The System of Profound Knowledge – Answer to the Challenges of the XXI Century
In this work the question of “how the main principles of good management in the XXI century should look like” is being discussed. In other words, what are the key features of management that relate to the main challenges of our time? In the author’s view, the answer to these questions was given by William Edwards Deming (WED) in 1993, when his book “The New Economics” was published (Deming 1993). This answer has a well-known name: The System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK). It consists of four interrelated components: appreciation for a system; knowledge of variation; theory of knowledge; and psychology. It is argued that the principles of the SoPK comprise the most essential facets of that type of management which society needs the most. Unfortunately, few amount of people are familiar with the concept of the SoPK, and even fewer number of managers use it in their work. In my view, WED’s ideas are worth being taught in the primary education curriculum. The understanding of the SoPK should be included into people‘s common sense as their ability to read and to write.
