Productivity Improvement
Open Systems Approach
Applicability of technique
In this article we shall persue techniques and principles that will enable management to better engineer the firm to its intended purpose. To succeed we shall have to develop an approach to the complex problems management face.
Management is faced with a complex, uncertain and ever changing environment. It is in this environment, and not in an oversimplified one of constancy and certainty, that management has to operate.
We cannot, as individuals, hope to study reality in all its complexity. We are forced to make simplifying assumptions, but we should attempt to stay as close as possible to reality and to qualify conclusions clearly and precisely as possible.
How can management simplify a complex, changing situation, reducing the problems to a comprehensible form, yet at the same time ensure that in the process of simplification an adequate reflection of reality is maintained?
As the global economy evolves and business becomes more and more complex and interrelated, this is becoming an increasingly difficult task, requiring a far more sophisticated approach than managers of the past needed to use.
A similar type of problem is faced by students in other disciplines- (sociology, engineering, philosophy, physics, etc.). They too have need for an approach to the analysis and study of very complex problems.
Out of this need, a way of looking at complex problems has evolved-the open systems approach. The systems approach has been found to be effective when examining problems and determining optimal solutions-no more so than in the world of business.
In the next section an outline of the system approach is given. It is most important that you understand this section in order to be able to apply the concepts to your specific business problems and to further your critical thinking skills in general.
