Towards a Proposal of a Local Authority Model Based on the Systemic Approach

Abstract

As a result of the evolution of our societies, several types of organizations have emerged. They were designed to meet specific needs. Therefore, each organization has its own purpose and missions. Consequently, these organizations have developed interactions and interconnections in order to achieve their goals. This concerns both public and private organizations. If public and private organizations share the quest of efficiency, public organizations have additional missions which consist of pursuing the common interest. However, modern era which is qualified as instable and uncertain, makes organizations’ everyday life becomes more complex and unpredictable. Hence the need for understanding these organizations in order to know how they work, to make a diagnosis and provide an analysis of them. This is particularly true for local authorities, since they have been connected to many internal and external stakeholders, they have been managed by a dual structure combining elected politicians and administrative staff; they have been in charge of many functions including: ensuring local development, guaranteeing citizens’ well-being, and providing higher quality services with lower cost. Given their nature and the complexity of their role, modeling this organization becomes a necessity. In this perspective, this paper aims to propose a model of a local authority using Kast and Rosenzweig (1985) and Meinadier (1998) models. Both of those are largely based on Von Bertalanffy's systems theory commonly known as systemic approach. Results show that local authority is an open, complex, and dynamic socio-technical system which is exposed to a wide typology of risks.