Human Capital Management in Tourism SMEs from a Cyber-Systemic Approach

Systemic Practice and Action Research - This article presents an approach to the problem that small and medium-sized Mexican lodging enterprises face regarding their ability to adapt to changes in...     

A Systems Theoretical Approach to Interoperability of Information

A rapid process of hybridisation of man and technology, organisation and technology and society and technology is currently sweeping the world. This process requires a way of (scientific) thinking that takes hybrid systems as the starting point. Such an approach makes it increasingly important for hybrid systems to be interlinked, enabling them to exchange and share information through these links. This linking of (hybrid) systems to enable them to exchange and share information can also be denoted as the realisation of interoperability between (hybrid) systems. Five principles from Luhmann’s systems theory can help us understand interoperability. Interoperability enables (hybrid) systems to join random coalitions and networks. The network centric warfare concept is currently the basis for international efforts aimed at the development and application of interoperability that would enable armed forces to act effectively and efficiently. This paper demonstrates what we can learn from Luhmann’s system’s theory.     

战略决策专家系统中的一种新知识表示方法

介绍了战略决策专家系统中一种新的知识表示方法“分解－综合”知识表示法，给出了“分解－综合”表示法的应用实例，指出了“分解－综合”表示法的优点.     

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.

     

从管理科学角度谈物理-事理-人理系统方法论

简要回顾了管理科学方法的发展历史,并将其划分为两个层次三个方面,同时介绍了物理－事理－人理（ＷＳＲ）系统方法的内容、步骤、特点及应用原则。该法试图利用人的理性思维的定性、连续、多层次和阶序性及形象思维的综合、灵活和创意性,应用已有的科学知识技术手段,结合社会学、心理学和行为科学知识,充分调动人的主动性、创造性去实现人类认识世界改造世界改造社会实践活动的高效益和高效率。     

EXTENDED CASIMIR APPROACH TO CONTROLLED HAMILTONIAN SYSTEMS

In this paper,we first propose an extended Casimir method for energy-shaping.Then itis used to solve some control problems of Hamiltonian systems.To solve the H_x control problem,theenergy function of a Hamiltonian system is shaped to such a form that could be a candidate solution ofHJI inequality.Next,the energy function is shaped as a candidate of control ISS-Lyapunov function,and then the input-to-state stabilization of port-controlled Hamiltonian systems is achieved.Someeasily verifiable sufficient conditions are presented.     

A Holistic Approach for Designing Human-Centric Trust Systems

Online trust systems, albeit existing as technical implementations, aim to translate the role that trust has in the traditional world onto the virtual platforms. Establishing the inter-dependence between these systems and the human-factor is essential for reducing, but more importantly for understanding the inherent complexity of the open social platforms, and for improving the user-experience and system-performance. This work determines the systemic features of trust and introduces a novel framework of design-properties based on the principles of General Systems Theory. We determine the systemic properties which lack in the current technical solutions, and incorporate social factors into the design-guidelines of trust systems. We introduce four influence-factors and demonstrate that accounting for those factors leads to compliance with the generic system-principles. Finally, we employ case study analysis following the premises of case study research established in the social science literature. By performing semantic analysis of the state of the art on trust systems, we are able to identify two semantic clusters to which trust research belongs, and to choose in a non-random manner the representative case studies for evaluation upon our framework. To our knowledge, this is the first study applying fundamental social science principles from General Systems Theory and case-study research for the purpose of theory-building and evaluation of technical human-centric solutions.     

中小企业融资结构影响因素的实证研究

以长沙市中小企业为样本，检验影响中小企业融资结构的影响因素。通过样本数据的统计分析，发现中小企业的“强制优序融资”现象比较明显，与有关理论相符。财务管理中的“黄金法则”——资产/债务应相匹配也在中小企业融资结构中得到体现。通过与湖南省的调查数据比较和自身样本数据的回归分析，发现民间金融与经济发展水平、销售收入有显著相关性。国外的实证检验一般将企业人数作为企业规模的一项指标，对融资结构有显著性影响。而本文的检验显示人数与融资结构无关，这应是国内劳动密集型企业多所致。     

一种基于多主体仿真的制度有效性分析方法研究

分析了仿真技术在制度有效性分析方面的研究现状。介绍了复杂适应系统理论由来及特性。指出了复杂适应系统及其仿真模型在制度有效性分析方面的优势。提出了基于复杂适应系统模型的制度有效性仿真分析方法。最后展示了一个实际应用。     

矿井优化设计预处理的混合专家系统

介绍了一种用于矿井方案优化设计预处理的混合专家系统——基于神经网络与规则推理的专家系统；阐述了该混合专家系统的基本结构及实现过程，提出输出向量的模糊分类；此外，简要介绍了该系统的实际应用。     

Elaborating a Critical Realist Approach to Soft Systems Methodology

Systemic Practice and Action Research - This paper explores the implications of adopting a critical realist approach to soft systems methodology (SSM) both to address local problematic situations...     

一类典型非线性-线性系统数学模型建立方法

对于典型的Hammerstein模型,如“死区一线性”和“空回一线性”系统模型,在非线性和线性部分之间的任何信息都不知道的情况下,只根据系统输入和输出信息,利用频谱分析方法,可以识别出非线性和线性部分的全部参数,并对非线性特性进行确认性检验。本文给出了识别系统全部参数的方法和步骤,最后以例题说明。     

A GMRP Approach for Reliability Analysis of Repairable Systems

We propose here a mathematical approach for the study of repairable systems with arbitrary distributions. The idea is to define a new type of stochastic process, called a generalized Markov renewal process (GMRP). which may describe the transition behavior of the stochastic process at non-regenerative points. In the paper an analytical method for the GMRP is put forward and the formulas are then presented for reliability analysis of repairable systems which can be described by a GMRP with finite states. A signal flow graph technique for system modeling is also summarized here. Finally- an analytical model to evaluate the reliability of a m-out-of- n.G system with general repair-time distribution is developed by means of the GMRP approach.     

A Systems Thinking Approach to Investigating Complex Sugarcane Supply and Processing Systems: Integrating Rich Pictures and Bayesian Networks

Diagnosing problems in complex systems such as integrated sugarcane supply and processing systems (ISSPS) calls for a systematic approach. This is vital given the numerous stakeholders and their various (sometimes conflicting) objectives. Since ISSPS are socially constructed, most diagnostic interventions in the system should consider participatory approaches; developing a shared understanding of the issues and decision-making processes. Failure to source and simultaneously accommodate stakeholder perspectives often leads to interventions on wrong issues and subsequently, policy resistance. Given the context, a diagnostic study was undertaken at a sugarcane milling area in Swaziland to identify problems affecting the ISSPS. Interviews were conducted with relevant stakeholders and issues affecting the area were modelled as a rich picture and communicated back to the stakeholders in a report-back meeting held at the milling area. Excessive rainfall, harvest-to-crush delays, sugarcane quality, harvesting and haulage schedules, and machine breakdown were some of the issues identified to affect the milling area. It was recommended in the report-back meeting that machine breakdown be considered for further analysis hence, a Bayesian model for a shredder breakdown was developed. The Bayesian model estimated the probability of shredder breakdown to be to be 0.124. Furthermore, the months of April and May appeared more susceptible than the other months. It was recommended that further analysis of shredder breakdown be conducted, especially alongside rainfall, preventative maintenance and skills of the maintenance personnel. It was also recommended that further research be conducted towards developing strategies that could be used to ensure reliable sugarcane supply at the factory, especially during periods of extreme rainfall. A stockpile feasibility study that considers factors that contributed to the termination of the previous stockpile system could provide some direction.     

A Non-Convex Optimization Approach to Dynamic Coverage Problem of Multi-agent Systems in an Environment with Obstacles

In this paper, a cooperative region reconnaissance problem is investigated where a group of agents are required to fly across and detect events occur in an environment with static obstacles until an effective coverage is achieved. First, the region reconnaissance is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem. A coverage performance index with additional collision and obstacle avoidance constraints is given. Since the optimization index is an implicit function of state variables and cannot be used to compute gradients on state variables directly, an approximate optimization index is selected.Then, a non-convex optimization-based coverage algorithm is proposed to find the optimal reconnaissance location for each agent and guarantee no collisions trajectories among agents and obstacles.Finally, simulation experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Reconciling Effectiveness and Equity in Performance Management: A Stakeholder Synthesis Approach to Organizational Systems Design

Complex organizational systems have been studied using hard and soft epistemologies and each has contributed to understanding based on its logic of enquiry. However, both fail to engage fully with systems in their context and are increasingly recognized as such by researchers and practitioners. This paper reviews the epistemological debate and proposes that accommodation between quantitative and qualitative disciplines is both possible and appropriate. A case study of performance management systems demonstrates the synergistic benefits of integration within a mode of organizational enquiry based on stakeholder analysis and soft systems methodology. This enables the development of a stakeholder systems model of performance management that incorporates stakeholder consensus, organizational justice, and system effectiveness considerations.     

Organizational Strategy on Different Landscapes: A New Science Approach

To deal with issues of evolution and coevolution of a Complex Adaptive System in its environment, the New Science has developed the model of adaptive walks on landscapes. This model has been used to suggest guidelines for organizational strategy in its changing environment. The approach is taken a step further to examine the issues facing an organization in four kinds of environments and, from that, to begin tentatively to draw the outlines of a strategy suited to each environment.     

Normative Evaluation of Community Projects: A Multimodal Systems Approach

This paper introduces an evaluation method for community projects based on the multimodal systems approach. The method differs from the common mechanistic approach to evaluation in four ways. Firstly, it uses the long-term life (viability) of a community as the ultimate criteria of evaluation. Secondly, it is normative; that is, it focuses on the responsibility of people to their own community and for managing their own lives. Thirdly, it is dynamic; it identifies factors that threaten a community and examines their dynamic link and long-term impact on the community. Fourthly, it evaluates the adequacy of a community activity (good practice) to help ensure its long-term viability. The method is illustrated with a European Union sponsored project.