Affiliations: [a] Systems Science Ph.D. Program, Portland State University, P.O.B. 751, Portland, Oregon 97207-0751, USA. Tel.: 1 503 725 4991; Fax: 1 503 725 8489; E-mail: hwhl@odin.cc.pdx.edu | [b] Lincoln School of Management, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK. Tel.: 44 1522 886335; Fax: 44 1522 886032; E-mail: zzhu@lincoln.ac.uk
Note: [*] Present address: Hull University Business School (HUBS), University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK. E-mail: Z.Zhu@HUBS.hull.ac.uk.
Abstract: This paper presents a comparative study of two multiperspective approaches to management, one developed and applied mainly in the United States, the other in China and East Asia. The contentions of the two approaches are briefly outlined, commonality and differences analysed, cultural traditions surfaced, and the ways the two approaches inform and learn from each other reported. It is suggested that the recent development of multiperspective approaches world-wide is not accidental, but can be seen as an outcome of humankind’s common search for responses to the increasingly challenging multidimensional complexity in human systems management. Systems/management scientists in both the West and the East can do better in dealing with the complexity if we consciously open to, inform and learn from each other.
Keywords: Complexity, systems approach, multiperspective management, culture tradition, mutual learning
