Organisational Design, Development and Change

Since 1940s, researches and information theorists also looked at organizations in a Systems viewpoint. In 1956 Kenneth Bounding propounded General Systems Theory (GST).

The GST approach suggests the following nine levels of systems complexity: 

1. The most basic level is the static structure. It could be termed the level of frameworks. As example would be the anatomy of the universe.
2. The second level is the simple dynamic system. It incorporates necessary predetermined motions. This could be termed the level of clockworks.
3. The next level is a cybernetic system characterized by automatic feedback control mechanisms. This could be thought of as the level of the thermostat.
4. The forth level is called “open-systems” level. It is a self-maintaining structure and is the level where life begins to differentiate from nonlife. This is the level of the cell.
5. The fifth level can be termed the “genetic-societal” level. It is typified by the plant and occupies the empirical world of the botanist.
6. The next is the animal level, which is characterized by increased mobility, teleological behavior, and self-awareness.
7. The seventh level is the human level. The major difference between the human level and the animal level is the human’s possession of self-consciousness.
8. The next level is that of social organizations. The important unit in a social organization is not the human per se but rather the organizational role that the person assumes.
9. The ninth and last level is reserved for transcendental systems. This allows for ultimate, absolutes, and the inescapable unknowable.