One Element Of A System example essay topic

The origin of the word system comes from the Ancient Greek " " meaning 'to bring together or combine. (2002, Washington University Press). There are many similar definitions (Appendix A) but essentially a system is a collection of organised interrelated parts / elements that function as one single entity within a boundary to achieve a specific objective. A group of friends is an example of a system.

The objective of a system is the reason it exists for this argument we will assume its objective is "Social interaction for mutual benefit". The elements that make up this system of friends would be the individual people. The Boundary of a system is where the system ends and the environment begins. Systems usually exist in an environment and the boundary is important because it defines what elements are parts of the system and what are parts of the environment. The importance of this is more apparent in information systems. Boundaries do not necessarily need to be tangible entities such as a wall or even a national boarder.

For our group of friends the boundary would be a 'detailed list of people who are friends'. The boundary could not be something such as language because it does not accurately define who is in the group of friends and who is not. A Human Being is a system it contains elements such as arms, legs, muscles etc. that function as a whole to achieve an objective, which is "self preservation". The boundary of this system is the skin or outer layer. So far only tangible things have been discussed as systems but systems do not necessarily need to be entirely tangible take information systems such as the stock market. It contains elements such as buyers and sellers not always people sometimes the buyer or seller maybe a computer acting as an agent.

In any case it still contains many elements tangible and intangible that work together to achieve a specific objective. In this case the objective it "To facilitate the transfer of stocks" that is the function of the stock market. The System properties outlined have focused on the elements or parts and their objective and boundary. Studying the parts of the system cannot lead us to a greater understanding of a system as was thought before the mid 20th century System thinking started mud 20th century and drives away from the previous academic vies of studying the parts to understanding the abstract whole.

Take for example the sub stem of a human being the human brain. Not being medical scientist we may not understand the intricacies of the human brain and how the parts interrelate but as systems thinkers we can understand the abstract whole and what properties the brain has when all its parts are working together. Emergent Properties are properties above and beyond the properties of its parts. (1997, O'Connor and McDermott) Take for example our group of friends. Suppose the friends are working as a team and one emerges, as a leader here is an obvious example of an emergent property. When a human being appears happy this is another emergent property.

Taking this further into our intangible systems such as the stock market an emergent property could be that Mining companies trade higher than dot. come's these properties are present when the parts of the system are interacting. Systems are complex and their complexity differs from system to system. Simple complexity occurs when the elements of a system have only one way of interacting or going together. An example of such a system would be a person putting together a jigsaw. In this system the jigsaw puzzle has only one way of going together and only shows one picture. Computers are good at dealing with simple complexity cause procedures can be sequenced and re cursed.

Systems have Dynamic Complexity when the parts or elements have many ways of going together. Our group of friends have dynamic complexity cause there are many different ways they can react with each other. A person has dynamic complexity cause there are many different sub-systems and some of them can perform the tasks of others if required. It is cause of the intricate complexity of systems that they are resistant to change. Changing one element of a system directly affects another and so on. Think of the system like a web if you exert pressure on one part of it when you stop the rest of the web will pull it back into place.

If you change some pieces of the jigsaw puzzle you would have to change others as well, for it to make any sense. The stock market is resistant to change as changing the stocks on market affects the other stocks and they will try to seek some equilibrium. If vulnerability can be found in a system then that element can be used as leverage to have a flow on effect to create the desired change. Take for example an education system which contains a certain syllabus the system is resistant to change cause one teacher to a certain degree can not decide what will or won't be taught but if leverage can be used by exerting influence on the authority governing the syllabus than the change flows down through the system. Not all systems are successful in meeting their objective or purpose and this is the moment when a system fails. A system fails when it no longer meets its objective.

Our Jigsaw puzzle will fail when it not longer forms a picture. Our Human being fails when it not longer preserves itself (death). Stock market crashes are not necessarily a system failure even though no one wants to buy any stocks that doesn't mean they can't in which case the stock market is still fulfilling its function to facilitate the trade of stocks. The systems of friends will fail when they are no longer acting together for mutual benefit. When systems are functioning as a whole, system thinking enables us to develop certain distinctions between different types of systems. When we look at how elements interact in systems we can get an understanding whether a system is closed or open.

Open systems are where elements flow into and out of the system. (2002, Washington University Press) Whereas closed systems exist when the elements do not transgress the system boundaries. A car fuel system is an open system because elements enter as fuel and elements leave the system as energy (heat, power) or exhaust. But lets take the car's oil system this is largely a closed system as the oil circulates but doesn't leave the system. The importance of Systems thinking in understanding open and closed system is even more important when we go back to understanding systems and change. Systems being resistant to change are going to behave differently once we have managed to change them through leverage.

If we know that the systems are open or closed we will understand the impact of change on other systems. When we look at a system as a whole we are looking at how the parts interrelate. It is important to know that some parts of the system may be sub-systems in and of themselves. Also that the system we are looking at may be part of a larger system.

Subsystems may also be known as embedded systems. If we take our example of the human being it has many subsystems such as the respiratory system, the digestive, etc but we also need to take into account that the human being is part of a larger system that is the group of friends (other example) and that may be part of a larger nation system etc. Nested, Embedded or sub-systems all fall into a hierarchal structure..