WSR : A Chinese Systems Approach

Evolving out from contemporary Chinese management practice, traditional Chinese thought and international academic encounters, the Wuli-Shili-Renli (WSR) approach urges knowing wuli (the technical-material), reflecting on shili (the mental-cognitive) and caring for renli (the social-emotional) in management decision making. Underlain by coherent ontology, epistemology and methodology, WSR has been used to assist formal engineering projects such as water resources management as well as informal coping which includes understanding social-economic reforms, improving business strategy and enriching the theory of the firm. As information complexity and value complexity grow rapidly within, and beyond, China, WSR should ideally develop into a multi-perspective, multi-method, multi-actor, general purpose management approach, as a useful tool for building an open, justice and prosperous society.