Systematic Thinking In Ancient Greek Management Thought

The earliest management thought in the West can be traced back to the ancient Greek period.Re-examining,analyzing and interpreting the main management thought in the ancient Greek period from the new angle of system thinking can endow these contents with new theoretical life and value.Comparing the main characteristics of system thinking with the materials of ancient Greek management thoughts,we can find three common characteristics: dynamic openness,entirety and two-way causality.Plato,Aristotle and Xenophon's management thoughts contain the dynamics and openness of system thinking in the relationship between the managed subject and the object environment,the understanding of the dynamic evolution process of the city-state and the recognition of the practice of civic education in the city-state.Whether it is Plato's description of the best polis or the idea of division of labor,Plato strives for the complete "unity" of the polis,and his polis management thoughts contain a strong holistic thinking.In addition,Aristotle mentioned and constructed the best city-state in accordance with the reality in his doctrine content,which will be anti-complete "unity" and must be a city-state entirety containing differences.The most worthy of analysis is that Xenophon,Plato and Aristotle strive for the integral development of citizens' body and mind in the management of city-states,regardless of their working environment or the practice of city-state education.There are two phenomena in the description of management process in ancient Greek management thought: macro-directional role of whole to part and overall emergence of micro-behavior.It can be analyzed and discussed from four aspects: environmental effect,structural effect,component effect and scale effect.