Key Factors in Systems Thinking Reforms : A Study of employees’ perception of the reform

Abstract: Systems Thinking, (ST), has lately received increased attention, once again, as a result of accelerate change conditions and as organisations seem to operate in a more complex and uncertain context, which demands a new way of thinking. ST is an answer to these challenges as it is a way of thinking and acting that adopt a broader perspective. However, the perspective is not new itself and despite its positive aspects, it is still received inferior attention in the academia as well as practice. The purpose of this research was to contribute to an understanding of the employees perception of the change process towards this perspective, in order to gain an understanding of what is difficult and what factors that have helped these individuals to gain the perspective. A theoretical framework was developed and by conducting an exploratory study of the individual change, data were collected from in-depth interviews. The research findings come up with a model of nine key factors that are considered helpful to the employees in the change process, and three of those especially useful when implementing the ST perspective. The model can be seen as practical guidelines for implementation of ST reforms.