Applying Systemic Project Management Approaches for the UK National Health Service

This paper sets out some observations arising from on-going research into the use of systemic methods in the planning of complex projects within the National Health Service (NHS) in Staffordshire and Shropshire in the UK. This brief paper sets out the main reasons for the application of systemic approaches, the nature of the methodologies put in place and some of the outcomes and reflections of those involved in the various workshops. Whilst not attempting to be definitive in our conclusions, the authors believe that the results of the application of systemic methods by Health and Care professionals show a range of strengths going forward.Published with the kind permission of Staffordshire and Shropshire Workforce Development Directorate.     

Systems inquiry in education

The aim of this paper is to highlight the current inadequacies of contemporary education and then to outline a methodological approach by which we can redesign and implement an educational system that is more appropriate to the postindustrial/information age in which we now live. A brief discussion of an application is given in order to exemplify the proposed systemic approach.     

An Interpretive-Systemic Framework for the Study of Community Organizations

This paper presents a conceptual framework for the systemic study of community organizations (COs) in contemporary societies. This framework is made up of two ideal-type models of COs. These models are structured around the notions of rights, social interaction, and the State. The first ideal-type model is based on a liberal conception of society, and the second model is grounded on communicative ethics as developed by Habermas for contemporary deliberative democracy. The relevance and limitations of such interpretive framework are discussed when a brief exploration on the social meaning of COs in Venezuela unveils grounds for further questioning about the role of COs in contemporary society.     

Science as Systemic Intervention: Some Implications of Systems Thinking and Complexity for the Philosophy of Science

This paper sidesteps the usual starting points for debate about complexity and the philosophy of science, which tend to assume that science is primarily about observation. Instead, the starting point is intervention, defined as purposeful action by an agent to create change. While some authors suggest that intervention and observation are opposites, it is argued here that observation (as undertaken in science) should be viewed as just one type of intervention. We should therefore welcome scientific techniques of observation into a pluralistic set of intervention methods, alongside methods for exploring values, reflecting on subjective understandings, planning future activities, etc. However, there is a need to explicitly counter a possible pernicious interpretation of this argument: intervention could (erroneously) be viewed as flawlessly preplanned change based on accurate predictions of the consequences of action. This is the mechanistic worldview that systems thinking and complexity science seek to challenge. Therefore, having redefined scientific observation as intervention, the paper revisits insights from systems thinking and complexity to propose a methodology of systemic intervention. Some brief reflections are then provided on the wider social implications of this methodology.     

银行间市场体系的相继违约风险分析与建模

总结分析当今世界各主要经济体的银行间市场体系的网络结构特征,指出随机网络和无标度网络是目前各国银行间市场的主要网络结构形态。并进一步通过模型说明和数值仿真揭示了这两种不同的网络体系下银行间市场的相继违约风险发生过程和演化特征,分析了网络结构对于银行体系风险的影响,指出无标度的银行体系结构会带来更大的相继违约风险。     

Triple Task Method: Systemic, Reflective Action Research

This brief article introduces a new methodology for systemic action research—Triple Task (TT)—and sets out its rationale and initial progress in becoming an embedded method for group working. Arising from the authors previous work with soft systems approaches, the Imagine method for sustainable development assessment and action research in a variety of global locations, TT provides a means for groups to engage together in purposive work and, at the same time, for facilitators to understand how the dynamic of the group influences the groups output. TT is based on an ambitious concept and at the time of writing the results of TT applied in the context of an EU Framework 7 funded project are in their early stages but importantly, significant insights are already arising including the answers to some puzzling questions:

• Do purposeful groups always produce the most insightful outcomes?
• Do conflictual groups produce incoherent results?
• What makes a ‘good’ group?

     

Meditations on Systems Thinking, Spiritual Systems, and Deep Ecology

This paper is written for a broad general readership. It presents a prismatic reflection on systemic thinking, Buddhist philosophy, and deep ecology, with the objective of shedding light on world problems and understanding their gravity. Such an inquiry constitutes a formidable spearhead for the betterment of the world, guiding us towards holism, and moving us away from the partial, fragmented, compartmentalized thinking that is prevalent today. Although no deliberate attempt is made to articulate solutions to specific problems, a brief account of current socially engaged action is described.     

Soft System Dynamics Methodology in Action: A study of the Problem of Citizen Insecurity in an Argentinean Province

This paper illustrates an application of soft system dynamics methodology (SSDM). SSDM arose as a fusion of two well-known methodologies in the systems movement: system dynamics (SD) and soft systems methodology (SSM). SSDM includes 10 steps to orchestrate and implant change in social systems, based on a multimethodological and multiparadigmatic approach as an outcome of the combination of the mentioned methodologies. After a brief introduction, the paper starts by briefly explaining SSM and SD, their stages and their problematical issues as systemic methodologies, then goes on to explain SSDM, its philosophical roots and stages, ending with a comparison among the three. It then introduces the citizen insecurity problem in Argentina, specifically in Mendoza Province, where SSDM was applied to analyze this issue. The paper concludes with an explanation of the learning points that arose from the use of SSDM in this study and suggestions for further research on citizen security and SSDM.     

Collaborative Project Management: A Systemic Approach to Heavy Equipment Manufacturing Project Management

Quite often over the last decade, heavy equipment manufacturers are trying to improve their project management performance with the use of effective project management methods. However, the challenges encountered aren’t isolated problems and a systemic approach is required. This paper exemplifies how a systemic approach can be applied to heavy equipment manufacturing project (HEMP) management, through of a multifaceted vision. The findings present in the paper are based on a two-year case study in a metallurgic equipment manufacturing enterprise in China. Based on the analysis of HEMP management problems and the contributions on systemic approach application in project management, the paper enriches existing theory by: (1) interpreting the HEMP management system with the top-down disassembly method; (2) developing the collaborative project management approach with a systems view highlighting the project characteristics management and inter-departmental collaboration; (3) making suggestions for systemic approach application in project management. For practitioners and researchers, the findings are particularly meaningful for manufacturing project management and systemic approach application.     

The Relationship of ‘Systems Thinking’ to Action Research

This article investigates the relationship of systems thinking to action research by reviewing the main developments in systems thinking and relating these to action research. There are two main lines of thought in systems thinking that lead to wholly different conceptions about action research. The first (systems thinking) advocates thinking about real social systems that it assumes exist in the world. The second (systemic thinking) supposes only that the social construction of the world is systemic. Greater emphasis is placed on systemic thinking consistent with its greater importance to contemporary action research. The article concludes that systemic thinking when taken to its practical conclusion from a critical perspective offers to action research a somewhat unique liberating praxis. Concern that any liberating praxis could remain hollow is addressed through a certain kind of ‘spiritual’ awareness that is suggested by wholeness.     

基于CoES模型的我国金融系统性风险度量

为了更加准确地度量金融系统性风险,预防灾难性金融风险事件发生,本文基于尾部损失的均值提出了一个新的度量系统性风险的方法——CoES模型,相对于传统的CoVaR模型来说,该方法更关注尾部损失的均值而不仅仅是单一分位点上的期望损失,能够更加准确地捕捉系统性风险,为金融系统监管提供更为有效的信息.最后,本文将该方法用于度量2007-2016年间共21个金融机构对我国金融市场系统性风险的贡献.研究结果发现:1)CoVaR模型可能低估了金融机构的系统性风险;2)当银行行业受到冲击时,其对整个金融系统造成的风险最大,其次是保险,房地产和多元金融行业;3)在银行行业中,对系统性风险贡献最大的当属工商银行和中国银行,应对其进行重点监管;4)相对于银行和房地产行业,保险行业和多元金融行业自身的VaR值较高,但对金融系统性风险的贡献较低,因此应注意对其自身风险的管理.     

Project Management Supports (Requisitely) Holistic: Socially Responsible Action in Business Systems

This article emphasizes the role of projects and project management in assuring socially responsible acting of contemporary business systems, presenting some practical applications in the field of tourism. With arising number of projects in business systems and their growing strategic importance, the role of project management has radically been changing for the last two decades. Managing organizations, as a central topic among seven crucial topics in ISO 26000 on social responsibility, is strongly associated with managing projects. Projects have important influence on the established as well as on establishing ongoing operations and are important tools in assuring business systems’ strategic development, by exposing interdependences and supporting the requisitely holistic approach. This article tries to fill the gap we detected in literature on social responsibility where projects and project management seem not to have a proper role. Four different links and interdependencies between project management and systems theory (which ISO 26000 reinforces) are exposed: (1) systemic treatment of project management, (2) systematical treatment of projects as holistic works, (3) systemic treatment of projects as parts of BSs’ strategies, (4) systemic treatment of projects throughout their entire life cycle.     

A Fresh Look at The Systems Approach and an Agenda for Action: Peeking Through the Lens of Churchman's Aphorisms

This paper critically examines some important topics of systemic thinking to understand how our perception of problems can be enhanced and how the chances of deception can be mitigated while dealing with real-world problems. To achieve this objective, an attempt is first made to scrutinize some of the key issues of systemic thinking by looking through the lens of Churchman's aphorisms at: (1) the illusion of completeness and closure, (2) the meaning of holism, and (3) the concept of ‘Interbeing’. A preliminary ‘agenda for action’ is then laid out suggesting ways for increasing our perception and for minimizing the chances of being deceived in dealing with systems problems in practice.     

A Systemic Exploration of the Risk Factors in Zimbabwean Information Technology Projects

This paper explores the risk factors threatening Zimbabwean Information Technology (IT) projects and build a systemic model demonstrating how the identified risk factors are interconnected. Drawn on systemic thinking, a soft systems approach called Interactive Management (IM) was adopted to identify the risk factors. The Interactive Management session involved the relevant stakeholders to interactively produce the systemic model through four major phases: idea generation, idea clarification, idea structuring, and interpretation of the structured ideas. The output of the Interactive Management process is a digraph showing the causal relationships between the identified risks. Six risk drivers were identified through the Interactive Management process: limited computer literacy, poor communication, lack of executive support, complexity of design, bureaucracy, and employee turnover. The constructed model demonstrates how the identified risk factors are interconnected. It also shows that non-linear relationships exist between risk factors. The output from this exploration has the potential to be used as a starting point to mitigate the risks impacting on Zimbabwean IT projects. Different from the output of frequently used approaches, the risk drivers identified in the systemic model inform decision makers to exploit the effective strategies in preventing other risks from materializing.

     

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.     

Systemic Model for Diagnosis of the Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises from Two Cities from the Countryside of the State of <Emphasis Type="Italic">São Paulo</Emphasis> in Brazil

This article presents a proposal of a systemic model composed for the micro and small companies (MSE) of the region of Ribeirão Preto and the agents which influenced their environment. The proposed model was based on Stafford Beer’s (Diagnosing the system for organizations. Chichester, Wiley, 1985) systemic methodologies VSM (Viable System Model) and on Werner Ulrich’s (1983) CSH (Critical Systems Heuristics). The VSM is a model for the diagnosis of the structure of an organization and of its flows of information through the application of the cybernetics concepts (Narvarte, In El Modelo del Sistema Viable—MSV: experiencias de su aplicación en Chile. Proyecto Cerebro Colectivo del IAS, Santiago, 2001). On the other hand, CSH focus on the context of the social group applied to the systemic vision as a counterpoint to the organizational management view considered by the VSM. MSE of Ribeirão Preto and Sertãozinho had been analyzed as organizations inserted in systems that relate and integrate with other systems concerning the public administration, entities of representation and promotion agencies. The research questions: which are the bonds of interaction among the subsystems in this process and who are the agents involved? The systemic approach not only diagnosed a social group, formed by MSE of Ribeirão Preto and Sertãozinho, public authorities and support entities, but could also delineate answers that aimed the clarification of obscure questions generating financial assistance to the formularization of efficient actions for the development of this system.     

Measuring the Performance of a Research Strategic Plan System Using the Soft Systems Methodology’s Three ‘Es’ and the Viable System Model’s Indices of Achievement

We explore problems involving the measurement of the performance of a system. We outline two systemic approaches that have come from different epistemological positions: one from the interpretivist paradigm (soft systems methodology) and the other from the cybernetic paradigm (viable systems model). These two systemic methodologies that have tackled problems involving performance measurement are considered and discussed: (a) Checkland’s systems ideas of ‘managing and controlling’ a system throughout a set of three measures of performance: efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness; and (b) Beer’s concepts of Actuality, Capability, Potentiality of the firm and his claims that the performance of a system needs to be quantifiable and resumed on ‘pure’ numbers which should reflect the survivability of the firm. A parallel is drawn between the two approaches concluding that although the paradigms underpinning them are in some way different, the practicalities of these approaches to control, measure and improve the performance of a system are very similar. A case involving the measurement of a proposed research strategic plan for a Manchester Metropolitan University Business School’s department is used to illustrate the systemic approaches.     

Application of Teleonic Principles in the Search for Systemic Causes of Accidents in Anesthesia

Safety of patients in anesthesia has always been one of the major concerns of the anesthetist. It is clear from studies of safety in general that many accidents and critical incidents occur as the result of latent systemic failures to which a great number of factors contribute (Reason, 1990). An ideal way to approach this problem would be within a systemic framework, such as teleonics, developed by Járos and his co-workers (Cloete, 1999; Járos and Cloete, 1987, 1993). In this framework the events and procedures in anesthesia are considered to be part of a very complex network of process systems (teleons). It is postulated that teleonic uncertainty (telentropy) in this complex network is a factor that might lead to accidents. In a previous paper presented to the World Congress at Toronto in 2000, the principles of teleonics were described in a mathematico symbolic way (Horváth et al., 2000). This paper contains selected examples of application of these principles to the identification of possible systemic causes of accidents in anesthesia.     

货币政策、宏观审慎监管与银行系统性风险承担

本文是系统性层面的货币政策风险承担渠道研究.在构建监管当局与商业银行的道德风险理论模型的基础上,本文选取中国上市商业银行为样本,基于CoVaR和CCA方法实证研究了中国货币政策对银行系统性风险承担的影响以及与宏观审慎监管的协调.结果发现:1)宽松的货币政策,宏观审慎政策以及高杠杆会显著提高银行系统性风险承担;2)宏观审慎与货币政策双支柱的"紧紧"组合对降低系统性风险的政策效果比"紧松"组合更优,利率政策对银行杠杆的关注不足,通过紧缩的利率政策去银行杠杆可能无效;3)利用货币政策,宏观审慎政策限制系统性风险在危机时期可能是无效的,对大型银行的效果不明显.