Systems for Everything
- What is a system?
- Open vs. Closed Systems
- Key Contributers to Systems Theory
- Systems Thinking
- Systems Activity
- Relevance to Workforce Education
- Key Contributors of Chaos Theory
- Chaos Theory Definition
- Key Concepts
- Chaos Theory Activity
- Implications for Workforce Education
- Closing Thoughts
Other Key Theorists:
- Paul A. Weiss - Philosophy of organism
- Alfred N. Whitehead - Consistent Knowledge Map
Palo Alto Center - 1954
- Kenneth Boulding - social scientist
- Anatol Rapoport - mathematician
- Ralph Gerard - neurophysiologist
What makes a system a system?
"...the task of general systems theory is to find the most general conceptual framework in which a scientific theory or a technological problem can be placed without losing the essential features of the theory or the problem. The proponents of
general systems theory see in it the focal point of resynthesis of knowledge." (Rapoport, 1968)
Often, our systems have nested systems inside
1. Get out ironing board
2. Check water level in the iron
3. Plug-in the iron
4. Wait for it to heat up
Getting Ready:
1. Iron Clothes
2. Shower
3. Get Dressed
4. Brush Teeth
5. Fix Hair
1. Turn on water
2. Get out a towel
3. Check water temperature
4. Lather hair
5. Wash body
6. Shave legs
7. Rinse off
1. Stop water
2. Apply shaving cream
3. Shave with razor
4. Turn water back on
5. Rinse excess shaving cream
6. Put razor away
Reflection led to Open/Closed systems and General Systems Theory.
Historical human thinking in the early 19th & 20th centuries consisted of these ideas.
Theories were quantitative and focused on prediction and control. Treated everything like a machine. (1+1 =2)
Norbert Wiener is credited with defining Cybernetics, which mostly deals with closed systems. Also looks at the whole system, not just one part of the system.
Scientists wanted ways to explain and predict the seemingly unpredictable. (1+1 not equal 2)
Systems Theory Overview
Essentially single and double loop learning.
(organizational learning)
Emergence
Systems for Everything
Strengths as it relates to Workforce Education
Systems theory....
- Recognizes...
- interdependence of personnel
- affect of outside stakeholders on the organization
- Focuses on environment and how changes can impact the structure and functioning of an organization
- Seeks to explain Synergy and Interdependence
- Broadens the theoretical lens for viewing organizational behavior
- Offers a more comprehensive view of organizations
- Not a theory of management - instead a new way of conceptualizing and studying organizations
- Four Main Strengths
- Designed to deal with complexity
- Attempts to do so with precision
- Takes a holistic approach
- It is a theory of emergence - actions and outcomes at the organizational level emerge from actions and interactions of the individuals and stakeholders that make up the whole
Movement Activity
Goal:
- To show how interrelated parts must work together in order for the system to function.
Instructions
- Silently choose two people in the room as a reference point and stand equidistant between those two points.
Question
- How did the system change when new variables were introduced?
- Was the system able to account for those variables?
Organizations as Systems
Input - Throughput - Output
- Input - used to sustain the system or yield a productive outcome
- Throughput - system transforms the input into material or energy
- Output - system returns the product to the environment
Organizations As Systems
Feedback and Dynamic Homeostasis
- Positive feedback - move from status quo
- Negative feedback - return to status quo
- Dynamic Homeostasis - balance of energy exchange
Principal of GST
- Laws that govern biological open systems can be applied to systems of any form
Systems Theory Principals
- Parts that make up the system are interrelated
- Health of overall system is contigent on subsystem functioning
- Open systems import and export material from and to the environment
- Permeable boundaries (materials can pass through)
- Equifinality versus "one best way"
Implications
- Systems Theory is NOT a prescriptive management theory
- Attempts to widen lens through which we examine and understand organizational behavior
- The Learning Organization (Peter Senge)
- Nonsummativity (whole is greater than sum of parts)
- Interdependence (working together)
- Equifinality (not one best answer)
- Emphasizes COMMUNICATION in the Learning Process
- Organizations cannot separate from their environment
- Organizational teams or subsystems cannot operate in isolation