Download Systems Theory

Systems Theory
Dr. Holly Kruse
Communication in Organizations
Systems Theory
• Focus is on relationships among
parts of system, rather than on
parts alone (as in classical
management theory).
• Relationships among people make
the group a system: whole is
greater than sum of its parts.
Cybernetics & Systems Theory
• Cybernetics: “The science of
communications and automatic
control systems in both machines
and living things” (OED).
• Cybernetic approaches see
organizational structure coming out
of the patterns of communication
within an organization.
Systems in Organizations
• Katz & Khan (1966), The Social
Psychology of Organizations.
• Argued that organizations are
fundamentally open systems that
require constant flow of
information to and from their
environment.
What is a System?
• System: a complex set of
relationships among
interdependent parts or
components.
• Study of systems in organizations
concerned with nature of parts of
system and their relationships.
Interdependence
• Interdependence is an essential
quality of systems.
• Interdependent relationships
among people in organizations is
established and maintained
through communication.
Open Systems
• Organizations are open systems.
• Do not exist in isolation.
• Unlike closed systems (e.g. watch,
cell phone, automobile piston).
• Are part of turbulent environments.
• Must work with environment to
succeed.
Open Systems
Is this an example of a closed or
open system (or systems)?
Video
Open Systems
Feedback
• Feedback: system of loops that
connects communication & action.
• Negative or deviationcounteracting: re-establishes
original goals.
• Positive or deviation-amplifying:
finds new avenues of growth.
Feedback
Contingency Theory
• Goals can be reached in many ways
(“equifinality”)
• Diverse environments and
changes/problems need unique
solutions, so…
• There’s no one best way to organize
• All ways of organizing aren’t equally
effective.
Appeal of Systems Theory
• Appeals to organizational
communication scholars because
of focus on communication
processes.
• Captures complexity of
organizational processes.
Problems with Systems Theory
• Hard to research. Hard to come up
with research design that captures
complexity of human organizing
and all its systems.
• Hard to apply in a practical way.
Remains an abstract set of
concepts.
Building on Systems Theory
• Peter Senge and “Learning
Organizations”:
• Learning organizations understand
how they function as systems;
organizations with learning
disabilities don’t.
• See book and video.
Building on Systems Theory
Karl Weick and “Sense-making” (or
“organizational information theory”):
• Organizing is about reducing
uncertainty (“equivocality”) in
information processing.
• Organizations are created in daily
interaction.
Sense-Making & Interaction
• Act: a statement or question.
• Interact: act followed by response
• Double interact: act, response, and
adjustment or other follow-up by
person who originated act.
• All organizing activities are double
interacts.
Sense-Making & Organizing
Elements of organizing:
• Enactment
• Selection
• Retention
• (Choice/Change – not in original
model)
These happen throughout process
Sense-Making & Organizing
Sense-Making & Organizing
• In process, members use routines,
rules to reduce uncertainty.
• Sense-making is retrospective:
people act first then later examine
actions to explain their meaning.
• “Loose coupling” and “theory of partial
inclusion”: illustrate difference from
classical management theory.