The effect of an individual's education level on their systems skills in the system of systems domain

Today's rapid proliferation of information and technological advancements has led to complex and uncertain modern systems environments. The problems resulting from this increased complexity may surpass engineers’ current capacity to perform effectively within the domain of complex systems. In response to this situation, the concept of Systems Thinking (ST) has been advanced as an aid to building a mental map that offers a robust conceptual understanding to offset the challenges of modern system of systems (SoS) problems. Although there has been some research regarding the effect of age and gender on ST preferences, there is still a lack of studies investigating how an individual's ST skills preferences in system of systems (SoS) domain vary across educational qualifications. In addition, most of the extant literature focuses on one or two measures to assess the individual ST; thus, there is a need to include the full spectrum of ST measures to assess the ST skills preferences of an individual in the domain of complex systems. To address these gaps, this research uses an established ST skills preferences instrument to gauge an individual’s ST skills preferences in the SoS domain based on the educational qualifications. Two hundred and fifty-eight participants with educational qualifications ranging from non-degree to graduate degree participated in the research. The analysis of the responses was performed by a post-hoc test to show which groups differ significantly. From the results obtained through aggregate individual responses, we conclude that each group (i.e bachelor, masters and phD), possesses a different ST skills preference profile on average, and the educational qualifications in the SoS environment has a moderation impact on individuals’ system skills preferences.