The systems approach is an approach within the methodology of scientific inquiry and social practice based on the study of objects as systems; an expression of the procedures for representing objects as systems and the ways of describing, explaining, and developing them; a body of systems principles.
The systems approach facilitates the adequate formulation of problems in specific sciences and the development of effective strategies for their study. At the core of the systems approach lies the consideration of an object as an integral set of elements together with the relations and connections among them — that is, the consideration of an object as a system. The systems approach is a general way of organizing activity that encompasses any kind of activity, revealing patterns and interrelationships for the purpose of their more effective use (goal).
The systems approach does not exist as a rigorous methodological concept: it performs its heuristic functions while remaining a loosely connected body of cognitive principles whose fundamental purpose is to provide appropriate orientation for specific investigations. This orientation operates in two ways. First, the substantive principles of the systems approach make it possible to identify the inadequacy of traditional subjects of study for formulating and solving new problems. Second, the concepts and principles of the systems approach help to construct new subjects of study by specifying the structural and typological characteristics of those subjects, thereby contributing to the formation of constructive research programs.
Core principles of the systems approach:
- Integrity, which allows one to consider a system simultaneously as a unified whole and as a subsystem of higher-level systems.
- Hierarchical structure, that is, the presence of multiple (at least two) elements arranged on the basis of the subordination of lower-level elements to higher-level elements. The realization of this principle is clearly seen in the example of any concrete organization, which represents the interaction of at least two subsystems: the managing subsystem and the managed subsystem.
- Structurization, which allows one to analyze the elements of a system and the interrelationships among them within a specific organizational structure. As a rule, the functioning of a system is determined not so much by the properties of its individual elements as by the properties of the structure itself.
- Multiplicity, which allows one to employ a variety of cybernetic, economic, and mathematical models to describe individual elements and the system as a whole.
- Systemicity — the property of an object to possess all the characteristics of a system.