Abstract

Systems analysis has been practiced by expert systems analysts or IT people in the third person perspective or objective one. We question this style of systems analysis and investigate into what it should be and who should practice it in an unpredictable, turbulent environment. The existing systems analysis methods such as UML help systems analysts ignore the differences of individual workers and pay attention solely to roles or functions played by them. However current companies depend more on individual knowledge workers and their experiences. Recently there have appeared a few methods with which business professionals or workers themselves reflect on their own knowledge and experiences, one of them proposing systems analysis in the first person perspective. The development of those methods is primarily based on the practical experiences and needs as consultants. Therefore there is still no theoretical background and support to the development. We made a theoretical investigation into this alternative discourse of systems analysis. Our study consists of an exploration into Stacey’s theory on organizations as a cue for systems analysis in a turbulent environment and two explorations into organization development literature for high performance in a less turbulent environment and the meanings of systems analysis.

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