The purpose of this article is to describe how this set of five principles constitutes the components of a system of management for organizational improvement. First, the failure of improvement initiatives will be examined to shed light on why quality improvement approaches are often unsuccessful. Next, systems concepts will be reviewed in order to establish “appreciation for a system.” 2 Insights gained from the applications of systems thinking to this theory of organizational improvement will then be used to develop an understanding of how the individual components of the system reinforce each other. Finally, the validity of this proposed system of management will be examined through its different
applications to organizational improvement.