An integrated programme for critical thinking in information systems research

Abstract. This paper sets out to demonstrate that critical systems thinking can provide the necessary theoretical background for the development of an integrated approach to critical thinking in information systems research. Critical systems thinking is itself a relatively new development in management science. By about 1990, however, it had established itself on the basis of five commitments; to critical awareness, to social awareness, to complementarism at the level of methodology, to complementarism at the level of theory, and to human well-being and emancipation. The paper discusses these critical systems commitments and shows that each of them has, at one time or another, received attention in the literature on information systems. Addressing them as a whole, as in critical systems thinking, can yield an integrated programme for critical thinking in information systems research.