Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

The road to emancipation is through organisational development : a critical assessment of Total Systems Intervention

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Tsoukas, Haridimos (1993) The road to emancipation is through organisational development : a critical assessment of Total Systems Intervention. Systems practice, 6 (1). pp. 53-70. doi:10.1007/BF01059679

Research output not available from this repository, contact author.
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01059679

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Total Systems Intervention (TSI) has been claimed to be the ''practical face'' of critical systems thinking. This article reviews the central principles of TSI, describes its theoretical base, and outlines its logic. It is argued that, far from being the way forward for management science, as its supporters claim, TSI is beset by logical and conceptual problems which render its use problematic. More specifically, TSI appears to confuse logical types; its use of metaphors tends to be circular and unnecessary; and its avowed complementarism is insufficiently thought out. It is also argued that TSI is only contingently linked to critical systems thinking and that the latter's assumptions are not followed through in practice. TSI, in the final analysis, appears to be relying on commonsense, eclectically drawing on other problem-solving methods, but in itself unable to present a distinctively new, theoretically sound, and methodologically consistent approach.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Journal or Publication Title: Systems practice
Publisher: Springer
ISSN: 0894-9859
Official Date: February 1993
Dates:
DateEvent
February 1993UNSPECIFIED
Volume: 6
Number: 1
Number of Pages: 18
Page Range: pp. 53-70
DOI: 10.1007/BF01059679
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item
twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us