ABSTRACT
Katz and Kahn’s (1966, 1978) open systems theory appears in two editions of their book The Social Psychology of Organizations. An organization is defined as an open system of roles, and consequently the theory emphasizes a view of organizations as contrived in nature and consisting of a structure of acts and events. This role-related aspect of the theory was first proposed and defined in an earlier publication (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, and Rosenthal 1964). The defining characteristics of such an open-system are (1) energic inputs from the social environment; (2) throughput so that work is done within the system; (3) output into the environment; (4) a cycle of events such that the product exported provides the energy to repeat the cycle; (5) negative entropy, whereby more energy is imported from the environment than is expanded in work; (6) information inputs about how the environment and the system are functioning; negative feedback, which provides information to correct deviations; and a coding process that simplifies energic and information inputs and permits their selective reception; (7) a steady state marked by a stable ratio of energy exchanges; (8) movement to increasing differentiation (or elaboration or specialization); (9) the operation of the equifinality principle, whereby the system can achieve the same final state from multiple paths and conditions; and (10) (in the 1978 edition) integration and coordination to counter the differentiation.
