Systems theory: myth or mainstream?
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Systems theory: myth or mainstream? Magnus Lindskog
Received: 8 September 2011 / Accepted: 23 December 2011 / Published online: 6 January 2012 Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Systems thinking has by some been proposed as the ‘hard core’ of our discipline. Others have claimed that logistics rests on systems theory. However, glancing at how these notions are used outside of the discipline, there is reason to believe that there is more to systems theory than has been noted within our discipline. This paper therefore investigates the adoption of systems theory within the logistics discipline. The paper is entirely theoretical. It begins with a review of what is judged to be the main strands of the systems theoretical field. Thereafter, the adoption of these within the logistics discipline is studied, by means of a literature review that spans a total of 2,537 peer-reviewed journal articles as well as a sample of widespread basic textbooks. The findings indicate that a holistic or systems approach seems to have a somewhat central role in the logistics discipline. However, systems theory or systems thinking in its various forms—as it appears to be treated by those various scholars who deal with these notions explicitly—seem not to. Also, it seems that systems theory was more explicitly treated in the early days of our discipline, having become less visible explicitly in more recent publications. Keywords Systems theory Systems thinking Systems approach Logistics discipline Literature review
M. Lindskog (&) Department of Science and Technology, Linko¨ping University, 601 74 Norrko¨ping, Sweden e-mail: [email protected]
1 Introduction 1.1 Background Every now and then statements such as ‘the systems approach is fundamental to logistics management’ are uttered in logistics literature. Stock et al. [1, p. 45] write: ‘This systems approach within the firm has been the underlying premises of much of current logistics management, thought, and practice’. A similar statement is done by Quayle [2, p. 79], who, however, points to systems theory: ‘The development of an idea of the supply chain owes much to the emergence from the 1950s onwards of systems theory, and the associated notion of holism’. Arlbjo¨rn and Halldo´rsson [3] discuss the logistics discipline from the perspective of Lakatos’ views on scientific research programmes and claim that the ‘hard core’ of the logistics discipline ‘…is based on; systems thinking (a holistic view)’ (p. 25), and Gammelgaard [4] concludes that there are two major schools within logistics; the analytical and the systems schools. Aastrup and Halldo´rsson [5] claim that the dominating metaphor in the logistics field is ‘…one based on closed systems and functionalism…’ (p. 747), but that it is ‘… a particular strand of systems theory that has been applied in logistics’ (p. 748). Looking at systems thinking the way it is treated, for example, in Senge’s [6] popular The Fifth Discipline, there is, however, reason to wonder to what extent our discipline actually has ut
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