Open Systems Theory
Establishing external connections is imperative for the success of an organization or company. On its daily operations, an organization needs human relation. As a result, most companies and organizations adopt the open systems approach in managing business. The approach not only provides diverse resources to an organization but also helps withstand unpredictable changes in the society.
The open systems theory (OST) explains that an organization is not a self-contained entity but is strongly influenced by other groups in an environment. These groups wield key resources, as well as economic, social, and political forces, that elicit significant changes for the survival of an organization. This approach stresses the necessity of interaction with the outside environment and sees the dire need of an organization to adapt to the constant changes that occur in the environment. Failure to adapt would mean the demise of an organization.
Authors Aughton and Brien (1999) maintained “that people and their organizations must have an open and actively adaptive relationship with the contextual environment over time to ensure viability.
Since the theory seeks uniformity with the environment, any changes in the societal values or people’s attitudes could also bring major impacts and adjustments to the organization. The approach maintains that there are sustained diverse, changing social factors an organization has to struggle with.
As advocates of open systems theory, Aughton and Brien (1999) reiterated: and structures that align and realign the organization’s values with those of the extended social environment.
In their study, Aughton and Brien (1999) stressed the relation of Fred Emery’s Search Conference, a participative strategic planning process, and Participative Design, an approach that trust the transformation of traditional, bureaucratic organizations into democratic, team-based entities.
Using a large Information Technology and Telecommunications (IT&T) company, the theory was used to implement self-managing teams which have led to high levels of employee commitment and resulted to dramatic improvements in productivity and end to end customer service (Aughton & Brien, 1999).
As an integral part of social relations, the authors also applied the so-called “contextualism” thinking that people should consider circumstances and not to expect each other to behave like machines. Generally, the open systems model connotes that “an organization does not operate in isolation but in context with its social environment” (Aughton & Brien, 1999).
Over time, social values changed. Aughton and Brien (1999) recounted that organizations did not need to take into account the extended social environment during the period of Industrial Revolution until the mid-1950’s because by that time, social values were stable as values in society were widely shared. But people, their values and attitudes, family structures, and even bureaucratic constitution began to change with the threats and dangers brought by World War II and World War III.
The authors showed and explained how and why changes in people and the environment occur, and what these changes can bring to an organization striving to be successful.
Through comparison of different approaches such as mechanism versus contextualism, Aughton and Brien were able to detail the theory’s strength. They highlighted the weight on how to change to become actively adaptive as the focus of the organization and not by continuing to adapt to change.
One example cited was the case of a rural hospital transforming from “behind closed doors” planning into a more participative approach. At first, the senior management planning involves only those residents who have an active interest in the community. As a result, many inhabitants were inactively involved or having little knowledge about locally available health services. Seeing the company’s relationship with the community is reserved, the CEO began trying the participative approach for strategic planning, specifically the Search Conference, that engaged many key players from both the hospital and the community. Using the Search Conference to look into the environment, the hospital found out that there were many residents wanting and needing treatment in their own community and homes. The planning group took this into account and provided the community with technology and trained staff to treat people in their own homes. The hospital’s decision to get involved in the community yielded significant financial gains because it reduced overheads and patient “leakage” to other districts (Aughton and Brien, 1999).
why some senior managers are finding it difficult to cope in today’s changing environment is that they tend to see the world from a mechanistic standpoint, thinks that the extended social field is stable or irrelevant, and behave as though their organization is a closed system.
While open systems theory provides huge opportunities for organization to attain big success, it also comes with limitations. Like any other system theories, the use of open systems would require a trial and error. As how Aughton and Brien (1999) described, it is like trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together when one is not sure what the final picture looks like, continue working with the pieces until they fit together. If one piece does not fit rightly, then one has to try another one. But once the picture was correctly assembled and one knows where he wants to go, it is easy to develop a new picture or a desirable future even if people will change their minds.
Delving into various options and making decision as to what system theory an organization will aptly adopt in these times of constant change of people’s values and attitudes, companies and organizations must consider the open systems theory.
Reference
Aughton, P., & Brien, N. (1999). Applying Open Systems Theory for Dramatic Improvements in
Business Performance. Retrieved from http://www.amerin.com.au/bon.pdf
