The market globalization, the demand’s increasing complexity, the time frame contraction, the growth of customers’ requirements in terms of prices and quality imply that an organisation, would it be private or public, in the commercial field or not, encounters the increasing urge to understand its environment and to globally picture it in order to develop a strategy.

The concept of system rests on the basics of the systemic thought; this old expression is nowadays used in daily life, in very varied contexts.

For instance, we talk about telecommunication system, ecosystem, computer system or about the economic system of a country or region.

A system could be defined as a dynamic whole, which as such has properties and determined behaviours. It is composed of parts connected to one another in such a way that no part is independent and that the combined action of all these parts guides the behaviour of the whole.

Why is it become vital to take a systemic approach on organisations?

Organisations and their environments form more and more complex systems. These are composed of a wide variety of elements, which are connected by strong interactions. Such systems should be tackled using new methods such as those gathered by the systemic approach. Their goal: consider the system in its global nature, complexity and own dynamics.

An approach through the systems allows, for instance within an organisation, to describe and intervene on the process. The systemic view takes into account their strong interconnection and the fact that they constitute on the one hand the centre of flows that cross the system-organisation and on the other hand the decision centre.

The systemic view is federative and integrative: it allows taking into account the virtual limits of the studied system, depending on the vision and dimension of what is intended for observation.

To this global vision, one should add the temporal dimension; upon the classical " static " approach is superimposed the " dynamic " vision, the latter taking into account the constant change, the flexibility and the adaptability.

The system dynamics burst the static vision of organisations and structures. Integrating the temporal dimension sets free the relational dimension and the future of organisations and individuals.