SATM 6.2.2.7 The Managerial Subsystem

Management is clearly a functional imperative of efficient and effective organizations, since come management is needed to balance the pulls exerted by the other subsystems and fit the organization into its environment.

Managers can choose or influence some of the environment factors that their organizations (e.g. employees, customers, location); they are not simply prey to environmental determinations. Organizations can also operate at less than optimum performance and still survive; this gives managers slack to exercise their judgement about what structure to employ.

Finally, much the same performance may be obtained with different structures. So, again, there is room for choice.

(Jackson, Michael C. (2000) Systems Approaches to Management, Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers. P114.)