Introduction
System thinking crops from management as a discipline and it is mainly concerned with understanding systems by studying the components that link and interact to make up the system. System thinking requires the understanding of how systems work, and it is a comprehensive way of finding faults in order to correct and improve their status. The importance of system thinking is that it helps to understand the working of a system.
The more integrated a system gets, the more it can achieve its dedicated objectives. System thinking, therefore, entails the breaking down of individual components of the organization in order to understand them, analyze them and discuss them in order to understand them better. This, therefore, is a way of ensuring that a system is well incorporated in order to suit the working.
Why an organization needs system thinking
There is an importance in linking systems so that an organization can easily run its tasks on a daily basis. An organization is mainly composed of a number of systems. These systems include finance departments, HR department and even the workers union. These systems interact on a daily basis to ensure that the organization achieves its targets that may be short term or long term. The existence of systems enables the organization to link various and important obligations together.
An organization that cannot define the system is unable to understand what works and what does not work for the organization. This means that the organization without a proper definition of its system is bound to experience chaos. The ability to understand the systems in an organization and what they entail is important to ensure that the system experiences a smooth flow of information, work schedules and even reaching of targets. This will enable the organization to meet goals.
System thinking, therefore, is a method to look at the various links, and interactions of the systems and how the whole component benefits from this interaction. There is a benefit in enabling the system to interact smoothly by identifying the best methods on the connection. There are moments when friction can occur between the systems; this is where management has to be proactive in handling the rifts by identifying the weak points and getting results from them. Some instances don’t require the solving of the identified problems, only through reinforcement and learning from the problems can a system be compliant.
Loop and system loop learning
Single loop is a way of looking at problems by just observing the set rules meant to solve the problem. In this category, the rules are always a norm or set at a prior time and hence not highlighted. It shows that for the problem to be solved, the organization exploits the methods that were used before to solve the same problem. This is what traditional management used to do. It would look at the problem and work on the faults to cover them.
This model looks to discover mistakes in the methods of organizational management. The ability to correct the mistakes so as to maintain the status quo is what makes it a single loop learning method. There is a situation where
Single loop is when a certain strategy is evolved or professed in order to reach a certain result. This means that an organization uses a set of strategies, for example, to achieve a writing, in a set time the organization can take a number of individuals to do the write-up and then merge it. This is just using a single strategy to achieve results. It means that if the system fails whereby the time will not be attained, then the organization will look to accomplish the task by putting more individuals to the task.
Double looping is the strategy in which re-evaluation of the decisions, strategies looking into the values and gaining a deeper insight into how to work them out. This means that the whole system is either devolved in order to set it up afresh for the results to be achieved there is also the possibility that the system can be re-evaluated in order to find the faults and then come up with strategies that are viable to ensure that it achieves the set targets.
Reevaluation is important when dealing with a small system. This tends to save time and resources as well as ensuring that deadlines and time limits are not exceeded. There is a need for management to make important decisions in this situation. Revaluation is vital to ensure that the flaws in the system are diagnosed so as to find a common ground to solve the system hitches. In the case that the system cannot be reestablished to its former working state, then there is need to look for more proactive ways to establish another solution.
It, therefore, means that problem solving is one major way in which an organization runs its obligations. Goal achievement is the final stage of management and in order to reach it, the various steps have to be undertaken. The steps, therefore, include running the obligations of the organization by organizing various systems of the organizations towards the achievement of the goals. Management has to exploit the methods of single looping and double looking as problems in the organization keep evolving.
References
Kantamara, P., & Ractham, V. V. (2014). sINGLE-loop vs. Double-Loop Learning: An Obstacle or Success Factor for Organizational Learning. International Journal of Education and Research, 55-58.
Opereda, R. A. (2012, November 13). Single-Loop and Double-Loop Learning Model. Retrieved from ICL blog: http://www.afs.org/blog/icl/?p=2653
THWINK. (2014). Systems Thinking. Retrieved from thwink.org: http://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/SystemsThinking.htm
TSLI. (2016). Basic Principles of Systems Thinking as Applied to Management and Leadership. Retrieved from The System for Systematic Leadership: http://www.systemicleadershipinstitute.org/systemic-leadership/theories/basic-principles-of-systems-thinking-as-applied-to-management-and-leadership-2/
