Week 4: System approaches

In this lecture, we covered on the system approach to the study of organisational communication. The system approach works from the metaphoric concept that an organisation is like an organism. The system concept includes the nature of system components, system processes and the properties that emerge from the conceptualization of organizations as interdependent and open sets of interacting components. Then we were told about three typical but very different system theories. First was cybernetic system theory, it highlighted the significance of feedback and regulation in goal-directed system. Second was Weick’s theory of organizing where emphasis is placed on how organisational interaction revolves around making sense of equivocal information environments. Third is the system theory from the ‘new sciences’, it emphasizes on the chaotic and complex nature of ‘self-organizing’ system. Methods such as network analysis, modelling techniques and case studies are some of the methodological approaches that are useful to organizational communication scholars in system tradition. It all provides avenues for understanding the complex nature of organisational communication systems.