In our last post we talked about this model having two principal components (1) Psychoanalysis i.e the unconscious part of the organisation, an example being the brand new Acute General Hospital that was built without a mortuary being included in the design.
(2) is Open Systems Theory; a model associated with its progenitor, Kurt Lewin and in particular, with its application to Human Systems. This model asserts that 'a living organism can only survive by exchanging materials with its environment' - if it does so, it will be an Open System. Should it fail to do so, it will be Closed System and it will wither and die.
However, if it is too open there will be leakage and it will suffer: In our terms, open systems theory applies this basic law to human organisations. As mentioned before, like all the most useful models - e.g., Maslow's Hierarchy of needs - it is simple (but not simplistic) and provides a frame within which we can think.
An easy example might be to think about a Human Cell - it has a boundary/wall within which its particular function can work efficiently. The boundary will be semi-permeable, so that fluids, electrolytes etc can pass into it (INPUTS) and in it's interior, these constituents will be processed (CONVERSION PROCESS) and it's manufactured products, along with waste material, will be passed back through the boundary/wall into the wider system (OUTPUTS).
However, if the wall is too impermeable this function struggles and the cell malfunctions and begins to necrose, so that in time that whole area of the human body, too, begins to struggle and perhaps become necrotic. Think perhaps of a human limb, a leg perhaps, where necrosis sets in leading to gangrene etc etc.
However, if the cell boundary is too permeable, fluids, electrolytes etc pour-in unchecked and the cell become flooded, malfunctions and now our human leg becomes oedematous.
Now, lets think of this model transposed to a Mental Health setting, let's say, an Acute Psychiatric Admission ward and we can easily see how this ward, too, needs a boundary which lets patients in (INPUTS) treats them (CONVERSION PROCESS) but also discharges them (OUTPUTS).
If the ward insists on treating people for too long (e.g. by behaving as if it were a Therapeutic Community) then new patients cannot be admitted and a critical situation will develop, which the wider organisation will have to address. If the ward takes in more patients than it can usefully treat then it will become flooded and again, the symptoms of this will manifest in the usual destructive ways - staff sickness, complaints, grievances etc.
So, our Organisational Consultant - external or internal as we shall see - is also interested in what s/he can observe in terms of what is visible, communication patterns, organisational structures (meetings, routines, rules, traditions etc) and in our next Post we can think about a few 'real life' examples of this aspect of our model.
コメント