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Systems Thinking is a new paradigm which could revolutionize management practice in the 21st century. This text provides a guide to the application of this paradigm in the field of management. It: traces the emergence of holistic thinking in disciplines such as biology, control engineering, sociology and the natural sciences; details and provides a critique, based upon social theory, of the range of systems approaches, methodologies, models and methods; offers numerous case studies to illustrate systems thinking applied to management; introduces critical systems thinking’ as a coherent framework that brings unity to the diversity of different systems approaches and advises managers, consultants, scholars and students on their use; and provides an accessible source of inspiration for managers, management consultants, scholars and students. The text covers: chaos and complexity theory; the learning organization; system dynamics; living systems theory; soft systems methodology; interactive management; interactive planning; total systems intervention; autopoiesis; management cybernetics; the viable system model; operations research (hard and soft); systems analysis; systems engineering; general system theory; sociotechnical systems thinking; the fifth discipline; social systems design; team syntegrity; postmodern systems thinking; critical systems thinking; and much more. The text considers the work of: Ackoff; Banathy; Beer; Capra; Checkland; Churchman; Eden; Emery; Flood; Forrester; Friend; Freire; Jackson; Jantsch; Linstone; Luhmann; Mason; Maturana; Miller; Mitroff; Prigonine; Rosenhead; Senge; Stacey; Trist; Ulrich; Varela; Vickers; von Bertalanffy; Warfield; Wheatley; Wiener; and many more.
