The Uses and Development of a System

Von Bertalanffy (1972) suggested that organizations are systems that can be either simple or complex. Drack and Schwarz (2010) discussed the idea that general systems theory interdependently links systems with larger systems. Von Bertalanffy characterized educational institutions and other entities as systems. Suter et al. (2013) reported that the systems theory addresses complex, interdependent systems such as organizations, schools, or hospitals. Systems theory helps to explain the interrelation or linkage between entities (Shang & Wu, 2013). The

the properties of the system as a whole can be encompassed by considering the individual systems, e.g.,

| An information system can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support

The definition of a system is a “regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole and/or a group of interacting bodies under the influence of related forces” (Comer, pg. 58). The book gives

Refer to a computational system that is an integral part of another mechanism or device

From general system theory perspectives, a system is a whole made from many separate components. According to “Organizational Communication Systems”, Gold Haber and Barnett explained organization was a set of interdependent parts includes individuals, groups, or machines and these parts were interrelated. (Gold Haber and Barnett, P4). For example, in UC systems which called supra, UC Davis is seemed as a system that divided into four colleges and six professional schools. There are many divisions under each college. Each college is a sub system. For examples, in Letters and Sciences College, they have Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies, Social Sciences, and so on. In Social Sciences, they have many separate departments such as Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Communication, and so on. All these colleges, schools, and departments work together to support UC Davis goal state which is enhancing academic quality, supporting innovation, and providing high quality facilities for professors and students. By dividing UC Davis into many interdependent colleges and departments, it is easier to monitor, control, and maintain all processes in each subsystem to support the goal

The General Systems Theory (GST) came about as an effort to describe the systems approach, born from the biological concept of the organism developed in the first part of the 20th century (Von Bertalanffy, 1972). In contrast to the mechanistic systems which are closed and have a direct relationship between a cause and its effect, a biological or social system is open, operating on a principle of equifinality, where regardless of the starting point, the objective can be achieved (Kast & Rosenzweig, 1972). Any system will achieve equilibrium, but an open system can reach a steady state by accessing resources from outside itself (Kast & Rosenzweig, 1972). The underlying assumptions of GST rely on the organization of a company resembling the inner workings of an organism. However, subgroups within organizations can act independently of the the whole, in

A system is a group of parts that depend on each like a woven spiderweb. For instance, an advertising group gives a presentation about a new campaign. To complete the finished campaign, the advertisers are independent tiny pieces, and together they build one unit reminiscent to workers on an assembly line on each

provides a unique set of systems that cannot be adequately described by many of these theories.

With the second wave of systems theory came about the idea of the ecological perspective, named ecological systems theory. It is the combining of general systems theory with an ecological approach. Ecological systems theory uses ideas that link together four different social systems that surround an individual; these systems are known as, micro-systems, meso-systems, exo-systems and macro-systems (Healy, 2005). The ecological model is used as a tool. These systems are very structured and use certain processes as guideline. Different processing concepts are used in systems theory. These concepts explain how the system works. Input is the energy being fed into the system across boundaries. Throughput is how the energy is used within the system and output is the

The foundational concept of systems theory is as old as Aristotle's statement that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But when the biologist Ludwig Von Bertalanffy created the concept of general systems theory (GST), he was reacting against a powerful contemporary emphasis within his field which stressed reductionism rather than a holistic perspective. "He fathered an organismic approach to biology as a reaction to the vitalism-reductionism arguments that were rampant in his day," which focused upon components of organisms instead and the notion that living systems were innately different than non-living systems (Provost 2011). Von Bertalanffy instead stressed that all systems shared similar properties, regardless of their nature. First and foremost, the components of every system from a cell to a human being, to a society of human beings must be understood in consort, not in isolation This signified "a unity of the observed universe and hence of science" (Provost 2011).

System: can be defined as a set of detailed method or procedure which is used to carry out a duty or a task.

The fourth system is the Macrosystem. A Macrosystem is the attitudes, values and ideologies of a certain cultural group. The system is defined as 'being

can be seen that in the real world the system is composed of of various types of

The second Areas of Knowledge I will be discussing is natural sciences. I take Biology so I chose to focus on Biology so that I can talk from my experience. System is often used in Natural Sciences in order to help organize a