Published: October 2022
Keywords:
Systems thinking, therapy, Wittgenstein, Bateson, change, praxis, pattern which connects, politics, Petros Polychronis, Haridimos Tsoukas.
Haridimos Tsoukas
The Columbia Ship Management Professor of Strategic Management, Department of Business and Public Administration, University of Cyprus & Distinguished Research Environment Professor of Organization Behavior, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK
Email: htsoukas@gmail.com
Web: www.htsoukas.com
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VuPk39kAAAAJ&hl=el&oi=ao
Latest books:
Tsoukas, H. (2019), Philosophical Organization Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Farjoun, M, Smith, W., Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (2018) (Eds.), Dualities, Dialectics, and Paradoxes in Organizational Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (2017) (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies, London: Sage
Abstract
Systems thinking emphasises that we co-create the problems we face. Any attempt to understand and intervene in a social system must be prompted by a desire to see the larger interaction pattern within which actors operate. Interdependence within the system creates problems of cyclical structure. The systemic perspective emphasises the intervention in a system, not merely the interpretation or explanation of the phenomenon of concern. For systemic thinkers, the question of practical interest is "what?", not "why?". So, if we are interested in successfully intervening in a social system, the only question of practical interest is: what do I need to do, here and now, to change dysfunctional behaviour? Praxeologically, the first crucial question is: "what is going on here?". Therefore, if we set aside explanations and focus on description, we will see more clearly what is going on and how the problem is perpetuated. Descriptive knowledge has epistemological significance: it reveals the problem's systemicity. It shows the existence of stabilising mechanisms that prevent the system from changing. We get to the bottom of problems not by looking for their ultimate causes but by becoming aware of the patterns by which problems manifest themselves. I provide two examples from politics – one from international relations and the other from the management of reforms in Greece.
