Investigating practical wisdom in complex system management: What is it and how do we get more?

Systems are now extremely complex with the continuous involvement of multiple stakeholders and rapidly advancing technology, and a new way of viewing high-performance system management and decision-making is needed. This paper considers the use of practical wisdom as a promising way of revitalising system management to improve the success rate in making critical decisions. Practical wisdom has been investigated as a useful approach in many fields, including philosophy, psychology, health, education and organisation studies: however, its application to system management is sparse. Questionnaires were sent to 124 manager participants to assess their view of the importance of various practical wisdom attributes as these relate to system management success. Applying the exploratory factor analysis technique emerged the following factors: (1) practical mindset; (2) stakeholder mindset; (3) moral mindset; (4) win-win mindset; and (5) holistic thinking mindset. Two of these factors, stakeholder mindset and win-win mindset, have not previously emerged in practical wisdom research. The factors extracted were validated via both technical techniques and considered commentary by senior leadership practitioners. The results of this study can assist managers to develop greater insight into optimal management of increasingly complex systems via consideration of these practical wisdom factors and the interplay between them.