Technology and change - Essay Example

System thinking is a problem solving approach consisting of understanding, how actions, or changes influences the state of the neighboring universe. As per this approach parts of a system can be best understood by studying the relationships between the components of the same system and that of the neighboring systems. The problems related to a system can be identified by understanding the problematic part in relation with the whole rather than going for the entire analysis of the system. Events or actions are separated by two parameters distance and time as per the principles of system thinking.

Just like the actions of a catalyst in a chemical reaction, even small change in actions can cause big difference in a complex system. The principles of system thinking can be applied to study any systems like natural, scientific, human or conceptual. (Systems Thinking, 2009) System or System thinking can be classified into three categories; Hard systems, evolutionary systems and Soft systems. Hard systems are usually consisting of certain simulations using computers and some research work. Business accounting system is an example of hard system.

It consists of many well defined elements. Hard systems are always a bounded system where all the components are bounded in the system. Normally it deals with quantifiable variables and will not consider variables such as opinions, culture politics etc. Evolutionary system on the other hand deals with the design of complex social systems. (Systems Thinking, 2009) Soft Systems is a branch of systems thinking designed for use in a variety of real-world contexts. It deals with the non-quantifiable variables such as motivations, viewpoints, and interactions and addressing qualitative as well as quantitative dimensions of problem situations.

(Soft systems methodology, 2008) It uses the foundation methodological works developed by famous British management scientist Peter Checkland. He has developed a methodology