RETHINKING A SYSTEMS APPROACH.

This paper considers briefly the nature of systems thinking and 'the systems movement' within which the ideas are used consciously; it will try to indicate the meaning of 'a systems approach' among the many activities which go on in the systems movement and describe the implications and significance of recent practical research which has established 'soft' systems methodology for tackling the ill-structured problems which abound in the real world; and it argues that the implications of this work are that the traditional concept of 'a systems approach' now has to be re-thought. For the work not only illuminates the meaning of 'a systems approach' in its first manifestations (in 'systems engineering' and 'systems analysis') it also gives it a new meaning and links systems thinking more firmly to the concerns and problems of social science. Finally, the paper examines the question: what does the successful application of a systems approach in real-world problem situations imply about the nature of social reality?