Quite a remarkable book

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	• Systems Approaches to Management Michael C. Jackson Springer, 2000 - 465 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Quite a remarkable book

This is a remarkable book. Inspite of a rather stodgy title, Jackson traces the various origins of systems thinking to their sociological foundations and implications. Extensive attention is given to systems approaches outside of the normal functionalist approaches ususally found in the US. I was at first intrigued and then delighted with his examination of critical thought and post-modernist approaches to systems approaches. Implications of Foucault and Kant for organizational theory are explored. Extensive applications of Jurgen Habermas's thought are made. It does make many of the other material (e.g., Senge's Fifth Discipline) seem quite shallow indeed. It is a bit more rigorous than most of the 'organizational theory' shelf!
This book deserves a place in any organizational theory class. It is an excellant example of exploring the various foundations, competing meta-theories and implications of organizational and management approaches.

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Systems Thinking is a new paradigm set to revolutionize management practice in the 21st century. Systems Approaches to Management is the most comprehensive guide available to the application of this new 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 Provides an accessible source of inspiration for managers, management consultants, scholars and students £/LIST£ 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. 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.

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