Organisations

Abstract

The relationships between the GCS, MIS and constituent operational systems of the Organisation closely resemble those of the three processes of a single operational system. This principal characteristic of fifth-level systems is illustrated in Figure 5.1. The problems of an operational process as viewed by its controller are formally very like those of an operational system as viewed by its GCS. The problems and role of the historical process and the information functions of an operational system (which we may collectively refer to as its information processes) are decidedly similar, in a formal way, to those of the general historical process and the information functions which are associated with the GCS of the Organisation (which we have agreed may collectively be called its management information system). The formal similarities are pronounced, but there are differences of emphasis and detail. In this chapter we shall attempt to identify some of the most notable problems of operational systems as perceived by their controllers, and of Organisations as perceived by their general control systems. Clearly this is to take up particular positions. There is no reason to suppose that someone identified with the operational process of an operational system would take the same view of it as another identified with the controller, as we shall identify ourselves. Nor may we expect that the controllers of its constituent operational systems, for example, would regard an Organisation in at all the same way—or at least, with the same emphasis—as its GCS.