ABSTRACT

'Fifth Discipline' is one of the very few approaches to management that has attained position on the International Hall of Fame. Professor Flood's book explains and critiques the ideas in straight forward terms. This book makes significant and fundamental improvements to the core discipline - systemic thinking. It establishes crucial developments in systemic thinking in the context of the learning organisation, including creativity and organisational transformation. It is therefore a very important text for strategic planners, organisational change agents and consultants.
The main features of the book include:
* a review and critique of 'Fifth Discipline' and systemic thinking
* an introduction to the gurus of systemic thinking - Senge, Bertalanffy, Beer, Ackoff, Checkland, and Churchman
*a redefinition of management through systemic thinking
*a guide to choosing, implementing and evaluating improvement strategies
*Practical illustrations.
Robert Flood is a renowned and authoritative expert in the field of management. He has implemented systemic management in a wide range of organisations in many continents and lectured by invitation in 25 countries, including Japan and the USA. Professor Flood has featured on many radio and TV programs. His book Beyond TQM was nominated for the 'IMC Management Book of the Year 1993'.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

part |63 pages

Part I

chapter |16 pages

Senge's The Fifth Discipline

chapter |6 pages

Bertalanffy's open systems theory

chapter |10 pages

Beer's organisational cybernetics

chapter |8 pages

Ackoff's interactive planning

chapter |8 pages

Checkland's soft systems approach

chapter |6 pages

Churchman's critical systemic thinking

chapter |7 pages

Senge's The Fifth Discipline revisited

part |120 pages

Part II

part |50 pages

Concepts

chapter |5 pages

Towards systemic thinking

chapter |4 pages

Getting to grips with complexity

chapter |4 pages

Deepening systemic appreciation

chapter |6 pages

Window 1

Systems of processes

chapter |6 pages

Window 2

Systems of structure

chapter |6 pages

Window 3

Systems of meaning

chapter |7 pages

Window 4

Systems of knowledge-power

chapter |4 pages

Prismatic thought

part |29 pages

Approach

chapter |12 pages

Systemic evaluation

chapter |2 pages

Instrumental and experiential action

part |38 pages

Practical animation