Approach

In simple terms, an approach is the general way we go about doing something. A quality of life approach for practitioners refers to practitioners understanding and using quality of life principles and ideas as they carry out the work they do in their own practice.
- Ivan Brown (2003)

An approach is a way to come or go near, in place or time; to draw nigh; to advance nearer. In a figurative sense to approach is to draw near, to make advances; to approximate. It can be part of an attempt at solving a problem or making a policy. An approach may refer to scientific method, or to flirting.

CONTENT : A - F, G - L, M - R, S - Z, See also, External links

Quotes

Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

A - F

• Systems engineering as an approach and methodology grew in response to the increase size and complexity of systems and projects... This engineering approach to the management of complexity by modularization was re-deployed in the software engineering discipline in the 1960s and 1970s with a proliferation of structured methodologies that enabled the the analysis, design and development of information systems by using techniques for modularized description, design and development of system components. Yourdon and DeMarco's Structured Analysis and Design, SSADM, James Martin's Information Engineering, and Jackson's Structured Design and Programming are examples from this era. They all exploited modularization to enable the parallel development of data, process, functionality and performance components of large software systems. The development of object orientation in the 1990s exploited modularization to develop reusable software. The idea was to develop modules that could be mixed and matched like Lego bricks to deliver to a variety of whole system specifications. The modularization and reusability principles have stood the test of time and are at the heart of modern software development.
  • Peter Allen, Steve Maguire, Bill McKelvey (2011) The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management. p. 35

• [Total Quality Management (TQM) is] a term first used to describe a management approach to quality improvement. Since then, TQM has taken on many meanings. Simply put, it is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. TQM is based on all members of an organization participating in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work. The methods for implementing this approach are found in the teachings of such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran.
  • American Society for Quality, "Quality Glossary," at asq.org. Accessed 08.2016.

• Until the mid-1970s, the prominent approach in organization and management theory emphasized adaptive change in organizations. In this view, as environments change, leaders or dominant coalitions in organizations alter appropriate organizational features to realign their fit to environmental demands (e.g. Lawrence and Lorsch 1967; Thompson 1967; Child 1972; Chandler 1977; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978; Porter 1980; Rumelt 1986). Since then, an approach to studying organizational change that places more emphasis on environmental selection processes, introduced at about that time (Aldrich and Pfeffer 1976; Hannan and Freeman 1977; Aldrich 1979; McKelvey 1982), has become increasingly influential. The stream of research on ecological perspectives of organizational change has generated tremendous excitement, controversy and debate in the community of organization and management theory scholars. Inspired by the question, Why are there so many kinds of organizations?
  • Joel A. C. Baum, "Organizational ecology." in: Stewart Clegg ed. Studying Organization: Theory and Method (1999): 71-108. p. 71; lead paragraph

• Perhaps the greatest strength of an object-oriented approach to development is that it offers a mechanism that captures a model of the real world.
  • Grady Booch (1986) Software Engineering with Ada p. 220. cited in: David J. Gilmore et al. (1994) User-Centred Requirements for Software Engineering Environments. p. 108

• I seem to have come to much of the same conclusion as you have reached, though approaching it from the direction of economics and the social sciences rather than from biology - that there is a body of what have been calling "general empirical theory," or "general system theory" in your excellent terminology, which is of wide applicability in many different disciplines. I am sure there are many people all over the world who have come to essentially the same position that we have, but we are widely scattered and do not know each other, so difficult is it to cross the boundaries of the disciplines.
  • Kenneth Boulding (1953) in letter to Bertalanffy, cited in: Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1968) General System Theory. p. 14

• What is an approach? What is a model? In simple terms, an approach is the general way we go about doing something. A quality of life approach for practitioners refers to practitioners understanding and using quality of life principles and ideas as they carry out the work they do in their own practice.
  • Ivan Brown (2003), Quality of Life and Disability: An Approach for Community Practitioners. p. 98

To put it roughly and metaphorically, an approach is a way of looking at things (e.g., people) or ideas (e.g., conjectures), and therefore also of handling problems concerning them.
- Mario Bunge & ‎Ruben Ardila, 2012.

• To put it roughly and metaphorically, an approach is a way of looking at things (e.g., people) or ideas (e.g., conjectures), and therefore also of handling problems concerning them.
  • Mario Bunge, ‎Ruben Ardila (2012), Philosophy of Psychology. p. 44

• Recent research on organizational ecology is reviewed. Three levels of analysis and approaches to evolution are distinguished: (a) the organizational level, which uses a developmental approach; (b) the population level. which uses a selection approach; and (c) the community level, which uses a macroevolutionary approach. Theoretical and empirical research is critiqued within this framework. Proposals to develop organizational taxonomies are considered.
  • Glenn R. Carroll, "Organizational ecology." Annual review of Sociology (1984): 71-93.

• [A systems approach is] an approach to a problem which takes a broad view, which tries to take all aspects into account, which concentrates on interactions between the different parts of the problem... In this sense, the system is opposite of randomness or chaos. Its subject matter has been described as 'organized complexity', which lies between 'organized simplicity' and 'chaotic complexity.'
  • Peter Checkland, as cited in: Managerial Economics:Theory & Application. 2002. p. 383

• The ultimate meaning of the systems approach, therefore, lies in the creation of a theory of deception and in a fuller understanding of the ways in which the human being can be deceived about his world and in an interaction between these different viewpoints.
  • C. West Churchman, The Systems Approach (1968), p. 29

• The systems approach goes on to discovering that every world-view is terribly restricted.
  • C. West Churchman, (1970) cited in: Michael C. Jackson ( 1992) Systems Methodology for the Management Sciences. p. 137

• We present a dramatically different approach to time management. This is a principle-centered approach. It transcends the traditional prescriptions of faster, harder, smarter, and more. Rather than offering you another clock, this approach provides you with a compass — because more important than how fast you're going, is where you're headed.
  • Stephen Covey, First Things First : To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy, (1994). p. 12

• The stakeholder concept was originally defined as "those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist." The list of stakeholders originally included shareowners, employees, customers, suppliers, lenders and society. Stemming from the work of Igor Ansoff and Robert Stewart (in the planning department at Lockheed) and, later Marion Doscher and Stewart at SRI, the original approach served an important information function in the SRI corporate planning.
  • R. Edward Freeman (2010) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. p. 32

G - L

• [ Software engineering is] the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software.
  • IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology,” IEEE std 610.12-1990, 1990.

• Applying this approach, systems belonging to different scientific disciplines are investigated in their natural forms. On the basis of experimental results, isomorphic relations between different systems are studied and, finally, some general principles applicable for all systems of a certain class are formulated.
  • George Klir (1969) An approach to general systems theory. p. 97 as cited in: B. Van Rootselaar (2009) Annals of Systems Research. p. 114: About the aim of general systems theory

• The Current Approaches to Management Theory and Science

I hope the reader will realize that, in outlining the eleven approaches, I must necessarily be terse.

• The empirical or case approach : The members of this school study management by analyzing experience, usually through cases...
• The interpersonal behavior approach: This approach is apparently based on the thesis that managing involves getting things done through people, and that therefore the study of management should be centered on interpersonal relations...
• The group behavior approach : This approach is ... primarily with behavior of people in groups rather than with interpersonal behavior...
• The cooperative social system approach : A modification of the interpersonal and group behavior approaches has been the focus of some behavioral scientists on the study of human relationships as cooperative social systems...
• The sociotechnical systems approach : One of the newer schools of management identifies itself as the sociotechnical systems approach...
• The decision theory approach : This approach to management theory and science has apparently been based on the belief that, because it is a major task of managers to make decisions, we should concentrate on decision making...
• The systems approach; ... the systems approach to the study and analysis of management thought...
• The mathematical or "management science" approach : There are some theorists who see managing as primarily an exercise in mathematical processes, concepts, symbols, and models...
• The contingency or situational approach : ... the contingency approach to management.
• The managerial roles approach :... popularized by Henry Mintzberg [1973, 1975]...
• The operational approach : The operational approach to management theory and science, a term borrowed from the work of P. W. Bridgman [1938, pp. 2-32], attempts to draw together the pertinent knowledge of management by relating it to the functions of managers...

The nature of the operational approach can perhaps best be appreciated by reference to Figure 1. As this diagram shows, the operational management school of thought includes a central core of science and theory unique to management plus knowledge eclectically drawn from various other schools and approaches...

• Harold Koontz, "The Management Theory Jungle Revisited," Academy of Management Review 5 (April 1980), p. 177-182

• Project management has long been discussed by corporate executives and academics as one of several workable possibilities for organizational forms of the future that could integrate complex efforts and reduce bureaucracy.... This approach does not really destroy the vertical, bureaucratic flow of work but simply requires that line organizations talk to the other horizontally so work will be accomplished more smoothly throughout the organization
  • Harold Kerzner (1982) Project management for executives. p. 2

M - R

• A new concept and a new method were needed. The concept from the engineering standpoint is the evolution of the engineering scientist, i.e., the scientific generalist who maintains a broad outlook. The method is that of the team approach. On large-scale-system problems, teams of scientists and engineers, generalists as well as specialists, exert their joint efforts to find a solution and physically realize it.
  We are led to the concept of the system-design team, a small group of engineers or scientists, to lead a large project and organize the system effort. Such men have been variously called engineering scientists, system engineers, system analysts, or large-scale-system designers. The technique has been variously called the systems approach or the team development method. It is toward this man and his teammates that these discussions are directed. With the realization that not enough can be learned in all the required fields to make him a specialist, enough is introduced to make him aware of the language and problems of the specialist. This generalist is a new quantity in the engineering world, and his education must be begun.
  • Robert E. Machol, Harry H. Goode (1957) System Engineering: An Introduction to the Design of Large-scale Systems. McGraw-Hill. p. 8

• System engineering is a robust approach to the design, creation, and operation of systems. In simple terms, the approach consists of identification and quantification of system goals, creation of alternative system design concepts, performance of design trades, selection and implementation of the best design, verification that the design is properly built and integrated, and post-implementation assessment of how well the system meets (or met) the goals.
  • NASA (1995) NASA Systems Engineering Handbook

• An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic.
  • Jack C. Richards, ‎Theodore S. Rodgers (2001), Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, p. 19

• The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose visual modeling language that is used to specify, visualize, construct, and document the artifacts of a software system. It captures decisions and understanding about systems that must be constructed. It is used to understand, design, browse, configure, maintain, and control information about such systems. It is intended for use with all development methods, lifecycle stages, application domains, and media. The modeling language is intended to unify past experience about modeling techniques and to incorporate current software best practices into a standard approach. UML includes semantic concepts, notation, and guidelines. It has static, dynamic, environmental, and organizational parts. It is intended to be supported by interactive visual modeling tools that have code generators and report writers. The UML specification does not define a standard process but is intended to be useful with an iterative development process. It is intended to support most existing object-oriented development processes.
  • James Rumbaugh, Ivar Jacobson, & Grady Booch (1999) The Unified Modeling Language Reference Manual. p. 1.

S - Z

• The nearest we approach God ... is as creative beings. The poet, by echoing the primary imagination, recreates. Through his work he forces those who read him to do the same, thus bringing them ... nearer to the actual being of God as displayed in action.
  • R. S. Thomas, in The Penguin Book of Religious Verse (1963), p. 8

• Object-oriented programming languages support encapsulation, thereby improving the ability of software to be reused, refined, tested, maintained, and extended. The full benefit of this support can only be realized if encapsulation is maximized during the design process.
  We argue that design practices which take a data-driven approach fail to maximize encapsulation because they focus too quickly on the implementation of objects. We propose an alternative object-oriented design method which takes a responsibility-driven approach. We show how such an approach can increase the encapsulation by deferring implementation issues until a later stage.
  • Rebecca Wirfs-Brock and Brian Wilkerson (1989). "Object-oriented design: a responsibility-driven approach." ACM SIGPLAN Notices. Vol. 24. No. 10. ACM: Abstract

• Although the Gordon and Howell report noted the diversity of approaches to the study of management, it was Harold Koontz who delineated the differences and applied the catchy label ‘‘management theory jungle.’’
  • Daniel A. Wren & Arthur G. Bedeian (2009). The evolution of management thought. p. 413

See also

• Behavioralistic approach
• Contingency approach
• Management approach
• Systems approach

External links