To fully appreciate contemporary or
modern business and its environment, it is germane to conceive the enterprise
as a subsystem operating in a macrosystem or suprasystem. Contemporary business and its environment describes the concept
of a system. It examines the business
enterprise as an adaptive and open system within a suprasystem. Further, it highlights the three basic
components of all organisational systems.
Contemporary business and its environment also considers the micro and macro environment of a business. The
actors, forces, players or events inherent in these two classifications are
discussed, among others.
Business does not operate in a
vacuum. It has roots in a larger society
or environment. The business enterprise
interacts with the environment through the input and output interfaces – the
enterprise accepts (from the environment) resource inputs such as men,
materials, machinery, money, and even information, among others, and transforms
(processes) them into desired outputs (to the society). For example, the managers of a rubber
manufacturing concern, through the useful and effective combination of the
disorganised resources of men, materials, money, machinery, minutes and
methods, as well as information, produce desired goods such as tyres, rain
boots, tubes, and others. Similarly, a
University accepts new entrants, as inputs and transform them into educated
individuals.
The nature of this interaction
between the business organisation and its environment presents the managers
with opportunities and threats. It has
the potentials of success and failure.
Consequently, when we talk of contemporary business and its environment,
we are concerned about the complex set of interacting forces in the environment
(within and outside of the enterprise) that sustain this mutual relationship or
interdependence, in terms of the business survival, prosperity and growth. This way, a meaningful inquiry into the
environment in which business operates is crucial.
Here are some tips to help you understand what a system is?
What
is a System?
The system concept is an
interesting and insightful one. It has
been conceptualized in varied ways by many writers, scholars, and even
managers. While some viewed a system as
“an orderly arrangement according to some common principles or rules,” others
defined it as “a plan or method of doing something.” The term system is also conceived as a group
of interacting and interdependent components working towards the attainment of
a common goal. This means that each
component or part has a unique role or function towards the realization of the
common goal or aim, and without this common goal, there is no interaction and
interdependence. Hence, no goal; no
system. To understand a system requires
synthesis – “an aggregate understanding of the whole, that is, the concept of
seeing both the woods, and the trees or big picture.”
Accordingly, we find
examples of a system in the business enterprise, in the biological and physical
sciences, among others. In the physical
science, we have the solar system – the sun and its planets. In the same vein, in the biological science,
we find the circulatory, digestive, central nervous, and respiratory
systems. The respiratory system, for
example, comprises the nostrils, the pharynx, the larynx, the trachea, the left
and right bronchi and the lungs. All
these interdependent parts form a unified whole (subsystem) within the human
body (a larger system or macrosystem).
These unique parts collectively bring about respiration (a common
goal). Without respiration, there is no
respiratory system.
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