ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3, we will discuss the new organization that emerges from the influence of systems thinking – namely, the organization as system. What does it look like and how does it differ from the traditional organization? Why has it taken us so long to realize its benefits?
In this chapter, we will start by looking at the traditional “siloed” organization and contrasting it with the systems organization. As part of this latter discussion, we will detail factors that have kept the siloed organization strongly in place for so many years. Next, we will examine some “new age thinking” that has had some impact on the way that organizations work and are structured, but this change has been minimal. We will then look at the proposed organization as system and explore its characteristics and benefits. In this discussion, we will focus on perhaps its most salient system feature – namely, interdependence – and discuss some general ways that we can enable it. Lastly, we will look at the physical structure of the organizational system.
