What Are Organizational Subsystems?

Organizational subsystems are all parts of an organization working together for a common purpose — for the operation to run successfully. Examples of organizational subsystems are structure, vision, strategy and culture. Independently, these subsystems have their own structure and ideas, but together they become the core of the organization. Each organization is only as strong as its weakest link, so all these subsystems have to work together with the same mission and values to strengthen the organization as a whole.

An organization’s vision involves the mission and values of the organization. The vision describes what the company is, what there purpose is and where they want to go in the future. The vision is extremely important for every employee to embrace. Once a vision is clearly defined, everyone in the organization should share and work toward the collective goals of that vision.

The culture of the organization describes the atmosphere and environment. It includes people's behavior, attitude and work ethic. An organization's culture should be learning-based, so people always feel the need to learn new things and embrace change. The organization's shared vision will help build a solid culture of which people will enjoy being a part.

A companies policies and procedures help make up the strategy of the organization. The strategy encompasses hiring the right people, training them to embrace the vision and the culture of the company, and teaching them the correct way to do their jobs. Training them from the first day of employment is important to establish standards and make sure everyone understands what is expected of them.

The structure of the organization is important. Structure can be defined as a top-down managerial organization chart that is topped off by the CEO or president and branches down to lower levels within the organization. It is important to have an established structure from the beginning, so employees know and understand where they stand in the organization, to whom they answer and who is in charge. With established structure, the organization will avoid any confusion when it comes for people to perform certain functions.