Interpreting Systems

Organizations are a type of social form and are systems. The system/organization is composed of four things: ideas, materials, people, and the environment. These four things vary greatly depending on the interpretation of "system" that is used to view them. Dick Buchanan has come up with four "places" from which to examine systems:

• System as a Condition. Systems are created and driven by the values therein.
• System as a Set. Systems are determined by human beings and thus are unnatural and arbitrary. Humans bring multiple points of view to the workings of the system.
• System as a Group. Systems are concerned with structure; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• System as Assemblage. The whole of the system is the sum of its parts.

You can use these four interpretations throughout to examine theories and views of organizations and their parts. How people design organizations comes out of how they think of organizations (systems). Organizations argue with each other about what an organization is.

Originally posted on Monday, February 7, 2005