Search

Rethinking HR: A Systems Approach to Organizational Partnership

Jonathan H. Westover, PhD
May 10
6 min read

Listen to this article:

Abstract: This article explores the emergence of "systemic HR," representing the next evolutionary step beyond HR's transition from administrative function to strategic business partner. This innovative approach reconceptualizes HR through a systems-thinking lens, repositioning people not as resources to be managed but as the living systems that energize all organizational operations. Drawing from research on complex adaptive systems, the framework emphasizes viewing organizations holistically through their interconnected relationships, designing HR interventions with awareness of ripple effects, cultivating social infrastructure alongside transactional processes, promoting organizational resilience, adopting iterative approaches aligned with the nonlinear nature of living systems, and leveraging systems mapping to build shared understanding. The article examines the mindset shifts required for HR business partners to operationalize this approach, highlights implementation strategies particularly relevant to technology companies, and argues that embracing this holistic perspective enables HR to foster sustainable competitive advantage in increasingly volatile business environments.

The evolution of human resources (HR) from an administrative function to a strategic business partner has been well-documented over the past few decades. However, a new model for HR is emerging that takes this evolution one step further by positioning HR as an integral part of overall organizational effectiveness and success. This new “systemic HR” approach views HR through a systems lens and aims to move organizations from seeing people as a “resource” to recognizing that people are the living systems that power all organizational systems.

Today we will explore the concept of systemic HR and its implications for reconceptualizing the role of the HR business partner.

Research Foundation: Systemic Thinking and Organizations as Complex Adaptive Systems

To understand the systemic HR framework, it is important to first review some foundational research in systemic thinking and organizations as complex adaptive systems. Systems thinking views organizations holistically as dynamic networks of interconnected, interdependent components that continuously interact in nonlinear ways (Meadows, 2008). As an open system, an organization interacts with and is influenced by its external environment while also adapting through internal feedback loops.

A core principle of systems thinking is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; properties and behaviors emerge from dynamic interactions that cannot be explained by examining isolated components (Sayre, 1996). Organizations exhibit characteristics of complex adaptive systems, including self-organization, emergence, adaptation, and nonlinearity (Stacey, 1996). Interactions between people, divisions, strategies, and other organizational elements give rise to unanticipated outcomes, both positive and negative.

This view stands in contrast to traditional mechanistic or reductionist approaches that break organizations down into parts and assume linear cause-and-effect relationships. Systems thinking sees people and relationships as the connective tissue that determines how effectively an organization functions as a whole (Senge, 1990). Remaining sensitive to interdependencies and indirect consequences becomes crucial for achieving sustainable outcomes and continuous learning over time.

Key Features of the Systemic HR Approach

Systemic HR brings a systems lens to conceptualizing HR’s role within organizations (Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank, & Ulrich, 2012). Several key distinguishing characteristics of this perspective include:

Seeing people as the living systems that power all organizational systems, rather than as human “resources.” This involves understanding employees’ relationships, motivations, well-being, development needs, and synergies within cultural and structural systems.
Conceptualizing HR strategies and initiatives as interventions into organizational systems with ripple effects, intended and unintended. This requires anticipating secondary and tertiary consequences to avoid problematic outcomes.
Focusing on cultivating relationships, connections, and social infrastructure alongside transactional HR processes. Fostering high-quality connections and continuous learning among all organizational members is as important as individual performance.
Promoting organizational health, resilience, and sustainability through an emphasis on adaptability, self-organization, open communication, and distributed leadership across levels. Authoritarian controls give way to empowering people via systems dynamics.
Adopting a long-term, iterative approach aligned with the nonlinear, emergent nature of living systems. Quick fixes tend to fail; complex challenges often require experimentation over time based on feedback and outcomes.
Leveraging systems mapping, participatory methods, data analytics, and scenario planning not just to inform strategic HR decisions but to cultivate shared understanding of interdependencies across the organization.

The Systemic HR Business Partner: Opportunities and Necessary Mindset Shifts

For HR business partners to effectively operationalize a systemic HR approach, both their role and underlying mindset would need to evolve substantially from a traditional transactional or administrative focus. Several key opportunities and requisite mindset shifts include:

Transition from advising individual business units in isolation to facilitating organization-wide network-building efforts. Rather than serve as sole support for a divisional leader, help multiple stakeholders develop synergies across silos.
Move beyond responsive problem-solving towards partnership in creative opportunity-scouting – identifying leverage points and untapped potentials through a systems lens, not just bottlenecks or overloads.
Exchange expertise in compliance/process management for fluency in adaptive strategy concepts like scenario planning, organizational learning, shared leadership models, and culture change methodologies.
Replace static reporting of HR metrics with dynamic systems mapping and modeling to surface feedback loops, unintended consequences, leverage points, and integration opportunities across organizational functions and levels over time.
Grow an “ecosystem mindset” that celebrates the richness of diverse perspectives and synergistic relationships across differences rather than focusing narrowly on efficiency or standardization for their own sake. Diversity fosters resilience.
Embrace ongoing mutual learning between HR, business units, and individual employees rather than simply transmitting knowledge from HR downwards. Recognize that insights can come from any part of the system.
Understand emotions, values, and interpersonal/cultural dynamics as importantly as rational plans and budgets in driving organizational behaviors and outcomes over the long run. HR becomes a change partner.

Implementing Systemic HR in Technology Companies

The technology industry offers opportunities as well as challenges for adopting a systemic HR approach due to its unique dynamics. On the one hand, technology companies face constant disruption, placing a premium on adaptability, innovation, and attracting diverse talent – all strengths of the systemic paradigm. However, tech cultures also commonly emphasize speed and individual contribution over relationship-building, an area systemic HR could helpfully address.

Several leverage points exist for HR to play an integrative role through systems thinking in technology organizations specifically:

Fostering interdisciplinary problem-solving across traditionally siloed functions like engineering, sales, operations, through systemic review of workflows, new hire onboarding processes, and company-wide challenges.
Using scenario planning to explore potential threats and openings from emerging technologies on everything from talent strategies to geographic expansion plans to social responsibility initiatives.
Partnering on initiatives to strengthen psychological safety, belonging, and equity across gender/ethnic identities which research links to retention, innovation capacity, and business outcomes in tech.
Employing organizational network analysis to optimize informal/formal communication flows, break knowledge barriers between levels/functions, and bring isolated experts/projects into greater synergy.
Co-designing experiments to balance entrepreneurial autonomy with integrated strategies, company values, and opportunities for serendipitous connection that sustain rapid growth companies long-term.

Of course, challenges remain - from technology executives' potential skepticism of ‘softer’ topics to practical resourcing and time constraints that can undermine systemic work. However, the potential for catalyzing innovation through systems-rich cultures of continuous learning may make overcoming such challenges well worth the effort.

Conclusion

As the business context becomes ever more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, organizations increasingly require the kind of adaptive capacity, cultural dynamism, and integrated problem-solving that a “systemic HR” framework provides. For HR business partners in particular, embracing this holistic, networked perspective opens up opportunities to shape organizational success far beyond traditional transactional responsibilities. From cultivating high-quality relationships that empower diverse perspectives to surface, to guiding strategic adaptation through systems mapping and integrated scenario planning, systemic HR equips HR to become a true business partner fostering sustainable competitive advantage over the long term. While implementation challenges exist, the potential impacts make continued progress towards this new paradigm well worth pursuing. Future research can further explore applications across industries and refine systemic methodologies to increase their accessibility and business impact.

References

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Sayre, D. (1996). Systems thinking and the new science. In P. Senge et al. (Eds.), The fifth discipline fieldbook (pp. 47-59). Doubleday Business.
Stacey, R. D. (1996). Complexity and creativity in organizations. Berrett-Koehler.
Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday/Currency.
Ulrich, D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W., & Ulrich, M. (2012). HR from the outside in: Six competencies for the future of human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.

Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.

Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2026). Rethinking HR: A Systems Approach to Organizational Partnership. Human Capital Leadership Review, 21(1). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.21.1.1