Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

Part I.
Key Aspects of Organization
Chapter 1.1
Organization as System and Living Organism
What we mean by organizations is indeed changing.
Peter F. Drucker (1996)
Self-organizing is the fundamental thing we need to understand
and to learn to work with.
Peter Vaill (2000)
System
An organization of any kind is a complex configuration, comprised of many interrelated
components, or elements. When the interaction between these elements is such that each
correlates with another directly or indirectly through other elements – we can talk about a higher
level, or a system. From Latin and Greek, the term system means to combine, to set up, to place
together.
Many principles, derived primarily from the study of biological systems, are often used in the
analysis of an organization as a system. One can find some of them in a book by Gareth Morgan,
Images of Organization:
• The concept of an “open system”: The idea of openness emphasizes the key relationship
between the environment and the internal functioning of a system. Environment and system
are understood as being in a state of interaction and mutual dependence. The open nature
of biological and social systems contrasts with the “closed” nature of many physical and
mechanical systems.
• Homeostasis. This concept refers to self-regulation and ability to maintain a steady state …
on the basis of what is now called “negative feedback”, where deviations from some
standard or norm initiate actions to correct the deviation.
• Requisite variety. This idea states that internal regulatory mechanisms of a system must
be as diverse as the environment with which it is trying to deal.
• Equi-finality. This principle captures the idea that in an open system there may be many
different ways of arriving at a given end state. Living systems have flexible patterns of
organization that allow the achievement of specific results from different starting points,
with different resources, and in different ways.
• System evolution. The capacity of a system to evolve depends on an ability to move to
more complex forms of differentiation and integration, and greater variety in the system
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