How an Educational Organization is an Open System | EA 300

A system is an organized collection of parts (a subsystems) that are highly integrated to accomplish an overall goals. Or a system is a totally made up of interdependent parts which are arranged in specific order so that they can work together toward the achievement of common objective. System are divided into two major types which are open systems and closed systems. Closed systems including non – living things and all those systems whose survival do not depend on constant adjustment with the environment. Closed system have hard boundaries through which very little information is exchanged. On the other hand, open systems are system which maintain themselves through constant exchange which their environment that is there is a continuous outflow and inflow a building up and breaking down of components, never being so long as it is alive, in a state of chemical and thermodynamic equilibrium but maintained in a so called steady state which is distinct from the latter. According to Wikipedia, Open System is a system that has external interactions such interaction can take the form of information, energy, of material transfers into or out of the system boundary, depending on discipline which defines the concept. Generally, open systems are those systems/organizations capable of exchanging matter which their environment Examples biological organism and cell, and social organizations.

Social system such as a school are generally regarded as open system. “Energy is transformed and something new is produced, a product is exported into the environment, the pattern of energy is cyclical; the product that is exported into the environment is source of energy for repetition of the cycle of activities, the system aims to maximize its ratio of imported to expended energy, and last attribute the system exhibits differentiation, a tendency towards increased complexity through specialization.[1] Therefore all schools are open system although the degree of interaction with their environment may vary.

According to Open System views schools constantly interact with their environments. In fact, they need to structure themselves to deal with forces in the world around them. An Open System consists of five basic elements which are input, transformation process, outputs, feedback and environment.[2]

The following are characteristics of Open System which show the evidence Education Organization is an Open System.

The first evidence is importation of energy. Education Organization import some energy from external environment. Systems such as schools use four kinds of inputs or resources from the environment. Examples human resources include administrative and staff talent, labour and the other financial resources are the capital the school/school district uses to finance both ongoing and longterm operations and physical resources include supplies, materials, facilities  and equipment as well as information resources are knowledge, curricula, data and other kinds of information utilized by the school through this evidence show that Education Organization is Open System simply because an Open System simply because it import some energy from external environment and these are consumable resources with which the system functions.

The second evidence which show Education Organization is Open System is the through-put. This is the process of transforming energy that goes through the system. It involves re organization of inputs. The school administrator’s job involves combining and coordinating these various resources to attain the schools goals – learning for all. The interaction between students and teachers is part of transformation of learning process by which students become educated citizens capable of contributing to society. Work of some kind is done in the system to produce output. The system adds a value added to the work in process.[3] This transformation process include the internal operation of the organization and its system of operational management some components of the system of the system of operational management include the technical competence of school administrators and other staff, their plans of operation and their ability to cope with change. Tasks performed by school administrator within the organizations structure will affect the school of school districts outputs.

Third, output; these are the end product of the system. Open System exports some products into the environment. It is the principal’s job to secure and use inputs to the schools, transform them while considering external variables to produce outputs. In social systems, output are the attainment of goals or objectives of the school and are represented by the products, results, outcomes or accomplishments of the system (graduates). Although the kind of outputs will vary with a specific school, they usually include one or more of the following growth and achievement levels of the school community relations and job satisfaction. A school must provide satisfaction to members of the school community beyond the physiological needs like salary, working conditions, job security.[4] The output of one system can be the input of another system. Schools must provide for employees needs for affiliation, acceptance, esteem, and perhaps even self actualization if they hope to retain a motivated, committed work force capable of performing at maximum levels.[5]

Forth, Education organization as a cycle of events, the tendency of the activities to re-occur. In an Open System the pattern of activities of the energy exchange has a cyclic character. The products exported into the environment provide the source of energy for repetitive of the cycle of activities. The concepts of cycle of events can be applied to the understanding of educational organizations it is obvious that the events have a repetitive nature they characterized by cycles of inputs of materials or information; this involve activities like advertisement, application, selection, admission, registration, orientation and placement (allocation of the students into rooms. And transformation of materials or information like teaching, inspection, meeting, seminars, evaluation, testing, and examinations). This goes with feedback, a feedback is crucial to the success of the school operation. Negative feedback, for example, can be used to correct deficiencies in the transformation process or the inputs or both which in turn will have an effect on the schools future outputs.

The last evidence is environment. The environment surrounding the school includes the social, political and economic forces that impinge on the organization. The environment is in the Open System model takes on added significance today in a climate of policy accountability. The social, political and economic contexts in which school administrators work are marked by pressures at the local, state and federal levels. Thus school administrators today find it necessary to manage and develop ‘internal’ operations while concurrently monitoring the environment and anticipating and responding to external demands.

The social, political and economic forces that impinge on the school organization are not all state and national however local school administrators also face a number of challenges that are exclusively local in nature, such as bond referenda, difficult school boards and teacher unions. These local political issues can at times confound state mandate policies.[6] For example school administrators often face mandated programs that do not meet the changing demographics of their student’s population. Teachers are often bound by union contracts that conflict with the norms of their particulars school or school districts. Superintendent are expected to respond to federal mandates even though it may require expelling a student to miss school for an extended period of time. And education leaders are faced with ongoing pressures to show good results on standardized achievement tests, while at the same time dealing with a growing number of management duties such as budgeting, hiring personnel, labor relations and management initiaties.

Basically, all schools are Open System. An Open system consists of five basic elements which are inputs, a transformation process, outputs, feedback and the environment. Through technology and administrative functions the inputs undergo a transformation process. In school the interaction between students and teacher is part of the transformation or learning process by which student become educated citizens capable of contributing to society. In school the output may be student’s knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes. Feedback serves as a control mechanism. Negative feedback from the outputs or environment can be used to correct deficiencies in the inputs or the transformation process or both. On the other hand, there is another system which is closed system, this system including non living thing and all those system whose survival do not depend on constant adjustment with the environment, closed systems can be characterized by the hard boundaries through which very little information is exchanged, also closed system do not depend on exchange of environment to be survival and all system have boundaries can be difficult to identify because system forms are very dynamic.

Written by;

Makoba Daud (Mwalimu Makoba)

Kilongo Secilia Joseph

Chimatu Baraka Mkama

Kalinga Apolinali

Kitalula Abubakari

Elisaria Goodluck

References

Katz D and Khan R. (1969) Common Characteristics of open system: England, Penguin Book LTD.

Scott, R. (2003). Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open System. 5th Ed. New Jersey; Prentice Hall.

W. Richard Scott. (2003). Organizations, Rational, Natural, and Open Systems: Stanford University.

Fred C. Lunenburg. (2010). School as an Open System: Sam Houston State University.

Scott, R. W. (2008). Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural, and open systems perspectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Shaw, P. (2006). The four Vs of leadership: Vision, values, value added, vitality. New York, NY: Wiley.

Maslow, A. H. (1998). Maslow on management. New York, NY: Wiley.

Lunenburg, F. C., & Ornstein, A. O. (2008). Educational administration: Concepts and practices (5th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

[1] Katz D and Khan R. (1969) Common Characteristics of open system: England, Penguin Book LTD.

[2] Scott, R. (2003). Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open System. 5th Ed. New Jersey; Prentice Hall.

[3] Shaw, P. (2006). The four Vs of leadership: Vision, values, value added, vitality. New York, NY: Wiley.

[4] Herzberg, F. (2009). One more time: How do you motivate employees? Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

[5]Maslow, A. H. (1998). Maslow on management. New York, NY: Wiley.  

[6] Lunenburg, F. C., & Ornstein, A. O. (2008). Educational administration: Concepts and practices (5th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.