Traditional theories regarded organisations as autonomous and isolated from the outside world and failed to take into account many environmental influences that affect their efficiency. ‘The term Open Systems reflected the newfound belief that all organizations are unique partly because of the environment in which they operate and partly because they should be structured to adapt to unique problems and opportunities’ (Inc.com, 2014) . Hanna (1997) similarly describes an Open System as a combination of parts (or elements) with interdependent relationships and open interactions with the external environment (p. 13). Furthermore, he describes the interactions of these elements as dynamic, fundamental systems processes (Hanna, 1997). Using the attributes of Open System Theory, I will apply them to my current workplace Figtree High School (FHS), specifically to the Flametree Complex (FC) and the Sydney Distance Education High School (SDEHS) program utilised by the school. Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a biologist, was the first to formulate the principles of the general theory of systems (French & Bell, 1999). According to his definition a system is a ‘set of elements standing in interaction’ or ‘a complex of interacting elements’ (BCSSS, 2014). Webster defines a system as a ‘regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole,’ which ‘is in, or tends to be in, equilibrium’ (Bernard, 1990). The literature provides various definitions of ‘system’, however, overall the concept of system indicates interdependence, interconnectedness and interrelation between its parts within a whole (French & Bell, 1999). The Open System model ‘conceives an organisation as a combination of parts with independent relationships and op... ... middle of paper ... ...s%20Schooling%20V1%20N1%202010.pdf Nadler, D. A., Hatvany, N. G., & Nina, G. H. (1980). Frameworks for organizational behaviorManaging Organizations: Little Brown. Retrieved from http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/pi/ppf/Congruence-Model.pdf. Scott, W. R. (1992). Organizations: rational, natural, and open systems. London: Prentice-Hall International. Sundarasaradula, D., & Hasan, H. (2004). Open systems and organisation theories: A unified open systems model for explaining organisational change. Retrieved 28th of March, 2014, from http://press.anu.edu.au//info_systems/mobile_devices/ch11s03.html Thien, L. M., & Razak, N. A. (2012). A proposed framework of school organization from open system and multilevel organisation theories. World applied sciences journal, 20(6), 889 - 899. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.388.2558&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing Organizations (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Loosely Coupled Systems. Weick (1976) takes a very similar view of this organizational theory but from a slightly different perspective. He writes of the higher education institution as a “loosely coupled system”, a system that differs markedly from the organization system of a private enterprise. The basic theory is that, unlike the militaristic ideal of the “tight ship” that many private organizations have adopted, loosely coupled systems have “softer” linkages between each unit of the organization.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Kinicki, A., and Fugate, M. Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills, & Best Practices (5th Edition). McGraw-Hill. ISBN-10: 0078137209/ISBN-13: 978-0078137204, 79-124, 2011.
Boje, D. M. , Luhman, J. T. , and Cunliffe, A. L. “ A Dialectic Perspective on the Organization
Gibson, J.L., Ivancevich, J.M., Donnelly, J.H., & Konopaske, R. (2009). Organizations: Behaviors, structure, processes (13th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational theory, design, and change. 6th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A., (2004). Organizational Behavior (6th ed.). New York: McGraw- Hill/Irwin. pp. 406- 441.
Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills and best practices (customized 4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Three waves of systems theory were developed (Healy, 2005). The first wave, being General systems theory. General systems theory is about focussing on a more effective social order for the client,...
McShane, S.L. and Von Glinow, M. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior: Emerging knowledge and practice for the real world. McGraw-Hill.
Organizations must operate within structures that allow them to perform at their best within their given environments. According to theorists T. Burns and G.M Stalker (1961), organizations require structures that will allow them to adapt and react to changes in the environment (Mechanistic vs Organic Structures, 2009). Toyota Company’s corporate structure is spelt out as one where the management team and employees conduct operations and make decisions through a system of checks and balances.
...t just helping organization from current to future way but it is more in a comprehensive, strategic, systems model [9].
Organisations as machines, political systems, organisms, and flux and transformation are particularly common assumptions that are often used by managers, writers and consultants to make sense of how organizational change works. In reality most organizations use combinations of approaches to tackle change and not just one of the above, however these provide useful insights into the process of organizational change (Cameron and Green, 2012). This essay will try to make sense out of these assumptions to understand what organisational change is. By doing so, insights will be drawn on how organizational change can be managed and led.
When studying organizational theory, two different belief systems help to determine which theory stream that each individual person follows. These are a person’s ontological beliefs or epistemological beliefs. It is important to recognize how both Ontology and Epistemology apply to organizational theory, and for each person to decide where they fit inside these branches.