Systemic Thinking in China: A Meta-Decision-Making Bridge to Western Concepts

We use a meta-decision-making approach to show that parallels can be drawn between an Oriental systems methodology, wuli, shili, renli (WSR), and the adjusting, convincing, and committing dimensions in nomology, a generic metamodel that is based in decision science. We then use the match between them to propose a metalinguistic bridge between China and the West that could aid in the communication and sharing of systems experiences. We use the bridge to consider some of the interpretations of Chinese systems experiences in terms of Western models in a special issue of Systemic Practice and Action Research (Vol. 13, No. 1, 2000) on systemic thinking in China. We show how WSR could help to relate these interpretations in terms of Chinese concepts. We explore proposals in a paper in the special issue by Midgley et al. (2000) about how to operationalize human relations in Chinese systems practice. We show that these correspond to a suggestion that developing commitment within a systems project should be done in a convincing manner. Hence, in WSR terms, we would say that their advice could be interpreted as meaning that shili should be used to operationalize renli. Finally, we propose as a research agenda that the bridge be used to explore how Chinese insights could help to illuminate Western systems experience.     

On the application of the theory of emergence and of the law of maximum entropy production to social processes

As there would be appear to be no limit to the process of successive emergence, the emergence of suprahuman autopoietic systems seems possible, if not yet necessary. Maybe there really are constraints on human behavior which would not permit such entities to emerge, or maybe the emergence of such entities entails the dissipation of more free energy than available at present. But unless such conditions are present, then, it appears to me, the emergence of suprahuman autopoietic systems is not just probable, it is inevitable.In any event, whether or not they share my concern about suprahuman autopoietic systems, all concerned with metaphor manufacture should attend to this important insight from Swenson (1989a, b, c, d) and should not be deterred by my so inadequate reflection of a new and important view of how the organizational world works.     

Developing an Innovative Style of Thinking and Innovative Behavior

Russia is currently attempting to create a modern, innovative economy, which requires a new type of worker and a new, more cooperative style of management. Twenty years of Russian market reforms have clearly shown that one of the most serious obstacles to creating an innovative economy in Russia is to change the totalitarian style of thinking. A person needs to be considered as more than a means to achieve economic goals. This paper aims to describe some aspects of the social, economic and organizational changes occurring in Russia and one way out of the current predicament: using a constructivist approach to education in order to develop the innovative competencies of people. In this action research a presumption is made that changes in mentality and patterns of behavior are required for both managers and workers. Style of management in organizations should change in a manner that would support the creation of an innovative society.     

Piaget,self-organizing knowledge,and critical systems practice

An examination of Piaget's conception of the source, nature, development, and use of knowledge reveals that his model for the genetic development of human knowledge is cybernetic and self-organizing. Moreover, Piaget presents a model of cognition which is a reflection and extension of autopoietic biological organization; both cognitive and organic systems are seen to exhibit organizational closure and structural plasticity. An action-based intervention method, modeling embedded learning structures as cybernetic, autopoietic systems, may provide insight toward clarifying some theoretical and methodological problems of critical systems thinking.     

System–Environment Relations in the Theories of Open and Autopoietic Systems: Implications for Critical Systems Thinking

This short paper revisits Bertalanffy??s open systems theory and Luhmann??s theory of autopoietic social systems in order to highlight the linkage between systemic complexity and the carrying capacity of the environment. Being paradigmatically focused on biological complexity, Bertalanffy??s work shows this linkage to be relatively unproblematic. In contrast, Luhmann argued that autopoietic social systems are likely to develop excessive complexity which overstrains the environment??s carrying capacity. The paper synthesizes these conceptions into a framework of discretionary social decision-making aimed at preventing systemic complexity from becoming excessive. Rooted in the idea of balancing the system and the environment, this framework determines the optimal level of systemic complexity as that level which systems can maximally attain without incurring the risk of self-destruction. The system?Cenvironment balance is shown to be the general systems theory core of Ulrich??s critical systems heuristics and critical systems thinking more generally.     

Cybernetics and suprahuman autopoietic systems

Several streams of cybernetic thinking lead to the notion that there may exist systems of a higher logical order than that of manmade organisation. Such systems would be autopoietic and, in principle, beyond human control. Man and his institutions would be but components of such systems. The accelerated growth of institutions and the connections between them facilitated by the IT revolution makes the realization of such systems more probable at this time. The implications for systems practice are discussed.     

Criticizing the phenomenological critique—Autopoiesis and critical realism

There has been, and still is, an important debate between critical systems and soft (interpretive) systems concerning epistemology and ontology. Flood and Ulrich argued for a position they termed “critical idealism,” but this has been contested by Fuenmayor, who proposed that critical systems was unnecessary since phenomenology provided the necessary and sufficient form of critique. This paper, in turn, argues for critical systems, providing a critique of phenomenology which shows that at least three of its own presuppositions are invalid. It is further suggested that an adequate philosophy for critical systems has not yet emerged and that the cognitive autopoietic theories of Maturana and the critical realism of Bhaskar will be important strands in its development.     

A virtual field-based conceptual framework for the simulation of complex social systems

<正> This highly interdisciplinary research paper discusses some new insights into the fundamentalproperties of information-rich social networks.It mainly focuses on:i)Postulating the generalproperties of an information-based networking economy;ii)Modeling emergent and self-organizing featuresof social networks;iii)Discussing how to simulate complex social systems using a field-basedapproach and multi-agent platforms.Additionally,this paper gives some ideas of how to construct avirtual field-based communications network of intelligent agents using currently available computationalintelligence methods.A new simulation paradigm offers some useful concepts to transform multidimensionalfactor space(representing a multiplicity of phenomenal forms and interactions)into the mostuniversal spectral coding system.This paper gives some ideas of how not only the communicationmechanism but also the social agents can be simulated as oscillating processes.     

On Requisitely Holistic Understanding of Sustainable Development from Business Viewpoints

In the new millennium, and in its global economy, everybody will have to be very competitive and hence innovative. For this reason most humans, economies, and businesses must innovate our understanding of economics in all areas and levels of human activity. The new challenges require a thorough innovation of work, including a requisitely³ holistic consideration of sustainable development (SD). In our contribution we would like to shift attention from a principle-based moralizing about relations between the sustainable development and enterprises to a very practical issue: how to support a more requisitely holistic understanding of SD from business viewpoints. The most important or most frequent issues of a new understanding and implementation of SD include the following: SD requires holism, hence professional and political aspects in synergy, hence systems thinking; SD requires linking of different approaches to problem solving; businesses should no longer forget about SD; ISO, etc., standards are not holistic enough concepts to solve all SD problems; A more requisitely holistic methodology is needed for implementation of SD in business. We offer some new suggestions.     

要加强对复杂适应性系统的研究——对自组织理论的反思

简单回顾了自组织理论的发展历史、内容和采用的方法,重点分析了自组织理论的研究对象和研究范围;指出自组织理论在研究复杂系统上的局限性——只适于研究简单巨系统,它研究的是系统演化的结果而非过程;自组织理论使用微分方程作为数学工具,要求子系统之间的相互作用要满足叠加原理而不考虑涌现的情况。在此基础上,本文提出要加强复杂适应性系统的研究,具体有两方面的工作：首先要加强计算机作为数学工具的应用,扩展对系统状态描述的范围;另外要加强对层次性的研究,重点是对涌现问题的分析。最后提出现在加强复杂系统的研究应从实际的具体系统入手。     

Systems engineering research

In this paper, we propose selected research topics that are believed central to progress and growth in the application of systems engineering （SE）. As a professional activity, and as an intellectual activity, systems engineering has strong links to such associated disciplines as decision analysis, operation research, project management, quality management, and systems design. When focussing on systems engineering research, we should distinguish between subjects that are of systems engineering essence and others that more closely correspond to those that are more relevant for related disciplines.     

An introduction to autopoiesis—Implications and applications

Maturana and Varela have developed a theory to explain the particular character of living systems. Such systems, they claim, have an “autopoietic,” or self-producing, organization. This term is now used widely, although often without a proper understanding of the detail of the theory. Moreover, the concept has been applied to other systems, such as societies and institutions, in a rather naïve manner. It is a very important theory, with far-reaching consequences both for science and for social intervention, but it must be correctly appreciated and applied. The aim of this paper is to aid that process by, first, elucidating the theoretical ideas and, second, critically evaluating its implications and applications.     

F#-Time, Functions and Processes: Towards Sustainable Investment Risk Benchmarks

‘I made a mistake’: Alan Greenspan (Financial Times: Alan Beattie and James Politi: Washington, 23rd October 2008). Such are the words of great men, for even in troubled times their self-effacing manner provides useful guidance. Whilst Mr Greenspan may feel this way, he is a product of his environment, one that has seen the cumulative development of financial instruments and strategies that have not been thought through as to their impact on a complex economy. Mainly this is because risk is thought to be discrete and the methods used to price it are flawed. To an engineer the control of a machine is built-in. Although the economy is not a machine, but an intensely connected complex of ever emerging businesses, the process of control needs to be structured in a similar manner. Pricing investment risk in this environment should never have been left to opaque institutions, or processes that do not recognise the co-dependencies of business and systemic functionality. To do so is to ignore the correlation of events in a highly connected world. These events are dynamic and conditional, whose outturns are unknowable. This does not mean unmanageable, but that the control process be built-in to businesses and government in a consistent manner, transparent yet using different parameters. Transparent means that data, assumptions and processes need to be monitored and published in timely manner. As far as accounting for results is concerned it should be recognised that budgeting and reporting to investors is founded on dynamic processes that are therefore changeable; usually out of date; and co-dependent upon others within a complex dynamic network that is both internal and external to the business. The works of Stafford Beer (Brain of the Firm, Heart of the Enterprise, Diagnosing the System) Fredrick Vestor (The Art of Interconnected Thinking) and others are examples of how to manage the internal dynamics of a business and point to a methodology that synthesises the approaches of investors such as Warren Buffett so that extreme outcomes such as the Credit-Crunch 2008 can be reduced in frequency but investors are free to ‘take their risks’. This research aims to compare two extreme events in the financial arena, the ‘Reinsurance Spiral of the late 1980s’ and the ‘2008 Credit-Crunch’, show their commonalities and propose methods that supply liquidity in all but gross systemic failure and allow investment risk to be more ably assessed and priced. It is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis but one focused on how ignoring the proper relationship of time, functions and processes brought about the current problem in both insurance and the capital markets and how a solution may be found. This research note offers an overview on the ongoing PhD research on the topic.

The application of autopoiesis to social organizations: A comment on John Mingers' reply

I am grateful to our Editor for this opportunity of making a reply.I hope, in these few lines, not to have converted John Mingers, and those like-minded, to a belief in autopoietic social systems but to have raisedjust the possibility that there is a problem area here and that, because of the anticipated outcomes of such a possibility, this area is worth our attention.     

基于时间Petri网的电力系统故障恢复算法的研究

随着电网建设的逐步升级和加强,电网结构趋于成熟稳定,但也愈加庞大复杂。电网不可避免受到故障影响而导致停电,严重危害社会经济的持续发展,因此,电力系统故障恢复问题的研究正成为完善电网建设的一项重要任务。时间Petri网是一种用于描述系统动态行为和分析系统动态性质的数学模型,对描述和分析并发现象有其独到的优越之处,非常适合于异步并发系统的建模。用时间Petri网来解决故障恢复是一种新型算法。根据时间Petri网的特点,利用时间Petri网为配电网典型结构建立模型,应用迪杰斯特拉计算机算法,辅助计算电力系统配电网故障恢复的最优路径。举例验证本算法的有效性。     

Accounting—A virtual autopoietic system?

The debate about the application of the concept of autopoiesis to social systems has been disabled by the difficulties of defining the autopoiesis of a specific social system ostensively. This paper considers the evidence that the circular relations of production which define autopoietic processes appear both in the cognitive domain and in the domains of human activity associated with accounting. Without a sound theoretical footing and, in the eyes of some, fatally flawed, accounting appears to be organizationally closed, capable of adapting itself to its rapidly changing environment, and probably well able to engulf many of the alternative ways of representing activities in society. It is concluded that if there are indeed autopoietic suprahuman systems of a natural kind mobilizing mankind in their service, then accounting is to be numbered among them.     

Power-Based Arbitrary Decisional Actions in the Resolution of MIS Project Issues: A Project Manager's Action Research Perspective

As a management information systems (MIS) project manager and an action researcher, the author examined, over time, the influence on information system development (ISD) of the informal sociopolitical organizational actions. The paper reports two cases of action research findings concerning the effect on ISD project implementation processes of power-based arbitrary decisional actions in bureaucratic environments. The research focused on the relationship of such unilateral actions to the interconnected subprocesses of deliberate and conscious attempts by the ISD project members to define and resolve system implementation issues. A suggested conceptual framework for the issue-resolution processes (IRP's) and obstacle-coping processes (OCP's) is based on the author's IRP/OCP-related behavioral constructs and theoretical models dealing with soft-systems issues, especially appreciative system theory and soft-systems methodology, and innovative flexible, "complementarist" (Sinn, 1998) or pluralist problem-solving approaches.     

Designing a Capability-Focused Strategic Management Model for a Turkish Public Hospital: Learning from Failure

This study aims to depict a failed strategic change initiative in a Turkish public hospital by means of an action research and it strives to explain critical factors underpinning the failure, thereby proposing how such factors should be tackled with for similar initiatives elsewhere. The study calls attention to the recent challenges ongoing in the environment of hospitals, which urge them to take on a more strategic focus. In this vein, we discredit accreditation based systems, which emphasize monitoring resources and propose a capability-focused strategic management model for hospitals. A hybrid action research protocol, which combines both traditional and participatory action research methodologies in its design, is employed to formulate and implement the model in a public hospital. The phases of the project and obstacles faced during these phases are discussed. The findings suggest that although the model offers significant potential for competitive success and better resource efficiency, path-dependent characteristics of the public sector governance in Turkey have impeded the adoption of the model in our case. Both macro-systemic characteristics related mainly to the Turkish national culture and management of public institutions and situation-specific characteristics, such as top management’s decision making orientation, professional norms and patronage relationships have blocked the way for the aspired transformation despite positive attitudes of and support from higher order public authorities and internal professional groups.     

IDEA: A Collaborative Organizational Design Process Integrating Innovation, Design, Engagement, and Action

This paper describes an innovative and successful 1-year organization change process. It captures a design-based inquiry that simultaneously applies creative, purposeful, and systemic thinking to a complex set of issues. Three significant findings result from this research. First, this paper discusses how the change process created the necessary and sufficient conditions allowing for the creation of an innovative organizational design that embeds both optimization and innovation. Second, Design Thinking was used to develop a 2-day participative design process we have called IDEA, an acronym for integrating innovation, design, engagement, and action. We believe that the IDEA organizational design process is replicable. Third, it describes an emergent and co-created change process. This paper concludes by raising questions for future transformative organizational design efforts.     

欠发达地区跨越式发展路径创新的系统性分析

对我国欠发达地区与东部发达地区的差距不断扩大的原因进行了系统分析,认为原因在于欠发达地区的制度还没有得到革新、各地区间的产业同构现象还比较明显、缺少有效的自主创新机制、长期计划经济下产生的路径依赖等因素;并提出了一条欠发达地区实现跨越式发展的创新性：路径。