The 'Maribor Concept' of Systems Education: Specialization without Over-specialization

Abstract

Over 40 years, we have been practicing teaching of systems thinking and behavior to students of economics and business as well as to other professions. We are briefly presenting our course syllabus, our method of teaching, and our reasons for our program. Basically, we have been facing the following situation: both the ancient and modern fight for supremacy of either narrow specialization or the holistic/systemic thinking is not over, although it makes no sense: everybody needs a double capacity:

• A profession, which is a narrow specialization unavoidably; and
• Systemic behavior/thinking, which supports co-operation of narrow specialists on their way to the equally unavoidable requisite holism of them as mixed teams.