attribute-Matrix (TAM) method of modeling systems that are designed, managed and controlled by humans, or “human-centric” systems. The systems are represented as a collection of interconnected tree and matrix structures annotated with attributes, that collectively enable the assessment of their complexity. In addition to describing the modeling and assessment method, the paper presents the application to a partial model of a medium-sized business, and offers some insights regarding typical challenges and lessons learned.