A Systems Analysis of Communication: Defining the Nature of and Principles for Communication Within Human Activity Systems

Defining system principles provides an approach to assess systems, design systems and develop strategies for effectively implementing system interventions. While principles can be almost anything to anyone, there remains a need to develop more scientific principles that are precise, clear and measurable. This paper presents an ontological framework that first characterizes communication as a conceptual system, emerging from the interaction of information conveyance and convergence. Subsequently, a set of system principles are presented to provide an approach for assessing the communication system interaction within human activity systems. It is posited that the research on the communication system and the subsystems of conveyance and convergence may provide managers and researchers insight into the various factors affecting the behavior of communication throughout the organization during new process implementation efforts. The knowledge of such may prepare managers to consider various factors impacting the effectiveness of information conveyance and convergence on change management. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the development of system principles for the communication system within the bounds of human activity systems will provide a change of perspectives in communication research and engineering management practices for a more optimal design of both systems and their interactions. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.