Systemic Thinking in China: A Meta-Decision-Making Bridge to Western Concepts

We use a meta-decision-making approach to show that parallels can be drawn between an Oriental systems methodology, wuli, shili, renli (WSR), and the adjusting, convincing, and committing dimensions in nomology, a generic metamodel that is based in decision science. We then use the match between them to propose a metalinguistic bridge between China and the West that could aid in the communication and sharing of systems experiences. We use the bridge to consider some of the interpretations of Chinese systems experiences in terms of Western models in a special issue of Systemic Practice and Action Research (Vol. 13, No. 1, 2000) on systemic thinking in China. We show how WSR could help to relate these interpretations in terms of Chinese concepts. We explore proposals in a paper in the special issue by Midgley et al. (2000) about how to operationalize human relations in Chinese systems practice. We show that these correspond to a suggestion that developing commitment within a systems project should be done in a convincing manner. Hence, in WSR terms, we would say that their advice could be interpreted as meaning that shili should be used to operationalize renli. Finally, we propose as a research agenda that the bridge be used to explore how Chinese insights could help to illuminate Western systems experience.     

Community Work Research through Co-Operative Inquiry in Timor-Leste,Australia and Peru: Insights into Process

Co-operative inquiry is an under-explored method in community-based research. Its democratic approach involves a group of “co-researchers” collaboratively inquiring into a mutually-agreed research topic through systematic cycles of reflection and action. This article shares the process, outcomes, and methodological reflections of three co-operative inquiries that were conducted as part of an international study regarding love in community work. Groups of up to 10 community workers in rural villages in Timor-Leste, Australia, and Peru engaged in co-operative inquiry to collaboratively develop new knowledge to inform practice. The article analyses data regarding co-inquirer experiences of the methodology, and identifies the strengths and challenges of the co-operative inquiry method to support the collective generation of new knowledge. The article concludes that co-operative inquiry involves shared power, participation, action, and contextual reflexivity, and is a useful method for community workers to collaboratively develop innovative approaches to community work practice through cycles of reflection and action.     

Systemic Thinking and Practice Toward Facilitating Inclusive Education: Reflections on a Case of Co-Generated Knowledge and Action in South Africa

This article offers our reflections around a case of facilitating systemic thinking and practice in which the first author of the article (Tlale) interacted with research participants/participant researchers with the intention of strengthening systemic thought and action toward fostering inclusive education in the setting (a rural school in the Eastern Cape in South Africa). We reflect upon the process and also how our engagement was perceived by participants, as expressed in feedback received from them. We point to how Tlale introduced the idea of systemic thinking (to teachers, school management team, school governing body, and a district officer for the district) as tied to the possibility of acting to generate transformation toward a more inclusive educational context for the benefit of the learners at the school in question, thus acting as a systemic mediator on their behalf.     

A Systemic View of Change Management and Its Conceptual Underpinnings

This paper presents a critical analysis of a systemic view of change management and its conceptual underpinnings. It reflects upon the systemic view from perspectives of modernism and postmodernism. The understandings so developed are then synthesised in terms of structuration theory. It is argued that organisational change is characterised by diversity and interactions, which necessitates a systemic approach using multiple methods in one intervention. By making transparent the conceptual underpinnings, it is shown that this systemic view can help build an improved understanding of organisational change characterised by diversity and interactions, and it can support the use of multiple methods to manage organisational change in one intervention.     

Collaborative Inquiry as a Critical Systemic Approach to Improving Ethics and Governance in the Philippine National Police

Improving ethics and governance in policing is often considered an institutional function that police agencies do as ??expert?? institutions. Participation by other stakeholders may be welcome so long as police are able to control the processes and mechanisms of participation. This paper, based on research done with the Philippine National Police, argues that collaborative inquiry could be an effective critical systemic approach to participation by the wider society in police reform. This could enable both police and non-police stakeholders to work together towards mutual understanding and cooperation as equals towards better policing. This participatory approach is not meant to replace the institutional mechanisms that the police use for their own reform effort, but it is supposed to complement them. The research on which this paper is based was an attempt to design a model for collaborative inquiry at the local municipal level of policing in the Philippines, since the municipality is the lowest operational level for the Philippines?? police service. The results of that study suggest that it is possible to establish such a mechanism and make it work, in effect establishing a Close Knit Knowledge Organisation at the lowest level of operational policing.     

从我国古代系统思想看现代可持续发展观

我国古代先哲们提出的朴素系统思想 ,与现代系统论有许多相似之处。可持续发展观是基于现代系统论解决环境问题而提出来的 ,二者的契合点就是系统的整体观、协同观     

Systemic Indicators for Rural Communities in Developing Economies: Bringing the Shared Vision into Being

Community indicators have been a frequent focus of the scholarly literature. There has been little exploration, however, in relation to rural communities, especially in developing countries. This reflects the special challenges associated with the complexity of rural systems, and the difficulties involved in developing appropriate and systemic indicators for rural communities. Identifying indicators that help the community to monitor progress towards sustainable outcomes requires a framework that is both practical and holistic. This paper introduces a participatory systemic framework for identifying community indicators, which respects the principles of complexity and honours the sense of ownership present in the communities. This framework is an iterative, sharing, co-learning engagement process that extends from creating a shared vision and extracting its core messages, to identifying indicators of progress and determining what actions to try. Importantly, this framework enables us to rank the indicators identified by communities with reference to ‘leverage points’, the best places to intervene in the social-environmental system for transformational change. This framework provides a potential pathway for sustainable rural development and perhaps also for organisations and urban communities.     

A Systemic Development of the Interrogative Pronouns and Adverbs

This paper is about the questions used to design two large-scale organizational systems. It is thought that for these questions to be asked in a systematic manner they need to be drawn from some explicit framework. The most common framework for creating questions in the English language is the interrogative pronouns and adverts, more commonly known as Kipling’s six honest serving men. This paper re-visits these pronouns and adverbs drawing on a range of literatures to establish them into a coherent framework for designing and implementing the two large-scale projects. The paper is structured using the nodes in Checkland’s LUMAS model. It concludes with a systematically developed Interrogative Pronouns and Adverbs Framework that is worthy of further research and application.     

整体系统思维视角下社区物业管理人员素质结构的初步探讨

在整体性思维的视角下,采用文献分析和访谈法研究的方法,探讨社区物业服务企业管理人员的应有的职业素质结构。根据管理科学方法分析研究结果表明,社区物业管理服务企业管理人员的职业素质结构主要包括专业知识、专业品质和运营管理能力三个方面。这个职业素质结构反映了物业管理企业对于管理人员的具体要求,对物业管理人员的选拔和培训、建立和谐社会具有重要的参考价值。     

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.

     

银行系统性风险研究综述

银行系统性风险的破坏力巨大,严重威胁着国家经济发展和社会安全稳定,受到了学者、投资者和监管部门的高度关注。本文从系统科学的视角,介绍了银行系统性风险的内涵和特征,并对银行系统性风险相关文献进行系统梳理和回顾。银行系统性风险未来可能的研究方向是信息交互行为对银行挤兑的影响、银行系统结构对系统性风险的影响研究、银行系统性风险的实证研究。     

A Multiple Intelligence Man-Machine System for Production Management through Hierarchical Cooperation in Mining District

1IntroductionThekeylinksintheproductioninminingdistrictarecoalmininganddrivillg,whichareaffectedbynaturalconditions(suchasgeologicalcondition,occurrenceofcoalseam),technologicalconditions(suchasequipmentsformining),rawmaterialsprovided,marketsforcoal,man-madeandsocialfactors.Thekeysintheproductionmanagementarecompilingproductionplanandoperatingschedule.Becausetherearethedynamicandthestochasticbehaviourintheproductionresultingfi.omthevaritiesofthenatualconditionsandtheexternalsllrroundingsthata…     

A Systemic Approach to Addressing the Complexity of Energy Problems

This paper presents a conceptual framework for using energy as a vehicle for holistic development to address: poverty, gender discrimination, community involvement in decision making on social, economic, and environmental issues. The approach is systemic and participatory ironically, energy is always seen or considered in fragmentation from other areas and as a technical subject, without considering it in less literal and more metaphorical terms as an end and means of communication. Energy should be seen holistically. Holism is based on a profound understanding of the interconnectedness of the various parts and their relationship to the whole. The point made in this paper is that, by adding energy to the development plan, we solve nothing unless we also consider community mobilization, participatory approaches, and the role of gender in development. Pradhan's research in Nepal has demonstrated that if one thinks of energy only in technical terms and development projects strive to provide more electricity, the interventions can paradoxically just add more drudgery to the lives of women, unless policies consider energy within the context of the whole social, political, economic, and environmental system. Energy provision is more than merely a technical intervention. Participation uses human energy and the creative energy of human beings in a different way. The heart of participatory development is co-creating (in the sense used by Reason, 1988, 2002) understanding based on communication that is generative in the sense used by Paulo Freire. Generative understanding provides a different kind of energy, based on resonance. So this is a play on words when we place energy in a technical sense and energy in a human sense at the center of development. Also, physicists would argue that energy needs to be considered far wore widely as a basis for communication and life. Some also argue that energy is the basis of all organic and inorganic matter in the universe; it is the communication across subatomic matter.     

Critical Systemic Praxis for Social and Environmental Justice: A Case Study of Management,Governance, and Policy

Internationally, globalization has been paradoxically translated into colonization, economic rationalist development, nationalism, and closure born of a fear of the implications of globalization and global markets for the least powerful countries, regions, and interest groups. Social problems in terms of the economic rationalist approach are increasingly individualized and citizenship models emphasize the responsibility of individuals and families. Many current human service and social policy models in Australia (as elsewhere) are nonsystemic (psychological, medical, education, crime prevention, and economic). The paper reflects on an experience of undertaking a study of the life chances of citizens in a remote region of Australia. This is a paper about doing systemic thinking and practice in Alice Springs (Mpwartwe, or caterpillar dreaming) as a social policy researcher attempting to use and advocating a participatory action research approach to social policy development based on a multisite, multimethod research design of perceived, expressed, and normative needs.     

系统可靠性指标的灰色评估分配法

可靠性分配是把系统要求的可靠性指标分配给分系统、部件、元件的过程。可靠性分配本质上是一个工程问题, 需要考虑的因素都是一些不定因素(尤其是在系统的设计早期阶段), 很难用确切的数学语言来描述。即在系统的可靠性方面, 我们所获得的各分系统、各部件的有关信息是不完全、不甚确切的。也就是说, 这些信息是“灰色”的。本文首先运用灰色系统理论对各分系统进行综合评估, 然后在此基础上进行可靠性分配。我们把这种方法称为系统可靠性指标的灰色评估分配法。该方法可以把许估者的分散信息归纳成确切的评估值, 较好地解决了在研制的早期阶段, 由于对系统的认识不足而带来的问题。     

高管支持对信息安全绩效的影响——探讨制度化过程的中介效应

基于高阶理论和新制度理论探讨了高管支持、制度化过程（包括识别、履行和内化3个维度）与信息安全绩效之间的关系。以国内通过信息安全管理体系认证（ISO/IEC 27001）的148家企业为调研对象开展问卷调查，采用Smart PLS 3.0和SPSS 22.0的Process插件进行统计分析和中介效应检验。结果表明，高管支持对信息安全绩效以及制度化过程的识别、履行和内化有显著正向影响；识别和履行对信息安全绩效有显著正向影响，并且在高管支持与信息安全绩效关系中起多重中介效应。研究结论对企业如何借助高管支持来推动信息安全制度化过程，进而提高企业信息安全绩效有重要管理启示。     

基于DEM的三维交互性地球实现方法研究

地球的三维可视化是三维GIS研究领域的一个热点，本文给出了基于全球DEM数据的地球三维可视化的实现方法，在此基础上，本文分别讨论了适合于与球形物体进行交互式操作的基本方法。采用四元数的方法解决地球的任意旋转问题；采用一种弦弧映射的近似方法实现在球面上任意两点间的漫游 ；采用OpenGL提供的特殊函数，结合数据库技术实现三维图形与物体属性之间的双向查询。实践表明，这些方法能够获得较好的视觉效果，并可在一定精度范围内对三维地球进行一般的交互性操作。     

Action Research on Land Management in the Western Amazon, Peru – A Research Process, Its Outcomes and the Researcher’s Role

The article explores the action research process throughout a land management research project, with the ambition to reflect upon action research as a working approach. It is shown how this process is experienced from a researcher’s point of view and it critically analyses its methodology and process, outcome and the role of the action researcher.The learning environment known to farmers and framed by local institutions and practical experimentation, embedded in the local worldview, constituted a necessary starting point for achieving motivation and practical outcomes. Tight feedback loops between practice and reflection enabled joint learning and innovation and rapid implementation of measures suggested by the farmers. The approach could be particularly useful for local NGOs and local universities.     

对改革开放二十余年来管理思想发展的思考

将二十世纪管理思想的演变过程作为参考系,对照我国改革开放二十多年来管理思想的发展进行回顾和思考。分为传统管理（包括经验管理和科学管理）和现代管理科学（包括系统化管理和知识－智力型管理）两个阶段、四个层次、并对其产生的原因分别进行思考。     

Systemic praxis in the education of the agricultural systems practitioner

This paper describes the context and the systemic experiential theories that have informed the praxis of educating agricultural systems practitioners. The praxis has involved a process of action research with students and with clients in farming and other rural community organizations. The praxis encourages learners to bring a range of methodologies of inquiry to bear upon problematic issues, contingent upon the nature of such issues. Informed by a number of different theories, and by reflecting on our own work, an earlier model of a nested hierarchy of systems of inquiry has been reconstructed to become a more useful guide to educational strategies: Each contingent methodology can now be seen to have its own learning, meta-learning, and epistemic learning dimensions. A key to enriched learning for responsible changes in agriculture and rural development lies in the facilitation of the consciousness of, and competency at, such a systemic pluralism of methodologies.