Open and Closed System Theory

Introduction

The closed and open systems theories focus on an organization and its way of administration. Complex structures are studied in an efficient manner by being viewed as an open or closed system. An open system is where there is interaction with the environment by giving and obtaining information. It further refers to a system that relates to other systems outside its unit. On the other hand, in a closed system theory, there is no interaction with the environment. All the interaction and knowledge is sought and conveyed only within the systems (Polly, 2016).

Differences between Open and Closed Systems

Closed systems have been observed to hinder growth due to the limitation of the flow of information that only stays within the system and has no opportunity to interact or even develop a new form of knowledge from the surrounding environment. As for open systems, they take components from the environment and are thus more flexible than the closed systems that are considered to be rigid and hard to penetrate. In the closed systems, organizations are thus entirely independent and cannot be influenced by the environmental factors (Lunenburg, 2010). The closed system further considers an organization as a structure of management, equipment, personnel, technology and even materials. It further eliminates parties such as suppliers, competitors, government regulators, and distributors. The internal structure is analyzed when attempting to examine problems in an organization, and the exterior aspects are left or given little attention. However, when issues are being tackled in the open system, they take a keen interest in the external factors and incorporate them with the internal elements to obtain comprehensive solutions (Luhman, 2012).

Evaluation of the School as an Open System

The school as a system is evidently open rather than closed. In the organizational perspective, schools are usually split up into classrooms. The school days have also been classified into periods and the teachers distributed in accordance to the various subjects and ranks. Additionally, students have been put into groups concerning their results which are obtained from examinations. Schools can further be compared to the formal organizations in which they have memberships that comprises of people with various positions that are essential to conducting the roles and goals or visions of the school (Scott & Davis, 2015). Schools can further be referred to as open systems by their definition. The whole aspect of education is usually used to denote to a system of schools where there are people with roles to partake. Teachers are present to pass knowledge and skills to children and even mold the right behavior in pupils as well. Thus, the students and educators come from an external environment, and this depicts the school as an open system. Schools are also in constant collaboration with their surroundings such as the community or society in order to solve other problems that may arise in an efficient manner. In some contexts, an open system has been classified into five essential aspects which are inputs, the process of transformation, feedback, outputs and the environment (Bastedo, 2014). 

On the other hand, the environment that surrounds the school comprises the economic, political and social forces that have a broad impact on it and its activities as well. It is thus appropriate for the heads of schools or managers to direct and improve the internal operations while at the same time observing the entire environment and being responsive to the demands that may be raised by the external surrounding. Schools are just like the open systems since they share similar attributes. For instance, there is the transformation of energy that leads to the production of a new element. There is also the exportation of a product into the environment (Polly, 2016). As an open system, schools have an excellent structure that can be applied for evaluating the process of education and the role of the school head as well. Teachers and students interact with each other, and this makes the pupils emerge as educated citizens who then contribute positively toward the development of the society. Additionally, the duties done by the head of the school in the organizational structure has an influence on the outputs of the school in the end. These instances have thus presented the school as an open system. Schools operation involve an interaction of various internal and external elements (Bastedo, 2014). 

School as a Closed System

Schools can further be viewed as a closed system in the perspective that they are adequately independent to provide solutions to most of the problems they may be facing by using the internal forces without considering the factors in the external environment. Moreover, the state education is still a closed system due to two aspects, which is law and spirit. The culture of these schools at the macro level is inhabited by distress and uncertainty and further worsened by the opinions of the media which misrepresent them, also politicians who have interfered with their administration (Polly, 2016). The politicians have openly shown that they do not trust teachers to conduct their duties efficiently. On the other hand, learners fear the league tables and educators do not have confidence in each other. There are also policies that have continued to affect the nature of creativity and achievement. Further, schools have also had more exams and changes in curriculum are also tremendous. They are thus rigid to change and the influence by external environment (Fenwick, Edwards & Sawchuk, 2015).

Conclusion

To sum up, the closed systems have been observed not to interact or even be affected by aspects of the surrounding environment. The open systems are more of the kind that are found in the actual world and whose limits give an opportunity for energy, information and even material to be exchanged with the large external surrounding. The open systems have further changed the way we comprehend schools as being organizations and the demands that have also been put on the leaders of education. Thus, schools have been presented as being more of an open system than a closed one due to the reliance on the external environment for efficient operation. The social, political and economic aspects have been observed to be the elements that affect the open system and thus schools as well. The ability to utilize these elements in an efficient manner has further been seen to bring in positive contribution towards the development of schools concerning resources, knowledge, and skills. However, their negative elements if not properly filtered can have adverse effects on the general performance of the schools. The state education has however been also seen to operate in the perspective of the closed system as a result of the laws and spirit that are connected to it and its operation. In this system, there is no trust between the internal and external parties and hence the closed system operation. 

References

Bastedo, M. N. (2014). Open systems theory. In the Sage Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration. Retrieved from 

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bastedo/papers/bastedo.opensystems.pdf

Fenwick, T., Edwards, R., & Sawchuk, P. (2015). Emerging approaches to educational research: Tracing the socio-material . Routledge.

Polly, D. (2016). Handbook of research on applied learning theory and design in modern education . IGI Global.

Luhman, N. (2012). Introduction to systems theory . Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity.

Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Schools as open systems. Journal of Schooling , 1 (1), 1-5. Retrieved from http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lununburg,%20Fred%20C.%20Schools%20as%20Open%20Systems%20Schooling%20V1%20N1%202010.pdf

Scott, W. R., & Davis, G. F. (2015). Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural and open Systems perspectives. Routledge.