Adaptive systems

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A popular source of ideas for understanding organisations from the end of the First World War until the current time is biology - the second metaphor that Morgan investigates is ‘organisations as organisms’.  Thinking of organisations as living systems brings to the foreground aspects such as survival and viability, life cycles and growth, adapting to changing circumstances, the organisation’s environment, and the new field of business ecology.  The inclusion of human needs and patterns of behaviour is appropriate in such a model, but when people are managed as individuals rather than as replaceable parts, then the rigid arrangement of the machine organisation is replaced by a more accommodating system, where people have minds of their own, employees are valued resources, and their participation is vital.

 Whereas the machine metaphor regards organisations primarily as ‘closed’ mechanical systems with predetermined goals and set behaviour, the organic metaphor emphasises the fact that organisations are ‘open’ to their environment.  Organisations continually interact with internal and external customers, exchanging resources and information as inputs and outputs of their business processes.  In place of the compartmented, functional structure of bureaucratic organisations, open systems have porous boundaries which permit cross-functional processes.  An example of a process-based management system standard is the revised version of ISO 9001.

The survival of living systems depends upon their ability to maintain a balanced relation with their environment.  The same concept applies to organisations in a business environment where the most important criterion for an enterprise is to remain viable.  Organisations that operate in dynamic, turbulent environments require management systems which allow them to adapt to external changes in order to survive; in these situations goals are simply means to meet the end objective of survival.  This situation might not apply to bureaucratic organisations in stable, protected environments, where procedures and targets can become ends in themselves.

Living systems and ecosystems are organised as whole systems that contain further whole sub-systems, each nested within the larger system like Chinese boxes; the idea that biological or management systems can be arranged in such a way that levels are ordered in relation to other levels implies they have a hierarchical structure, but the term is used here to describe a naturally emergent framework, not to imply the imposition of power or authority within a chain of command.  This type of organisational structure is differentiated and held together by a two-way process of feedback and information flows rather than command-and-control methods- see opposite page. 

The concept of an adaptive system refutes the rule of ‘one best way to organise’ - different kinds of organisation will need to manage property in the context of their own environment in different ways.  A management system for adaptive organisations should focus on the relationships and interfaces between critical subsystems and their environment, setting out broad principles and policies in a way the matches contingent situations rather than creating a mechanical list of prescriptive requirements.  Instead of focusing on controlling and directing, the specification should encourage collaboration and communication.

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