We explain what a system in administration is, what its functions are, how they are composed and the types that exist.
What is a system in administration?
A system in management consists of a set of processes that must be carried out by the members of an organization to achieve the pre-established goals.
In these systems, they must include each administrative unit and specify what is the role of each employee and what are their tasks to perform to achieve a certain level of sales and production that translates into greater benefits for the company. business.
This facilitates the operation of the organization, allows to control the performance of each employee and carry out audits.
In recent years, organizations have opted for the specialization of workers, the assignment of the can according to the levels occupied within the hierarchy and the division of labor. All this facilitates and speeds up the decision making to achieve the objectives and goals of the organization.
When making decisions, the staff relies on the information that is reflected in the management system.
Systems take care of three things:
- Support operational tasks.
- Compile and store data.
- Generate information.
The systems are made up of the following elements:
- The element that provides material for the system to operate.
- The purpose for which the system was formed.
- The phenomenon that generates changes: convert inputs into outputs.
- Feedback. It compares the output against a set of previously established criteria and relies on these criteria to control the results.
- The context in which the system is located. The environment interacts with the system constantly.
Types of management systems
Within companies, the following types of management system can be found:
- Process control business. Systems that control business processes and address physical and industrial processes.
- Transaction processing. Computerized systems that are used at the basic levels of the organizational hierarchy (at the operational level). The daily transactions that enable the operation of the organization are recorded in them.
- Support in the decision making. Computer-based systems that will be used by one or more specific managers. East information system computerized works as a support for decision-making around a problem that must be solved.
- Information of management. These systems gather information from different sources and then process it into statistics, reports, or any other useful format. This information is used by supervisors and managers as raw material for making decisions related to the management of the company.
- Business collaboration. These systems are among the most used and help the directors of the organization to control the information flow indoors. These include multimedia systems, file transfer or the email.
- Executive information. They are the systems that provide external and internal information to senior managers to make decisions. They are easy and quick to access and present the information in graphic form. They provide general information that graphs in a simple way the operation as a whole.
Depending on their nature, the systems can be:
- Open. There is an exchange of elements and information with the environment, and that external influence modifies results, behaviors and activities. For example, a company.
- Closed No information or elements are exchanged with the environment: they are closed systems against any type of influence. For example, machinery.
Other types of systems are the following:
- Abstract They are made up of general concepts, numbers, philosophical doctrines, hypothesis, ideas, plans or languages. Is he "software”.
- Concrete They are made up of tangible elements such as equipment or machinery. Is he "hardware”.
- Operational. They are dedicated to processing information (which is usually repetitive) and preparing reports.
- Informative. They are responsible for storing and processing data and are used to make decisions in line with the goals and objectives of the organization.
- Directors. It works on data that was not previously selected or transformed.
General theory of management systems
General systems theory is derived from the writings Ludwing von Bertalanffy (German biologist), published in the 1950s and 1960s. This theory is not intended to solve obstacles or provide practical solutions. However, knowing it helps analysis context when making decisions within an organization.
This current considers that the properties of each system cannot be studied as separate elements, but must be approached jointly.
Some characteristics of systems theory are as follows:
- Systematic view. Each organization is considered as a system that has five parts: input, output, process, environment and feedback.
- Multidimensional. Each company is approached from a macroscopic and microscopic point of view. The first addresses it in relation to their country or community and the second considers its internal units.
- Dynamism. The interaction that takes place within the company is considered a dynamic process.
- Adaptability. Consider that organizations are adaptive systems. If they do not make use of that quality, they will not survive the modifications of the context.
- Descriptive It aims to characterize the qualities of the organization and its administration. Plasma the goals Y methods and describes the phenomena of organizations.
- Multicausality. It considers that an event may be the consequence of different interdependent and related factors.
- Probabilistic. He admits that variables they can be analyzed predictively, not based on certainties.