As well as studying specialist functional structures and organisational arrangements other generic sub-systems or processes may be identified. The most obvious is the mnagement sub-system in a business.
Fayol argues that the role of management is to plan, organise, motivate and control.
Mintzberg suggests that managerial work involves ten roles; figurehead, resource allocator, leader, liasison, disseminator, disturbance handler, leader, monitor etc. Each of these involves a repertoire of processes, behaviours and skills
Other general functional and co-ordinative processes which influence and are influenced by the structural form of the business include
Each may involve the utilisation of technology (human or machine based) and application of a wide range of rules/values, techniques and methods.
Marketing and Public Relations.
These activities involve both general and specialist functions. The organisation has to ensure that it is communicating with its customers or clients to give information on its current performance and direction of efforts. There is every reason why inter-departmental communication should also feature particularly where one department, say Finance or Data Processing, is servicing the needs of other departments (the clients) who are ill-informed about the openings and constraints the "servicers" face. Such "user-orientation" aids synergy and creativity though joint examination of needs and solutions.
Information Systems
The provision of information system services involves sub-systems which are both general and specialist in servicing the organisation's transaction processing, communications, management information needs and overall systems of control.
Information flows in/out of the organisation, it is stored, it is manipulated and used for organisational control purposes. Without the information system the decisional processes and performance of the organisation would be adversely affected. Management Information Systems support timely and effective decisions for planning, directing and controlling organisational activities.
