Social System and Organization Culture
Week 3 – T-Th 3:00 – 4:30 HBO Social Systems and Organizational Culture
Understanding a social system A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Possible interactions are as limitless as the stars in the universe. Two points stand out in the complex interactions among people in a social system.
First, the behavior of any one member can have an impact, directly or indirectly, on the behavior of any other, simply stated, a change in one part of a system all the other parts, even though its impact maybe slight.
Second, revolves around a system’s boundaries. Any social system engages in exchanges with its environment, receiving input from it and providing input and output to it.
Social Equilibrium A system is said to be in social equilibrium where its interdependent parts are in dynamic working balance. Equilibrium is a dynamic concept. Despite constant change and movement in every organization, the systems working balance can still be retained.
Functional and Dysfunctional Effects When some actions or changes become favorable for the system, the change has a functional effect but when actions or a change creates unfavorable effects, such as a decline in productivity, for the system it has a dysfunctional effect. Employees can/also have functional or dysfunctional effects on the organization. They can be creative, productive and enthusiastic and actively seek to improve the quality of the organizations product or service.
Psychological Contract When employees join an organization, they make an unwritten psychological contract with it, although often they are not conscious of doing so. It defines the conditions of each employee’s psychological involvement. If the organization honors only the economic contract and not the psychological contract, employees tend to have a lower satisfaction because not all their expectation is being met.
Exchange Theory This theory simply suggests that whenever a
Understanding a social system A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Possible interactions are as limitless as the stars in the universe. Two points stand out in the complex interactions among people in a social system.
First, the behavior of any one member can have an impact, directly or indirectly, on the behavior of any other, simply stated, a change in one part of a system all the other parts, even though its impact maybe slight.
Second, revolves around a system’s boundaries. Any social system engages in exchanges with its environment, receiving input from it and providing input and output to it.
Social Equilibrium A system is said to be in social equilibrium where its interdependent parts are in dynamic working balance. Equilibrium is a dynamic concept. Despite constant change and movement in every organization, the systems working balance can still be retained.
Functional and Dysfunctional Effects When some actions or changes become favorable for the system, the change has a functional effect but when actions or a change creates unfavorable effects, such as a decline in productivity, for the system it has a dysfunctional effect. Employees can/also have functional or dysfunctional effects on the organization. They can be creative, productive and enthusiastic and actively seek to improve the quality of the organizations product or service.
Psychological Contract When employees join an organization, they make an unwritten psychological contract with it, although often they are not conscious of doing so. It defines the conditions of each employee’s psychological involvement. If the organization honors only the economic contract and not the psychological contract, employees tend to have a lower satisfaction because not all their expectation is being met.
Exchange Theory This theory simply suggests that whenever a