Sisteminen

Sisteminen is a Finnish adjective used to describe something relating to a system or affecting the system as a whole. It is employed when a phenomenon cannot be understood by looking at individual parts in isolation, but rather by considering the system’s structure, interactions, and dynamics. In standard Finnish, the more common form for this sense is systeeminen; sisteminen can appear in some texts, dialects, or historical usage as a variant spelling.

The concept is used across disciplines to denote system-level properties and perspectives. In science and engineering, it refers to phenomena such as feedback, interdependencies, and emergent behavior that arise from the whole system. In medicine, it describes diseases or processes that involve multiple organs or bodily systems rather than a single site. In the social sciences and management, it is applied to approaches that view organizations or communities as interconnected wholes, emphasizing interactions within the entire system rather than isolated components.

Etymology and form: sisteminen is formed from the noun system or s ysteemi via the adjectival suffix -inen. It is closely related to the English term systemic and to the more common Finnish form systeeminen, which is preferred in formal writing in many contexts.

See also: systemic, systems thinking, systems theory, systemic disease.