Systems waste defined as 'any unnecessary inuput and/or any undesirabl
e output from a system' is very important in management of sociotechni
cal systems since it gives a better indication of the effectiveness an
d efficiency of performance of such systems than productivity. For a c
omplex system such as the Indian economy as a unit, it is difficult to
pinpoint and analyse causes of system waste due to 'messiness' of the
problem caused by many direct and indirect, hidden and articulated re
lationships, among causes. To develop insights in order to manage the
economy more effectively, it is imperative that the hierarchical struc
ture of causation of system waste be revealed. Structural modelling is
a methodology that employs graphics and words in carefully defined pa
tterns to portray the structure of a complex issue. This paper describ
es a study in which interpretative structural modelling (ISM) is used
to develop an attribute enhancement structure of causes of system wast
e in the Indian economy as a whole, for which the causes set was devel
oped by a large scale Delphi study. The structure developed is subject
ed to MICMAC analysis to reveal indirect relationships among the cause
s so that the process of management can be aided.