good illustration is the behaviour of the mob,
which is not the additive
behaviour of its members. Another is found in the saying that a champion team
is better than a team of champions.)
Systems are the subject of field called complex systems which is multi
disciplinary. It seeks are far as possible to lay down general rules that apply to
all systems. These rules can be difficult to identify (assuming that they exist)
because, generally speaking, the components of a system and the couplings or
relationships between those components, is complex. Systems theory affords
primacy to the interrelationships of the system in preference to the static
elements of the system.
Initial attention is directed as to how the complex
phenomena that constitute a system came to be as it is. Items or components
are generally in some connected relationship like dots on the circumference of
a circle, that they feed in and out of each other, they interlock, the affect each
other either immediately or later and either on their own or in conjunction with
other items.
Systems, however, are often open systems that interact with their environment.
Hence, the full study of a system extends to explaining, as far as possible, its
behaviour as it interacts with its environment. Moreover, the external
environment itself can easily and frequently change. As it does, these changes
impact on those persons and things within the environment, which then change
in response. From this point on, when those persons and things interact with
the external environment they are now changed. Obviously, this cycle of
interdependent change will just continue.
Examples
There are many examples of complex systems –
the human body, systems
within the body such as the nervous system, economies, ant hills and crime, to
name just some. Organisations, especially those of some size, either consist of
complex systems or, to put the proposition more conservatively, tend to
partake of at least some of the properties of complex systems. In some
significant respects, therefore, sizeable business firms are complex systems
even if there are strands of simple systems within them.
Common Components
It is not possible to state categorically components that are common to all
complex systems. However, there are some characteristics that complex
systems generally possess, and it might be difficult to find a complex system
that does not possess a quantum of these.
These possible characteristics consist of the following:
(1)
Nesting. One complex system can be composed of or
contain other
complex systems.
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