Systems Thinking and Systems Practice: Working in the Fifth Dimension

This paper describes how a messy organizational problem was tackled using a systems approach which led to a resolution of the problem and to an improvement in the working relationships of the people involved. The example also shows how people who are not familiar with systems thinking, as such, can quickly be helped to develop a shared systemic view of a complex situation using activity modeling. At a deeper level, the paper also shows how the underlying dynamics of the problem situation was altered as a result of using a cooperative, dialogical working method, leading to an improvement in the quality of service provided by that part of the organization. The paper uses Peter Senge's five disciplines of a learning organization, together with various systems concepts, as a framework for describing how the process of change was brought about through the simultaneous management of task and social processes, leading to both individual and organizational learning.     

System or Process? A Meta-theoretical Reflection on the Nature of the Firm

The paper revisits the fundamental question of the nature of the firm by contrasting two philosophic worldviews suggested by process philosophy and the Luhmannian systems theory. Whereas the former worldview takes reality to be internally related, the latter ones underscores the tendency of social systems, such as firms, to disregard much of this interrelatedness. The productive tension between these worldviews suggests that the firm provides a context where systemic imperatives meet the rich concrete reality of human life. The role of the firm is to house those aspects of this reality that are too organic to be accommodated by the abstract “language of prices” corresponding, in institutional economics terms, to the reliance on market governance. The major examples of these aspects explored in the paper are dynamic capabilities and business ethics, both of which hold the potential to improve the firm’s sustainability, both economic and social. The proposed contrast between the process-philosophic and systems-theoretic worldviews thus illuminates not only the nature of the firm but also the managerial relevance of corporate sustainability instruments.

     

From Action Research to System in Environments: A Method

This paper describes a breakthrough method for obtaining a quantitative picture of an organization in its environments from qualitative Search Conference data. As such it validates the concept of a system in transaction with its environments, the relevant uncertainty of the current extended social environment with its mixture of ideal seeking and maladaption, and many other OST(E) constructs. The organization is a region of the USDA–Forest Service which used a series of 13 Searches to plan the future of the region. The overall picture produced demonstrates how the method extends the joint purposes of social science to generate further hypotheses about changing systems in today's global social field. It also shows that three beliefs in the social science literature can be dispelled; (1) it is difficult to measure complex phenomena, (2) qualitative and quantitative data are incommensurate, and (3) only a small number of variables can be handled simultaneously.     

Leadership by Activity Theory and Professional Development by Social Construction

Culture and human development come together as one. Contradictions and challenges abound in the transformation of social practices of leadership and management. Globalization, organizational, and professional development bring local realities together. Research must embrace characteristic discourses in order to constitute a modified perspective to current approaches. Research must direct attention to the predominant conceptions of leaders, contexts, and relations. Leaders are discoursed objects capable of individual action, acting rationally in order to structure their contexts. Their ability to relate to others is an individual act and a source to progress. Good discourses displace attitudes, personal properties, and individual acts and highlight relations. One shift of attention goes from transcendental notions of truth, right, and suitability to local–historical constructions of reality. Another shift goes from reality as a singular and independent state to multiple socially constructed realities. In the processes of social construction people create individual worlds where unique relations emerge. Coordinated training and research enable different modes of relating to each other in systemic practice.     

On Insiders (Emic) and Outsiders (Etic): Views of Self,and Othering

“Insiders” and “outsiders” to social issues is a concept that is an integral part of Participatory Action Research, which emphasizes the partnering and working together with people who are closest to the problem by dint of personal experience and identity, in order to address complex social problems. The writer believes that working with “insiders” in regard to social issues is a powerful concept but not as simple as it might at first seem to be. This paper explores the problems associated with accepting the concept wholeheartedly by using a real-life example of a community issue to explore it.     

当前马克思主义意识形态面临挑战的系统应对

当前马克思主义意识形态面临着心理认同、经济转型、全球化推进等多种挑战,为此,必须牢固坚持马克思主义以人民利益为基础促进人的全面发展的根本宗旨：以马克思主义中国化的深入推进增强其说服力,彰显理论体系的真理性;以马克思主义大众化增强其吸引力,实现理论体系的亲和性;以民生、公平、正义之匡扶增强其感召力,体现理论体系的现实性;以社会动态和谐不断改善增强其适应力,拓展理论体系的开放性。     

Action research and critical systems thinking: Two icons carved out of the same log?

My intention in this paper is to make sense of the relationship between Action Research (AR) and Critical Systems Thinking (CST). On the surface, the two strands of thinking do not seem to have much in common. There is hardly any common reference in texts written within each tradition. Deeper down, however, there may be common concerns. The point of departure is to focus on how professionals interact with real-world problems and to clarify the underlying values for professional practice. To facilitate a discussion on the relationship between AR and CST, a frame of reference is developed based on analyzing the meaning construction process. Based on this platform, the relationship among theory, practice, and people shapes the ground for the discussion. Within this discussion three questions are raised: (1) Is the theory understood by the people and based on their interests? (2) Are the research questions relevant for the people? and (3) Are people emancipated to act in their own interests? The relationship between AR and CST can be examined based on these three questions. In concluding, I argue for the potential of a mutual and fruitful dialogue between AR and CST.     

The Continuous Improvement Grid: An Empirical Investigation into the Effectiveness of a Systems,and Action Research,Based Continuous Improvement Intervention,for ‘New’ Organisation Development

This paper is a rare example of a large scale (n = 1310), positivist, evaluation of an action research program. It documents how the Royal Navy used the principles of scholarly consulting and pragmatic science to develop, apply and review a systems based tool, and associated ‘new organisation development’ intervention, to help staff explore and share perceptions of working practices, in order to expand their awareness of their current work situation and so uncover opportunities for improvement. Survey results suggest that the majority of individuals found the interventions valuable and participants in the events enjoyed significantly higher levels of understanding of the organisation, and greater collective, and individual, benefit from it. Findings also provide empirical evidence of the importance of involvement to making successful change, especially when dealing with the change averse. Overall the experience, of which the action research based study and associated positivist survey were part, reinforce the importance of what is described as ‘normative realigning pedagogy’—helping people change by facilitating their generation of new forms of understanding.     

How Lemmings on Wheels Can Make a U-Turn Through Social Inclusion and Democracy

The challenge is (a) to balance both centralised control to preserve the global commons and (b) to involve people in policy making so that they feel culturally engaged and committed to the policy. Dictatorships and forms of World government from above to support the global commons are no more of an answer than forms of liberal democracy that do not engage people in between national elections. Passive voting does not help people in diverse democracies to engage in thinking through ‘if then scenarios’ about their social, economic and environmental future.     

The Organizational View of Public Participation: A Narrative Analysis

The following research paper presents results of an ethnographic investigation focused on the participatory process of a public project for urban environmental rehabilitation. This public intervention, called Iguaçu Project, is being carried out in the Baixada Fluminense, in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region (RJMR). Drawing upon the literature on social learning from both organizational and environmental management studies, the research investigates when and why social learning occurs within a participatory arena. The paper presents an analysis of stories told by nine key informants, selected as representatives of the main social categories involved in the project. The different meanings the narrators attributed to participation, environment, knowledge and learning in their stories, are analysed through abductive reasoning, i.e. through a continuous reference to the literature and confrontation with former narrative analysis in business organizations. The findings show an interpretative framework based on development of multiple-loop learning theory, defined as contextual loops. Furthermore, it identifies five explanatory propositions to answer the research questions. The occurrence of social learning in participatory arenas seems to depend upon five organizationally related factors: a systematized organizational structure; the participants’ commitments and the pluralism of the participatory arena; the process proponents’ reliability, the supporting role of a facilitator.     

Migration, Ethnicity and Privilege

Representation assumes that those who govern have knowledge of those for whom they govern. It is easy to presume knowledge of the “other”, but as we know this can be based in prejudice, cultural difference, or simply misinformation or simplification. Usually our explorations of this process have focused on populations identified as disadvantaged, disempowered or somehow “non-privileged”. However, the research process outlined here has revealed previously unexplored diversity within a population commonly described as privileged suggesting that good governance requires alertness to presuming to know both the unprivileged and the privileged. The research approach outlined in this paper has used a blend of historical reappraisal and qualitative techniques focusing on a population who have been conceptualized as doubly privileged. This population focus is that of older British; post World War II male migrants in South Australia. These people have been conceptualized as privileged because they are male, and they were part of the preferred ethnic group that Australian politicians and policy makers favoured post WW2. However, review of the historical data and qualitative interviews with some of these men show that the accepted narrative of a homogenous pre-WW2 British origin population is over simplistic. The historical research suggests that the presumption that post WW2 British migrant men were coming into an homogenous, privileging environment in migrating to SA is both ahistorical and crude. Furthermore the belief that post WW2 British migrant men were ethnically homogenous is undermined by the qualitative research, that reveals that their presumed homogeneity is much more fluid and nuanced than dominant conceptualisations have allowed. The impact of core ethnicities that continue to exist and compete in Britain, the social class focus and economic commodification of migrants in the machinations of powerful players in the state of South Australia all confound homogenizing, simplistic knowing of British migrant men in this state. Generically these findings caution social researchers with regard to presuming to know so called “privileged” populations as well as presumed non-privileged groups.     

综合评价问题的系统分析

运用模糊数学的思想方法 ,对含软指标的综合评价问题 ,由原始评价信息的提取与处理 ,到综合评价结果及其分析的全过程 ,进行了系统分析 .首次提出集化函数的集化准则及其抗干扰功能和丰富综合评价结果的基本途径 .还提出对参评样品集整体质量状态及对评价人集的评价水平与异常性的定量评价方法 .从而为评价组织者提供了选用评价方法的依据 ,也为评价组织者全面正确认识、分析、运用所得评价结果 ,以及在宏观上提出导向性意见 ,提供了丰富的定量信息 .     

The Engagement Approach to Real-World Problem Solving: Toward a Coherent Soft-Systems-Based Theoretical Platform for Real-World Problem Solving

This paper presents an approach to understanding problem solving and innovation from the perspective of engagement. The approach is derived primarily from two research projects undertaken over the last 5 years. The first one into the apparent Comparison Parado in Soft Systems Methodology, and the second an 18-month research program into the social reality implied by Soft Systems Methodology. Engagement is argued to be the innovation of a framework of ideas within a social context. In this sense engagement is an extension of the nature in which humans take ideas and place them inside a social context and use this as a platform to make sense of their environment and take action in such surroundings with an eye to understanding, learning, meaning, adaptation, innovation, and interpretation of such situations. Therefore, this paper presents a conjectured model of Engagement that is argued to be useful in helping to manage social complexity and real-world problem-solving activity. The paper positions engagement as a purely theoretical approach with multidisciplinary applications for whoever would like to use it.     

Towards a methodology for organisational intervention in Colombian enterprises

The lack of autonomy of people in the working place is the basic problem addressed by the methodology for organisational intervention that has been developed by the group TESO at the University of Los Andes in Bogota. This lack of autonomy accounts for their lack of creativity, motivation, and political consciousness. We take Freire's conception of consciousness as related to social formations, and how autonomy is achieved by working with his methodology. We also use Heidegger's concepts of calculative and meditative thinking and relate them to the development of consciousness. Finally we show how through a methodology that facilitates contact of persons with the self, the workspace, and others, they develop autonomy and an ability to define conflicts and work out ways to stransform their world.     

Social Media as a Mean for Improved Technical Communication

Technical communication (TC) is an important activity in order to provide the users of technical artifacts with necessary information concerning the operation and maintenance of the products they are using. In the current working procedures of TC, however, the users become too passive. They are just receivers of information. Further, there is no effective feedback from the users to the producers of the information. In order to overcome those problems we here propose an application of social media (SM) in future TC. By using SM as a complementary channel for TC it becomes possible for technology firms to boost their competitive advantage and to improve the quality and completeness of their TC. This technique, however, is still more of a potential and less of a reality. Several problems, mostly concerning security and confidentiality remain to be solved. The empirical base for this work comes from TIC, an EU-funded development project involving several Swedish technology companies. Published research results are somewhat scattered but several sources coherently indicate both the need and potential for SM as a vehicle in TC. By scanning the net it is further possible to identify a number of seemingly successful applications of SM in such applications.     

Feminist Systems Theory: Learning by Praxis

Feminist Systems Theory (FST) is an emerging theory grounded in cultural ecofeminism and critical systems theory. FST’s contribution is in a set of principles that contain implications for community development and social research. FST brings to the fore the importance of valuing and considering the voices of people at the margins of social research and community development projects and is an effort towards a new ontology and language of person and nature to adequately address environmental marginalization. The ‘systems’ theory contribution to FST enriches our repertoires of methods and tools with an emphasis on systems thinking characterised by the use of boundary analysis. FST is ideally situated to enhance systemic intervention practice, an application of action research and participatory research practices. This paper will examine ‘process philosophy’ necessary to understand the nature of boundary analysis and the implications for FST and praxis with relevant examples drawn from case studies of current applications of FST in action research settings; (1) economic analysis and transition pathways; (2) policy analysis of the Close the Gap strategy for Indigenous equality and equity in Australia; (3) a community food distribution system; and, (4) a community health and diabetes prevention program.     

A Critical Systems Approach to Elicit User-Centric Business Intelligence Business Requirements

This paper describes an action research study where the researcher developed and tested an alternative business requirements elicitation approach that enables reflection on business intelligence business requirements from a social/organisational perspective and, accordingly, surfaces user-centric requirements that support development of systems that are technically good and effectuate organisational improvement. It is based on critical systems heuristics, a framework that facilitates participative discourse to surface contributing and consequential factors of a planned social system, i.e. relevant sources of motivation; expertise; inflicting and controlling boundaries; and sources of moral and political justification acting as guardians for all that will be impacted upon by the adjusted social reality caused by the new system. Such an approach is valuable to developers of business intelligence systems; it complements traditional requirements gathering approaches. Present-day organisations require efficacious decision-making capabilities to succeed—business intelligence systems enable efficacious decisions. However, business intelligence systems often fail, at great expenses to organisations. They fail due to social/organisational infeasibility, rather than technical insufficiency; they fail when developers lack adequate understanding of users’ business requirements. Appropriate business requirement specifications entail more than definitions of functional, non-functional and technical attributes of new systems. Business requirements must also capture the social/organisational context of a system, i.e. the impact that it will inevitably have on users and the organisational environment, so as to ensure that it ultimately bring about improvement. The approach developed in this study enables elicitation of user-centric business requirements.

     

复杂网络与社会网络研究范式的比较

从研究范式方面对复杂网络与社会网络研究进行比较.认为发生学视角的时间维度的分析与知识论域视觉的空间维度的分析相结合,可以提供历史与全面地认识事物的可能.首先分别从发生学及知识论域体系的视角,在比较中发现了复杂网络与社会网络研究范式的特点,然后以广州软件产业CEO社会网络与竞争关系复杂网络的研究为例,对这些特点做了具体的说明,最后进一步通过该产业的企业衍生社会网络与竞争关系复杂网络的联系,得出社会网络是产业竞争关系复杂网络的基础的结论.     

一种基于数字地球的运动模型与地形匹配方法

三维模型与地形的匹配问题涉及到模型控制矩阵与模型与地形接触点高程值的计算。其中接触点高程值的计算问题与地形渲染采取的数据组织和绘制算法密切相关,采用规则网格构建地形的数字高程模型,在此基础上提出了弱网格实现数据结构的地形匹配算法。首先为三维模型在三维GIS视景中建立了数学控制匹配模型,然后基于规则网格像素坐标系计算模型与地形接触点的高程值。方法不考虑规则网格的具体绘制实现技术,在采用规则网格的地形下具有较强的适用性。     

基于公平偏好和长期绩效的委托代理问题研究

委托代理问题是经济学研究的重要议题,传统研究中往往假设代理人只有短期盈利一个任务目标,且认为委托人和代理人都是完全理性的,与真实情况不符.本文考虑到我国化工企业的特殊性,在经营责任目标与社会责任目标的背景下,提出代理人还具有环境污染控制任务,建立了代理人多任务下的委托代理模型;然后从考虑企业长期绩效的角度对模型予以了改进;最后将公平偏好理论引入到模型中,使其更具现实意义.研究表明:委托人对代理人的最优分享系数与各个任务之间的相关系数联系密切,并且会随着代理人的嫉妒偏好强度及同情偏好强度的增大而呈现先增大后减小的趋势.本文的研究可以为解决现实中化工企业的委托代理问题提供决策依据和参考借鉴.