Exploration of opportunity costs and consideration exploration of opportunity costs and consideration for future generations: Two lasting contributions to systems thinking

In his numerous writings C. West Churchman has shown how the systems approach can be used to secure improvements in the human condition. Specifically one must think holistically. Two concepts—exploration of opportunity costs and consideration for future generations—underline whole systems thinking. The author argues based on his own experience that these tools of the human intellect are among the most lasting contributions Churchman has made to systems thinking.     

Organization Change in a University Hospital: A Six Year Evaluation Report of the HORIZONS Project

Many health care organizations are currently engaged in changing the design of their health care services delivery system. The issues of cost containment, quality, and access are prominent. This paper reports on the impact of the implementation of a new organization design at one university hospital. The organization change effort (named HORIZONS) was a five year project funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. In a changing health care environment, the project was undertaken with three goals in mind: (1) to maintain and enhance quality of patient care; (2) to improve the quality of working life; and (3) to accomplish this in a budget neutral manner. Initiated as a program to strengthen hospital nursing, the project became a patient-focused redesign effort encompassing both clinical and administrative affairs. The core ideas of the project approach included systems thinking, interactive planning and idealized design. This evaluation reports on the project's progress after six years.     

松散耦合系统动态资源组织方法研究

松散耦合系统（loose coupling system, LCS）是针对采用松散耦合方式组成的一类系统的统称。实现面向任务的资源动态组织、配置与应用,是这类系统的共性问题。分析了松散耦合系统概念和特性,构建了松散耦合系统资源网络模型和资源组织模型,提出了针对松散耦合系统资源动态组织的“资源两级绑定”方法,论证了该方法对形成和保持松散耦合系统适应性、灵活性、开放性和可靠性的重要作用。     

A health planner meets C. West Churchman

From 1966 to 1984, the author was professor of health planning at the School of Public Health of the University of California at Berkeley. During those years, he became a close colleague and friend of C. West Churchman, whose thinking on systems design became a Source of inspiration to him for rethinking many conventional patterns of thought in the field of health planning. In this paper, Henrik L. Blum draws a fine portrait of West Churchman, describing him as many of us who had the privilege of working with him—be it as colleagues or students—know him. (Editor)     

Learning by Action Research: A Policy for School Development

In this article I define a project organization as action research. Thus defined, the approach presents a method for experiential learning among educators who develop as learners in an educational setting. Second, the approach describes a method for focusing on research related to change in classroom didactics brought about by the mediating instruments educators discover and use so as to overcome their own learning anxiety. Third, action research and academic investigation are described as a method for integrating theory with practice. Finally, action research is outlined as an effort for social justice—the way knowledge usually develops by social construction.     

租赁设备的状态维修决策建模与优化

随着物联网技术飞速发展,租赁设备大多安装有传感系统,可以及时地对设备关键部件和整体运行状态进行检测,进而可基于设备的健康状态为其安排更为合理的维修方案,在降低租赁商维修费用的同时,尽量少地干预客户的正常施工,并且保证租赁设备在客户施工场所的可靠运行.本文研究了基于状态检测的租赁设备的最优维修问题,研究中引入了顺序状态检测,定义了基于状态的控制限维修策略,并建立了以维修开销最小为目标的解析模型,以决策系统最优的检测间隔和预防维修阈值.除检测、维修等基本费用外,模型中还进一步考虑了租赁系统的故障罚金和故障后维修超时罚金.在模型的求解中,推导了维修干预下设备任意时刻的检测概率和状态概率分布,作为模型构建和求解的依据.数值实验结果验证并表明了面向租赁设备的基于状态的维修策略的有效性.     

Editorial

The book Fifth Discipline is Peter Senge's account of the learning organization. For Senge, five disciplines are necessary to bring about a learning organization—personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking (called systemic thinking from here on). Systemic thinking is the discipline that integrates all five disciplines. Each discipline is briefly explored in this paper, with emphasis placed on systemic thinking. Senge's concern with localness and openness is also touched upon. The paper concludes with an outline critique of Senge's work.     

Second-Order Cybernetic Analysis to Re-construct Farmers’ Rationale When Regulating Milk Production

This paper presents an activity and knowledge analysis using second-order cybernetics for analysing human activities in social-ecological systems. We do this with the case of smallholder farmers producing milk in Nakuru County, Kenya. The analysis is based on farmers′ actions and the knowledge behind their actions. Using this approach, we analysed how smallholder farmers regulate milk production and how they influence milk quality. Farmers influence milk quality with their routine and problem-solving management actions. The knowledge behind these actions can be represented as rules. We found that Routine Control Rules that influence milk quality aim to (i) minimize contamination (ii) maintain udder health, and (iii) preserve milk. Problem-Solving Control Rules aim to deal with disturbances associated with (i) market imperfection (ii) microbiological contamination (iii) disease, and (iv) unfavourable milk composition. The approach revealed key restrictions and disturbance factors influencing milk quality in smallholder dairy systems. It also allowed for co-identification of best practices and entry points for contextualized innovations, i.e. innovations that fit into the respective production context. The co-analysis led to changes in farmers’ practices, as it fostered the co-development of milk quality standards to be applied at the community level as preparation for collective marketing activities. When emphasis is placed on finding restrictions and developing innovations, the approach can be further applied to other land-use systems.     

Practicing What We Teach in Teaching Systems Practice: The Action–Learning Cycle

Respect for autonomy is a powerful tool for managing complexity. It lets natural, mutually supportive order emerge. In Western culture, though, much order is imposed. This causes conflict, which only increases complexity. This conflictual pattern has an antidote in systems practice: the systemic action–learning cycle. When used reflectively at the level of second-order cybernetics, this cycle embodies respect for autonomy. The UK Open University course "T306: Managing Complexity—A Systems Approach" teaches this action–learning cycle, and uses the cycle in its own teaching. In particular, it uses the cycle in its online conferences, to invite participation and dissolve conflict. This paper shows how.     

Educational systems design: Making it more user friendly

Concerns about our current public education systems have given rise to a variety of reform efforts. During the past several years, efforts have begun to emphasize the importance of systems thinking and a “systemic” approach for bringing about fundamental educational reform. In spite of the promise of system design as a model for systemic change, it has been largely ignored by its intended clients, the educational leadership. This paper explores some of the reasons for this and proposes a number of actions that need to be taken if system design is to become a viable approach.     

Fostering Design Culture Through Cultivating the User-Designers' Design Thinking and Systems Thinking

In this paper, the essence of design thinking and systems thinking is reviewed, analyzed, and synthesized. Although there are many valuable schools of systems thinking, I focus on both Banathy's and Senge's since there are design spirit embedded in their systems thinking. I attempt to grasp the spirit of Banathy's systems models and the essence of Senge's systems thinking, incorporating them into my design inquiry. I propose adopting an enlightened, transformative design approach in order to enhance the revolution of the public's inner and outer systems through collaborative design engagement. It is expected that by utilizing the transformative design approach, the public or user–designers could gain the necessary skills to envision their own learning, assume responsibility for designing their own learning environments, and systematically reflect upon their habitual thinking and actions. Ultimately, the user-designers would be able to transform their model-driven or theory-driven approaches to systems application into a cultural approach to the cultivation of systems thinking and design thinking. Indeed, design thinking, as well as contemporary systems thinking are two powerful wings to make us fly in the capacious learning world of the 21st century.     

The biocybernetic approach as a basis for planning our environment

In this paper, Professor Vester introduces the readers ofSystems Practice to his biocybernetic approach to systems planning, an approach that he has shown to be fruitful both in concrete applications and in many best-selling didactic publications, including children's books and games. Based on this approach he proposes a “cybernetic senstivity model,” a conceptual framework for ecologically sound systems design based on a biocybernetic redefinition of conventional techniques of systems modeling and simulation. The author explains the basic structure of the model and presents eight pertinent biocybernetic principles of good-systems practice. (Editor).     

Structuration Theory and Self-Organization

Social systems theory is dominated by a reductionistic individualism and a dualistic functionalism. Especially the latter does not, adequately integrate the human being. In order to avoid dualism, mechanistic determinism, and reductionism, a dialectical concept of social systems that is based on the notion of self-organization seems necessary. In order to establish a dialectical theory of social self-organization it is appropriate to integrate aspects of Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. Giddens acknowledges the importance of knowledgeable human actors in society and argues that structures are the medium and outcome of actions (theorem of the duality of structure). Structures both enable and constrain social actions. This idea corresponds to saying that social systems are re-creative, i.e., self-organizing social systems. Re-creativity is based on the creative activities of human beings. Social structures exist in and through the productive practices and relationships of human actors. The term evolution can be employed in a nonfunctionalist way that acknowledges the importance of knowledgeable human actors in social systems by conceiving the historical development of society based on a dialectic of chance and necessity and theprinciple of order through fluctuation in situations of instability and bifurcation. All self-organizing systems are information-generating systems. Giddens' concept of storage mechanisms that allow time–space distanciation of social relationships helps to describe the relationship of information and self-organization in social systems.     

一类优先联盟内有限制的具有联盟结构的合作对策

结合具有联盟结构的合作对策和具有权限结构的合作对策,考虑了一类优先联盟内有限制的合作对策.在这类合作对策中,局中人结成一些优先联盟参与合作,而各优先联盟内部具有层级组织结构,其中某些局中人对其他人的行动具有否决权.定义了这类合作对策的一个解,该解是Owen值的推广.证明了其公理化结论,最后通过一个算例说明这类合作对策在收益分配问题中的应用.     

Evaluating the Impacts of Virtual Organization Absorption on the Quality of Urban Private Constructions; the System Dynamics Approach

Quality compliance checking of urban private constructions in Iran follows a fragmented pattern. By considering this fragmentation along with the inherent complexities of the quality compliance checking, it becomes urgent to look closer at this mechanism to find a way for making improvements. Since there is no determination to change the existing mechanism, this study discusses the use of virtual organizations as a strategy to enhance the level of quality. To this end, according to the intended approach for developing virtual organizations, this study identifies the capabilities of this type of systems in the first step. Then, this research evaluates the impacts of virtual organization absorption on the quality of urban private constructions. In this evaluation, the paper applies the system dynamics approach as the modeling tool due to its ability to address complexities and feedback structures. The resulted dynamic model needs initial values and requires functions to be able to run the simulation. In this case, the Delphi Technique is used to extract the functions and the values. After importing the resulted values and functions into the model, the focus group is used for the validation. The result of this analysis represents the positive impacts of the virtual organization absorption in the quality compliance checking mechanism. Fifty-percent improvement in the quality level of urban private constructions after a twenty-year period is one of the results, which could be considered as an indicator of virtual organization impacts.

     

基于DINs和PSO的组织行动过程选择方法

有效的行动过程是组织成功完成使命的关键.提出了使用动态影响网对行动过程问题进行建模的方法, 通过引入因果强度参数, 替代贝叶斯网络中的条件概率表, 缓解模型在知识获取方面的瓶颈问题, 给出了利用因果强度参数进行概率传播的具体计算方法; 并用粒子群优化算法对模型进行优化求解. 最后结合一个联合作战的想定, 验证了方法可行性和有效性.     

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.