DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE STUDIES

PA 1302
BASIC CONCEPTS IN ADMINISTRATION
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ORGANISATIONS
AS A
SYSTEM
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 PERSPECTIVE

• In its broadest and most abstract sense, the concept of

an "organisation" is almost synonymous with that of a system.
• NB: refer to the definition of organisations in relation to structure.
• They both have some kind of organisation or some ordered relationship
among several elements.

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 CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANISATIONS AS A
SYSTEM

• (a) It has several elements.

• (b) The elements of a system are interrelated among themselves in an orderly or
ordered manner. This means that their relationship is not chaotic or completely
random.
• There is a pattern in these relationships so that a change in one element of the
system leads to predictable changes in other elements.
• (c) A system may be related to some other systems or be a part of some larger
systems.
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 A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO ORGANISATIONS

• Organisations are termed as complex systems comprising interrelated and

interlocking systems.
• Systems approach has become an integral part of modern Organisational Theory.
• The Systems Approach is of the view that an organisation is a powerful system
with several subsystems which are highly and closely interconnected.
• Any action taken to solve the problems in one subsystem will have an effect on
the other subsystems as well since all the parts of the organisation are closely
connected.
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 ...CONT...

• According to this approach, an organisation receives several inputs

from its environment such as material, human and financial.
• These inputs are then processed to produce the final output in terms
of products or services.
• The outputs are sent out into the environment and they
become feedback that will later be converted into the inputs, then the
cycle begins again.
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THANK YOU!
KEEP WELL!