Soft systems practice and its misconceptions

Soft Systems ideas emerged from the action research project developed under Professor Checkland at Lancaster University. A recognisable outcome of the project was the development of a way to operationalise intellectually demanding ideas into a form useful to organisational inquiry. From this programme of research emerged Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) which has proved to be valuable in learning about the complexity of issues that emerge from organisational inquiry. But the focus on the ‘methodology’ has diluted the underpinning idea of soft systems often resulting in variable and unsatisfactory outcomes. This, I believe, is the result of the ambiguous perceptions of ‘soft’ systems itself. In this paper I suggest that the apparent differences between the way that ‘soft systems’ ideas are applied can be described in terms of rationalism and empiricism. By highlighting these differences, it may remind those wishing to undertake a ‘soft’ inquiry of its theoretical origins.