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A brief look at open systems thinking
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In today’s work environment, it is important for an organization’s survival to apply open systems thinking. In short, open systems thinking is a way of looking at a complex system as a whole. A complex system cannot be divided and looked at separately if you want to improve a particular section (or department). It is the way the complex system interacts as a whole, which form the basis for which a system operates and interacts within an environment.
For example, lets say an organization faces a dilemma in the accounting department. The head of accounting discovers that the external sales department is just about to go over their budget. The accounting department contacts external sales and tells them they have no money left and are turned down for further monetary funds. This solves the accounting problem, but creates a new one in external sales. External sales had been told by the human resource department that they had a larger budget than what the accounting department had on record.
The head of accounting used closed systems thinking. The only cross department communication was looking at the problem department. An open systems model would have looked at all the departments to discover the information error received either by external sales from human resources or the information on record by the accounting department. It is the way the departments interact that in turn creates their value and functionality. This is why they cannot be viewed a separate entities.
Dr. Russell L. Ackoff, recently deceased, had been well renowned for his systems thinking. If you are interested in knowing more about open systems thinking, Dr. Ackoff left a wealth of brilliant information on the subject.
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