PM1 - Week 2

ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS

To my surprise in project management and learning about systems, I figured we would be talking and learning about new and exciting methods of systems. Instead the systems approach has been around since the 1950s and there are different types of system approaches like holistic and analytical which are used to solve complex problems. (p.40, Information technology project management, fourth edition, Kathy Schwalbe)

In my understanding of reading “Thinking about organizations as systems” by Carter McNarma that organizations are being driven towards the direction of adopting the systems view even though it has been around for over a half a century. In the past decade a paradigm shift has occurred and the management of business organizations are either trying to catch up to the way of business because they were stuck in a paradigm or the management was able to read the paradigm at the time and now possible ahead of the game.

It seems that businesses are now relying on all sections of the business or subsystems to become the most effective and efficient by working together and this is what the paradigm shift is. With the force of a paradigm and other businesses wanting to do the same as there competitors because of pressure the systems view has a very strong driving force on organizations. Carter McNarma explains why systems are very important to the organization by saying that managers look at one section and perfect that and move on to the next section. Each of these sections is perfected but the problem is that the sections that were perfected never integrated well with each other creating another problem so the organization suffers as a whole. (http://www.managementhelp.org/org_thry/org_sytm.htm#anchor1122052)

The system it self is everything put together by a few or many subsystems. In other words each subsystem produces something unique to the business and they all interact with the other subsystems which make up the overall systems view of organizations. In definition a subsystem “is a set of elements, which is a system itself, and a part of the whole system.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsystem) In a organization it would be expected to see a human resources, accounting, and marketing department as a subsystem.

With the paradigm shift, managers of organizations are recognizing that the systems organization is a key factor to becoming successful as a business. The managers are starting to see the shift and adjusting to it accordingly which for some businesses meaning implementing a whole new ERP system or something similar like the best appoach way. This way the managers can now use the subsystems to the fullest and join the others that recognized the shift before it affected the organization.