Truth and openness: an epistemology for interpretive systemology

Both an ontoepistemology for reductionist modern science (counter-ontoepistemology) and an ontology for interpretive Systemology have been outlined in the two preceding papers in this special issue ofSystems Practice. In the present article, the notion of “truth” is interpreted in terms of both the ontoepistemology of “reductionism” and the ontology of interpretive systemology. Both interpretations are discussed. Such a discussion represents the objective of this paper, that is, to outline the epistemological “face” of the ontoepistemology of interpretive systemology. In order to design that “epistemological face,” the relation between ontology and epistemology must be clarified. Such a relation is seen from the standpoint already provided by the ontology. After the discussion on the notion of truth, the general shape of a systemic-interpretive inquiring process is outlined.     

Systems Thinking and Management Epistemology

Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, its presuppositions and basis, and the general reliability of claims to knowledge. Since its birth, Social Systems Sciences (S3) has been critical of positivist epistemology in the discipline of management. The epistemological foundations of management theory have evolved with the development of three paradigms—the idea of social science, the unity of science movement, and the behavioral science revolution. Examining the epistemological foundations of maangement theory, this paper reflects on the role of positivism as a dominant ideological construct (or a grand-narrative) in management and organizational studies.     

整体与破碎

1.反对大一统系统观的本体论、认识论、方法论和价值论三方面的理由;2.针对整体系统观和破碎系统观在何种意义上可以融合,指出承认差异、容忍差异的整体系统观与破碎系统观可以融合;3.指出现代科学的标准化方式是大一统系统观的基础,对文化多样性的保存不利,认为在文化多样性方面以破碎的局域的系统观为观念基础,比以大一统的系统观要好。     

Archetypes of systems design

“Systems design” represents a worldview composed of at least three philosophical layers: ontological beliefs, epistemological assumptions, and methodological choices. An archetype is a root metaphor that crosses these layers and captures a worldview. Three archetypes thought to have good potential for communicating and triggering inquiry into the nature of the systems design worldview are described.     

水环境水平的规模－技术进步预测模型

本文将作者的理论研究成果“历史横断面数据的时间序列化”技术和耗散结构理论应用于“重金属废水治理综合分析的初步研究”这一软科学课题中, 从而得出既能反映因果关系又具有时序特征的水环境水平的规模-技术进步预测模型。并首次提出“熵输出国”的概念。     

Soft System Dynamics Methodology (SSDM): Combining Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and System Dynamics (SD)

Soft System Dynamics Methodology (SSDM), a systemic methodology product of the combination of two widely used systems-based methodologies from two different systems thinking paradigms, Systems Dynamics (SD) and Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), is presented. The paper argues that by combining some of SD and SSM stages, within the intellectual framework proposed by SSDM, a methodology developed by one of the authors¹ much can be gained in a systemic intervention to tackle complex social problematic situations. A framework for comparing the ontological, epistemological and methodological principles of SD, SSM and SSDM is proposed and the synthesizing and dialectical role of SSDM is advanced. The 10 stages of SSDM are outlined and illustrated by an application on a small Peruvian company; and a set of conclusions and points for further research are discussed.     

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Nurses in Turkish Hospitals

Electronic medical records (EMR) are generally used by nurses in hospitals. However, studies investigating views on and evaluations of EMR by nurses are limited in Turkey and in other countries around the world. In this study, nurses’ views on EMR systems were investigated in terms of “Nursing care management”, “Order entry”, “Information Management”, “Information quality”, “Service quality”, “Impact of EMR system on clinical care”. The purpose of this study was to investigate the views/perceptions on EMR used by nurses working at hospital clinics in Turkey. The research questions were: (a) What are nurses’ perceptions on EMR? (b) Were there relationships among nurses’ perceptions on EMR? (c) Were there differences among nurses’ perceptions on EMR according to hospitals in Turkey. This study is composed of field research conducted using questionnaires. To prepare the data-measuring instrument, the literature on EMR was reviewed. A Likert scale type was used in this questionnaire. The study was planned and conducted on nurses working at inpatient care units at four Turkish hospitals. At the end of this study, the questionnaire had been conducted on 517 nurses. Total response rate is 66.70 %. We found that the Information quality of EMR, impact of EMR system on clinical care and service quality were high level. Information quality has the highest mean score. EMR system is an important system for nurses’ hospital has the highest mean score in this study. Nurses feel about impact of EMR system on clinical care that generally ‘EMR system’s usefulness’, ‘improving quality of information due to EMR system’, ‘improving quality of nurses’ work’, ‘improving quality of information due to EMR system’. All of the six subscales of EMR were positively correlated with each other. This study revealed that there are significant differences among the mean scores for six subscales according to the ownership of hospitals. EMR systems were not well integrated into their workflow. In addition, half of all respondents had not been trained in using EMR systems. This study will added to evaluation views and assessments of nurses about EMR literature. The results will assist in determining “Information quality”, “Service quality”, of EMR, and “Impact of EMR system on clinical for nurses in Turkish health system”. This survey suggests that nurses favor the use of an EMR and suggests opportunities for EMR enhancement.     

Systems thinking in corporate development strategy: The case of Armco Latin American Division

In this paper we examine the role of top management in relation to the diversified operations of a company and the meaning of “strategic planning” for these entities. We briefly examine two general approaches to generation of growth: conglomeration (portfolio management) and synergistic growth. We argue that the second is preferable. We then challenge the universally popluar notion that growth is the appropriate objective for a business entity. We propose the concept of “development” as a better alternative. We offer the case of Armco's Latin American Division (known as ALAD) as an illustration of the kind of thinking that emerges when development is taken as the corporate objective. We present a five-phase strategy that combines the notions of synergistic growth and corporate development in a systemic framework.     

管理科学研究范式的转换——以复杂性科学为研究视角

管理科学理论和实践的发展需要新范式,复杂性科学的引入则为这种新范式的产生与传统的管理科学范式的转换提供了一个思想框架。基于此,以库恩的科学范式思想为基本脉络,在范式转换的层面上对每一时期管理思想发展过程进行剖析,以探讨管理科学发展与变迁的历史逻辑,并着重分析了复杂性科学范式成为管理科学新范式的四个方面原因。     

Towards an Holistic Framework for Environmental Change: The Role of Normative Behaviour and Informal Networking to Enhance Sustainable Business Practices

The term ‘Sustainable Development’ is brandished by modern businesses as a marketing ploy used to suggest evidence of ethical conduct, innovative thinking and moral superiority. However, when analysing an organisations’ adoption of sustainable practices, it is often clear—within the UK—that there are few activities that have been undertaken as an ethical stance instead of legal obligation (McCormick in Environmental politics and policy in industrialized countries, MIT, London, 2002). Our hypothesis is that most methodologies and practices for environmental management do not adopt a holistic perspective, causing significant problems in implementation from inadequate structures and communication channels (Espinosa et al. in Eur J Oper Res, 187:636–651, 2008). In particular we consider that most organisations are currently stifled with management hierarchies that prevent informal/social networking, which may be one of the most powerful natural forms for self-organisation. It is proposed that sustainable development requires more efficient communication channels that foster self-organisation and self-regulation as a method for more productive change processes. In this paper, we explain the reasons why meta-systemic principles of self-organisation and distributed network management offer clear criteria to design an environmental management system that operates on the basis of self-controlled individuals and communities.     

数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的机理——基于探索性多案例扎根分析

现有研究多集中于从“供给侧”剖析数据赋能通过技术支撑对制造业服务转型的影响,但赋能后的企业能否获得施展机会则依赖于同被赋能的其他主体为焦点企业塑造的市场环境;同时,数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的多样性实践则表明,数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化还依赖于相关因素对数据赋能与制造企业服务化两者关系的影响。面向不同情境下数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的差异化实践,纳入数据赋能通过市场需求影响制造企业服务化的驱动途径,以动态能力与市场环境两者适应性匹配为核心动力,分别借助内在机制捕捉数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的不变性和外在机制捕捉相关因素塑造数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的差异性,构建内在、外在机制交互影响制造企业服务化的理论框架。运用质性研究的扎根理论方法,选取3家制造企业进行案例研究,探讨了数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的机理。研究发现：内在机制“数据赋能-动态能力与市场环境适应性匹配-服务化”刻画了数据赋能与制造企业服务化两者关系的不变性;外在机制“企业家精神-数智型服务化战略导向-服务试错-动态能力与市场环境适应性匹配-服务化”则捕捉了数据赋能与制造企业服务化两者关系的情境依赖性;借助于典范模型所涉及到的范畴,服务资源重组、数智型服务化战略导向、服务试错是数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的关键环节。本研究扩展了数据赋能同时通过企业动态能力与市场环境两条途径影响两者匹配驱动制造企业服务化转型的作用机理,利用内在机制/外在机制协调了数据赋能驱动制造企业服务化的关系不变性与实践多样性之间的张力,为制造企业服务化提供了管理框架和理论工具。     

The commune's practical wisdom

Although the basic assumptions of scientific management are detrimental to the public policy of the community, they still govern its theorization and implementation. The main reason we continue to conduct our communal policy thinking in terms of scientific management is that we still lack relevant, practical alternative theories, models, and languages, which might serve to ground our thought and behavior. The present paper discusses the implications of the concept of “emancipatory interest” for the public policy of the community. The “practical wisdom” model is proposed to bridge the gap between the theory of emancipation and its praxis. Its usefulness is demonstrated in the context of an intervention study on the crisis within, and transformation of the kibbutz commune.     

Methodological foundations of systems methodologies

In social systems science generally, and in management science particularly, recent developments in the variety of types of specific problem-solving methodologies (under the rubric of hard and soft systems approaches) have given an impetus to a line of inquiry, as well as debate on the nature of those methodologies. On the one hand, there has been the view that what we are witnessing is a form of Kuhnian crisis. On the other hand, a complementarist view of developments has been argued and a contingency approach proposed. But one thing has been common among the competing views: a belief that the prospects for further advances in the design and application of those methodologies, and in resolving the current controversies, lie in serious attempts to reconsider and clarify the underlying metatheoretical assumptions and concerns. This paper is an attempt to contribute to such an endeavor. A brief exposition of three methodological foundations (namely, empiricism, hermeneutics, and critique) is made, not only with the purpose of highlighting the nature as well as the limits of their epistemological and ethical claims, but also as a basis for illuminating both the nature of contemporary work on systems inquiry, design, and problem solving and the ongoing debate on what constitutes appropriate criteria for choice of specific methodologies.     

Digital songs: Aspects of contemporary work and life

Despite apparent differences, industrial and digital worlds rely, it is claimed, on the same epistemological foundation epitomized by the deductive-analytical and projective character of representation. A comparison of the very mode by means of which language and cognition have been re-represented in software with the logic that underlies the motion patterns of the industrial machine helps to lay open the hidden epistemological affinities of these otherwise different instrumental devices. Within this overall framework an attempt is made to reconfigure the novelty of the digital machine and to assess some consequences of the ongoing electronic textualization of contemporary contexts of work.     

Ethical skill development as an imperative for emancipatory practice

Total Systems Intervention (TSI) as a form of Critical Systems Thinking has been subject to criticism concerning the actual application of its emancipatory commitment. The emancipatory potentials of TSI or other systems-oriented change efforts may possibly be improved through their linkage to employee ethical skill development. Acknowledging a “strategic twist” in consulting efforts to encourage greater emancipatory practice and a more communicative ethic, an agenda for consultants is suggested to provide incremental emancipatory potentials for organizations with many apparently coercive characteristics.     

Mutual causality in developing countries

Deviation-amplifying mutual causal systems provide a framework for the analysis of a number of problems that characterize developing countries. This paper presents several examples of such cause-effect loops and shows that the difficulty with developing countries is a “vicious circle of vicious circles” or a “system of deviation-amplifying mutual causal systems.”     

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.

     

Discordant pluralism: A new strategy for critical systems thinking

Systems science is characterised by a huge diversity of theories and practical applications which have arisen since its inception. Each of these theories and ways of practising systems science has legitimate claims for its ability to handle certain kinds of systems problems. Dealing with this diversity can be seen as a critical issue for systems thinking and practice. One approach to handling this rich diversity has been to attempt to capture it in frameworks which align features and positions in a “complementarist” fashion. By reviewing work undertaken by systems thinkers who have advocated such a stance, it will be demonstrated that complementarism has its faults, and can be perceived as an imperialist strategy. A route out of the impasse will be suggested through the use of a form of discordant pluralism, which, if taken up, has the potential for bringing together conflicting perspectives in a new constellation.     

从无序到有序——非线性是系统结构有序化的动力之源

科学史告诉我们,19世纪末物理学上空飘浮着两朵乌云,这就是否定以太存在的迈克尔逊一莫雷实验和热辐射理论中的紫外灾难。这两朵乌云导致了20世纪上半叶两次伟大的科学革命一相对论和量子力学的诞生。实际上,当时物理学上空还飘浮着第三朵乌云,它隐含着更严重的问题,那就是从热力学第二定律推出的“热寂说”——宇宙自发地走向无序,最后归于死寂。本文从“序”的概念出发,分析了有序与对称性破缺的关系以及有序与无序的辩证统一,强调指出非线性是系统结构有序化的动力之源,是宇宙演化发展的终极原因。     

An Analytical Framework of Social Learning Facilitated by Participatory Methods

Social learning among different stakeholders is often a goal in problem solving contexts such as environmental management. Participatory methods (e.g., group model-building and role playing games) are frequently assumed to stimulate social learning. Yet understanding if and why this assumption is justified is quite limited. Difficulties arise from the complexity and context-dependence of processes influencing social learning. Furthermore, continuing discussion of the exact meaning and theoretical basis of social learning result in a limited capacity to assess and evaluate whether social learning has occurred. In this paper we introduce an analytical framework to develop an in depth understanding of essential processes underlying social learning facilitated by participatory methods. Concepts from different fields of science are discussed and integrated, including resource management, small group research and learning research. The individual and group perspectives are brought together via mental models and emergent roles. We added the direction of learning, being either convergent or divergent, to be able to explore if and when personal views on a problem converge into a shared understanding of a problem. The analysis of convergence and divergence of learning is facilitated through the use of the mental model concept. Methods for measurement of proposed indicators for social learning are also discussed. The framework developed provides a conceptual basis for the analysis of social learning facilitated by participatory methods and an operationalization for application in empirical research.