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General Systems Theory

The theory was proposed by the scientist Ludwig von Bertalanffy in 1936, who had worked for many years as a biologist who studied related different organisms and their internal systems. He discovered that within the body of an organism, there exists several independent systems and subsystems, which work together to fulfill certain needs. Ludwig outlined that systems are of different types. They may include open system, where communication or transfer of information from one component of the system to another is allowed.  The other refers to closed system, where components within the system do not share information or materials.

According to the theory, biological systems are classified under open systems while physical systems are under closed systems. However, some physical systems may show open system characteristics. Regarding real systems that exist within the society, they are open and interact with the environment acquiring new properties. New traits acquired may lead to improvement of survival mechanisms. However, in other cases when interaction closes for a biological system, the subject may cease from existence. For example, when an organism is deprived of the oxygen in the environment, it may die immediately. Open systems consist of inputs and outputs, where outputs are all the components or materials shared from the organism or firm to the surrounding, while inputs are all those properties acquired from the surrounding. Without such components, a system cannot exist. For example, a person may be the system and the surrounding may comprise of fellow humans. In this case, the person may need to interact with other people. The output will be the formation of firms, cooperatives and unions. Ludwig developed approaches that govern the relationship between systems and their components. For example, the analytic approach, where he emphasized that in order to understand the whole system, the components need to be analyzed. If the properties of the independent subsystems in a system are determinable, then the entire system can be explained (Foster 32).

Ludwig also developed the reductionism approach; he argued that the component parts interact and determine the cause of the behavior observed in the whole system. For example, when an organization fails in terms of productivity, the workers might be the problem and, thus, the behavior or failure could be linked to them. In order to apply the reductionism approach, individuals have to downsize the whole system into smaller components, which are studied independently in order to identify the cause of certain behavior. Some behaviors can also be traced from downwards and the cause of behavior established under downward causation (Beilin 12).

Systems approach could be applied in different areas, for instance, in organizations to understand the data acquisition, processing strategies and storage. Organizations are open systems with components or subsystems, which may include employees, customers, managers. All the components exchange information in order to ensure smooth running of activities in the organization. For the case of data acquisition, the organization management has outlined requirements which may comprise of particular instructions to the required materials or data. The employees work on the instructions using materials provided to collect data from the surrounding. After obtaining the data required, the procedure of processing information begins. The process may involve the interpretation process and transformation of the data into the information required by the clients. Several components may be involved in the processing, which may include labor and machinery, for example, computers. Workers may be based on task specialization system where the data will have to pass from one station to another being modified. It will acquire new properties in every component of the system it interacts with. The final processing will ensure the data is ready to be issued to the clients. The storage process may take place before the data is processed or after processing, where it may be stored in computers or other storage components. Storage is done to ensure the data or information is not lost or does not lose the properties added. It may be in hardcopies or softcopies, where printed copies are involved in the hardcopy case (Hasher 43).

Information processing in an organization could be categorized and analyzed based on different dimensions. For example, the instructions given by the clients determine how the data will be treated. Organizations have classes where they organize particular data in relation to the instructions pertaining to its transformation into the final information. The instructions govern the type of experts required to work on the data and inputs required from the surrounding.  For instance, data requiring conduction of population census in a particular geographical area will be placed under fieldwork projects and experts will have to go to the field in the specified geographical region to count the population physically before processing the data (Foster 40).

The second dimension is the type of data. For instance, the data may be an advertisement, where the company may need to advertise itself or any other firm with the data provided. In this case, it will be categorized under the marketing category. The marketing experts in the area will then work on the data and provide the required properties. The finalized data may be stored under similar records or dispersed to the relevant companies or even used in advertising the organization to the clients. In case of storage, the file name or folder must be labeled clearly to indicate the category and specific name of the data processed and the final output (Dodge 11).

Duration required to process the data may also determine the category of data and the processing strategies. Some information may require urgent attention while others may have long duration for processing. Therefore, the workers in the organization will organize the data in folders or files according to urgency, where those having similar urgency will be categorized under one category. They will work on different experts pertaining to their instructions. Delivery or storage will be at the same time and may be in the same folder or category with different file names (Hasher 64).

The source of the information or environment that contributed the data may determine the category of the data. If it is collected from one source, it will be sorted under one category, where relationships between the data need to be established and analyzed to obtain correlation. For instance, different data may be obtained from the same country pertaining to firms and their contribution to the national revenue in the country. In this case, it could be sorted under one category for easier analysis and observation. Data from the same continent may also be sorted under the same category in order to establish particular correlation and for easy retrieval from the stored data or information (Beilin 23). 

The form of the data may also be used as a dimension towards categorizing data. Some data are in hard copy and the final output of the system requires it in hardcopy. Therefore, such information will be placed under one category and will be analyzed in a similar manner as other data in the category.  Data in soft copy will be categorized under softcopy and manipulated to the final output in the same form. However, data may be changed from one form to another and processed accordingly (Koops 21).

Organizations are open systems and allow interchange of information from one department to another. However, some may show closed system properties which impact the daily decision making process. Organizations with open system are characterized with consultation, where the general manager reaches the level of employees to collect the views regarding particular issues. He takes every view into consideration and critically involves the staff in deciding the best views and how they should arrive at decisions. Quality decisions are made in the process, and this results in improvement in the performance of the organization (Hasher 67).

Open system allows clients to contribute to the services offered by the organization. From such views, the weaknesses in the company are established. Therefore, the company will make decisions based on the clients’ views. In this case the weakness will be curbed and the organization will have competitive advantage over its competitors. However, when closed system is used, the company does not obtain views from the clients or ignore them. The decisions regarding its product improvement will rely on the manager’s ideas. This may lead to more weakness in productivity. The decisions in such case are poor and unproductive (Beilin 33).

In an open system approach, organizations make decisions when it is necessary and favorable. All the parties in the organization must be comfortable with new decisions made. In this case, the employees feel motivated to work as a team and exploit their talents. Innovativeness set in the organization is able to offer distinguished services from others. Decisions made will be of high quality, and in case they impact the employees or part of the workers negatively, they are eliminated for their interest, therefore, ensuring quality and adherence. Closed system approach favors the interest of part of the organization community, where decisions emerge from specific people. Junior workers are not allowed to complain in case the decisions affect them negatively, and this results in poor relationship in the organizations and generally poor decisions (Foster, 43).

Open system organizations take long duration to implement the decisions or determine problems affecting the organization. Therefore, it allows maximum consultation of individual components through mechanisms such as reductionism. The cause of particular behavior is established and the probable solution suggested before implementation. Decision formed will cover the problem permanently. In case of a closed system organization, the duration for making decisions is limited. Therefore, wrong decisions are implemented without actual analysis of the behavior and cause of the issues. The problem may be solved, but for short term. Hence, decisions are of poor quality (Hasher 70).

In open system organization, the subsystems are allowed to possess their own view and claim their contribution to the organization. In case of decisions, individuals are responsible for their contributions towards the decisions. Therefore, decisions are made, but later they cause poor performances, individual members are blamed for it. However, success is also accrued to the members in case their contribution resulted in quality decisions. Thus, every component will ensure it contributes to quality views that may result in quality decisions to evade future blame.  Closed system organizations have the top management to blame for every failure in the organization. Some components might contribute to poor decisions, but deny the blame. In case of success, the manager enjoys all the glory associated with success. Recognition of components in the organization will not be observed since the manager is solely responsible for the decision (Beilin 51).

Open system organizations have reference point in all decisions made in the organization. Decisions are followed from the time of implementation to the period of performance. Therefore, the components are able to establish the benefit of the decision and its contribution to the organization. It can also be evaluated if it is being applied as outline. This ensures that the decision quality is determined, and if it poor, it is eliminated or changed. Closed system organization does not provide for reference point since decisions are formed in rush. Therefore, the quality cannot be evaluated after implementation. Determining its contribution to the organization is difficult (Foster 54).

In conclusion, Systems theory outlines two types of systems which include closed, where there is no interaction of the components of the system with the surrounding, and open system, where the system components interact with the surrounding resulting in acquisition of new properties. The two approaches can be applied in analyzing different scenarios in different subjects. Organizations operate as either closed systems or open systems, which affect the quality of decisions they make.

Works Cited

Beilin, H..Fundamentals of Systems Theory. 28(2),. New York City., (2007) 191-204.

Dodge, K. A. How the Systems theory has been applied in decision making in organizations. Oxford University Press. . (2012)  3-76.

Foster, E. M. Systems Theory and factors that influence categorization of data in organizations. Yale University Press. (2010). 1454-1480.

Hasher, L., and Thomas, H. Relationships between quality decisions and opens systems. New York Publishers. (2013)., 281-281.

Koops, W. Developing organizations based on the systems theory and its approaches. Comoros University Press.  (2012). 1-88.