A rope joins the two, but it is too short to allow them both to eat from their own food piles at once. The same notion is found in training for assertiveness and negotiation skills. In other terms, the aim of such transactions is a 'win-win' situation. The word is in use by computer scientists and organisational theorists to denote a collection of computer hardware, software and networks - one talks of a computer system and means such this kind of technological mixture. This overshadows in computer circles an older and more general use of the term, which has been in use since around 1940 - the use of systems thinking.
Systems thinking is an approach which views the world in terms of systems.
However, by combining the pieces together in the right way, we may create an system that affords transport. While Boulding gives examples of all kinds within the 'lower' systems, most of human collective experience can be found in the category of the social systems. Accordingly, these has been the object of study of most systems theorists. In particular, they have concerned themselves with the study of the interactions of people within organisations, and particularly with companies and public-sector institutions. Thus systems thinking has been substantially used within business schools.