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Resisting dynamic structures in shifting toward "systems thinking"

Vakili, K ; Sharif University of Technology | 2007

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. Publisher: 2007
  3. Abstract:
  4. There is a unanimous agreement that "systems thinking" helps both individuals and organizations make more intelligent and more effective decisions. On the other hand, the unsatisfactory rate of systems thinking evolution among managers, collegians, students and other stratums raises this question that, why such a useful, discriminating and tasteful concept in theory, does not spread with the desirable pace in practice. Where exactly does the problem originate from? The tragedy is more sensible when noting the fact that even those who know the concept methodically do not apply it in action and in their decisions. Unfortunately, despite relatively numerous literatures on changing beliefs, values and behaviors of individuals, there are comparatively few works regarding dynamics of change in thinking styles and thinking methods. Moreover, there are often different terms used for addressing the thinking process in human individuals such as "thinking style", "thinking process", "thinking strategy" and "cognitive style". In this paper, an agreed upon definition for the "systems thinking" is extracted and its constituting components from different fields such as systems science, system dynamics and operation research are distinguished. This paper carefully seeks to identify major dynamic structures against the transition from "non-systems thinking" toward holistic "systems thinking" in individuals, moreover, the resisting structures and barriers in applying it. Having identified these resisting dynamic structures, one can better realize the roots of this poor growth rate, and give more insightful and effective solutions to overcome the barriers and limitations
  5. Keywords:
  6. Cognitive styles ; Decision making process ; Dynamic structure ; Effective solution ; Operation research ; System dynamics ; Systems thinking ; Thinking process ; Thinking styles ; System theory
  7. Source: 51st Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, ISSS 2007, Tokyo, 5 August 2007 through 10 August 2007 ; 2007 , Pages 593-611 ; 9781605600437 (ISBN)
  8. URL: https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings51st/article/view/499