Characteristics of organization are given below:
(1) Organizations “constantly seek and import resources (inputs) in both human and material form and transform these inputs into products and services using internal, social and technological processes (through points)”.
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(2) “Organizational structures develop around patterned activities that form stable and predictable input throughout and output cycles.”
(3) “Overtime structural differentiation and task specialization are common system responses to the search for resources and adaptativeness and as the organization becomes more complex managerial structures for co-ordination and control became more elaborate”.
(4) “Feedback in the from of information about environmental responses to organization activities (outputs) is used to keep the system of course with regard to its goals and to evaluate the performance of the organization and “its sub-units.”
(5) Organizations export their products to the external environment and these outputs usually become the inputs of other organisation.
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(6) Organization as system seek equilibrium or a stable state both internally and in relation to external forces and they achieve equilibrium through a constant process of adaptation to their environment.
Organization as a system banks upon the effective functioning of its part and sub-systems. Each sub-system discharges a series of needed activities. In any large and complex organization these activities are entrusted to specialized units but they are indispensable to organization and may not necessarily be centralised. The sub-systems of an organization are as follows:
Production or technical sub-systems are called operation or technical core. These are categorised as the human and mechanical processes. They transform inputs into the primary outputs of the organization.
Maintenance Sub-System:
They ensure the necessary inputs of human skills of personal function of all kinds.
Adaptive Sub-System:
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They assist the organization anticipate and respond to changing environmental conditions and demand e.g., planning units, research and development units.
Supportive Sub-System:
The first type of supportive sub-system procure raw materials and dispose of outputs like purchase sales etc. The second type specializes in the development of supportive relationship with external actors e.g., search advertising and public relations.
Managerial Sub-System:
Termed as the administrative structure “co-ordinate and interrelate the other sub-systems, resolve conflicts between units, allocates resources and relate external condition to internal garland requirement.”
The Modern Theory goes to the extent of emphasising that organizational systems like social systems are construed to be ‘cybernetic’ their behaviour towards the external environment. That clearly reflects that they are, “self-steering using feedback to guide and control their behaviour”.
They develop mechanisms to collect, interpret and apply feedback in their decision-making processes in order to acquire the capacity to adapt, correct flows and evaluate performance.