What is systems theory

Thus the organization comprises a unified singular system made up of these subsystems. For example, a firm is a system that may be composed of sub-systems such as production, marketing, finance, accounting and so on. As such, the various sub-systems should be studied in their inter- relationships rather, than in isolation from each other.

The system as a whole is affected by internal elements aspects of the sub-units and external elements. It is responsive to forces from the external environment. The system is considered open, as organizations receive varied forms of inputs from other systems. For example, a company receives supplies, information, raw materials, etc.

These inputs are converted to outputs that affect other systems. Closed systems Organizational behavior in which an organization is insensitive to environmental deviations. The systems approach is an external standard that measures effectiveness based on long-term growth or sustainability.

Effective systems are characterized by a steady state that systems theorists call homeostasis The ability of an organization to survive and also grow.

Homeostasis is a measure of how effective an organization is. If an organization is able to maintain homeostasis, which includes not just survival but also growth, then it is effective.

This perspective is broader and more comprehensive than the goal-attainment approach because it is not limited to measuring effectiveness as meeting goals determined by powerful internal coalitions that may or may not be propitious for the whole organization.

Most effective organizations, according to systems theory, adapt to their environments. Pfeffer and Salancik described the environment as the events occurring in the world that have any effect on the activities and outcomes of an organization. Static environments are relatively stable or predictable and do not have great variation, whereas dynamic environments are in a constant state of flux.

Because environments cannot be completely static or constantly changing, organizations have varying levels of dynamic or static environments. Organizations that exist in dynamic environments must be open systems in order to maintain homeostasis. Because dynamic environments are constantly changing, they create a lot of uncertainty about what an organization must do in order to survive and grow. The key to dealing with uncertainty is information. An open organization monitors its environment and collects information about environmental deviations that is labeled as input The feedback from its environment that an open organization collects about environmental deviations.

Input can be categorized as negative , which alerts the organization to problems that need correcting, or positive , which tells the organization what it is doing right that should be continued or increased.

Input can also be thought of as a form of feedback. The most important information is negative input, according to systems theorists, because this information alerts the organization to problems that need to be corrected.

Negative input tells the organization that it is doing something wrong and that it must make adjustments to correct the problem; positive input tells the organization that it is doing something right and that it should continue or increase that activity.

Organizations then organize and process this information to formulate solutions or responses to these changes. Mechanistic thinking was particularly critiqued, especially the industrial-age mechanistic metaphor of the mind from interpretations of Newtonian mechanics by Enlightenment philosophers and later psychologists that laid the foundations of modern organizational theory and management by the late 19th century [ 11 ]. Classical science had not been overthrown, but questions arose over core assumptions that historically influenced organized systems, within both social and technical sciences.

Whether considering the first systems of written communication with Sumerian cuneiform to Mayan numerals, or the feats of engineering with the Egyptian pyramids, systems thinking in essence dates back to antiquity. Differentiated from Western rationalist traditions of philosophy, C.

West Churchman often identified with the I Ching as a systems approach sharing a frame of reference similar to pre-Socratic philosophy and Heraclitus [ 12 ].

Von Bertalanffy traced systems concepts to the philosophy of G. While modern systems are considerably more complicated, today's systems are embedded in history. Systems theory as an area of study specifically developed following the World Wars from the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Anatol Rapoport, Kenneth E.

West Churchman and others in the s, specifically catalyzed by the cooperation in the Society for General Systems Research. Cognizant of advances in science that questioned classical assumptions in the organizational sciences, Bertalanffy's idea to develop a theory of systems began as early as the interwar period, publishing "An Outline for General Systems Theory" in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science , Vol 1, No. Where assumptions in Western science from Greek thought with Plato and Aristotle to Newton's Principia have historically influenced all areas from the hard to social sciences see David Easton's seminal development of the "political system" as an analytical construct , the original theorists explored the implications of twentieth century advances in terms of systems.

Subjects like complexity, self-organization, connectionism and adaptive systems had already been studied in the s and s. John von Neumann discovered cellular automata and self-reproducing systems, again with only pencil and paper. At the same time Howard T. Odum, the radiation ecologist, recognised that the study of general systems required a language that could depict energetics and kinetics at any system scale.

Odum developed a general systems, or Universal language, based on the circuit language of electronics to fulfill this role, known as the Energy Systems Language. Between , Robert Maynard Hutchins at the University of Chicago had undertaken efforts to encourage innovation and interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, aided by the Ford Foundation with the interdisciplinary Division of the Social Sciences established in [ 13 ]. Numerous scholars had been actively engaged in ideas before Tectology of Alexander Bogdanov published in is a remarkable example , but in von Bertalanffy presented the general theory of systems for a conference at the University of Chicago.

The systems view was based on several fundamental ideas. First, all phenomena can be viewed as a web of relationships among elements, or a system. Second, all systems, whether electrical, biological, or social, have common patterns, behaviors, and properties that can be understood and used to develop greater insight into the behavior of complex phenomena and to move closer toward a unity of science.

System philosophy, methodology and application are complementary to this science [ 2 ]. The Cold War affected the research project for systems theory in ways that sorely disappointed many of the seminal theorists. Some began to recognize theories defined in association with systems theory had deviated from the initial General Systems Theory GST view [ 14 ].

The economist Kenneth Boulding, an early researcher in systems theory, had concerns over the manipulation of systems concepts. Boulding concluded from the effects of the Cold War that abuses of power always prove consequential and that systems theory might address such issues [ 15 ].

Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a renewed interest in systems theory with efforts to strengthen an ethical view. Many early systems theorists aimed at finding a general systems theory that could explain all systems in all fields of science.

The term goes back to Bertalanffy's book titled " General System theory: Foundations, Development, Applications " from [ 6 ]. Von Bertalanffy tells that he developed the "allgemeine Systemtheorie" since in talks and since with publications. Von Bertalanffy's objective was to bring together under one heading the organismic science that he had observed in his work as a biologist.

His desire was to use the word "system" to describe those principles which are common to systems in general. In GST, he writes:. Ludwig von Bertalanffy outlines systems inquiry into three major domains: Philosophy, Science, and Technology. These operate in a recursive relationship, he explained. The terms "systems theory" and "cybernetics" have been widely used as synonyms.

Some authors use the term cybernetic systems to denote a proper subset of the class of general systems, namely those systems that include feedback loops. However Gordon Pask's differences of eternal interacting actor loops that produce finite products makes general systems a proper subset of cybernetics. According to Jackson , von Bertalanffy promoted an embryonic form of general system theory GST as early as the s and s but it was not until the early s it became more widely known in scientific circles.

Threads of cybernetics began in the late s that led toward the publishing of seminal works e. Cybernetics arose more from engineering fields and GST from biology. If anything it appears that although the two probably mutually influenced each other, cybernetics had the greater influence. Von Bertalanffy specifically makes the point of distinguishing between the areas in noting the influence of cybernetics: "Systems theory is frequently identified with cybernetics and control theory.

This again is incorrect. Cybernetics as the theory of control mechanisms in technology and nature is founded on the concepts of information and feedback, but as part of a general theory of systems;" then reiterates: "the model is of wide application but should not be identified with 'systems theory' in general", and that "warning is necessary against its incautious expansion to fields for which its concepts are not made.

Jackson also claims von Bertalanffy was informed by Alexander Bogdanov's three volume Tectology that was published in Russia between and , and was translated into German in He also states it is clear to Gorelik that the "conceptual part" of general system theory GST had first been put in place by Bogdanov. The similar position is held by Mattessich and Capra Ludwig von Bertalanffy never even mentioned Bogdanov in his works, which Capra finds "surprising".

Cybernetics, catastrophe theory, chaos theory and complexity theory have the common goal to explain complex systems that consist of a large number of mutually interacting and interrelated parts in terms of those interactions. Cellular automata CA , neural networks NN , artificial intelligence AI , and artificial life ALife are related fields, but they do not try to describe general universal complex singular systems.

The best context to compare the different "C"-Theories about complex systems is historical, which emphasizes different tools and methodologies, from pure mathematics in the beginning to pure computer science now. Since the beginning of chaos theory when Edward Lorenz accidentally discovered a strange attractor with his computer, computers have become an indispensable source of information.

One could not imagine the study of complex systems without the use of computers today. CAS ideas and models are essentially evolutionary. Accordingly, the theory of complex adaptive systems bridges developments of the system theory with the ideas of 'generalized Darwinism', which suggests that Darwinian principles of evolution help explain a wide range of phenomena.