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Rethinking the Fifth Discipline: Learning Within the Unknowable
 
 
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Rethinking the Fifth Discipline: Learning Within the Unknowable [Paperback]

Robert Louis Flood
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 232 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (22 July 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0415185300
  • ISBN-13: 978-0415185301
  • Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 220,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

More About the Author

Robert L. Flood
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Product Description

Dr Russell L. Ackoff, Chairman, The Institute for Interactive Management, USA

'It is the nature of systemic thinking to yield many different views of the same thing and the same view of many different things. This book offers such a point of view of systemic thinking which is both important and very rewarding for one to take into account.' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Vice Chancellor Brenda Gourlay, University of Natal, South Africa.

'Robert Flood describes complex systemic theory and practice in a clear, comprehensible manner, thereby bringing a better understanding of the world and ourselves to his readers. If you are interested in learning and growing, if you wish to manage better, then read this insightful and thought-provoking book.' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Peter Senge follows in the tradition of the learning organisation, which came to the fore in the 1970s, for example, through the research of Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, and the practice in Royal Dutch/Shell of Arie de Geus. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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43 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The content of Professor Flood's latest book is original and profound, but easily understood and operationalised, therefore this book can be considered a "must have" by academics, students, interventionists, consultants and managers alike. It successfully elucidates how the concepts of Systems Theory, Complexity Theory, Organisational Learning and Organisational Intervention are inextricably intertwined.

There is a significant degree of emergent synergy that arises from the complementarist use of the Senge's approach (as described within the "Fifth Discipline") when used in conjunction with Flood's guiding> frameworks for organisational intervention and improvement. In isolation, Senge provided his readers with guidance on organisational learning - but provided no pragmatic steps to guide organisational analysis and the actual selection and use of improvement strategies. Conversely, Flood's previous writings provided a guiding framework for facilitating organisational improvement but lacked the organisational learning approaches that are simultaneously required if the need for organisational improvement (i.e. change) is to be recognised, validated, operationalised, reflexively critiqued and assimilated as part of a revised organisational paradigm. Empirical studies have clearly demonstrated that without the tools to facilitate organisational learning, it is quite likely that the need and desire to implement change strategies will be attenuated by organisational defence mechanisms. (See the work of Argyris in this regard). Therefore, the augmentation of organisational improvement frameworks with organisational learning offers interventionists an enhanced degree of success.

Thus, by effectively combining his interventional strategies with the Senge's organisational learning strategies, Flood has successfully created a pragmatic approach that is more potent than the sum of its constituent parts. The emergent synergy is not by any means a coincidental by-product of the amalgam. Flood clearly explains how the inescapable and tangible manifestations of Complexity Theory require us to "learn our way into an unknowable future". Flood's book also effectively prepares the reader for the adaptations that will be necessary in contending with a dynamically changing organisational landscape.

This book is highly recommended to all those with an interest in organisational learning, change management, systems theory and complexity theory.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book broadens the scope of the work covered by Senge et al. It adds to it rather than detracting from it. It also provides a good bibliography for further reading around this area.

It is an easy and interesting read.

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Interesting 22 Mar 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's interesting to follow the intellectual development of Flood. This book has minimal to do with Senge's Fifth Discipline, I would say, but much more to do with the evolution of critical systems theory (CST) and total systems interventions (TSI). It is interesting to note that the case story used to illustrate the approach is the same case study that Flood has used for illustrating TSI in the context of TQM and other approaches, neither of them having anything to do with system dynamics. In fact, Flood's systems theory seems much closer to Checkland "automata theory" than anything having to do with differential equations, as is the basis for Forrester and Senge. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating read. The matrix used for discussing four strands of systems theory seems much more mature than the "system of systems methodology" that was used as a cornerstone within TSI.
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