Identity Management in an Institution of Higher Education: A Case Study Using Structural Coupling and Fractal Enterprise Model

Abstract

There are several ways of defining organizational identity and identity management. This article considers a less exploited one, namely, defining identity as a set of structural couplings that the organization has, and identity management as an activity aimed at maintaining these couplings. The concept of structural coupling comes from biological cybernetics, and it means that a system during its evolution becomes entangled with few other systems. The system at hand evolves together with these systems, adapts to them and causes them to adapt to it. The concept of structural coupling is applied in a study of an institution of higher education. To identify structural couplings, the authors use a so-called Fractal Enterprise Model that presents both internal structure of an organization and its business environment. The article analyzes to which elements of the environment an institution of higher education is structurally coupled and how the identity maintenance is arranged. The article provides examples of how well maintaining identity works in practice based on reflections on the authors' experience of working in the department. The article concludes with suggesting a generic procedure for identifying structural couplings and defining a strategy of maintaining these couplings.

Full text

Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly (CSIMQ)
eISSN: 2255-9922
Published online by RTU Press, https://csimq-journals.rtu.lv
Article 156, Issue 27, June/July 2021, Pages 60–86
https://doi.org/10.7250/csimq.2021-27.03
Identity Management in an Institution of Higher Education:
A Case Study Using Structural Coupling and Fractal Enterprise
Model
Ilia Bider1,2
*
and Erik Perjons1
1DSV – Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
2ICS – University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
{ilia, perjons}@dsv.su.se
Abstract. There are several ways of defining organizational identity and identity
management. This article considers a less exploited one, namely, defining
identity as a set of structural couplings that the organization has, and identity
management as an activity aimed at maintaining these couplings. The concept of
structural coupling comes from biological cybernetics, and it means that a system
during its evolution becomes entangled with few other systems. The system at
hand evolves together with these systems, adapts to them and causes them to
adapt to it. The concept of structural coupling is applied in a study of an institution
of higher education. To identify structural couplings, the authors use a so-called
Fractal Enterprise Model that presents both internal structure of an organization
and its business environment. The article analyzes to which elements of the
environment an institution of higher education is structurally coupled and how
the identity maintenance is arranged. The article provides examples of how well
maintaining identity works in practice based on reflections on the authors'
experience of working in the department. The article concludes with suggesting
a generic procedure for identifying structural couplings and defining a strategy of
maintaining these couplings.
Keywords: Organizational Identity, Fractal Enterprise Model, FEM, Viable
System Model, VSM, Structural Coupling.
1 Introduction
Maintaining organizational identity belongs to the vital functions of an enterprise/organization. In
Viable Systems Model (VSM) [1], this function is entrusted to the highest-level management
system called System 5. Dependent on the author, System 5 is called Identity management
function, as in [2], or Policy management function, as in [3] (meaning that policies are aimed at
identity management). Identity is also present implicitly or explicitly in all levels of strategy work,
*
Corresponding author
© 2021 Ilia Bider and Erik Perjons. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).
Reference: I. Bider, E. Perjons, “Identity Management in an Institution of Higher Education: A Case Study Using Structural
Coupling and Fractal Enterprise Model,” Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly, CSIMQ, no. 27, pp. 60–86, 2021.
Available: https://doi.org/10.7250/csimq.2021-27.03
Additional information. Author ORCID iD: I. Bider – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3490-6092, and E. Perjons
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9044-5836. PII S225599222100156X. Received: 8 June 2021. Accepted: 19 July 2021. Available
online: 30 July 2021.

61
as defined in [4]:
1. Doctrine or policy, which defines who we are.
2. Infrastructure/capability, which defines what infrastructure/technology we should use in our
business, and what capabilities we need to develop.
3. Grand strategy, which defines in which sector to operate and with whom to make alliances.
4. Strategy, which defines our structural couplings with the external world, e.g., competitors,
collaborators, markets. The questions to answer here are whether we are a heard leader, part
of a heard, an independent, etc.
Though maintaining identity is a function of the organization itself, the identity as such, is what
an observer, external or internal, sees, not what the organization defines on its own, which creates
a paradox [2]. Also, the identity exists independently of whether or not it is explicitly known to
and maintained by the organization. Managing identity without really knowing what it is may be
disastrous for the organization [5], thus understanding its own identity, i.e., how the organization
is seen by the others, should precede any active actions related to identity management. This
understanding is also needed for planning any radical change aimed at changing the organizational
identity, as such change needs to be visible outside.
The literature on organizational identity in the field of Management is vast, starting with a
seminal work [6] from 1985, revisited in [7] by one of its authors in 2006. The works on identity
from the Management field are providing many insights about the organizational identity.
However, in this article, we are interested to look at the identity from a system theoretical
perspective, to see whether such perspective can give interesting insights in the area of identity
management. Reviewing articles on identity from the systems theory perspective, especially
related to VSM and its System 5, we have chosen to test an approach suggested in [5]. This
approach is based on the idea that maintaining identity is equal to maintaining structural couplings
to the key elements of the environment in which the organization operates. The idea, in its own
turn, is inspired by works from biological cybernetics [8].
While [5] defines the idea of using the concept of structural coupling to understand identity and
identity management, it does not present a systematic procedure of how to find all structural
couplings and how to use the findings in identity management decisions. In this article, we try to
narrow this gap by suggesting a new approach for (1) identifying and (2) managing identity. The
approach is based on employing an enterprise model of organization for both identifying structural
couplings, and planning changes to maintain them. Naturally, such a model should be able to
represent both structural couplings, and parts of the organization that can be changed in order to
maintain these structural couplings. To test the approach in practice, we use a case study related
to identity management in the organization to which the authors belong. As the approach is under
development, at this stage, we cannot apply it directly in the decision making inside the
organization. Instead, we use the approach to explain decisions made in the past period of around
20 years. The thinking behind applying the approach for explaining past decisions is as follows: If
we can clearly explain these past decisions using the approach, it gives some basis to believe that
the approach can be used for making new decisions.
The organization in the focus of our case study is an institution of the higher education, more
exactly, a department of a university. Among the previous works related to organizational identity,
there are many that are devoted to identity of a university; for instance, a literature review [9]
considers 120 peer reviewed publications in this area. However, as with general literature related
to identity concept, none of them suggests a system theoretical model that can be used for
understanding and managing identity of the institution of higher education, such as a department,
school, or faculty.
This article continues the investigation of organizational identity started in our previous paper
[10], which uses the same business case. In it, we have built a simplified model that reveals
structural couplings of an organization. This model takes into consideration two main types of
structural couplings, i.e., couplings to: (1) who produces input that is used in the organization, and

62
(2) who consumes output produced by the organization. In addition, it uses Viable System Model
(VSM) [3] to determine structural couplings to the upper management and regulators. It also adds
a coupling to the geographical location. Using our earlier simplified model of structural couplings,
we could explain, at least some of the past decision related to identity management. However, our
earlier model lacked a consistent theoretical base, which prevented its further development.
In this article, we return to the topic of organizational identity using a so-called Fractal
Enterprise Model (FEM) [11] instead of a simplified model developed in [10]. Though FEM
already existed at the time we worked on [10], it did not have enough concepts to cover structural
couplings. In the latest works [12], [13], FEM has been extended with new concepts that allows to
use it for identifying structural couplings. In this article, we use the same business case and the
same decisions that were analyzed in [10], but we do it in a different way. Due to having the same
topic, business case and examples, the current article can be considered as an extension of [10]. At
the same time, it can be considered as continuation of [13], as it adds additional rules to how
identify structural couplings based on FEM.
The rest of the article is structured in the following way. In Section 2, we give an overview of
the research approach. In Section 3, we present the knowledge base that underlines our work. In
Section 4, we discuss a FEM-based model of the educational institution and identify elements of
its environment to which it is coupled. In Section 5, we present analysis of decisions made and
implemented by the educational institution in order to manage its identity. In Section 6, we
generalize the example suggesting a generic procedure for identifying and managing structural
couplings of an organization. Finally, in Section 7, we summarize the results of our work and draw
plans for the future.
2 The Research Approach
The research presented in this article belongs to the Design Science (DS) paradigm [14], [15],
which focuses on looking for generic solutions for problems, known, as well as unknown. The
result of a DS research project can be a solution of a problem in terminology of [15], or an artifact
in terminology of [14]; alternatively, the result can be in the form of "negative knowledge" stating
that a certain approach is not appropriate for solving certain kind of problems [15].
This work simultaneously belongs to two DS projects. The first project, started with paper [10],
aims at developing a model-based methodology for understanding and managing organizational
identity. The current work can be considered as a second cycle in the project. This cycle, according
to the classification from [16], concerns Improvement of the solution/artefact developed in the
previous cycle. The second project is related to finding new applications areas for FEM. This
project has already had a number of cycles of the Problem seeking type in the classification from
[16], where FEM was tested for solving various problems. In respect to the FEM project, the
current article continues the works started by [12] and [13], which have extended FEM in a way
that it becomes possible to use it in combination with the concept of structural coupling.
The approach to identity management being developed in this work is based on the following
assumptions:
• Following [5], identity is treated as a set of structural couplings of an organization, and identity
management as an activity aimed at maintaining organization’s structural couplings.
• Structural couplings of an organization can be identified through analysis of FEM for this
organization. In this article, we do it by following the rules suggested in [13], extending their
set when it shows to be insufficient for our example.
• The model, in which structural couplings are identified, can be used in decision-making related
to identity management.
As we are in an early phase of the solution/artefact development, we cannot suggest the decision
makers to use our approach directly. Instead, we use it to explain identity-related decisions made
in the past. For this end, we analyze the history of decision-making of the institution of higher

63
education for which we have worked for two decades. The choice of this business case is made
based on our intrinsic knowledge of the history. We will discuss both positive decisions, as well
as negative ones. Holding no high-ranking position in the department diminishes any incitement
for us to hide the decisions that proved to be unsuccessful. We try to analyze all decision
objectively, minimizing any possible bias. Being able to explain past decisions based on the
approach gives an indication that this approach can be used for making decisions as well.
3 Knowledge Base
Knowledge base is one of the terms related to DS research. It refers to the cumulative knowledge
that is used in developing a new solution/artefact [17]. In this section, we review concepts, ideas
and literature that is used in the development of our approach for understanding and managing
identity of an organization. We also give an overview of a business case that we have used for
developing and testing the approach.
3.1 Business Case
Our study is being completed at the Department of Computer and System Sciences, abbreviated
to DSV, at Stockholm University. The department is engaged in research and undergraduate and
graduate teaching of about 5000 students simultaneously. It runs bachelor, master, and doctoral
programs in the fields of Computer Science and Information Systems. It has about 180 staff
members including teachers and administrative staff. The department belongs to the Faculty of
Social Sciences, which is unusual for departments of the DSV type in other universities. Usually,
such departments belong to the engineering, natural science, or business schools. Both authors of
this paper belong to the DSV academic staff.
In this article, we consider only teaching activity of DSV, leaving the research activity outside
the scope of our study. More specifically, we concentrate on bachelor and master programs of the
department, leaving PhD programs, which are relatively small, outside.
In Sweden, university education is free of charge for citizen and residents of EU, which
constitute the majority of our students. Other students need to pay some fee, but the fee is small
when comparing with other countries. Formally, Stockholm University is a governmental
institution.
3.2 Structural Coupling
The concept of structural coupling comes from biological cybernetics, more specifically, from the
works of Maturana and Varela, see, for instance, [8]. The idea of structural coupling is relatively
simple; it suggests that a complex system adjusts its structure to the structure of the environment
in which it operates. The adjustment comes from the constant interaction between the system and
its environment. Moreover, during the system evolution in the given environment, some elements
of the environment and interaction with them become more important than others. The latter leads
to the system choosing to adjust to a limited number of environmental elements with which it
becomes structurally coupled. According to Luhmann [18], a system deliberately chooses to limit
its couplings to few elements, as a strategy of dealing with the complexity.
An element of the environment to which a system becomes coupled, being a system on its own,
may, in turn, adjust its structures to the given system, which creates interdependency between the
two structurally coupled systems. The process of emergence of the structural coupling during the
co-evolution of two interacting systems is represented in Figure 1. As the result of mutual
interdependency, the structurally coupled systems change together, one changing itself as a
reaction on changes in the other. The coupling might not be symmetrical, i.e., one system may
dominate the other, making it more likely that the latter would change as a reaction on changes in
the former.

64
Figure 1. Emergence of structural coupling. Adapted from [19]
The concept of structural coupling along with other concepts developed by Maturana and
Varela, such as autopoiesis, was adopted by other fields that use system theoretical concepts. A
typical example is Social Science, to which this term was brought by Luhmann; see, for instance,
[18]. However, in the domain of organizational systems, which are socio-technical systems, the
usage of the concept of structural coupling is not widely spread.
3.3 Viable System Model (VSM)
As this work is, at least partially, based on VSM, we give a short overview of this model. VSM
has been developed by Stafford Beer [1] and his colleagues and followers, see for instance [3],
[20]. VSM represents an organization as a system functioning in its environment. Furthermore,
VSM differentiates two parts in this system: Operation and Management. In its own turn,
Operation is split into a number of semiautonomous operational units, denoted as System 1, that
have some mechanism to ensure their coordination. This mechanism, denoted as System 2, is
called Coordination. Management, in turn, is split in three parts, denoted as System 3, System 4,
and System 5, which is presented in Figure 2. Dependent on the author, these systems may be
dubbed differently, see Table 1, but they have more or less the same meaning, see the last column
in Table 1.
Figure 2. A simplified diagram of VSM model
Note that components listed in Table 1 seldom coincide with the organizational structure of a
particular organization. Different components can be manned by the same people. This, for
instance, happens in a small enterprise where the same group of people does the job on several or
A B A B

65
on all levels. The components in this case are differentiated not by who is doing the job, but by the
nature of activities performed, e.g., policy document writing belongs to System 5, while
completing a customer order belongs to System 1.
Table 1. Components of VSM
VSM has a recursive nature, meaning that any unit of System 1 can be considered as a viable
system on its own; thus, it can be represented with the help of VSM, as shown in Figure 2. Note
also, that besides the five systems presented in the table, there is a so-called System 3* that consists
of random inspection of System 1 by System 3 of the same, or higher level in the recursive
decomposition.
3.4 Structural Coupling and Organizational Identity
The idea of using structural coupling for modeling and managing organizational identity was first
introduced by Patrick Hoverstadt in [5]. It came as an opposition to the more accepted ways of
defining identity, that is, through the concept of purpose. Paper [5] discusses two ways to define a
purpose: (a) a purpose defined as what the management/designers have in mind, and (b) a purpose
defined by POSWID (Purpose Of the System is What It Does), the concept introduced by Stafford
Beer, an inventor of VSM. In [5], Hoverstadt argues that both definitions have conceptual
drawbacks. Then, to overcome the problems of the purpose-based definitions, [5] presents an idea
of defining identity as a set of structural couplings the organizational system has in its
environment. The identity management is defined as maintaining (and strengthening) these
structural couplings.
The definition of identity as a set of structural couplings, actually, corresponds to the common-
sense sayings of the sort “Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell who you are” and “Tell me
who your enemy is, and I will tell you who you are”. In both saying the focus is on structural
couplings to friends and enemies. In the enterprise world, friends can be substituted by customers
and suppliers, and enemies – by competitors. The primary focus here is on the connection between
the system and its environment, rather than on the internal structure of the socio-technical system
(organization). This focus does not mean that the internal structure of the socio-technical system
Identifi-
cation
Naming
Function
System 1
Operations,
Implementation,
Delivery
Producing and delivering products and services for external customers, thus
actively interacting with the environment
System 2
Coordination
Coordinate work of operational units included in System 1.
System 3
Control,
Delivery
management [2],
Cohesion [3],
Homeostasis [21]
Managing operational units (System 1), and establishing/maintaining
coordination mechanism (System 2). Making the semiautonomous units
function well as a whole (cohesion) in the current business environment
(homeostasis).
System 4
Intelligence [3],
Future,
Heterostasis [21]
Development
[20]
Forward looking adaptation to possible future changes in the environment
through identifying trends and preparing to changes or affecting the
environment in the desired direction (intelligence). System 4 allows changing
from one homeostasis (now) to possible homeostasis in the future thus
allowing the system to function in a heterostatic environment. System 4 is
considered as including development, marketing and research.
System 5
Identity [21]
(management),
Policy [3], [20]
(management)
Solving conflicts between System 4 and System 3 [2]. Permitting System 4
to introduce changes despite the conservatism of System 3, and not allowing
System 4 to change the identity of the whole system that exists via
functioning of Systems 3, 2, 1. This is done through designing, maintaining
and imposing policies that stay in place even when changes designed by
System 4 are implemented in Systems 3, 2, 1.

66
(organization), e.g., culture, methods and technology, is not relevant for its identity. This internal
structure must correspond to the set of structural couplings. Firstly, the organization needs to adjust
its structure to the changes in the structurally coupled systems. Secondly, it should understand how
the changes initiated from within the organization can affect its structural couplings. There is
always a risk that a change will break a structural coupling, which may not have been anticipated
when the change was under planning. In case of a “friend”, i.e., a customer or supplier, the
“friendship” can be ruined, while in case of an “enemy”, e.g., a competitor, a status-quo can turn
into open “war of attrition”. Some examples of such situations are presented in [5], others can be
found elsewhere, e.g., on the Internet.
Note that defining identity management as maintaining structural couplings to the given set of
elements in the organization’s environment does not exclude the organization changing its set of
structural couplings. Such change may be more or less radical. In a less radical change, one
structural coupling is substituted by another of the same sort. In a more radical change, the nature
of coupling (or the types of the coupled systems) changes, see a discussion on this topic in [12].
Note, also, that there are a number of approaches in the literature mentioned in [9] that use
similar ideas to the ones used in the approach based on structural coupling. To these, for instance,
belong the Stakeholders approach [22], and Institutional logic [23]. However, none of them totally
coincides with the view on the identity based on the concept of structural coupling, and none of
them is rooted in systems theory.
3.5 Fractal Enterprise Model
In this section, we give an informal overview of the Fractal Enterprise Models (FEM) introduced
in our earlier works, especially in [11], and in the extended form in [13]. The basic version of FEM
includes three types of elements: business processes (more exactly, business process types), assets,
and relations between them, see Figure 3, in which a fragment of a model describing operational
activities of DSV is presented.
Graphically, a process is represented by an oval, an asset is represented by a rectangle (box),
while a relation between a process and an asset is represented by an arrow. We differentiate
between two types of relations in the fractal model. One type represents a relation of a process
“using” an asset; in this case, the arrow points from the asset to the process and has a solid line.
The other type represents a relation of a process changing the asset; in this case, the arrow points
from the process to the asset and has a dashed line. These two types of relations allow tying up
processes and assets in a directed graph.
In FEM, a label inside an oval names the given process, and a label inside a rectangle names the
given asset. Arrows are also labeled to show the type of relations between the processes and assets.
A label on an arrow pointing from an asset to a process identifies the role the given asset plays in
the process, for instance, workforce, or infrastructure. A label on an arrow pointing from a process
to an asset identifies the way in which the process affects (i.e., changes) the asset. In FEM, an asset
is considered as a pool of entities capable of playing a given role in a given process. Labels leading
into assets from processes reflect the way the pool is affected, for instance, label Acquire identifies
that the process can/should increase the pool size.
Note that the same asset can be used in multiple processes playing the same or different roles in
them, which is reflected by labels on the corresponding arrows. It is also possible that the same
asset plays multiple roles in the same process. In this case, several labels can be placed on the
arrow between the asset and the process. Similarly, a process could affect multiple assets, each in
the same or in different ways, which is represented by the corresponding labels on the arrows.
Moreover, it is possible that a single process affects a single asset in multiple ways, which is
represented by having two or more labels on the corresponding arrow.

67
Figure 3. A fragment of FEM for DSV
Labels inside ovals (which represent processes) and rectangles (which represent assets) are not
standardized. They can be set according to the terminology accepted in the given domain, or be
specific for a given organization. Labels on arrows (which represent the relations between
processes and assets) are standardized. This is done by using a relatively limited set of abstract
relations, such as, Workforce or Acquire, which are clarified by the domain- and context-specific
labels inside ovals and rectangles. Standardization improves the understandability of the models.
The relations that show how an asset is used in a process are as listed below (more full
explanation see in [11]):
1. Beneficiary – an agent, a person or organization, e.g., a customer, who gets value from the
process for which the agent or somebody else is going to pay. Beneficiary relation can be used
for a so-called primary process, which belongs to System 1 in VSM terminology.
2. Workforce – people trained and qualified for employment in the process, e.g., workers at the
conveyor belt; physicians; researchers.
3. EXT – a process execution template, e.g., a software development methodology accepted in a
software vendor company. EXT does not need to be in the form of a procedure or algorithm.
For instance, a policy document on equal opportunities in recruitment of staff is regarded as
an EXT for the recruitment process.
4. Partner – an agent, a person or organization, not employed by the given organization, who
participates in the process.
5. Stock – a stock of things, e.g., parts or manufacturing orders that are used in the process. The
main characteristic of stock is that each process instance depletes this asset by consuming one
or more elements from it. Thus, the stock needs to be constantly refilled by some process.

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6. Technical and Informational Infrastructure – an equipment required for executing the process.
This, for instance, can be: a production line, computer, communication line, building, software
system, database.
7. Organizational Infrastructure – a unit of organization that participates in the process. This,
for instance, can be: a sales department, or software development team.
8. Means of Payment – any kind of monetary fund that is needed to pay participating
stakeholders, e.g., suppliers if such payment is considered as part of the process. We will not
use this particular asset role in this article.
9. Attraction – something that helps to “acquire” stakeholder (beneficiary, workforce, partner),
e.g., a salary, reputation, value proposition, etc.
There are only three types of relations that describe how an asset is managed by a process:
1. Acquire – a process that results in the enterprise acquiring new assets of a given type.
2. Maintain – a process that helps to keep existing assets in the right shape to be employable in
the business process instance of a given type.
3. Retire – a process that phases out assets that no longer can be used in the intended process.
Two new concepts were introduced to FEM in order to represent the business context of the
organization and connect it to specific processes [13]. These are as follows:
• External pool, which is represented by a cloud shape, see Figure 3. An external pool is a set
of things or agents of a certain type. As an example, in Figure 3, there are three such pools.
The label inside the external pool describes its content.
• External actor, which is represented by a rectangle with rounded corners. An external actor is
an agent, like a company or person, acting outside the boundary of the organization. The label
inside the external actor describes its nature. If a model element represents a set of external
actors the box has a double line, see Figure 3 which has three external actors of this kind.
External pools and external actors may be related to each other and to other elements of the
FEM diagram. Such a relation is shown by a dashed arrow that has a round dot start. More exactly:
• A business process may be connected to an external pool with an arrow directed from the pool
to the process. In this case, the process needs to be an acquire process to one or more assets.
The arrow shows that the process uses the external pool to create new elements in the asset
for which this process serves as an acquire process, see examples of such relations in Figure 3
(two dashed arrows towards the process “Student recruiting”).
• An external actor may be connected to an external pool with an arrow directed from the pool
to the external actor. In this case, the arrow shows that the external actor draws elements from
the pool. This type of relations is used to denote competitors, see, for instance, external actor
Other higher education institutions in IT related area in Figure 3.
• A business process may be connected to an external pool with an arrow directed from the
process to the pool. In this case, the arrow shows that the process provides entities to the
external pool, see examples in Figure 3 (two dashed arrows from the process “Teaching at
DSV”).
• An external actor may be connected to an external pool with an arrow directed from the actor
to the pool. In this case, the arrow shows that one of the actor's processes provides entities to
the external pool, see examples in Figure 3 (see the dashed arrow from actor High
schools/gymnasiums).
• Two pools can be connected to each other, which means that elements from one pool can
move to another based on external condition (there are no examples of such relations in
Figure 3, but we will discuss it later).
External pools and actors represent the environment in which an organization operates. External
pools can be roughly associated with markets, e.g., a labor market, etc. External actors represent
other organizations that are connected to the external pools. Dependent on the nature of the

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external pool, an external actor connected to it can be a competitor, provider, or collaborator. Note
that an external organization can be an asset, e.g., partner or customer, or an external actor. The
difference reveals itself in how the external organization is connected to the internal processes of
the given organization (i.e., the organization in focus of modeling). An external actor is always
connected via an external pool. If needed, an arrow that connects an external pool to some other
element can be supplied with a label to clarify the condition on when or why the elements can be
added to or withdrawn from the pool.
To make the work of building a fractal model more systematic, FEM uses archetypes (or
patterns) from which a particular model can be built. An archetype is a template defined as a
fragment of a model where labels inside ovals (processes) and rectangles (assets) are omitted, but
arrows are labelled. Instantiating an archetype means putting the fragment inside the model at hand
and labelling ovals and rectangles; it is also possible to add elements absent in the archetype, or
omit some elements that are present in the archetype.
FEM has two types of archetypes, a process-assets type and an asset-processes type; there is
only one archetype of the latter type. A process-assets archetype represents the kinds of assets that
can be used in a given category of processes. The asset-processes archetype shows the kinds of
processes that are aimed at changing the assets. The whole FEM graph is built by alternative
application of the two types of archetypes in a recursive manner. Actually, the term fractal in the
name of our modeling technique points to the recursive nature of the model; for more detailed
explanation, see [11].
4 Structural Couplings of DSV
In this section, we will develop a FEM for our business case that will allow us to identify to which
elements of the external environment our department, DSV, is structurally coupled. We start with
Figure 3 that shows some structural couplings, and then extend the model to reveal more structural
couplings. For discovering structural couplings, we will use the semi-formal rules from [13],
extending the set when necessary.
We start with analyzing Figure 3 that represent several main components of DSV’s business
activities. It has Teaching at DSV as a main process, and Students as its main beneficiary who gets
value for which somebody is willing to pay. In most cases, it is paid by the Swedish state. It also
has three important assets, Teachers, Curriculum, and Stockholm Campus. Students are acquired
by the Student recruiting process, which draws potential students from two external pools, one is
people with high school (American term) or Gymnasium (Swedish term) degree, and the other is
people with a BS degree who want to get a MS degree. These pools are connected to external
actors that add to the pools (providers) or draw from the same pools (competitors). Note that the
same actor may be both a provider and a competitor, as shown in Figure 3, see external actor Other
higher education institutions in IT-related area.
The teaching process produces graduates that fill two external pools: (1) specialists looking for
a job, and (2) bachelor graduates who want to get a MS degree. These pools are connected to
external actors that add to or draw from these pools.
Asset Curriculum is managed by the Curriculum development process. Besides managing
curriculum, the process manages two other assets that are used in Student recruiting, namely:
Selection criteria that to some extent control recruiting (hence EXT – executable template), and
Explicit value proposition for students in the form of program descriptions in brochures and on the
Internet. The latter serves as an Attraction for students. Beside the explicit attraction, we put in the
model a “tacit” attraction, which is shown by the dotted border of this asset. This attraction may
or may not be included in the explicit value proposition, but it exists in the minds of the potential
students, e.g., prospects of good job and life in a capital city.

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4.1 Structural Coupling Related to Inbound Pools
We will use the rule defined in [13] to identify structural couplings related to the inbound pools.
The rule is defined in the following manner:
If in a FEM of an organization:
1. there is an essential process, which is not easy to remove, and
2. this process has an essential asset with high rate of depletion, which needs to be constantly
filled, and which is not possible or not easy to remove or substitute, and
3. an Acquire process for this asset is connected to an external pool from which it is getting new
elements to fill the asset,
then the organization is structurally coupled to the pool.
The teaching process is a primary process, which is essential for DSV, and it needs to constantly
draw potential students from two external pools; this should be done each year as the existing
students at DSV finish their education and cease to be part of the Student asset. Therefore, the
external pools from which the new students are drawn satisfy the above rule. Thus, DSV is
structurally coupled to two inbound pools as it depends on the size and the quality of elements in
them.
In addition to the above rule, [13] presents a rule of indirect structural coupling that is defined
in the following manner:
If an organization is structurally coupled to an external pool, it may also be structurally coupled
to the actors that fill this pool, or draw from the pool (e.g., competitors).
According to this rule, DSV might be structurally coupled to high school/gymnasium and to
other institutions of higher education. Whether this is the case, depends on the size of the pool and
the strength of the competition. According to the quoted statement of Luhmann [18], the system
deliberately limits the number of structural couplings and uses them as information channels to the
rest of the environment. Thus, connection of external inbound pools to DSV is a fact, but whether
it structurally coupled to the providers and competitors is a question that needs to be answered.
We will return to this question later in the article.
4.2 Structural Couplings Related to the Outbound Pools
Paper [13] does not give full definition of structural coupling related to the outbound pools, i.e.,
pools to which process of the given organization adds elements, but just mentions that it can be
formulated in the same way as for inbound pools. Thus, the definition can be formulated in the
following way:
If in a FEM of an organization, there is a process that constantly adds elements to an external
pool then the organization could be structurally coupled to external agents that draw from this
pool, and also to the external agents that add to the pool.
The logic behind this rule is simple. The outbound pool may have a limitation on its size. The
limitation depends on the agents that draw from the pool, i.e., on their capacity of consuming the
elements from the pool. Also, if there are other agents adding to the pool, it can create a situation
of competition regarding which elements have more chances to be consumed. The rate of
consumption from the pool will affect the rate at which the elements can be added, and thus will
set a limit on the organization’s growth.
For our DSV department, there are two outbound pools: people looking for a job, and BS
graduates looking for MS studies. Through the first pool, DSV is structurally coupled to the
employers of IT specialists, and, potentially, to other institutions of higher education that prepare
the same kind of specialists. The potentiality may become the fact when the rate of consumption
from the pool slows down and/or the IT employers start to prioritize the graduates from other
institutions.

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4.3 Structural Coupling to Geographical Location
Paper [13] does not give any rule related to geographical location. However, the fact that DSV is
located in Stockholm has a major impact on the number of students seeking enrollment in the DSV
programs. Desire to live and study in Stockholm serves as an essential motivation for the
candidates choosing DSV instead of its competitors in other parts of Sweden. This was confirmed
by two investigations completed by our BS and MS students who interviewed the first-year
students from DSV programs.
FEM does not have special means to identify geographical location. Thus, the rule needs to refer
to something outside the model. The proposed rule is expressed as follows:
If the major activities in an essential process for the organization are carried out in a geographical
location and cannot be moved to another location without substantial disturbance of the
organization’s functioning, then the organization is structurally coupled to this geographical
location.
The scope of geographical location depends on the process in question. For instance, for DSV,
changing the place of the campus does not disturb operations, as long as it is in the Stockholm
region. This has been done before without much disturbance. For other organizations, the meaning
of geographical location can be different, it can be a town, city, country, or continent. The reason
why changing the location for activities of a process may disturb the business depends on what the
organization does. For DSV, disturbance, in the first place, will lead to losing the attraction for the
students having a big city life. It would force DSV to compete with peripheral institutions in the
IT domain. In the second place, not all teachers would like to move, but it is much lesser problem,
new ones could be hired.
Note that being subjected to harder competition when losing an established base can serve as a
sign of structural coupling to a geographical location for other types of organization as well. The
reasons can be the access to the workforce, or any other resources that are needed for proper
functioning.
4.4 Structural Coupling to Upper Management and Regulators
In paper [10], we have suggested that in addition to structural couplings related to pools and
geographical location, DSV is structurally coupled to the upper layers of management system, i.e.,
System 3, 4, and 5 in VSM terms. More specifically, DSV is coupled to Stockholm University and
to the Swedish state. This type of structural couplings is not covered by the rules presented in [13].
For this end, we will extend the model in Figure 3 with new elements, see Figure 4. To avoid
overcomplication of the model, we omit some elements from Figure 3 that are not relevant to the
current discussion. In particular, we remove all elements related to the external pools, and also
assets Teachers, and Stockholm campus.
In Figure 4, there are four new assets, each playing a role of EXT, i.e., assets that control the
processes to which they are connected. Beside these assets, Figure 4 depicts the processes that
manage them. Three of these EXT assets, in Figure 4, have light aquamarine background. This
background color indicates that, though the assets are used in internal processes, they are managed
by external organizations. In Figure 4, the processes that manage these assets are also marked with
the light aquamarine color to show that they are not part of DSV. To further clarify the nature of
the external assets and processes, we use border colors to identify to which organization these
assets and processes belong to. This approach was suggested in [24] that deals with
multiorganizational business processes. More specifically, the green border identifies assets and
processes that belong to Stockholm University (SU), while the blue border identifies the assets
and processes that belong to a Swedish governmental office, namely, the Swedish Higher
Education Authority (SHEA) [25].

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Figure 4. FEM of DSV extended with externally created assets
Having an asset of EXT type created by a third party does not automatically imply that the
creator belongs to the structural couplings of the organization. An organization can choose to use
such an asset because of its fitness to the process at hand, e.g., accept a project management
methodology. In this case, the structural coupling might not exist. The structural coupling appears
when the organization is obliged to use this EXT asset (for instance, according to governmental
regulations) and need to report on the usage and/or can be subjected of a “surprise” inspection
from the creator of the asset. From the VSM point of view, this happens when the creator belongs
to the upper management of the given organization, directly, or somewhere in an upper layer of
VSM recursive decomposition. However, a structural coupling to an external asset creator does
not need to be a coupling to the management. An organization can voluntary choose to certify
itself for something with a third party, and use this certification as part of its offering to the
customers. Such certification may include the obligations for back reports, and allowing
inspections.
In Figure 4, asset Planning documents created by SU dictates what resources are available for
DSV to conduct teaching (including the number of students that can be enrolled). From the point
of view of VSM, it is created by System 3 of the university. DSV has an obligation to report on
the achievements related to the use of these resources, which is represented in Figure 4 by assets
labeled as Reports. Other EXT assets created by external parties concern policies that affect
curriculum development and conducting the teaching process. From the VSM point of view, these
assets are produced by System 5 of Stockholm University and Swedish government respectively.
DSV is not required to report on following these policies, but should expect that an inspection to
check the situation can happened at any time. One of the examples of such inspections is discussed
in this article.
Summarizing the discussion above, we can formulate a new rule on structural coupling in terms
of FEM, and without references to VSM, in the following way:

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If in a FEM of an organization, there is an EXT asset that is created by a third party, and the
organization needs to produce reports related to this asset back to this party, or/and can expect
an inspection to check the compliance of processes related to this asset, then the organization
could be structurally coupled to the third party from which the asset originated.
Whether the structural coupling takes place depends on how easy it is to comply to it, and how
important this asset is for the business. For instance, if the external certification does not work
sufficiently well for attracting customers, the structural coupling may not exist. As we show in an
example in Section 5, governmental certification is essential, which strengthen the argument of
DSV being structurally coupled to the Swedish government. The rule above corresponds to the
rule in [4] that states that in a heavily regulated markets, an organization is structurally coupled to
the regulators.
4.5 Analysis of Structural Couplings of DSV
A summary of structural coupling of DSV is presented in Figure 5. This diagram is similar to what
was presented in [10]; however, the reasons why a certain element of DSV environment is
considered a structural coupling are derived from the FEM diagrams in Figure 3 and Figure 4,
rather than from a diverse set of rules related to input/output, VSM, and geographical location.
Figure 5. Structural couplings of DSV
In the subsections below, we investigate the nature of the connection between DSV and its
structural couplings based on investigations completed by our MS and BS students.
4.5.1 DSV – People looking for higher education in IT field
Investigation shows that DSV is relatively anonymous among students graduating from the
Swedish high schools/gymnasiums. The reason they choose to enroll are:
• Content of the programs is related to IT,
• Prospects of a good job,
• Campus in Stockholm, that is, life in a capital city,
• Being part of Stockholm University,
DSV
People looking for
higher education in
IT field
Employers
Stockholm region
Stockholm
University (SU)
Swedish Higher
Education Authority
(SHEA)
Inbound
pools
Via outbound pools
Geographical
location
Via an externally
created EXT asset
that is mandatory for
DSV to use
Via an externally
created EXT asset
that is mandatory
for DSV to use

74
• Less technical program than with some competitors, and lesser requirement on hard science
subjects, such as mathematics.
From the above list, we can see that most of the identity DSV has for potential students is
inherent identity from its other structural couplings, i.e., employers (prospect of good jobs),
Stockholm, and Stockholm University. The last bullet above refers to the DSV competitors, which
we have not included as a structural coupling; the reason being that DSV has its own niche, due to
structural coupling to Stockholm and substantial demand for IT specialists in the labor market in
general. The niche is strengthened via less technical programs, which differentiates DSV from
other competitors in Stockholm. This position makes DSV not structurally coupled to the
competitors, at least for now.
Regarding this structural coupling, the identity management goal consists of attracting enough
prospected students to enroll to the courses who have a potential to finish them. DSV has no
influence on the pool of potential students. It lacks the means and desire to affect the pools quantity
or quality. What it does instead, it adjusts itself to the qualitative and quantitative changes in the
pool, thus, taking a passive role in this structural coupling. Examples of such adjustments will be
discussed in the next section.
4.5.2 DSV – Employers of IT-related staff
From a survey among DSV alumni conducted by the DSV administrative unit, most of the
graduates find it easy to get a job after finishing a DSV program. Moreover, many of the students
find a job before defending the thesis. Some of them return later to complete the thesis projects.
Others never bother to get a formal diploma. Our master students conducted several interviews
with recruiters who work on behalf of IT organizations. From these interviews, it followed that
neither of the recruiters knew anything about DSV, but knew about Stockholm University, which,
partly means that:
• There is no negative information about DSV.
• In the context of no positive information on DSV, decision to promote a candidate is done
based on:
- DSV belonging to Stockholm University,
- the content of the educational program,
- and grades a candidate has received during the examinations.
Thus, even from the point of view of the employers, most of the identity is inherited from
Stockholm University, ensuring a certain level of quality, the rest comes from the content of the
educational program.
Regarding this structural coupling, the identity management goal consists of providing
employable graduates, which is not very difficult considering the current deficit of qualified IT
staff available for employment. DSV has no influence on what is happening inside the
organizations that employ its graduates. DSV does not facilitate the students getting knowledge
that can bring a radical change in IT development and/or usage of IT in the industry. It rather
concentrates on the students acquiring enough contemporary IT-related knowledge and skills to
fill the entry positions in the industry. The latter means taking a passive role in this structural
coupling adjusting itself to what is happening in the industry. Examples of such adjustments will
be discussed in the next section.
4.5.3 DSV – Stockholm region
As was discussed in Section 4.3, DSV is structurally coupled to Stockholm region, as this
geographical location clearly distinguish it from the competitors that operate on the same inbound
pools. Stockholm provides the students with a life of a big city, and students consider this as having
a certain value.

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DSV has not much opportunity to affect what is happening in Stockholm, or make an internal
change which will better adjust DSV to changes in the region. For instance, DSV does not have a
possibility to improve the housing situation for the students. Moreover, it does not have much
means to do anything against increasing level of criminal activity in Stockholm, excluding security
measures in its own campus. Thus, no special identity management goal could be assigned in
relation to this structural coupling. If suddenly Stockholm becomes an obstruction instead of
attraction for the potential students, DSV would find itself in a completely different situation
against its competitors, and will need to deal with it, not only with the situation in Stockholm.
Also, DSV has no autonomy on decisions related to this structural coupling, as it is obliged to
follow the decisions made by Stockholm University:
• mainly campus-based education (though some distance education is allowed), and
• Stockholm University is situated in Stockholm.
4.5.4 DSV – Stockholm University
Stockholm University (SU) functions as a management system for DSV in terms of VSM. In
particular, SU regulates the DSV educational activity via a number of parameters, including the
number of enrolled students for which DSV can get financial compensation, see Figure 4. It does
not mean that DSV is fully controlled by Stockholm University. There are negotiations on
resources and responsibilities between DSV and Stockholm University, typical for the relations
between System 1 and System 3 of VSM. Regarding this structural coupling, identity
management goal consists of producing the quantitative (e.g., the number of enrolled, and
examined students) and qualitative (e.g., level of grades received by DSV’s students during the
examinations) results in exchange to the resources obtained from Stockholm University. This
coupling is more symmetric than the previous ones, though some decisions of Stockholm
University are non-negotiable. Also, Stockholm University as a management system has rights to
make inspections (System 3* in terms of VSM) to see how everything functions “on-the-floor”.
The inspections can also include how well DSV follows policies designed by Stockholm
University, see Figure 4. In terms of VSM, Stockholm University also includes System 5 which is
responsible for policies development. Therefore, there is an additional goal of identity
management related to Stockholm University, namely, complying with Stockholm University
policies.
4.5.5 DSV – Swedish Higher Education Authority
Swedish Higher Education Authority (SHEA) is responsible for the quality of higher education in
Sweden. Thus, it both creates rules and policies, and it can inspect how each institution complies
with them. The influence of state-wide policies on teaching at DSV is presented in Figure 4. There
is direct influence, and indirect influence through the policies developed by Stockholm University.
Regarding this structural coupling, the identity management goal is to comply with policies and
regulations coming from SHEA. An example related to this goal is discussed in the next section.
4.6 Summary of Structural Couplings
Table 2 summarizes relationships between DSV and each of the structurally coupled elements of
its environment. Each coupling is analyzed according to five categories; each category has its
column in the table. The first category shows how this coupling has been discovered in the FEM
diagram, while the second gives a business term used to identify the relationship. The next three
categories are related to identity management of the structural coupling, goal for management,
whether the DSV behavior in this relationship is passive, active or neutral, and what types of
actions DSV completes as a reaction on changes, or when it tries to influence changes itself.

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Table 2. Summary of Structural couplings of DSV
Structural
coupling
1. FEM
diagnose
2. Business
term
3. Identity
management goal
4. Role in
coupling
5. Reaction/
influence type
DSV – People
looking for
higher
education in IT
field
Inbound
pools
Buyers in the
market of
higher
education
Attracting enough
students to enroll who
have a potential to
finish
Passive
Adjust itself to
changes in
quantity and
quality of the
pools
DSV –
Employers of
IT-related staff
Outbound
pools
Buyers in the
labor market
of IT
specialists
Providing employable
graduates
Passive
Adjust itself to
the changing
demands
DSV –
Stockholm
region
Essential
asset
bounded to
location
Geographical
region
None
Neutral
Do nothing (until
there is a crises)
DSV –
Stockholm
University
External
producer of
EXT assets
Management
Producing the
quantitative and
qualitative results in
exchange to the
resources obtained.
Follow SU policies
Symmetrical,
but more
passive than
active
Negotiate, adjust
itself
DSV – Swedish
Higher
Education
Authority
External
producer of
EXT assets
Regulator
Comply to policies
defined by the state
Passive
Adjust itself to
the policy
demands
5 Using the Identity Model for Analyzing Past Decisions
In this section, we analyze past decisions taken by DSV that are related to identity management.
The cases represent identity management in relation to all structurally coupled elements of the
environment. The cases are summarized in Table 3 that shows which structural couplings each
case concerns (second column), and the nature of the change (third column). Note that actions
listed in the third column reflect only the primary objective of the change; other parts were adjusted
to this change as well.
Table 3. Summary of cases
Case name
Related to structural
coupling to
Nature of the change
1. Introducing international MS
programs
People looking for higher
education in IT field; SU
Changing teaching language to English in
Master level education and developing new MS
programs
2. Introducing a new process for
BS and MS thesis projects
SHEA – Swedish Higher
Education Authority
A new process established with a set of
responsibilities defined for different groups of
academic staff. People trained to work
differently. New technology introduced
3. Dealing with decreasing
levels of students' academic
preparedness
People looking for higher
education in IT field
Changing teaching methods and utilizing new
technology
4. Introducing Bologna Process
recommendations
SU; SHEA; Employers
of IT-related staff
Reducing the number of courses, while
remaining relevant to Employers
5. Introducing distance MS
programs
People looking for higher
education in IT field;
Stockholm Region
Changing teaching methods and using new
technology

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5.1 Introducing International MS Programs
This story concerns structural coupling between DSV and buyers in the higher education market
(People looking for higher education in IT field), and it is related to introduction of international
MS programs taught in English at DSV at the end of 1990th and the beginning of 2000. Two
aspects characterized the Swedish situation in this period:
• IT related boom that "sucked" many potential students to the industry. Students that started
DSV programs were leaving as the industry offered them employment with quite high wages
without demanding much education and skills.
• A demographic dip at the edge of 19, which is the graduation age of Swedish Gymnasium.
As the result, the enrollment of students decreased, and DSV faced the dilemma: decrease its
academic staff or find another way to attract enough students to increase the enrollment. The
solution taken was to attract students that were hindered to be enrolled before, namely international
students in general, and from the developing countries in particular. Before that point in time, all
education at DSV was carried out in Swedish. Therefore, an international student needed to spend
one year for studying Swedish to be able to enroll. Also, at that time, the education was free for
everyone, independently of nationality and/or place of residence.
Introducing the international MS program was not difficult, as:
• Practically all DSV courses used English reading books and articles. Therefore, there was no
need to search for different reading material.
• Practically all academic staff could communicate in academic English without hindrance.
Thus, the change did not require hiring new staff, or any special training of the existing staff. The
changed to English in MS courses remained at DSV from this period. However, the enrollment of
international students from the developing countries, like India, China, Pakistan, while substantial
in the beginning, greatly diminished at around 2012, when the Swedish government introduced
fees for the students coming outside EU. By that time, however, the demographic dip has planned
out, and IT boom went through the bust, which returned the students who left their education back
to school.
From the point of view of FEM diagram in Figure 2, the changes concerned two assets
Curriculum and Selection criteria. Changing the Selection criteria also meant that the detailed
structure of the pool from which the students were drawn have changed, which is represented in
Figure 6, where the left-hand side shows the pool before the change and the right-hand side – after
the change.
Figure 6. Changes in the structure of an inbound pool
5.2 Introduction of a New Process for BS and MS Thesis Projects
This story concerns structural coupling between DSV and Swedish Higher Education Authority
(SHEA), or rather forgetting the importance of this coupling. In 2011, SHEA completed an
inspection of DSV educational activity. The goal of the inspection was checking the quality of the
education. In the past, an inspecting commission looked at the educational processes as such. This
time, the commission had chosen to look only at the results of the thesis process. A number of
completed thesis reports were chosen in an arbitrary manner and read by the members of the

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commission. Unfortunately, some of the master thesis they had chosen were of low quality. In
short, the theses that the commission analyzed had neither proper structure, nor much of content
in terms of scientific contribution.
The commission produced a report with a severe critique and demanded immediate actions
threatening to close some of the DSV’s master programs. The information went to mass media
threatening to undermine the reputation of DSV. The DSV management tried to counter this
information with the stories of high employability of the DSV graduates. The stories were true,
but had no effect on the commission, as SHEA is responsible only for the quality of education (as
they understand it), not for the employability of the students; the latter is the matter for DSV itself
to solve.
In short, not paying enough attention to SHEA as structurally coupled element of the DSV
environment led to an existential threat to DSV, comparable to the one of atom industry described
in [5]. The threat required a prompt reaction; therefore, the improvement process was hastily
started to increase the quality of the theses. The changes introduced via this improvement process
concerned assets related to the thesis courses, including new process guidelines, new technology,
staff training, and new distribution of responsibilities. The changes introduced are presented in a
FEM diagram in Figure 7, where completely new assets are marked with a special background
color. The changes gave results, the quality of the theses was improved, and the existential threat
averted. More details on the topic see in [26].
Figure 7. Changes in the thesis process
5.3 Dealing with Decreasing Levels of Students' Academic Preparedness
The level of academic preparedness of enrolled students in DSV programs gradually declined over
the last 20 years. This is a known phenomenon observed by other universities in Sweden and other
places. This phenomenon is described in details in [27]. A university needs to deal with this
phenomenon in one way or another; otherwise, a great number of enrolled students will never
finish their education.
Different institutions deal with this problem differently. For instance, our colleagues in Swedish
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) have chosen to introduce as so-called “basic year” where the
prospective students get the knowledge that they need to study an engineering program. This
allowed KTH not to introduce radical changes in the engineering programs as such. So far, DSV
has not used this method of maintaining structural coupling to the buyers in the higher education
market. Instead, the way of teaching has been gradually changed. Instead of relying on academic
preparedness of the students, teaching started to rely on connecting the material to practical
application and training.
Changes in the teaching methods, can be demonstrated on the example of course Introduction
to Databases (DB) given to the first- or second-year bachelor students, for which the first author
has served as a teacher during nine years. Usually, a database course is taught as an academic
discipline. In our case, the topics included in the course had the following order: Conceptual

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modeling (using UML or ER) for DB design, Relational DB, Synthetic DB design (converting a
conceptual model to a relational DB schema), Analytic DB design (Normalization), Relational
algebra (RA), SQL, Transaction Management. Besides lectures and tutorials, the course included
projects where students could really learn and understand what a database was.
The sequence above includes highly abstract topics like Normalization, and RA, near the
beginning; these topics are difficult to understand for the students with less training in mathematics
and abstract thinking. To improve the situation for these students, the order has been changed so
that the students can have hands on experience with the relational database before going to the
more abstract topics. The current sequence of topics is as follows: Conceptual modeling,
Relational DB, Synthetic DB design, SQL, RA, Analytic DB design, Transaction Management,
but it can also be changed, e.g., by moving Conceptual modeling and Synthetic DB design after
SQL.
The above represents changes in the teaching methods, i.e., assets of type EXT. To make the
change more effective, we also made changes in the technology employed by designing and
introducing in teaching practice a tool called SQL Tutor [28]. The tool gives quick feedback to the
students completing SQL assignments. In terms of FEM, this type of change can be represented
by adding new assets of the Infrastructure type.
5.4 Introducing Bologna Process Recommendations
This story concerns revision of the structure of DSV education according to Bologna Process
recommendations. Though the decision was taken on the governmental level, its implementation
is related to the structural coupling between DSV and Stockholm University, which ultimately
made the decision to implement Bologna recommendations. Before that, DSV had a two steps
educational program: (1) a four-year candidate program and (2) a one-year master program. Most
of the students took only the first step and went to work in the industry. According to the Bologna
recommendations, the steps were redefined as: (1) a three-year bachelor program, and (2) a two-
year master program.
The situation of enrollment did not change drastically after the change. Still, most of the enrolled
students finished only the first step and went to work in the industry. The actual result was that the
first step became one year shorter. As the result, DSV needed to diminish the number of courses
given to the undergraduate students. When deciding of what to cut, the structural coupling to
Employers of IT-related staff had been taken into consideration. The subjects that were considered
of high demand by Employers remained in the curriculum, e.g., knowledge of programming
language Java, while other subjects, like other programming languages, disappeared from the list
of mandatory courses. The latter makes the graduates less of generalists and, therefore, it may
negatively affect the industry in the long run.
Note that in terms of FEM, the biggest change here concerns asset Curriculum in Figure 3 and 4.
5.5 Introducing Distance MS Programs
During the last years, DSV introduced and/or tried to introduce several distance programs on the
MS level. The motivation was not directly related to identity management, but rather to trying to
employ new technology in higher education. The main policy of SU at that time was, and still is,
that the university prefers campus education.
Introduction of distance MS programs can be analyzed from the identity management
perspective in two ways. Firstly, it can be seen as a way to increase a pool from which DSV draws
MS students, see Figure 8. Secondly, it can be considered as an attempt to overcome limitations
connected to structural coupling to Stockholm Region, though it could not be done fully due to the
SU preference to run campus education. There were also some expectations that distance education
might require less resources than the campus one, but these expectations have not been realized in
full.

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Figure 8. Extending the pool from which the students are drawn – from left to right
The possibility to introduce distance programs is connected to new technology that facilitates
online education. Besides using new technology (an asset in terms of FEM), introducing distance
education required changing the ways of teaching (EXT type of assets). Here, our previous work
on simulated apprenticeship tested in the campus education [29] showed to be of use. Though,
performance gains could not be achieved in full, the experience of conducting courses online
showed to be quite useful when the whole education was forced to go online because of the COVID
pandemic. Academics with the experience of running online courses found it easier to adjust to the
new situation than those who did not have this experience. The forced experiment to go online
also totally dismissed the myth that an online course requires less teachers’ time than the campus
ones. The test showed that the opposite was true, despite that some time, like giving lecturers, can
be saved through prerecording them.
DSV tried several distance MS programs: Information and Communication Technologies for
the Developing world (ICTD), IT Project Management (ITPM), Open eGovernment and Decision
Support and Risk Analysis (DSRA). Only the last two programs survived so far. The reasons for
DSV not being successful with the first two programs are related to identity, and they are explained
below.
Opening the ICTD program was the result of the DSV management being interested in the topic
and the Swedish government deciding to provide extra support for this area. The latter resulted in
that extra money could be obtained for the program development. The ICTD program was closed
several years ago due to the following two factors:
1. Only EU citizens and residents could enroll to this program free of charge; the citizens of the
developing countries, who might be more interested in the program, needed to pay. This
resulted in the number of enrolled students being too small to justify having the program. The
opening of the program did not take into consideration the size of the pool from which the
students were drawn. It turned out to be too small.
2. There is a special requirement for having an MS program from Stockholm University (a
structural coupling). Namely, the department needs to have the subject of an MS program
included in its research areas. The latter ensures that there are enough senior members of staff
to supervise MS theses. As the management was unsuccessful in convincing enough senior
researchers to enter the area, the program was stopped. The same reason was behind closing
the ITPM program, though it attracted quite a lot of students to be enrolled.
5.6 Summary
In Section 5, we analyzed a number of examples of past decisions related to identity management
understood as maintaining structural couplings. Most of these examples had positive motivation –
to restore the balance after discovering changes in the structurally coupled elements. Other
examples showed that the lack of understanding of some structural couplings created a threat to
the department’s business activities.
Not all decisions in the examples were motivated by explicit or implicit desire to maintain
structural couplings. Some of them were motivated by other reason, e.g., desire to exploit new
technology, or personal ambitions of management or academic staff. However, those decision that

81
were in line with the existing structural couplings showed to be more successful than those that
did not properly consider the importance of one of the structural couplings. This shows the need
to test all proposed changes on how they might affect the existing structural couplings before
deciding. This is exactly what System 5 of VSM is envisioned to do.
Note that we have not analyzed all past DSV decisions related to identity management. We have
just chosen enough examples to cover various structural couplings that DSV has.
6 Generalization
In the previous sections, we have presented examples of identifying structural couplings based on
FEM diagrams of an organization. We have also analyzed past decisions related to maintenance
of these structural couplings, which, according to [5], constitute identity management in an
organization. Based on the analysis of the example and our previous works related to structural
couplings [12], [13], in this section, we suggest a generic procedure for identifying and managing
structural couplings. The rationale behind generalization, based on only one example, is as follows.
As was pointed out in [15], researchers on their own cannot fully validate a solution/artefact
created in a Design Science project. This can only be done if the practitioners adopt the
solution/artefact in their practice. One of the goals for the authors for writing this article was to
facilitate such adoption. Just following an example might be a difficult task for a practitioner,
especially in a different domain. That is why a generalization, however preliminary, needs to be
undertaken in order to disseminate the results and encourage early adopters to try the
solution/artefact in their practice.
The generic procedure can also be used as a tool for developing a specific set of rules for identity
management in a particular domain, different from the domain of higher education. As the
procedure is a generalization of the presented example, the example itself can be considered as a
demonstration of the generic procedure. Thus, the status of the procedure becomes more solid than
if it were just theoretically developed, but not tested on any example.
The generic procedure consists of the following steps:
1. Build a FEM of an organization in question paying special attention to representing essential
assets that need constant refilling, external pools and agents, EXT assets created by external
organizations, critical for the business assets and partners that are managing these assets.
2. Following a set of rules summarized in Table 4, detect potential structural couplings that the
organization may have. Table 4 encompasses the rules from [13] and the ones added in Section
4. The last rule has been created based on [4], we do not have examples for this rule in [13]
or this work, but a case that follows this rule is presented in [30].
3. Investigate whether the indicated potential structural couplings are, in fact, structural
couplings. For pool related couplings, determine whether the coupling is to the pool or/and to
the external agents connected to the pool. Retrospective analysis of past decisions that affected
the identified elements could be of help here.
4. Devise a strategy for maintaining structural couplings. Suggestions for this step are presented
in Table 5. They are based on our understanding and interpretation of management literature
that is based on a system theoretical perspective, such as [1], [2], [4], and [20]. This table only
presents examples of actions aimed at maintaining identity, not the extensive list to choose
from.
5. If some structural couplings, which currently exist, present a high risk for the business,
consider changing the strategy so that the undesirable couplings become weaker and not
important in the long run. Alternatively, have a recoupling strategy to employ when there is a
real danger.
6. Check any decision that can affect structural couplings from the point of view of the strategy
developed. See to that all structural couplings are maintained; as an action aimed at
maintaining a specific structural coupling may negatively affect another structural coupling.
FEM diagrams can be used to understand how the implementation of the decision will affect

82
structural couplings, and also which assets will need changes; see examples of such
considerations in Figures 6–8.
Table 4. Rules for detecting structural couplings
#
Rule
Name, sources and examples
1
If in a FEM of an organization:
1. there is an essential process, which is not easy to
remove, and
2. this process has an essential asset with high rate of
depletion, which needs to be constantly filled, and
which is not possible or not easy to remove or
substitute, and
3. an Acquire process for this asset is connected to an
external pool from which it is getting new elements
to fill the asset,
then the organization is structurally coupled to the
pool or/and to agents connected to this pool.
Inbound pool coupling
[13], Section 4.1
2
If in a FEM of an organization there is a process that
constantly adds elements to an external pool then the
organization could be structurally coupled to external
agents that draw from this pool, and also to the
external agents that add to the pool.
Outbound pool coupling
[13], Section 4.2
3
If the major activities in an essential for the
organization process happen in a geographical
location and cannot be moved to another location
without substantial disturbance of the organization
functioning, then the organization is structurally
coupled to this geographical location.
Section 4.3
4
If in a FEM of an organization, there is an EXT asset
that is created by a third party, and the organization
needs to produce reports related to this asset back to
this party, or/and can expect an inspection to check
the compliance of processes related to this asset, then
the organization could be structurally coupled to the
third party from which the asset originated.
Regulator/Management,
Section 4.4
5
If in a FEM of an organization:
1. there is an essential asset, which is impossible or
difficult to substitute by some other (e.g., similar)
asset, and
2. one or several processes that are used to manage
this asset, i.e., Acquire, Maintain or Retire, have a
Partner asset that is difficult or impossible to
remove or substitute,
then the organization is structurally coupled to the
Partner asset.
Essential partner, [13]
6
If in a FEM of an organization:
1. there is a beneficiary asset in a main process,
2. that also plays a partner role for acquire process for
a stock asset that initiates instances of the main
process (e.g., a stock of manufacturing orders),
3. and the beneficiary asset consists of one or very
few elements, but as a partner contributes to the
major part of the stock mentioned in condition 2,
then the organization is structurally coupled to the
beneficiary asset.
Essential customer, new rule based on [4], an
example is presented in [30]. Added here to
cover all types of structural couplings listed in
[4]

83
Table 5. Types of structural couplings and respective identity management
FEM Diagnostic
Structural
coupling
variants
Explanation
Potential strategy for
managing the
coupling
Examples of reaction/
influence type
1. Inbound pool
from which entities
to refill an asset are
drawn
Pool itself
(market)
Buyers (e.g., potential
customers) in the
marketplace
Appropriate explicit or
implicit (e.g., via other
structural coupling)
value proposition, as
well as providing
products and services
accordingly to the
proposition
Adjust product/services
to demand. Influence
buyers to change the
focus of their demands
towards innovative
product and services
Sellers (Potential
employees or vendors)
in the marketplace
Adjust contracts,
conditions and
processes, e.g., training,
to the changes in the
market place
Competitors
(drawing
from the
pool)
In case of hard
competition and lack of
established niche
occupied by the
organization
Differentiation, or be
as good as your
competitors
Maintain differentiation
or follow the leader, or
influence others to
follow you
Providers
(adding to the
pool)
If there is a distinct
group of providers that
could be monitored
and/or influenced
Early discovery of
trends in what
providers add or are
willing to add to the
pool
Adjust to the trends
and/or influence
providers to add
elements that are most
suitable for you
2. Outbound pool to
which the company
adds elements and
which can be
overflown
Organizations
drawing from
the pool
Buyers in the market if
pool is a market
Early discovery of
changes in demands,
finding ways of
influencing the
demands
Adjust to the trends and
needs of the buyers,
influence their demand
Cleaners if the pool is
waste
Early discovery of
changes in
technology, finding
ways of influencing
the cleaner to clean
your waste
Adjust to the trends and
needs of the cleaners,
make it easier for them
to clean
3. Essential asset
bounded to location
Geographical
location
Essential assets, such as
infrastructure,
workforce, attraction,
etc. are connected to a
certain geographical
region
Looking for trends
that may make the
coupling dangerous
for the organization
Try to decouple in time
if there is a danger
4. External producer
of essential/
mandatory EXT
assets
Upper
management
An upper management
if the organization is
part of a bigger one
Fulfill the obligations,
negotiate resources, be
ready for (surprise)
inspections
Negotiate, adjust itself
to the demands
Regulator
A body that can force
certain regulations, but
do not provide resources
Complying with
existing regulation,
influencing changes in
regulations, be
prepared for (surprise)
inspections
Complying with the
regulations, lobbing for
changes
5. Partner in one or
more processes
responsible for
managing an
essential asset
Partner
An organization that
manages an
essential/critical asset
Influencing the partner
to adapt the asset to
better suit the needs of
the organization
Discuss and argue for
changes
6. Beneficiary of a
main process + a
partner managing
initiation of the
process instances
Customer
One or several essential
customers on which the
existence of the main
process depends
Discovering the
changes in customers’
needs, influencing the
changes in customers’
demands
Changing products and
services, educating the
customers

84
7 Conclusion
The article has three major contributions. Firstly, using an example of analysis of past decisions
in an organization, we have demonstrated that the concept of structural coupling can be used as a
tool for analyzing and understanding the consequences of decisions. In particular, the following
principles can be used when making a decision that intentionally or unintentionally affects/can
affect one or more structural couplings:
• When making a decision that affects structural coupling to one of the elements of the
environment, there is a need to see how it may affect structural coupling to other elements (see
examples in Section 4.4 and 4.5).
• Making changes or allowing them to happen evolutionary while forgetting an important
structural coupling may result in an existential threat (see the example in Section 4.2).
• When considering decisions related to structural couplings, there is a need to take into
consideration the capabilities that currently exist in the organization. A decision that does not
require developing new capabilities, e.g., hiring new people, or convincing the existing staff to
change their research directions, has more chances for success than when the development of
new capabilities is required, see examples in Section 4.1 and 4.5.
Secondly, we have identified a set of structural couplings for an institution of higher education.
Though this has been done for a specific organization, the scheme presented in Figure 5 could be
applicable to other institutions of higher education as is, or with modifications, e.g., some
institutions can be structurally coupled to their competitors.
Thirdly, we have demonstrated that FEM could serve as a useful tool for identifying structural
couplings. We have compiled a set of rules that could be used for this end. Some of these rules are
taken from the previous works, others are new. Note, however, that FEM on its own, gives only
indications on structural couplings. To be able to decide whether a coupling exists, one needs to
conduct business analysis, e.g., whether the asset or process is essential for the organization. Rules,
useful for analysis, are presented in Table 4, and extended in Table 5, which also suggests possible
strategies for maintaining structural couplings.
So far, the set of rules has not been tested in a situation of new decision-making; it was only
used for analysis of the past decisions of one organization. Our future plans include finding
business cases where we can test and further develop the rules. More concrete, we are looking for
cases for analyzing past decisions as well as cases where a decision that can affect one or more
structural couplings needs to be made.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Patrick Hoverstadt for his explanations on using structural coupling for
defining organizational identity. We would also like to extend our gratitude to our former students,
Peggy Poon, Victor Svensson and My Järphed, who completed field studies interviewing our first-
year students and recruiters, as well as our department administration who provided us with the
results of a survey conducted among our graduates. The work of the first author was partly
supported by the Estonian Research Council (grant PRG1226).
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