The tension between holism and pluralism: Comment on ‘creative holism’

AbstractCreative holism of Michael C. Jackson provides an insightful and enlightening research framework in making suitable use of various systems methodologies in combination for complex management situations, especially its metamethodology and coherent pluralism, which is a unique holistic analysis for dealing with the relationship between paradigm diversity and theoretical pluralism. However, in order to insist on pluralism, creative holism pays the price for giving up metatheory. In fact, the integral unity and plurality of it are not in opposition or exclusion. There is a necessary tension between holism and pluralism. Therefore, creative holism may further improve the relationship between its theory and metamethodology to give more prominence to its theoretical feature and practical value. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.