Introduction

Management of organisations formulate a vision and mission and conclude specific objectives to support this vision and mission. The administrative function is one of the systems necessary to achieve this strategic and long-term goal for the organisation.

It is important to understand the relationship between systems, subsystems, procedures and methods, in order to understand how and why systems are developed and updated.

The following example provides a conceptual framework to understand the elements of a system.

Within system four basic elements are necessary to ensure the optimal functioning of that system. Firstly, the incomes or supplies refer to critical aspects necessary for the system to be able to fulfil its function. Secondly, the processing refers to the transformation of supplies, leading to the third aspect which is the outcomes or the product. The feedback is the fourth and final element, indicating whether success was adamant or not.

To clarify the concept of systems and subsystems, the human body can be used as an example of a system. The sub-systems that can be identified include the circulatory, respiratory, nervous systems and so forth. In an organisation the different departments may be referred to as sub-systems: finance, personnel, marketing and human relations.