Katz and Kahn Social System Concept

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Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn were two of the main investigators of the management systemic approach. A great part of their work was dedicated to the study of organizations as a social system. This social system was characterized as an open system, being, that influences and is influenced by unknown and non controllable variables whose consequences are probabilistic and nondeterministic.

Another important characteristic of the social systems is the inexistence of borders well defined among them (for example, overlap whenever a same individual simultaneously belongs to two social systems). It’s the permeability level of these borders that will determine the bigger or smaller level of the system openness in relation to the environment.

Finally, another characteristic of the social systems identified by Katz and Kahn is the fact of not existing a physical structure easily identifiable but instead a structuring of a group of events.

Despite the conscience of the difficulty in analyzing a system with these characteristics, Katz and Kahn propose the separation of all elements which form the social system that is the organization in three subsystems:

. Maintenance subsystems: worry about stability and supply rules, values and rewards applicable to the organization members.

. Adaptive subsystems: worry about the future of the organization, namely with the organizational development and planning.

. Management subsystems: include the functions of coordination, authority, control and organization.

 

 

Translated from Portuguese by Susana Saraiva, Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese translation specialist. Contact: spams@sapo.pt.