GOVT

Assignment on system approach

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 SYSTEM APPROACH

Systems approach is a management perspective which advocates that any business problem

should be seen as system as a whole which is made up of an hierarchy of sub-systems. So rather

than seeing the problem in parts it should be seen as whole. Systems approach can be applied to

all the business domains like administration, insurance, banking, hospitality etc.

Factors in Systems Approach

1. Dependency

Each part of the system derives inputs and information from other system to achieve the business

goal. The parts do not exist in silos but are coupled with one another to work as part of an entire

working system.

2. Responsiveness

The system changes as per the environment and reacts to the changes in the environment. If the

external environment changes then systems responds as well by making changes in its

parameters to stay relevant and work as per expectations.

3. Results

Systems approach is focused on producing right results for the overall system. Each part needs to

work according to the requirement of the overall system and product expected results. All

departments and sub-systems of the overall large system need to product results.Just one or two

parts performing well will not help the system. 

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4. Focus

The focus of each part of the system should be clearly and well defined. e.g. All the departments

in the organization should have their clear responsibilities to make the system or organization

work. Overlapping responsibilities can reduce the focus and effectiveness of the entire system.

BASIC TYPES OF A SYSTEM

Closed system

Are not influenced by and do not interact with their environment (all system input and

output is internal).

Open systems

Dynamically interact to their environments by taking in inputs and transforming them

into outputs that are distributed into their environments.

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 THE FOUR PARTS OF A SYSTEM

A system is a set of inter-connected elements or component parts to achieve certain goals. An

organisation is viewed by the modern authors as an open system. An organisation as a system

has four basic parts:

1. Input,

Are people, money, information,eqvipment, and materials required to produce and organizations

good or services.

2. Transformation Process,

The organizations capabilities in management and technology that are applied to converting

inputs into outputs.

3. Output

The products, services, profits, losses, employee, satisfaction or disconent, and the like that are

produced by thr organization.

4. Feedback

Information about the reaction of the environment to the output that affects the inputs.

Systems approach to management provides a conceptual basis as well as guidelines for

establishing a more efficient system for planning, organisation, directing and controlling. It

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forces the manager to look upon his business as an open adaptive system. Information is an

important part of the system because an organisation must act and interact with its environment.

SYSTEM APPROACH DIAGRAM

Features of  Systems Approach to Management

1. An organisation consists of many sub-systems.

2. All the sub-systems are mutually related to each other.

3. The sub-parts should be studied in their enter-relationships rather than in isolation from

each other.

4. The organisation provides a boundary, which separates it from other systems. It

determines which parts are internal and which parts are external.

5. The organisation is responsive to environmental effect. It is vulnerable is the changes in

environment.

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6. An organisation is a system consisting of many interrelated and interdependent parts or

sub-systems. These elements are arranged orderly according to some scheme such that

the is more than the sum of the parts.

7. As a system an organisation draws inputs (energy. Information, materials, etc.). From its

environment. It transforms these inputs and returns the output back into the environment

in the form of goods and services.

8. Every system is a part of a super system.

9. Organisation is an open system and it interacts with its environment. It is also a dynamic

system ass the equilibrium in it is always changing.

10. Management is expected to regulate and adjust the system to secure better performance.

11. Management is multidisciplinary as it draws and integrates knowledge from various

disciplines.

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 Advantages of Systems approach

The benefits of this approach are:

1: It helps to see the problem at holistic level and resolves the issues

2: Systems approach helps understand the problem in a better way and comes up with more

efficient solution

3: It clearly defines the scope or the boundary for systems and problems where in influence of

internal and external factors can be seen

Disadvantages of Systems Approach

This approach has its disadvantages:

1: Sometimes problems are too complex and needs focus on the sub-systems rather than keep

seeing system as a whole.

2: While designing from bottom to top, focus on sub-systems is required and important details

can be left in case focus is only kept on overall system

3: Many a times while solving a specific issue leads to focus on a component and not on overall

system

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 Importance of Systems Approach

Systems approach is very important as it provides the bigger picture. It sees all departments and

subsystems as contributing factors for the overall organization. Overall success of organizations

is seen as a whole and not success of one department over the other.

Let us take a scenario. If we are facing an issue in a company related to sales and we only see the

problem to be solved with the sales department rather than all the departments together we may

not be able to solve the problem effectively. 

Only focusing on sales will lead to more pressure on sales team to increases sales leading to poor

customer experience as the sales department will try hard on upselling or cross selling. But if we

use systems approach and see the problem of sales at whole level then we might see that the

product quality can be an issue or may be there is not enough marketing done for the product or

may be the after sales service is not provided leading to drop in sales figures.

The company can then focus on overall goals and strategy to make sure that a high quality

product or service would be produced with great customer experience. That will help not only

help the sales problem but overall uplift the company.

Systems approach gives insights into each components' workings and helps see its contribution

to the overall system.