Systems theory of

Organization
Systems as an Alternative Perspective
• The classical management era of organizational studies was dominated by a view
of organizations as machines
- Goal : Wanted efficiency, productivity, control
- Goal : One right way
The classical approach emphasized the technical requirements of the
organization and its needs – ‘organizations without people
 The human relations movement has led to ideas on by humanizing the work
organization
-Goal : increasing production
-Goal : humanizing the work organization
The human relations approaches emphasized the psychological and social
aspects, and the consideration of human needs – ‘people without organizations’.
 The systems approach encourages managers to view the organization both as a whole and part of a larger
environment. The idea is that any part of an organization’activities affects all other parts

Attention has been focused on the analysis of organizations as ‘systems’ with a number of interrelated sub-
systems

The systems approach attempts to reconcile these two earlier approaches and the work of the formal and
the informal writers

The classical approach The Human approach

emphasized the technical emphasized the psychological
requirements of the and social aspects, and the
organization and its needs consideration of human needs

= =
Organizations without people People without Organization
Systems as an Alternative Perspective
• The systems approche looks at the whole organism
- Goal : descirbe and explain how organizations work
- Goal : Multiple ways to accomplish various goals

The systems approach encourages managers to view the organisation

both as a whole and as part of larger environement. The idea is that any
part of an organisation’s activities affects all other parts.
Systems theory

• Systems theory is not new not new and has been used in the natural
and physical sciences for a number of years. One of the founders of
this approach was the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy used the term ‘systems theory’ in an article published in 1951 and
who is generally credited with having developed the outline of General Systems Theory

Miller and Rice have likened the commercial and industrial organization to the biological
organism
Let’s us watch a video and learn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHL-l_Iz_sA
Organizational System

Inputs Processes Outputs

Outcomes, products & Services created or
Ressources &
information
or delivered by the organization
needed to supply “Throughputs
the organizational ”
system
The activities within the
organizational system that
gets work done
Organizational system
Organizational System

Inputs Outputs
People, food, Processes Pizza delivered to happy customers, profit,
ovens, pay cheks, trash in the dumpster, etc.
refrigerator, pizza or
boxes “Throughput
s”
Make the dough, cut
vegetables, make the sauce,
answer the phone, take
orders, make the pizza,
delegate tasks, etc.
Open Systems
• Organization are open to their envionment
- Permeable boundaries : information and resources flow both in and
out.
- Exchange with environment is essential for the healt of the system
- Environment are unpredictable
- Environmental scanning and boudary spanners
Holism
• Systems should be viewed as a whole, not as a collection of separate
pieces

• A system is greater than the sum of its parts (synergy).

• Those parts are interdependent and interact through mutual feedbak

processes
Interdependence

• Organization are in a dynamic, interconnected relationship with their

environement

• The subparts within the sytem are interrelated, not isolated

- The systems is made of un intersonnected subsystems

• Changes to one part of the system directly or indirectly influence the other
parts
Goals
• Goals in a system are contigent and negotiated

• Equifinality (exp : planning a trip)

1/ There is no one best way to organize
2/ All ways of organizing are not equally effective
Feedback
• Negative feedback : Seeks to correct or reduce deviations in the
system’s processes to reestablish a steady course back in the direction
of the system’s goals.
• Prositive feedbak : changes or grows the system in desired way that
amplify and enhance the system’s current processes

(exp : yelling)
Entropy
Systems tend to run down, deteriorate, and move toward disorganization
(exp appartment).

Balance : Energy, resources, and information coming into the system

help it reach homeostais or equilibruim.
Let’s us give an example

https://youtu.be/GPW0j2Bo_eY
Provided a Foudation for
• Complex Adaptative Systems (“Chaos Theory”)
• Learning Organizations
• Karl Weic’s resaerch on Lossely Couple Systems
The contengency approach
 The contingency approach, which can be seen as an extension of the systems approach, highlights possible
means of differentiating among alternative forms of organization structures and systems of management

The contingency approach showed renewed concern with the importance of structure as a significant influence on
organizational performance

 For example, the structure of the organization and its ‘success’ are dependent, that is contingent upon, the nature of
tasks with which it is designed to deal and the nature of environmental influences.
The Post Modernism Approach
Postmodernism rejects a rational systems approach to our understanding of organizations and management and
to accepted explanations of society and behavior

Highly flexible, free-flowing and fluid structures with the ability to change quickly to meet present demands
form the basis of the new organization