Action Research: Its Foundations in Open Systems Thinking and Relationship to the Scientific Method

This paper considers those interpretations of action research that can be traced to Kurt Lewin at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan, and the work in social ecology by Emery and Trist at the Tavistock Institute. It locates the logical basis of these interpretations in the philosophy of pragmatism, particularly as it relates to Peirce’s inferential logic and inquiry system. Drawing on this argument, and on the significant developments in approaches to systemic thinking over the past 40–50 years, a normative set of criteria is established for action research. The paper concludes that both positivist science (which relates to closed systems thinking) and action research (which relates to open systems thinking) are essential to any complete scientific approach.     

Action Research: Its Role in the University/Business Relationship

The Action Research (AR) PhD program at Monash University had its genesis in Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning. This paper discusses the role of the university in AR projects in business and the central role that AR projects can have in a Faculty's strategic positioning. The issues that have emerged in the project to date are discussed.     

Action Research: Its Nature and Validity

The process of knowledge acquisition which has the strongest truth claim is the research process of natural science, based on testing hypotheses to destruction. But the application of this process to phenomena beyond those for which it was developed, namely, the natural regularities of the physical universe, is problematical. For research into social phenomena there is increasing interest in action research in various forms. In this process the researcher enters a real-world situation and aims both to improve it and to acquire knowledge. This paper reviews the nature and validity of action research, arguing that its claim to validity requires a recoverable research process based upon a prior declaration of the epistemology in terms of which findings which count as knowledge will be expressed.     

An Idea Ahead of Its Time: The History and Development of Soft Systems Methodology

This paper, part of the Festschrift for Peter Checkland, provides an outline of the history and development of soft systems methodology. It includes a personal reflection on my experiences of SSM, as well as a more objective evaluation of its achievements and limitations.     

一种协同仿真方法及其在SOFC数值模拟中的应用

针对当今复杂能源系统数值模拟的两大常用分析工具—Matlab和Fluent,提出了一种基于TCP/IP的协同仿真方法,并将其应用于SOFC的多尺度仿真。该方法以WinSock为框架,采用文件I/O函数访问共享数据的方式,完成两种工具之间的信息通讯。在SOFC多尺度仿真中,利用Fluent建立SOFC单体的宏观尺度模型,利用Matlab建立电化学反应扩散现象的介观尺度模型,通过二者的协同仿真实现两个尺度模型的耦合模拟。结果表明,该方法能有效地完成两种软件之间的协同仿真,且结果较真实地反映了对象的实际特性。     

我国科学史研究的系统论分析

我国科学史发展实质上是在科学史系统的内在动力和外在支持的过程中发展起来的。通过对我国科学史系统化发展特征、系统动力机制及未来走向的研究 ,从系统论角度对我国科学史有一个新的认识。     

系统科学方法论与科学发展观

通过对系统思想发展史、系统科学五大规律和马克思主义系统观的阐述，指出用系统思想改进我们思维方式与工作方法的必然趋势。着重指出，全面、协调、可持续发展观的真实内含是系统性、整体性和自组织涌现，这对经济社会的协调发展具有重要的现实意义。     

Organizing for Research and Action: Implementing Action Researcher Networks

The article describes and analyzes the process by which action researchers transcend boundaries—including discipline and institutional boundaries, as well as those between academia and industry—to develop effective action researcher networks. The particular empirical setting explored is that defined by the CO-IMPROVE project, a European Union-funded project which addresses the facilitation of collaborative improvement of operations practice and performance in the extended manufacturing enterprise through collaborative action learning among both managers and researchers.     

Action Research for Sustainable Water Futures in Western Sydney: Reaching Beyond Traditional Stakeholder Engagement to Understand Community Stakeholder Language and Its Implications for Action

Action on issues of ecological significance often requires changes in personal behaviour and political consensus on technologies to support these changes. Unfortunately, many consultation processes only engage a narrow range of stakeholders, usually those professionally engaged or already active on a range of community issues. This paper illustrates how people who are ‘hard to reach’ or seen as ‘apathetic’ might be engaged using ‘action-conversations’ that explore the social climate for action and how scientific/technical messages can be framed in the language of the community.     

A History of the Action Learning,Action Research,and Process Management Association (ALARPM): From Brisbane (Australia) to the World Through Inclusion and Networks

Action Learning, Action Research, and Process Management Association (ALARPM) is an organization of volunteers dedicated to the international expansion of action learning, action research, and process management, through world congresses. It has existed for over a dozen years now, despite significant stresses and strains, and has successfully conducted five world congresses with a sixth one in 2003. This history of ALARPM shows that a small group can set out to be international and inclusive from the beginning, so long as it also develops processes to sustain itself internally.     

Distance Education: A Reflective Action Research Project and Its Systemic Implications for Higher Education

This reflective action research study examines faculty experience with distance education. Distance education has become increasingly of interest in higher education and is seen by many as the opportunity for systemic change in higher education. This study is a reflective action research project which examined the author's experiences teaching a distance version of a basic instructional design course at the same time as teaching a residential version of that same course. The examination finds significant faculty issues that emerged during the experience and specifically found concerns with the distance education learner. In the end, the study finds that as a tool for systemic change of higher education, distance delivery will have to engage faculty with their concerns in more substantive ways than they have to date. In essence, this study asserts that the current demands on distance educators are not motivating for traditional faculty members because of increased time demands, lack of traditional rhythm, lack of personal contact with students, and less evident interest among distant students in the areas that faculty value.     

Soft Systems Methodology in Action: The Example of a Private Hospital

The paper dealt with the issues of communication between physicians and patients, health care needs of patients and appointment and documentation systems leading to sub-optimal medical treatment, disorganised files and congestion and improperly stored medical treatment records of patients Two Strands Model of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) revealed and handled at a private hospital in Turkey. SSM helped make changes as recommendations to the hospital. However, the SSM-based enquiry also disclosed some difficulties in the processes of cooperation between the practitioner and the client, arranging democratic group discussions, drawing rich pictures, designating, listing and selecting organisational concerns, designing human activity systems, comparing conceptual models with the problem situation and offering and adopting changes. Thus, the paper proposed possible solutions to these methodological problems through synthesising relevant key conceptions of specific soft and other change methodologies into a framework that attempted to bring robust developmental specifications and order for using SSM.     

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.     

Ethical Issues and Role Duality in Insider Action Research: Challenges for Action Research Degree Programmes

Insider action research describes the process when a member of an organisation undertakes an explicit action research role in addition to the normal functional roles they hold in an organisation. Real-world work-based research is relevant and important to many full-time managers, consultants and members of organisations including those who choose to undertake higher degrees in business as part-time postgraduate students. Within these programmes a proposal for an insider action research project is often associated with important and interesting research projects that have already arisen in an organisation where the researcher works full-time, and are part of their existing role and established working relationships with key stakeholders. Ethical issues in organisationally located insider action research can differ from other forms of action research because of role duality, i.e. that the researcher holds an ongoing work role and power relationships associated with this as well as the action research role. Ethical issues can be associated with choices about alternative options, expected impacts and outcomes on the researcher, participants, organisation and stakeholders, and these are important considerations for academic supervisors, institutional review boards and human research ethics committees.     

基于模糊动作关联规则挖掘的合作企业间关系价值

根据合作制造企业间关系的特点,界定了企业关系价值的基本内涵及其构成维度.针对提升企业关系价值问题,提出了模糊动作关联规则的概念.在结合动态模糊逻辑理论的基础上,定义了动态模糊隶属度函数,并给出模糊动作关联规则的相关定义及确切的形式化描述.同时,设计了FARM模糊动作关联规则算法对提升企业关系价值的规则进行挖掘.实验结果表明,该方法不仅能有效地解决企业关系价值提升问题,而且可以为企业决策者制定合作策略提供有利的决策依据.     

Guest Editorial: From Cartagena to Ballarat: A Report on the Joint Fifth World Congress on Action Learning,Action Research,and Process Management and Ninth World Congress on Participatory Action Research

Systemic Practice and Action Research -     

Managing Action Research: The PEArL Framework

The difficulty of managing and validating Action Research field studies has been widely discussed. Several different approaches to Action Research have emerged, and one of the most widely used models is Checkland’s FMA model, where a framework is provided to facilitate interested individuals in ‘recovering’ the route of the inquiry. In this paper, I argue that the FMA model is a valuable tool for planning the application of theoretical ideas in a practical situation, but that, as a guide to Action Research, it still fails to provide a sense of the manner in which an inquiry is undertaken. The PEArL mnemonic has been previously offered as a guide to facilitate researchers, participants, and those interested in gaining an appreciation of the manner in which an inquiry is conducted. In this paper, it is argued that applying the PEArL elements does not provide insight into the dynamic nature of collaborative inquiry. In order to gain a sense of the manner in which an inquiry was undertaken it is necessary to apply the PEArL mnemonic alongside a framework that facilitates the flow of the action research cycle. To illustrate the framework, an Action Research field study is described that was undertaken with residents and key workers in a shelter for the homeless, where the aim was to create a shared understanding of complex needs and support requirements.

状态表法及其应用案例分析

本文首先介绍了状态表的基本概念,然后根据一个应用系统原型,阐述了创建状态表的方法,以及如何利用状态表对系统进行控制,使其在某种随机因素的扰动下,能自动工作于系统最佳工作状态。     

系统方法论的发展及其内在动因分析

在分析“硬”、“软”两类系统方法论建立特点的基础上,探讨了多系统方法论兴起的背景以及整合类系统方法论对上述两类系统方法论提升。指出这种提升的内在动因有3个:复杂性认知动因、系统思想发展的认知动因和文化认知动因,从而为认识新系统方法论提供新的视角,并为理解目前系统方法论的快速发展原因提供了一种解释。     

Reflection on the Purposes of Research,Action, and Scholarship: A Case of Cross-Cultural Participatory Action Research

Beginning with some basic principles of participatory action research, the author draws upon personal experience to identify the ways in which the experience of the practice of participatory action research creates forms of publication somewhat different in intent and nature from conventional forms of research. The experience selected involves cross-cultural research, and the particular problems of representation of the other in such settings are engaged. The overall experience is then drawn upon to identify some of the key qualities of action research which differ both from other forms of research and from some of the advocacies for action research.