ABSTRACT
This chapter has examined the theory of general systems and analysed some of the practical work that it has generated, especially in those areas where organizations and work groups have been perceived as open socio-technical systems. These theories and the empirical evidence emphasize, in particular, the essential nature of the management function and show that this must occur at the system's boundary. It has also shown that the system must be balanced internally so that the man/machinery system may require a sub-optimizing of the technological aspect in order for the total system to operate efficiently. Economic pressures and social attitudes have, in the main, caused technology to become the dominant factor in work. The market demands for relatively cheap goods and the desire for relatively well-paid jobs have resulted in organizations in which many workers use only a fraction of their abilities and gain scarcely any satisfaction in relation to their basic human needs.
