Emotion: the missing part of systems methodologies

Abstract

This conceptual paper first examines the critical evolutionary stage of systems methodologies – from hard systems to soft systems, and elaborates their different focuses. This paper further explores the granularity of the “softness” of systems methodologies, and identifies a missing part: emotion. The emotional aspect of systems is associated to various soft elements of systems methodologies, such as value, perception, human well-being, creativity and learning. Unfortunately, existing literature does not demonstrate a sufficient consideration of the role of emotion in systems methodologies. This paper incorporates the emotional aspect and discusses the role of emotion in effective systems methodologies.