STIB: The Systemic Thinking Inventory for Business
Raghu Kurthakoti
Arcadia University, USA.
Annette L. Halpin
Arcadia University, USA.
Chris Papenhausen *
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, USA.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This article presents a scale, the Systemic Thinking Inventory for Business (STIB), which measures the systemic thinking of business learners. Based on literature related to cognitive styles, three dimensions of systemic thinking were identified – Divergent Thinking, Connected Thinking, and Creative Thinking. The scale's validity and reliability were assessed through an exploratory factor analysis of a 25-item instrument after which a confirmatory factor analysis of 12 items emerged that supports a three-dimensional structure. Scale validity and reliability along with convergent validity and discriminant validity were statistically significant with additional analysis on a holdout sample strengthening the support for using STIB to measure systemic thinking.
Keywords: Systemic thinking, survey instrument, reliability, validity, confirmatory factor analysis