System Approaches

Week three lecture and tutorial were about system approaches. I got exposed to the system metaphor and system concepts and the key founder of the movement Ludwig Von Bertalanffy, a theoretical biologist whom was very interested in “living systems”.  Systems, as everything else, have its own components. In an organizational system, the components are the people and the departments that make the organization. There are three key system components in this theory, and they are:

Hierarchical ordering  - hierarchical system, system components are arranged in ways to involve subsystems and supersystems.

Interdependence – this implies that the functioning of the components of the system relies on the other components

Permeability – the one that allows the information and material to flow in and out

I think the article from Eric Jonston about the bank chief executive Ralph Norris, is very much a demonstration of the hierarchical system and also the interdependence and permeability. The story is about the former Commonwealth Bank Chief that received a total package of $9.61 million in his final months at the bank – this is fresh news released Sunday morning. The payments for Mr. Norris who retired last November and received about $63.000 a day for that period, an amount that is higher than full-year salary for most Australians. It is crazy how CEO’s get these crazy amounts of money; I just simply don’t know how they justify it. The system, besides being quite hierarchical for the obvious reasons, it is also very strongly interdependent.

References:

Jonston, E 2012, ‘Ex-CBA chief Norris's pay topped $63,000 a day’, Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 20 August 2012 < http://www.smh.com.au/business/excba-chief-norriss-pay-topped-63000-a-day-20120820-24h8j.html>

Miller, K 2012, Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes, Wadsworth, Boston MA, USA, pp. 60-64   

Leading by example?

                                       Sir Ralph Norris: Building organisational culture