Critical systems thinking: Beyond the fragments

Abstract

This article is concerned with systems thinking as an approach to the management of complex problems. I argue that systems thinking is currently failing to make the most of the significant steps forward taken in the discipline during the 1970s and 1980s. Systems thinking should be able to present itself as the discipline capable of offering a holistic response to a very wide range of management problems. Instead, different groupings of academics and practitioners lay claim to the systems label but share little overall intellectual vision. While the discipline remains fragmented, the claim to offer a holistic and comprehensive response to management problems will seem hollow. Critical systems thinking is suggested as a way for the discipline to progress beyond the fragmentation. Copyright © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.