Systems Approaches to Management

Why Systems Thinking? -- The Systems Tradition -- The Aim Of The Book -- Why Read This Book? -- Orientation And Structure -- Methodology, Methods, And Meta-methodology -- Methodology, Theory, And Practice -- Types Of Research -- Action Research -- Social Science And Systems Thinking -- The Structure Of Part I -- System, Systems Thinking And The Structure Of Parts Ii And Iii -- Conclusion And The Structure Of The Argument -- Relevant Social Theory -- Sociological Paradigms -- Metaphors Of Organization -- Critical Theory And Habermas -- Modernism Versus Postmodernism -- Origins In The Disciplines -- Philosophy -- Biology -- General System Theory -- Sociology -- Management And Organization Theory -- Control Engineering And Cybernetics -- The Black Box Technique -- Negative Feedback -- Variety Engineering -- The Physical Sciences And Toward Synthesis -- Chaos And Complexity Theory -- Applied Systems Thinking -- The Systems Movement -- The Development Of Applied Systems Thinking -- Systems Thinking As A Transdiscipline -- The Status Of Applied Systems Thinking -- Systems Approaches -- The Functionalist Systems Approach -- Organizations As Systems -- Barnard's Systems Thinking -- Contingency Theory -- Socio-technical Systems Theory -- Strengths And Weaknesses Of 'organizations-as-systems' -- Hard Systems Thinking -- Operational Research -- Systems Analysis -- Systems Engineering -- Strengths And Weaknesses Of Hard Systems Thinking -- System Dynamics -- System Dynamics Models -- System Dynamics Methodology. Part I. Orientation And Structure -- Relevant Social Theory -- Origins In The Disciplines -- Applied Systems Thinking -- Part Ii. Systems Approaches. The Functionalist Systems Approach -- The Interpretive Systems Approach -- The Emancipatory Systems Approach -- The Post-modern Systems Approach -- Part Iii. Critical Systems Thinking. -- The Origins Of Critical Systems Thinking -- Contemporary Critical Systems Thinking And Practice -- Critical Systems Practice: Three Illustrative Case Studies -- Conclusion. Michael C. Jackson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 427-439) And Indexes.