Introduction Systems thinking, as defined by today’s scholars, has been around for decades and continues to grow as researchers turn to the past, present, and future to gain a better understanding. In fact, concepts found in systems thinking go back to the time of Aristotle (Mele, Pels, & Polses, 2010; Ing, 2013). This method points out how systems have no ends, are all interconnected, and that it is impossible to completely comprehend anything (Senge, 2014). Since humans tend to want to control and understand everything, this may be hard to handle but puts everything in perspective at the same time. The term system has a variety of definitions, but a broad description is a “complex of interacting components together with the relationships
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This may be difficult to grasp because people tend to want to break a system or problem down in order to better understand it. Another reason its complexity might confuse a researcher is the many theories from general systems theory, to biology and sociology, to system dynamics and smart systems (Mele et al., 2010). Even the application can serve to frustrate some because in management systems thinking can be applied o knowledge, value, quality, environment, relationships, among others (Mele et al., 2010). A leader or scholar may wonder how to approach this method of …show more content…
One point that will stay constant is that systems thinking focuses on wholes, parts, and their relationships (Ing, 2013). Questions should be asked and answered even if they are the same ones. It is important to understand the basic relations in systems thinking. These three are function, which is the input, means and cause; structure, defining outputs, ends, and effect; and process, or know-how to get to the desired outcomes (Ing, 2013). Systems thinking comes from many years of methods and practice, which makes its history useful in understanding its present and future. Its philosophy can be traced back to the time of Aristotle (Falcon, 2012), where function was born; Parmenides and Plato (Robinson, 2013), structure’s beginnings; and Heraclitus (Seibt, 2012), processes’ father (as cited by Ing, 2013). These three perspectives, and an understanding of them, are vital to systems
This may be difficult to grasp because people tend to want to break a system or problem down in order to better understand it. Another reason its complexity might confuse a researcher is the many theories from general systems theory, to biology and sociology, to system dynamics and smart systems (Mele et al., 2010). Even the application can serve to frustrate some because in management systems thinking can be applied o knowledge, value, quality, environment, relationships, among others (Mele et al., 2010). A leader or scholar may wonder how to approach this method of …show more content…
One point that will stay constant is that systems thinking focuses on wholes, parts, and their relationships (Ing, 2013). Questions should be asked and answered even if they are the same ones. It is important to understand the basic relations in systems thinking. These three are function, which is the input, means and cause; structure, defining outputs, ends, and effect; and process, or know-how to get to the desired outcomes (Ing, 2013). Systems thinking comes from many years of methods and practice, which makes its history useful in understanding its present and future. Its philosophy can be traced back to the time of Aristotle (Falcon, 2012), where function was born; Parmenides and Plato (Robinson, 2013), structure’s beginnings; and Heraclitus (Seibt, 2012), processes’ father (as cited by Ing, 2013). These three perspectives, and an understanding of them, are vital to systems