ABSTRACT

Fundamentally, general systems are a science of organizing and organization. To make use of general system theory in human communication requires a commitment to spending some time acquiring a framework for understanding its goals, scope, and basic concepts. General system theory has a rich and lengthy heritage. The chapter briefly summarizes the basic system concepts and terminology, included because it is essential to understanding the language and framework of human communication in system perspective. It deals with those terms related to system structures; and considers systems in terms of their processes. In the context of human communication, feedback has been used to refer to information about the outcome of communicating that is rechanneled back the source for further use. The chapter discusses the human communication systems, drawing upon those aspects of general system thinking which seem most generic in their relevance to human communication.