Enabling analysis: Across the developmental divide

It is argued in this paper that at least certain strands of operational research (OR) carried out in less developed countries have intriguing similarities with community operational research. It follows that community OR, which is still short of accounts of actual practice, might learn from OR aimed at promoting the self-reliance of communities in developing countries. The paper starts with community operational research—its origin, nature, clientele, and methods. This is followed by a parallel discussion of the characteristics of operational research aligned with third-world community development. A final section explores the common themes between the two literatures and practices.     

“Underneath the iceberg” — Challenges to the process of operational research (OR)/systems from alternative practice

Conventional OR/systems practice, it is argued in this paper, is based upon assumptions which make it unsuitable for guiding interventions in nontraditional organizations. Any methodology or method rests upon a social theory,upon craft knowledge, and upon a theory of how change can and should be brought about. Conventional OR/systems is not explicit about any of these matters. Reflecting on why conventional methods often fail to work with nontraditional organizations, however, enables us to get beneath the iceberg and unearth what is being taken for granted. It is then obvious that the nature of many organizations in the social economy requires a different type of practice. Soft OR/systems is a response to the failings of the traditional approach, but goes only some way toward meeting the criticisms.     

Research on Creativity in Decision Making

1IntroductionManypeoplearestrugglingintheirattemptstodealwiththenewworldrealities,particularlyastheyaffectthedomainofmanagement.Everywherewelook,traditionalstructuresarebeingre-shapedorfallingdown.Powerfulnation-statesarefi.agmenting.Once-successfulcompaniesarefindillgthatsure-flitformulasnolongerwork.People,andevenwholecommunities,al'efindingtheworld1hovingbeneaththeirfeetastraditionalmarkets,industries,alldsourcesofemploymentdisappearundertheimpactofnewinformatiolltechnologiesandarestructur…     

关于创造性决策激励系统(CDSS)的研究

本文在决策中的创造性方面所作的研究工作有如下几点 :1　分析了片面以逻辑思维为主导的管理科学和运筹学 (MS/ OR)方法的不足 ,并回顾了在 MS/OR中有关创造性的研究现状 .2　讨论了创造性决策的概念 ,并从决策过程中的认知活动以及创造性思维和逻辑思维等角度出发讨论了与创造性决策有关的诸如决策问题、决策者、信息等要素的特点 ,建立了创造性决策的理论基础 .3　提出了利用基本的思维活动来打破决策者思维定式的方法 ,从而在一定程度上减少了人的思维中不利于创造性发挥的因素 .每个基本思维活动均带有一些启示问题 .这些启示问题使这些基本思维活动可以作为概念性工具来提供给决策者 .概念性工具使决策者的思维沿着单一、纵向的方向发展 .4　利用概念性工具 ,本文提供了一种思维模型 ,即概念图模型来反映决策者在决策过程中的思维能量分配方式 .利用概念图模型 ,决策者的思维活动得以系统化 ,并且决策者能够自由地组织和控制其在决策过程中的认知活动 .与一般 MS/ OR模型不同 ,概念图模型反映的是决策者的认知活动本身而不是其结果 .5　为决策者提供了一种完成创造性决策的合理的环境 ,即“创造性决策激励系统 (CDSS)”...     

Management Sciences/Operational Research Units in Business and Management Courses in the UK

The paper reviews the development of management science/operational Research (MS/OR) in management education and explore how far the syllabuses of undergraduate business courses and MBA courses in the UK, are giving space to the teaching of management sciences methodologies (MSM). The academic phase of early MS/OR is outlined and a time-based framework to map the evolution of four MS/OR discourses informing a set of MSMs currently in use is advanced. At an undergraduate level the review is based on a sample taken from Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) of business and management studies degrees and at a postgraduate level the review considers a sample of MBA programmes offered by six UK universities. Results indicate that most of the MBA courses include a core unit in quantitative methods in the first year and that universities are still at large teaching the ??hard?? end of the MSM spectrum, the type of problem solving methods developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Business courses incorporating units containing systemic thinking and management sciences methodologies developed from the 1970s to now (e.g.: soft systems methodology, viable systems model, cognitive mapping), are rarely taught at undergraduate (UG) level; and at post-graduate (PG) level they have been confined to a handful of institutions in the UK. The paper highlights the fact that MSMs associated with the soft and critical end of the spectrum are still lacking of credibility amongst the designers of management education at both undergraduate and graduate management education. Conclusions from the survey results are drawn and an agenda for further research is proposed.     

Operations research (OR), management science (MS), systems science,and Russell Ackoff: The development of two paradigms

The development of OR, MS, and systems science from 1946 through 1980 is seen through a review of Russell Ackoff's work up to approximately the 1980s. Five stages of OR development are distinguished: emergence, expansion of frontiers, institutionalization, controversy, and separation. The latter stages of OR coincide with the early stages in the development of systems science: initial ideas, accumulation of deviants, expansion within OR, and formal launching of systems science. This analysis demonstrates Russell Ackoff's particularly relevant role in the emergence and development of the OR and systems science paradigms.     

Mutual understanding,revisited after nearly 25 years

Almost 25 years have passed since Churchman and Schainblatt published their paper on mutual understanding, The Researcher and the Manager: A Dialectic of Implementation. It has had quite an influence on the methodology and the practice of operational research and management science (OR/MS). Here, the concept of mutual understanding is reconsidered in a multiaspect scope, and the role of psychological typologies as a base for mutual understanding is evaluated. Finally, a diamond of thought is derived from Kant's three kinds of action.     

Application of Scenario-based Approaches in Leadership Research: An Action Research Intervention as Three Sets of Interlinked Practices

This article illustrates how scenario planning (SP) and scenario analysis as can be conceptualised as practices contributing to an action research (AR) investigation of leadership development. The project described in this article was intended to strengthen leadership capacity in Australia’s rapidly changing aged care and community care sector. A research team comprising academics from three universities and managers from two faith-based not-for-profit organisations providing aged and community care participated in this study. As part of the research, two sets of scenario-based workshops were held: the first, to identify possible futures using SP; and the second, to deal with plausible scenarios these organisations are likely to face with the changes happening in the aged care environment in Australia by using scenario analysis. Although the researchers did not consider a link between practice theory and AR during the SP phase, practice theory became useful during the scenario analysis phase. The article includes a brief literature review followed by a discussion on the relationship between AR and practice theory. The processes used in the two sets of scenario workshops are then described in detail along with the data collected and analysed. The article concludes with some reflections on the use of scenarios in practice as well as an acknowledgment that practice theory would be useful in investigating leadership capability development.     

Modeling and Solving Material Resources Allocation and Distribution with OR Based and AI Guided Method

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运筹学危机与软件工程

本文探讨了我国运筹学的危机及其产生原因,提出了解决这种危机的一种有效途径——将运筹学实践与轨件工程学紧密结合起来,针对运筹学的“问题描述”阶段,本文讨论了一些有关的软件工程技术,对运筹学的研究、应用和教学有一定参考价值。     

Student Engineers as Agents of Change: Combining Social Inclusion in the Professional Development of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

Community-based action research helps students link subject matter to everyday life and developing sense of responsibility to their community. While combining research and a development into teaching engineering software which has been vastly conducted in engineering disciplines such as Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Computer Science (CS), including inclusive participatory research is yet to be fully developed. We participated in the NGO by providing information technology (IT) and/or assistive technology (AT). This paper examines the practice of action research in service-learning projects that aim to introduce more socially responsible studies in the context of engineering education. It begins by exploring different forms of action research that may benefit engineering disciplines with a focus on action engagement to improve students’ involvement in marginalized communities. The article provides field-based reflections of the action research project and suggests ways in which practice of action research may increase socially responsive value in the professional development of student engineers.     

Insights into Operationalizing Communities of Practice from SSM-Based Inquiry Processes

Two systemic inquiries, based on soft systems methodology (SSM), into the potential for using community of practice (CoP) theory by an Australian-government created research and development corporation to change its knowledge management (KM) strategy, are reported. Key staff were engaged in the inquiry into how to build a third-order KM strategy based on CoPs; an exploration of key published work on CoPs yielded four SSM activity models—‘being a community practice system’; ‘doing the work of imagination sub-system’; ‘doing the work of alignment sub-system’ and ‘doing the work of engagement sub-system’. These models can be used as heuristics to aid the purposeful design of CoPs in other settings. SSM, enacted as a systemic inquiry, can be understood as a form of systemic action research, which was well equipped to deal with CoP theory and, when enacted participatively, can generate important systemic insights. The inquiry began the process of fostering an appreciation of third order KM but, on the evidence available, did not lead to on-going commitment to a CoPs-based KM strategy. Future research should acknowledge how the framing of research situations influences the research process, the importance of the design of practice change settings and the limited evidence for purposeful interventions leading to successful CoPs.     

非常规突发事件公共恐慌的政府信息公布策略研究:基于Multi-Agent模型

本文基于Agent模型构建了非常规突发事件公共恐慌演化仿真模型,以探讨不同的政府信息发布策略对公共恐慌的影响.特别地,该模型将信息分为真实有利信息、真实危机信息、不实有利信息、不实危机信息等四种信息类型,并以松花江水污染事件为研究案例,进行实证研究.结果表明,当非常规突发事件引发公共恐慌时,政府应该慎重发表言论,注重自身的公众形象,并在应急政策准备充分情况下,尽快公布事件真相消除不实危机信息所带来的不良影响,以有效避免与消除公共恐慌危机.     

Systems Engineering in China

A short history of Systems Engineering(SE) is described. The reasons why research work moves from Operations Research (OR), Management Science (MS) and Cybernetices to SE in China are given. This paper indicates some facets of the development of SE in China with emphasis on applications of SE.     

多障碍物场景中的行人运动模型

社会力模型是一类重要的行人运动模型,在行人建模仿真领域得到广泛应用.然而该模型仅能应用于简单空间场景,当空间中有障碍物,行人与目标点不满足通视条件时,行人不能绕过障碍,会出现穿透障碍、轨迹振荡等问题.本文引入规避障碍行为,与社会力模型融合在一起,实现行人在复杂二维空间中的运动.规避障碍行为的核心是确定绕行点,以期望行走路线最短为准则构造了求解绕行点的计算几何方法,并解决复杂空间场景中的多重遮挡问题.建立行人运动逻辑,设计渐进式路径规划算法,实现行人运动.开发了行人仿真系统,对所提出的模型进行验证.仿真结果表明:在多障碍物空间场景中,行人能自然的规避障碍,形成合理的运动轨迹.     

Intersections of Critical Systems Thinking and Community Based Participatory Research: A Learning Organization Example with the Autistic Community

Critical systems thinking (CST) and community based participatory research (CBPR) are distinct approaches to inquiry which share a primary commitment to holism and human emancipation, as well as common grounding in critical theory and emancipatory and pragmatic philosophy. This paper explores their intersections and complements on a historical, philosophical, and theoretical level, and then proposes a hybrid approach achieved by applying CBPR’s principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice to traditional systems thinking frameworks and practices. This hybrid approach is illustrated in practice with examples drawn from of the implementation of the learning organization model in an action research setting with the Autistic community. Our experience of being able to actively attend to, and continuously equalize, power relations within an organizational framework that otherwise has great potential for reinforcing power inequity suggests CBPR’s principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice could be useful in CST settings, and CST’s vocabulary, methods, and clarity around systems thinking concepts could be valuable to CBPR practitioners.     

Systems thinking,systems practice,and practical philosophy: A program of research

IfSystems Practice is to serve the cause of socially rational decision making, its understanding of systems approach must open itself up to the communicative dimension of rational practice uncovered by contemporary practical philosophy. This programmatic paper argues that building the bridge between the two traditions of systems thinking and practical philosophy is a key challenge to be faced by the systems community. A three-level framework of rational systems practice is suggested as a point of departure for a program of research.     

Community Work Research through Co-Operative Inquiry in Timor-Leste,Australia and Peru: Insights into Process

Co-operative inquiry is an under-explored method in community-based research. Its democratic approach involves a group of “co-researchers” collaboratively inquiring into a mutually-agreed research topic through systematic cycles of reflection and action. This article shares the process, outcomes, and methodological reflections of three co-operative inquiries that were conducted as part of an international study regarding love in community work. Groups of up to 10 community workers in rural villages in Timor-Leste, Australia, and Peru engaged in co-operative inquiry to collaboratively develop new knowledge to inform practice. The article analyses data regarding co-inquirer experiences of the methodology, and identifies the strengths and challenges of the co-operative inquiry method to support the collective generation of new knowledge. The article concludes that co-operative inquiry involves shared power, participation, action, and contextual reflexivity, and is a useful method for community workers to collaboratively develop innovative approaches to community work practice through cycles of reflection and action.     

Normative Evaluation of Community Projects: A Multimodal Systems Approach

This paper introduces an evaluation method for community projects based on the multimodal systems approach. The method differs from the common mechanistic approach to evaluation in four ways. Firstly, it uses the long-term life (viability) of a community as the ultimate criteria of evaluation. Secondly, it is normative; that is, it focuses on the responsibility of people to their own community and for managing their own lives. Thirdly, it is dynamic; it identifies factors that threaten a community and examines their dynamic link and long-term impact on the community. Fourthly, it evaluates the adequacy of a community activity (good practice) to help ensure its long-term viability. The method is illustrated with a European Union sponsored project.     

Man–Machine Systems: People and Technology in OR

This paper provides an exploration of how different understandings of man–machine systems have accompanied developments in Operational Research. In particular, the paper will challenge the notion that we are in a position of mastery with respect to technology. Both Hard OR and Soft OR are criticized for a failure to examine adequately the relationship between people and technology. Toward the end of the paper a new way of understanding this relationship will be proposed in terms of technologies of the self or what Michel Foucault called ethics.