System Dynamics Modeling: Tools for Learning in a Complex World
Abstract
Today's problems often arise as unintended consequences of yesterday's solutions. Business and public policy settings suffer from policy resistance, the tendency for well-intentioned interventions to be defeated by the response of the system to the intervention itself. Just as an airline uses flight simulators to help pilots learn, system dynamics enables us to create management flight simulators to avoid policy resistance and design more effective policies. System dynamics is also a process for working with high-level teams designed to improve the chances for implemented results. This article discusses how system dynamics can be used effectively to design high-leverage policies for sustainable improvement and introduces the next three articles in this issue discussing the application of system dynamics to a variety of critical issues facing business leaders today.
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The four learning-outcome dimensions were informed by widely used sustainability competency frameworks and engineering ethics education literature.
“The four learning-outcome dimensions were informed by widely used sustainability competency frameworks and engineering ethics education literature.”
From Integrating Sustainability and Ethical Responsibility into Building Water Supply and Drainage Engineering Education: A CDIO-Based Curriculum Reform (2026) · cites this paper as [28]
Systems thinking represents a higher-order and integrative cognitive ability that often requires sustained and repeated exposure across multiple courses or learning experiences.
“This finding aligns with prior research suggesting that systems thinking represents a higher-order and integrative cognitive ability that often requires sustained and repeated exposure across multiple courses or learning experiences [26,28,34,36-38].”
From Integrating Sustainability and Ethical Responsibility into Building Water Supply and Drainage Engineering Education: A CDIO-Based Curriculum Reform (2026) · cites this paper as [28]
The comparatively lower performance in systems thinking reflects the inherent complexity of system-level integration in building water supply and drainage design, which requires balancing technical performance, environmental impact, and user needs.
“In contrast, the comparatively lower performance in systems thinking reflects the inherent complexity of system-level integration in building water supply and drainage design, which requires balancing technical performance, environmental impact, and user needs [25,28,35].”
From Integrating Sustainability and Ethical Responsibility into Building Water Supply and Drainage Engineering Education: A CDIO-Based Curriculum Reform (2026) · cites this paper as [28]
Established sustainability competency frameworks emphasize ethical responsibility, systems thinking, and sustainability awareness as core learning outcomes in engineering education.
“the results align with established sustainability competency frameworks that emphasize ethical responsibility, systems thinking, and sustainability awareness as core learning outcomes in engineering education [3,4,28].”
From Integrating Sustainability and Ethical Responsibility into Building Water Supply and Drainage Engineering Education: A CDIO-Based Curriculum Reform (2026) · cites this paper as [28]
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- Authors
- Sterman, J. D.
- Corresponding author
- Sterman, John D.
- ORCID
- Sterman, John D.
- Venue
- California Management Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2001-07
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 8-25
- ISSN
- 0008-1256 (ISSN-L)
- 2162-8564
- OpenAlex
- W2134805717
- Cited by
- 1,216
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 60 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 80 · 2022: 93 · 2021: 110 · 2020: 89 · 2019: 81 · 2018: 75 · 2017: 75 · 2016: 63 · 2015: 53 · 2014: 64 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 52
- FWCI
- 9.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- California Management Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Complex Systems and Decision Making
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Control and Systems Engineering › Systems Engineering Methodologies and Applications
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Innovation Diffusion and Forecasting
- Keywords
- system dynamics modeling, policy resistance, unintended consequences, policy design, sustainable improvement, complex systems
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