Developed at a theoretical, level the open systems approach has generated many new
concepts for thinking about organizations (Exhibit 3.2). These are often presented as general
principles for thinking about all kinds of systems owing to von Bertalanffy’s having
developed the principles of General Systems Theory as a means of linking different scientific
disciplines. However, he achieved this integration by taking the living organism as a model
for understanding complex open systems, thus reproducing ideas primarily developed for
understanding biological systems in order to understand the world at large. Early systems
theory thus developed as a biological metaphor in disguise.