Validity in soft systems methodology: neglected areas

Validity in soft systems methodology: neglected areas

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Article ID: iaor20041901
Country: United Kingdom
Volume: 54
Issue: 7
Start Page Number: 706
End Page Number: 712
Publication Date: Jul 2003
Journal: Journal of the Operational Research Society
Authors: , ,
Keywords: systems, soft systems
Abstract:

Contrary to the prevailing notion in hard OR, in soft system methodology (SSM), validity seems to play a minor role. The primary reason for this is that SSM models are of a different type, they are not would-be descriptions of real-world situations. Therefore, establishing their validity, that is representativeness with regard to reality, is useless. However, in this paper, we employ a broader meaning of validity (well-groundedness) and demonstrate that this surfaces a couple of neglected areas in the discussion of validity in SSM. These relate to (a) the notion of SSM as a learning system, (b) the idea to improve real-world problem situations, and (c) learning about the effectiveness of SSM itself.

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