Michael C. Jackson

Michael C. Jackson (Mike) (1951) is a British systems scientist, consultant and Professor of Management Systems and Dean of Hull University Business School.

Biography

Michael C. Jackson was born in 1951 and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University in the 1970s. Afterwards he spent 4 years in the civil service before returning to academic life. He has since studied and taught at Lancaster, Warwick, Lincoln and Hull Universities, being appointed a full professor in 1989. [http://www.hull.ac.uk/hubs/people/staff/jackson_m.html Homepage] at the Hull University Business School, retrieved Oct 2007.]

He is a Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (New Delhi) and an Honorary Professor at the Universidad Ricardo Palma, Lima, Peru. In 1997 he was an Erskine Scholar at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Jackson is Editor-in-chief of the journal "Systems Research and Behavioral Science", published by John Wiley, and he is on the editorial board of 5 other journals. He has delivered plenary addresses at numerous international conferences, and has undertaken many consultancy engagements with outside organisations, both profit and non-profit making. [These assignments have included the introduction of systems thinking into British Telecom at the senior management level; the development of I.T. strategy with P.A. Management Consulting Group; a national project to design evaluation systems for Councils for Voluntary Service; evaluation work with Humberside Training and Enterprise Council; and a study of organisational change in prisons.]

Jackson is a past President of the UK Systems Society, of the International Federation for Systems Research from 1996 to 2000, and of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 2001. He has also served on the Council of the Operational Research Society. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, the Chartered Management Institute, The Cybernetics Society and the Operational Research Society.

Work

Jackson's teaching and research interests are Systems Thinking, Organizational Cybernetics, Creative Problem Solving, Critical Systems Thinking, Management science and Systems science.

Critical systems thinking

Critical systems thinking (SCT) is a framework that brings unity to the diversity of different systems approaches and advises managers how best to use them. Systems thinking, according to Jackson (2000), is a new paradigm set to revolutionize management practice in the 21st century. In "Systems Approaches to Management" he explains the application of this new paradigm in the field of management. Jackson hereby focused on: Michael C. Jackson (2000), Systems Approaches to Management, London: Springer 465 p.]
* the emergence of holistic disciplines such as biology, control engineering, sociology and the natural sciences.
* a critique of the range of systems approaches, methodologies, models and methods, and
* the introduction of "critical systems thinking"

The early approaches to using systems ideas in an applied manner, were operational research, systems analysis and systems engineering. These approaches were suitable for tackling certain well defined problems, but were found to have limitations when faced with complex problems involving people with a variety of viewpoints who are frequently at odds with one another. Systems thinkers responded in the 1970s with approaches such as systems dynamics, organizational cybernetics, and soft systems thinking to tackle complexity. At the leading edge since the 1980s, Critical Systems Thinking has provided something more: a bigger picture that allowed systems thinking to mature as a transdiscipline, and sets out a variety of methodologies, methods and models used in a structured manner for intervention in complex organizations and applications to societal problems.

See also

* Management cybernetics
* Systems theory

Publications

Professor Jackson has written 4 books, edited 6 others and has published over 70 articles in refereed journals, [ including Journal of Management Studies, Omega, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Systems Research, Systems Practice, SCOS, Journal of Information Systems, International Journal of General Systems, International Journal of Information Management, Kybernetes, System Dynamics Review, Organization.]

Books:
* 1991, "Systems Methodology for the Management Sciences".
* 1991, " Creative Problem Solving: Total Systems Intervention", with Robert L. Flood, Wiley. 268 p.
* 2000, "Systems Approaches to Management", London: Springer 465 p.
* 2003, "Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers", Wiley.

Articles, a selection:
* 1993, with Robert L. Flood, "Critical Systems Thinking", in: "Organization Studies" Vol 14, p. 613.

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.hull.ac.uk/hubs/people/staff/jackson_m.html Homepage] at the Hull University Business School.
* [http://www.ifsr.org/newsletters/nl34/jackson.html Michael C. Jackson] , IFSR Newsletter 34/35 - December 1994.