Abstract:

Systems approach including perception integrity, iterative thinking, self-organisation and interactive modelling is among the fundamentals of the contemporary research methodology for analysing socio-cultural systems. We believe that both classical and neoclassical management schools, as well as the theory of complex quality management are special cases developing independent methodologies within the common systems methodology.
Why do we consider systems methodology to be the basis for the contemporary economic education?
Systems approach is aimed at analysing the organization as a complex set of interrelated and interacting variables, with components of the organization being variables in the system. The essence of the systems approach is the study of the most common forms of organization; it first involves study of the system as a whole, interaction between its parts, study of processes connecting parts of the system with its objectives. The main parts of the organisational systems are individuals, formal structures, informal factors, groups, group relations, types of statuses and roles in the groups. The relationship between parts of the system is implemented by means of complex systems of interactions that cause changes in the behavior of people in the organisation.
The main parts of the system are connected through certain organisational forms, which primarily include the formal and informal structures, channels of communication and decision-making processes. Systems approach helps to overcome the centrifugal tendencies on the part of the system’s individual parts and direct all its components to the ultimate goals of the organization.
We share Jamshid Gharajedaghi’s (2005) opinion that “an efficient methodology is to be found at the crossing of holistic perception, iterative thinking, self-organisation and interactive modelling.” The combination of the four streamlines gives a powerful practical tool to solve the existing problems of sociocultural systems.
The sociocultural system has an infrastructure, a structure, and a superstructure. “A society’s structure is comprised of its domestic economy (social organization, kinship, division of labor) and its political economy (political institutions, social hierarchies), while its superstructure consists of the ideological and symbolic sectors of culture; the religious, symbolic, intellectual and artistic endeavors” (Margolis, Kottak 2008).
In the world of today, the contemporary economic education is more than just study of macroeconomics and national economies; it must encompass domestic and political economies rooted deeply in national culture, with religious, symbolic, intellectual and artistic endeavors intertwined. And systems approach seems to be the only proper basis for this goal, with a particular purpose of developing such qualities important for economists as perception integrity, iterative thinking, self-organisation and interactive modelling.

Keywords:

Systems approach, economic education, new educational paradigm, new development streamlines.