Systems theory focuses on structures, relationships, and interdependence between elements, while complexity theory refers to the heterogeneity in the various subsystems of an organization and how parts at a sublevel in a complex system affects the emergent behavior and outcome of the system.
Systems and complexity theories are theories of organizational change processes that seek to explain how organizations operate and sustain themselves with their environments. General systems theory (GST) originated from the fields of biology, economics, and engineering and explores principles and laws that can be generalized across various systems. GST was first introduced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in 1940 but only gained prominence in the 1960s (Bui and Baruch 2010). GST is primarily concerned with how systems operate and integrates a broad range of.
