INFORMAL SYSTEMS THINKING OR SYSTEMS THEORY

Systems thinking is the practice of holistic thinking, which can be informal or based on systems theory. Success has always depended on holistic rather than one-sided thinking. Empirical findings about the innovative society can exemplify this statement, though there seems to be no universal agreement as to what the basic attributes of systems thinking are, and we offer a summary of them. To test them, we investigated an industrial latecomer country and found that the understanding of both the innovative society and the systemic thinking are rare: one-sidedness prevails. What do we do to come closer to holistic thinking? Neither the General Systems Theory nor most other systems theories (except the Dialectical Systems Theory) provide a methodology supportive of holism; however, the case of the visionary companies proves that informal systems thinking can be very powerful. Hence, systems theories should work more on informal systems thinking.     

REQUISITELY HOLISTIC ISO 9000 AUDIT LEADS TO CONTINUOUS INNOVATION/IMPROVEMENT

Research has shown that quality assurance with the formal fulfillment of ISO 9001 standard requirements tends not to help companies to achieve greater competitiveness and business success. Conformity of the quality system with the standard requirements confirms that the company has achieved a maturity level indicating its capability of defining its processes and performing them according to the definitions (not necessarily efficiently!). This paper suggests a more holistic approach: synergy of conformity and management produce value-added auditing, with emphases on ISO 9000 value-added auditing. With this novelty an ISO 9001:2000 audit tends to have a long-term economic added value because it helps its users create improvements (inventions and innovations) by requisite holism.