Week 4 - System Approaches

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It’s week 4 now, folks, today we are going to be aware of a new metaphor that has emerged to explain organisations – Systems Metaphor. The core of this metaphor reveals the notion that an organisation is like an organism.

An organisation should be conceptualised as complex open systems requiring interaction among component parts and interaction with the environment in order to survive. There are three components of a system, hierarchical ordering, interdependence and permeability.

These components function in a system. Two types of systems have been mostly characterised and employed at the most basic level.

l  Input-throughput-output processes

l  Feedback processes

From these processes, properties including holism, equifinality, negative entropy and requisite variety can be generated through the operation of systems.

It is noteworthy that a great many theories relevant to organisational communication have been based upon system concepts. Here, I’ll briefly introduce three of them:

l  Cybernetic (Developed by Norbert Wiener)

l  Organising (Developed by Karl Weick)

l  “New Science” System

Cybernetic systems theory highlights the importance of feedback and regulation in goal-directed systems. Organising theory emphasises how organisational interaction revolves around making sense of equivocal information environments. The “New Science” system accentuates the chaotic and complex nature of “self-organising” systems.

Spinuzzi (2013) in his blog argues that sensemaking theory in organisations is often cited by people working in organisational communication, it is literally the making of sense in an organisation. Sensemaking is grounded in both individual and social activity. And it involves making sense in collective situations, usually sensemaking occurs in ambiguous, changing situations, which have characteristics including:

• Nature of problem is itself in question
• Information (amount and reliability) is problematical
• Multiple, conflicting interpretations
• Different value orientations, political/emotional clashes
• Goals are unclear, or multiple and conflicting
• Time, money, or attention are lacking
• Contradictions and paradoxes appear
• Roles are vague, responsibilities are unclear
• Success measures are lacking
• Poor understanding of cause-effect relationships
• Symbols and metaphors used
• Participation in decision-making fluid

This is what Weick interpreted in his theory of organising.

Reference:

Spinuzzi, C 2013, ‘Reading: Sensemaking in Organizations’, blog post, SPINUZZI, 13 May, viewed 10 November 2013,

< http://spinuzzi.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/reading-sensemaking-in-organizations.html >