The Meaning and Importance of Systems Thinking
System thinking can be defined as the approach that deals with and focuses on the various part of a system in which they correlate with each other and the way in which the whole larger system works and deals with various challenges that come along the way. The traditional analysis approach deals with a problem in a way that separates the constituent parts and each of the parts are analyzed separately, however, the system thinking approach is a wholesome process of dealing with situations where the whole system has a particular thinking or philosophy (Nguyen & Bosch 2013).
The concept of system thinking and system approach is relatively new and it has various meaning to different people according to their perceptions. Systems thinking began in 1956, when Professor Jay Forrester established the Systems Dynamic Group at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. The system thinking approach is also a philosophy that deals with how analysis of a process may be done in a particular way (Boehm & Mobasser 2015). The particular concept of system thinking can be applied in various sectors such as economic, human resources, educational systems, environmental, political, and medical among many others.
Systems thinking extends the possibility of assessments available for taking care of a subject by widening our thinking and assisting us verbalize matters in new and distinctive ways. In the intervening time, the ideas of system thinking has cleared to the people that every individual part of a business or organization ultimately affects the whole business. By envisioning the consequence of each interchange off, one can bound its significance or even apply it to their own specific influence. Systems thinking accordingly allows one to settle on informed choices. Systems thinking is likewise imperative for relating substantial ideas that portray how a framework purposes. As specimen, the act of illustration underlying circle sketches powers a team to generate joint depictions, or ideas, of a circumstance. The devices are compelling modes for recognizing, portraying, and imparting your comprehension of systems, especially in gatherings.
The wicked problem taken in this approach is Australia’s aging workforce. One of the very big problems in present time Australia is the problem of ageing. The UN appraises that by 2050, one third of individuals living in the present world will be more than 60. In Australia, one fourth individuals is more aged than 55 and throughout the coming decades this will double to around one out of every three. As Australia’s demography keeps on climbing up, a key basic will be to drag out paid workforce provision and decrease the dependence of the non-working populace on the working people to a practical level. Ageing workforce debate has generally examined system suggestions, the cost of medicinal services, and effects on the social welfare framework, retirement investment funds and the more extensive economy, however vital parts of the maturing workforce have so far been to a great extent precluded. The purpose of this essays is to state how Systems thinking is acute in evolving explanations to sustainability challenges in the context of Australia’s aging workforce (Brandstädter, Harms & Grossschedl 2012). The essay will first describe the various challenges that has been posed by the wicked problem of ageing workforce and then it will discuss in step by step order the various concepts of system thinking and how it may help in creating solution to the aforesaid sustainability problem.
The Wicked Problem of Ageing Workforce in Australia
In many of the countries the problem of aging workforce is creating a serious concern for thinking. In China for example the extreme control over the birthrate and population has now caused an ageing workforce so often it is seen that China is termed as an ageing nation. On the other hand India has a population with the largest share of the youth. In Australia however, though the problem is not serious as China, the problem of ageing in the workforce persists. It is seen that the number of people leaving the workforce may soon overtake the number of people joining it if proper actions are not taken as soon as possible. One may consider the ramifications of Australia′s maturing population for future human resource administration rehearse. Recognizes that scaling back practices which at first focused on more seasoned specialists may have added to raising the profile of their powerlessness and recommends changes will be required in all key human resource capacities to decrease inclination, enhance value, and spotlight on the potential advantages more established staff can contribute (Xu, Marinova & Guo 2015). Contrasts in wellbeing and security records demonstrate that age alone does not separate amongst staff, and consequently rejects view of more seasoned staff as more clumsy. Generalizations which militate against employing more established staff should be tended to and preparing practices will require rebuilding to oblige elective preparing techniques which urge more established staff to reskill. Suggestion can be given that execution criteria which measure commitment should be created for all workers with the goal that prizes can be unraveled from length of administration and guarantee that occupations, not people, turn into the premise of assessment (Caldwell 2012).
The problem of the ageing population can termed as one of the problems of sustainability, because ageing of the present population and inability to inject new workforce to the work environment is a sustainability problem. A more planned or sustainable system in place may ensure the problem of ageing work force may be resolved by the supplementation of a new set of professionals in due time (Taylor 2013). The problem can be solved if the appropriate work pool is ready and proper training can be provided to the upcoming workforce. Therefore an elaborate system of training is required to be in place so that the gap between the time of the ageing workforce leaving the work environment and the new workforce being employed at the correct time (Wiig et al. 2014). This is proper practice of sustainability which can hold the system for the longest possible time. The other side of the story is a little more positive as the existing workforce is staying for a longer time. Therefore a balance is still maintained in the whole system. The present number of people in the workforce who are higher than the age of 55 is the largest.
Potential Solutions and the Importance of Sustainability
According to Pandey & Kumar (2016) “System thinking is different in comparison to traditional thinking because it focuses on the inter relationship between the different components used in the system.” Therefore a system that works in a regulated and unified ways is far more efficient than a system that is divided and the analysis of which is done in a fragmented manner. Whether or not the traditional approach is effective or the system thinking approach, but it is an undoubtable fact that the idea of an overall analysis of a system is more efficient than the fragmented approach. The system thinking approach is actually a trans-disciplinary setup for seeing the various angles of interrelationship of thinks rather than the static and differentiated and fragmented incidents across the system. In a system thinking scenario the system thinker perceives a problem in relationship to the whole system and sees the pattern of behaviors over time instead of just zeroing on smaller and rather unimportant incidents. The system thinking rather than analyzing the micro elements examines elements the macro elements. The past invisible elements that work towards giving a combined effect to the total system is examined in this case. Today, it is applied by scholastics and specialists alike to focus on challenges of sustainability. Nonetheless, as with any new critical intelligent approaches, the frameworks approach has its feedbacks. There is a presumption that frameworks believing is extremely fundamental, embodying a basically technocratic viewpoint of financial matters. Its dependence on theories and models and nonexistence of genuine preparations challenges its authenticity in corporate gatherings and administration meetings. However, as the specialist accomplishments to approach problems by 1) identifying the issue so as to make sense of what ways to resolve it and 2) implementing arrangements with known consequences, it is trusted frameworks believing is vital for sustainability challenges (Pandey & Kumar 2016).
The various times when the system thinking approach can be utilized are, when the issue is very critical or important, the problem is expected to be repetitive and cannot be solved at once, the problem is not new and has a historical nature and there have been many unsuccessful attempts being already utilized to solve the problem. Consideration regarding criticism is a fundamental segment of system thinking. For instance, in venture administration, winning insight may recommend the expansion of laborers to an undertaking that is slacking. In any case, by and by, that strategy may have really impeded advancement before. Consideration regarding that pertinent input can enable administration to search for different arrangements as opposed to squandering assets on an approach that has been shown to be counterproductive. Systems thinking utilizes Computer and digital representation and a mixture of frameworks and illustrations to demonstrate, present, and predict system behavior. Amongst the systems thinking mechanisms are: the behavior after a period chart, which validates the actions of minimum one aspects over some indeterminate time frame; the causative circle outline, which shows the networks among system apparatuses; the organization preliminary program of training, which uses an intuitive system to mimic the effects of management choices; and the reenactment display, which reconstructs the network of system components after some time.
Criticism of Systems Thinking as a Technocratic Approach
In this particular case the problem of ageing in the workforce needs to be solved by the system thinking approach. The first step which needs to be taken is to estimate the number of employees who will be leaving the workforce in a cumulative number. This can be done by developing algorithms to sort out the employees of the age who would be above the retirement mark in one year or 5 years of time as a whole from the total workforce (Liu, Forrest & Yang Y., 2015). The same algorithm can be used to predict the number of people that will be required to be trained to prepare the pool of workforce in order to fulfill the gap of the ageing population. The system thinking tools and algorithms are useful in understanding and fulfilling the gaps caused by the various factors and one of the main such factor is the ageing of the population. The system thinking approach will not see this problem as a temporary incident that can be corrected by providing some immediate employees, but this problem will be looked as a recurring problem in relation with the overall problem (Oyebisi, Momodu & Olabode 2013).
Sustainability in business is about administering the business in a way that it causes the lowest amount of harm to the society and the environment possible and to continue the business activity in a profitable way for the maximum time. Therefore in order to run a sustainable business activity it is required for the management to ensure that proper workforce is maintained. Therefore the company must take up to the system thinking approach in order to solve the problem of ageing workforce in a holistic manner.
Two particular points of interest requiring consideration are picking the esteem and the medium for reputation to be utilized in this case. The esteem must be one that is revered in the way of life of the work force of intrigue and the exposure medium can be in different structures. For instance, a committed site website could be set up that would incorporate the names of every one who went up against the duty. This should likewise be possible in a print shape production and additionally a noticeboard. The essential perspective here is that open responsibility has been made. The ability and inspirations of more experienced adults to delay their paid working life was the last theme of dialog. For more professional aged workers to emphatically and enthusiastically delay their work life the working environment must think about the exceptional position this populace ends up in. Obviously inadequate with regards to the assets to help themselves would compel more established ageing employees to work. It is additionally visualized that being compelled to work due to monetary weight would be harmful to the prosperity of more established aged professionals, which thus could have a negative broad undulating impact on people, and the network on the loose.
It can thus be concluded that the system thinking approach may prove to be very helpful in solving the wicked problem of ageing of the workforce of Australia in a sustainable manner so that the business activities become more productive.
Reference:
Boehm, B. & Mobasser, S.K., 2015, May. ‘System thinking: Educating T-shaped software engineers.’ In Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Software Engineering-Volume 2 (pp. 333-342). IEEE Press.
Brandstädter, K., Harms, U. & Grossschedl, J., 2012. ‘Assessing system thinking through different concept-mapping practices.’ International Journal of Science Education, 34(14), pp.2147-2170.
Caldwell, R., 2012. ‘Systems thinking, organizational change and agency: A practice theory critique of Senge’s learning organization.’ Journal of Change Management, 12(2), pp.145-164.
Liu, S., Forrest, J. & Yang, Y., 2015. ‘Grey system: thinking, methods, and models with applications.’ Contemporary Issues in Systems Science and Engineering, 888.
Nguyen, N.C. & Bosch, O.J., 2013. ‘A systems thinking approach to identify leverage points for sustainability: a case study in the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve, Vietnam.’ Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 30(2), pp.104-115.
Oyebisi, T.O., Momodu, A.S. & Olabode, S.O., 2013. ‘System thinking in managing technological innovation systems in manufacturing companies.’ Naše gospodarstvo/Our economy, 59(3-4), pp.50-57.
Pandey, A. & Kumar, A., 2016. ‘System Thinking Approach to Deal with Sustainability Challenges.’ System, 29, p.30.
Taylor, P. ed., 2013. Older workers in an ageing society: Critical topics in research and policy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Wiig, S., Robert, G., Anderson, J.E., Pietikainen, E., Reiman, T., Macchi, L. & Aase, K., 2014. ‘Applying different quality and safety models in healthcare improvement work: boundary objects and system thinking.’ Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 125, pp.134-144.
Xu, L., Marinova, D. & Guo, X., 2015. ‘Resilience thinking: a renewed system approach for sustainability science.’ Sustainability Science, 10(1), pp.123-138.
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