Holistic thinking in management

To think holistically means to consider the system being studied as a whole; the system  could be an organization or a organization concern to be addressed. When we pay attention to the whole system performance in problem-solving, we assess our actions in problem-solving in terms of their impacts on the total systems performance while avoiding suboptimization consequences, which very often when reductionist thinking is adopted in lieu of holistic thinking.

Holistic thinking is based on systems thinking which draws our attention to the systemic nature of a system; such systemic nature arises from both the no. of elements involved and their linkages. Ignoring the linkages of the elements in problem-solving will reduce the effectiveness of problem-solving in those cases where these linkages of elements are important. In the case of human systems, the elements of the system are human beings, thus, the holistic nature of the system exhibits soft complexity. In terms of the linkages of elements, these could refer to the task dependencies in project management or linkages in value activities in  value chain analysis, for examples. When human beings are the elements of the system under review, the soft aspects of such a system could be exhibited in psyschological, cultural, ethical as well as political terms.

Therefore, holistic thinking in management is practised mainly with processes and methodologies that are soft and critical in theoretical stance. Prominent systems methodologies are Ackoff's interactive planning, Checkland's soft systems methodology as well as Flood and Jackson's Critical Systems Thinking.

A question: are conventional business disciplines, such as supply chain management and human resource management capable of promoting holistic thinking in management? I think so, as these business disciplines are quite prepared to adopt soft and critical systems thinking in their practices; the main limitation of these business disciplines is that they are backed up by their respective professional bodies, which, in their effort to establish their distinctive bodies of knowledge, tend to exclude certain elements of business aspects and concerns as not closely related to their bodies of knowledge. As a consequence, their approaches and business technologies are less holistic than those that are formulated by the systems community.

Finally, if the problem under review is simple and straigtforward, there is no benefit gained from adopting a holistic stance in problem-solving.