SYSTEMS-THEORY AND MANAGEMENT THINKING

Two inquiring systems developed since the 1960s-Vickers's concept of t he appreciative system and the soft systems methodology, are highly re levant to the problems of the 21st century. Both assume that organizat ions are more than rational goal-seeking machines and address the rela tionship-maintaining and Gemeinschaft aspects of organizations, charac teristically obscured by functionalist and goal-seeking models of orga nization and management. Appreciative systems theory and soft systems methodology enrich rather than replace these approaches.