Article ID: | iaor200970646 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 25 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 125 |
End Page Number: | 136 |
Publication Date: | Jan 2008 |
Journal: | Systems Research and Behavioural Science |
Authors: | Gao Fei |
Keywords: | systems |
In this paper I have drawn a brief picture to map the nature of management in modern high‐tech organizations from the viewpoint of critical systems thinking. First, I point out the difference between science and art. Then, following Jackson's classification of different systems approaches such as modernism and postmodernism, I connect modernism with objectivism and collective subjectivism, and postmodernism with individual subjectivism. Through clarifying three ways of knowing/understanding the world and introducing a new knowledge systems model of modern high‐tech corporations, I argue that in the knowledge age, management is both a science and an art. Objects under consideration belonging to different parts of reality require different approaches to deal with. The purpose of this article is to give a brief explanation of why management is both a science and an art, and to inspire further debate and discussion on the essence of management among academics and practitioners.