Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2011, Hull, UK

Towards a framework for the observation, understanding, and management of socio-ecological systems: Insights from socio-ecological, institutional, and complexity theory.

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Studies about human vulnerabilities to global socio-ecological changes abound; there is precise information on the risks that need to be urgently addressed to prevent major crises. In Latin America, the Andean region has been signaled as one with major risks. Nevertheless, current methodologies for observation, understanding, and management of socio-ecological systems are incomplete and insufficient, since these are developed without exchange and conversation between various relevant theoretical fields. Based upon a multi-paradigmatic approach, the aim of the paper is to set up the basis for an integral methodology for supporting self-management of socio-ecological systems by its key actors, mostly inspired in contributions from socio-ecological, institutional, and complexity theories. The article: 1) integrates the fields in discussion building a framework to observe and understand the phenomenon; 2) discuss the bases for a methodology to support communities from vulnerable SES to self–organise and agree on strategic actions and responsibilities; 3) develops a preliminary empirical analysis from a Colombian case study, highlighting the questions derived from this analysis. It happens in the context of the Fuquene Lake socio-ecological system, placed on Colombian Andean Eco-region.

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster 3.11: System Pathology of Social Organizations

Shigeo Atsuji, Norman D. Cook — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, were unavoidable natural disasters, but we consider the subsequent breakdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plants to be a catastrophe created by avoidable human errors – an organizational disaster. We review the mistakes that have led up to the present nuclear crisis, and recommend several steps to avoid similar crises in the future. This speech considers the “Fukushima nuclear accident” as an organizational disaster. Furthermore, we discuss problems of the nuclear power plant system of Japan. These include issues of (i) the Fukushima nuclear station’s irrational location in a quake-prone and tsunami-prone area, (ii) the business ethics inherent to operating ageing reactors, (iv) the social responsibility required for organizational management, (v) non-rational governance of nuclear policy in extending the longevity of nuclear reactors, and (vi) the dynamics of system pathology in dealing with socio-biological hazards based on ageing technology, ambiguous management and fuzzy nuclear policy.

KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT IN A SYSTEM APPROACH, FOR A NEW SATELLITE SYSTEM PLANNING

Elvira Avalos — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

After four decades of a continuous development in services, applications and technology, now a satellite is considered as one of the most important communication systems. In spite of having many different options for telecommunication services, the satellite service is competitive and is increasing with high rate of traffic.

As the satellite system is not perennial, sooner or later has to be replaced. The satellite replacement task is complex because there are many technical, economic and political factors and to be considered. From the national point of view there are also development criteria to achieve goals in term of the support to the whole economic system and to the specific economic activities related to industry, education, government and business.

From the systemic point of view, it is necessary to consider several disciplines. In that multidisciplinary problem we propose to include Knowledge Management, Technology Management, Communication Engineering, Economics, Physics and Information Systems besides of System Engineering and System Science.

A satellite communication system has to be planned several years before the date when it should be launched into space. Due to this situation, a system approach is needed to achieve the whole purpose and the partial objectives. The first activity is to define the system frontier, the supra system and the subsystems, the second activity is to classify them in a hierarchical order to identify the main relationships among them.

When a great scale system is designed there is an interest to achieve all the possible improvements of the previous system, incorporate the advantages of new knowledge, new technology, new public policies, reinforce the regulatory frame and satisfy the new needs through the new services. Knowledge Management, Technology Management and Systems Science help us in this purpose.

In the Mexican case it is also desirable correct the main mistakes that were made in past experiences. For this reason it is necessary to apply the concepts, schemes and methodologies of the Knowledge Management.

TOWARD A SYSTEMS SCIENCE STRUCTURE

Isaias Badillo-Piña, Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla, Oswaldo Morales-Matamoros — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Communication as a mechanism for culture integration

Tomas Backström, Tom Hagström, Susanna Göransson — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Autonomy of employees is one way to ensure the flexibility, adaptability and innovation competence needed in organisations working on a global market. This has to be dynamically balanced on a system level by integration of the employees into the organisation. Formulation and communication of an organisational culture is one way to integrate employees to an understanding of the work that increases the chances of co-ordinated behaviour towards the goal of the organisation.
The aim of this article is to increase the knowledge about processes leading to integration of employees into the organizational culture. The hypothesis is that culture emerges in the interaction between members of a social group. Thus, the article is studying the importance of communication, the research questions are: What makes the culture of a work group similar to the organizational culture?, How is a work group culture constructed? and How is it possible that some members of the workgroup are integrated in the organizational culture while others are not?
Theories used are about culture as an organizing structure emerging in interaction between actors, about organizational culture as a way for management to exert control, and about social networks as a way to describe the interaction processes is.
The empirical data comes from a merchant bank in Sweden famous for: long term competitiveness, a decentralized organisation and the use of organizational culture. 105 respondents from ten work groups of this bank have answered questions about their communication and their integration into the organisational culture.
The results show that communication between members of a group is a mechanism behind the development of the sub-culture of the group and the integration of each individual member into this subculture. There seems to be a self-reinforcing spiral between collegial talk, especially about goals, plans and changes at the work place, and culture integration. To build a strong subculture it is important to have all members of a group included in this communication, since persons in the periphery of the talk pattern tends to be less integrated. The value system of the group’s supervisor is strongly influencing the sub-culture of the work group. Thus, to hire supervisors with the correct values and giving resources to employees for communication is central for an organisation using organisational culture as a tool for control.

A Systemic Intervention Approach to Research on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Ricardo Barros, Gerald Midgley, Luis Pinzon — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper presents a systemic intervention approach as a way to overcome the methodological challenges involved in research on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). These challenges include how to choose between qualitative and quantitative analysis, and between predictive and descriptive studies. In addition, there is a lack of agreement in the research community regarding the appropriate methods and measures to analyze several dimensions of the learning process, including the cognitive, motivational, social and technological dimensions. The final challenge is a need for further research on how participants should engage in defining and re-defining learning purposes, interests and outcomes. The up-front focus of systemic intervention is on the process of making boundary judgments during inquiry. Therefore, it facilitates questioning about whose views and what issues should be considered pertinent in an analysis. Definitions of improvement, the purposes of inquiry, the context of application of methods, and participants’ roles are all important in systemic intervention. The focus is on both the issues ‘out there’, and the identities and roles of the people (including the researcher) who get to frame those issues. In addition, the systemic intervention approach advocates methodological pluralism: mixing methods from different traditions (quantitative and qualitative; predictive and descriptive) to address the purposes of multiple stakeholders. In line with this focus on methodological pluralism, a design for CSCL research will be presented that includes the use of several methods drawn from other methodologies (Critical Systems Heuristics, Interactive Planning, Social Network Analysis, Formative and Summative Tests and Content Analysis). This methodological design will be used in future research to analyze and reflect on both a Colombian CSCL case study and the roles and identities of the people who participate in it.

Manifesto for Ideas into Print: Systemic Practice and Action Research SPAR

Simon Bell, Bob Flood — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Journal Systemic Practice and Action Research aims to encourage authors and practitioners into print.

This article describes both the publishing world into which SPAR has emerged and the systemic and inclusive thinking behind the journals policy.

The paper sets out a manifesto for a fair and open system of academic publishing.

The General Theory of Metadynamics Systemicity

Jean-Jacques Blanc — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ABSTRACT Ever since 1996, J.-J. Blanc, the author of this theory, made an extensive research on "Systems science" that induced to his developing a new systemic paradigm in terms of a transdisciplinary approach to "Living systems" that he named “The Bioethism” (see note ). The transdisciplinary approach is meant to support the acquisition of a large understanding of living systems' origin, of their natural structure and their adaptive behaviors. Their specific bonds and traits, as well as their evolution trends, while permanently interacting with environmental events for survival , require actions-reactions from ago-antagonistic signals and stimuli. Endogenous within their body milieu and exogenous, these signals and stimuli are adapting with conditions of ecosystemic and sociosystemic environments. Thereby, living beings are closely linked with and affected by - a) Cosmo-planetary and terrestrial meta-dynamic forces, - b) early Earth metadynamics conditions for Life to have happened - c) the specific biological individualities and social traits and statuses accounting for the biodiversity of species to thrive and/or to get extinct – d) behavioral and evolutionary trends emerging from the systemicity of biological metadynamics sets. For example the drastic extinction of species, except some bacteria, when the Earth became a "snowball" from a nearly total glaciation (-600 Mo/y) and, on the contrary, an extraordinary explosion of marine species bearing new functions (- 545Mo/y) after the planet reheating. At this point of publications, this theory work has required several communications and a few more are expected to come. The “General Theory of Systemicity”, here “fourth part” describes largely the metadynamics systemicity at the origin of Earth and the “hatch” of Life with a progressive apparition of living organisms (pre-viruses…) capable to reproduce, to survive and evolve. This large transdisciplinary work describes the fluxes and moves that structure the complexity of the Universe, the Cosmo-planetary, terrestrial and biological metadynamics that are part of the universal atomic and molecular systemic cycles. For billions of years, fluxes and moves of the universal matter and forces participated in building up stellar systems, the Sun system, and the planet Earth on which a flourishing phenomenon called Life found an adaptable sustainability. Sets of meta-drivers, their systemicity with synergetic moves are sustaining a large number of cycles (water, rocks...) and are permanently adapting, changing environmental events, which occurrence values have to be observed in the short and long term. This 2011 communication stands for a large description of the "Early Earth and the origin of Life’s meta-dynamics systemicity". It also stresses the observation of both the “molecule cycle” and the “universality of metabolism”. In the conclusion, it assumes the fundamental objectivity, evidence and realism of a "General Theory of metadynamics Systemicity".

THE LEONTIEF´S EQUATION TO IMPROVE THE LEARNING PROCESS OF MRP SYSTEM IN THE TOURISM STUDIES

Abraham Briones-Juarez, Ricardo Tejeida-Padilla, Isaias Badillo-Piña — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Systems Thinking: Common Ground or Untapped Territory?

Pamela Buckle Henning, Wan-Ching Chen — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

At gatherings of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, the term “systems thinking” elicits understanding nods and smiles. Such thinking, it would appear, is a way this largely academic community works “all together now,” thinking in a systemic way about our varied areas of inquiry. But how common is this understanding among us? And are its benefits commonly understood? Assessing the degree to which we work “all together now” requires recognizing the different assumptions we make about what systems thinking means. So powerful is systems thinking’s capacity to holistically address 21st-century problems that much has been written about it for laypeople. This article presents a content analysis of 14 popular books on systems thinking, revealing that ISSS members’ understanding nods and smiles belie a plurality of meanings assigned to systems thinking and claims about what it means to be a systems thinker. What is held in common within the ISSS community is the conviction that the health of human systems can be supported by systems thinking. We argue that the benefits go further: that the psychological health of humanity itself depends upon helping people learn how to be systems-intelligent thinkers. At present, the community of systems thinkers has made only a start at this important endeavour.

SYSTEM DYNAMICS IN ACTION: THE WORSE-BEFORE-BETTER SCENARIO IN THE CITY HOSPITAL - EFFECTS OF BUDGET DISTRIBUTION TO THE TRAINING & EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ON SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM PROFITS

Marc Buergi, Reinhard Jung — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

A major public city hospital is affected by the ongoing transformation in the Swiss health care system due to cost reduction pressure, mergers & acquisitions and the mandatory introduction of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) by the year 2012. Facing scarce financial and personal recourses, a System Dynamics research project investigates how changes in budget allocation to the training and education department can affect the net profits of the hospital. The model simulation indicates that neither a massive cut, nor a massive increase of budget lead to the best profits in the long-term. Rather a carefully implemented adjustment of the budget at a small scale of plus 10% is suggested to realize an increase of the long-term profits. The results of the long-run simulation are counterintuitive and are explained by means of systems approach archetypes like the worse-before-better scenario, information delays, level effects and limits to growth.

REGIONAL DISASTERS AND SYSTEMIC REACTIONS

Gerhard Chroust, Nadine Sturm, Markus Roth, Peter Ziehesberger — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Today’s catastrophes (many of them man-made or at least triggered by human activity) seemingly endanger an increasing number of humans and a spreading portion of land in numerous different ways, calling for more attention concerning appropriate reactions. We will discuss the basic question of what constitutes a ’disaster’. Consequently various alternatives are considered as to reacting in view of a "disaster" (Flight/run away, Fight/intervene, Freeze, Submit/sustain/endure, Ignore/deny). Taking a closer look at interventions as the classical reaction, we distinguish between different points of view: systemic (a system leaving its domain of dependability), process-oriented (a system of interlinked process steps), human (communication, psychology, and mental health of intervention personell and victims), and multicultural (problems of communication, trust, and habits).

Construction of a Multimethodology for use in Collaborative Model Actualization

Phil Cook — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Abstract

Multiple stakeholder engagement and collaboration is an area of great complexity and difficulty. Crossing paradigms and disciplines involves the engagement and understanding of multiple worldviews by all parties involved. This is difficult at best with the full cooperation of the stakeholders involved and is further exacerbated by financial structures, divergent objectives, power relations, and institutional biases within and between organizations. It is, however, posited that collaborative efforts of this magnitude and range are necessary to fully employ the undergirding ethic of Sustainable Development (SD). The SD ethic also implies an intergenerational consideration that the author suggests is best introduced through a collaboratively derived statement of ethic used to mediate all decisions put forth for employment.

This paper explores the assembly of a multimethodology constructed through the combination of widely held methodologies with peculiar strengths in a complementary manner. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and a Collective Statement of Ethics (CSE) are assembled in a partitioned manner that allows each to maintain its core strengths while feeding the next iteration with what is argued a higher quality input. The ontological, epistemological and axiological implication of the multimethodology are examined and illustrated along with a review of the literature regarding the implications of such a methodology. It is deemed that the ontological variance is not significant and that the minor epistemological and axiological differences are within reasonable tolerances considering the multimethodological protocol employed and successful precedent use of similar methodologies.

The introduction of the CSE is suggested as a means to encourage a sense of fairness and to buffer power relations. It is proposed that the creation of the CSE will empower those who might in other circumstances have had a less than equitable voice in participatory environments. A secondary intent of the CSE is to open up the opportunity for the collaborative to introduce ecocentric, intergenerational and humanistic perspectives, inter alia, into the root definitions and conceptual models output actualized by the collaborative. Finally, the author explores the possibilities in the literature that might support a claim of change of behavior based on the sensitization of actors to repetition of standard ethics information or documents such as a CSE.

AI has been selected, based on its underpinnings in positive psychology, to overcome a perceived conceptual weakness in SSM relating to a focus on problems as opposed to strengths in the development of future creating scenarios. SSM has been selected as it, arguably, has at its core a more conventional process of deployment methodology. The two methodologies combined prove compatible and complementary in theory.

The context in which the methodology will be employed is also discussed as is the purpose of the multimethodology. Although, technique is not detailed in light of the stage of development of the methodology at this time, it is suggested that further steps include the development and subsequent deployment of the multimethodology, in a workshop offering, to the market. These suggested future activities follow conclusions that support the assembly of the methodology. The multimethodology partitions in a technically acceptable manner and the literature supports the use of similar multimethodology in practice.

Analyzing and Improving Chicken Meat Supply Chain Using Beer's VSM, SCOR model and Ackoff's Circular Organization

Kosar Darivandi Shoushtari, Hossein Ghasemi, Mansooreh Zarezadeh — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper deals with diagnosing broiler meat supply chain and designing a new metasystemic (in cybernetic terms) structure for it in Iran. The analysis has been informed by functionalist, interpretive and emancipatory paradigms. A combination of Beer's VSM and SCOR model are utilized for analyzing the situation. Resourced-based view is used in a complementary role for analyzing system2 requirements and strategic environmental relations. A new structure is proposed for the managerial body of the supply chain applying Ackoff's circular organization model which will relieve existing deficiencies.

A Systemic Review of Open Access in Systems Engineering Research

Paola Di Maio — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Open Access Movement is promising to grant universal unrestricted access to the knowledge and data outputs of publicly funded research.However, a systematic review of publicly funded projects in the systems engineering domain reveals such policy has had limited uptake. This paper presents the rationale methodology and preliminary results for this research.

INTEGRATIVE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN HUMAN ACTIVITY

Vitaly Dubrovsky — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper examines the role of institutions in integration of human activity across the levels of its hierarchical system. In the perspective of System-Activity Methodology, human activity is viewed as the only primary reality. Human activity is completely defined by standards. The main process constituting human activity is self-reproduction. The system of activity comprises four hierarchical levels ordered by relation of inclusion and defined by corresponding types of standards: (1) universe of mass activity – by universal values, (2) spheres of mass activity – by corresponding institutions, (3) organizations of collective activity – by schedules and protocols, and (4) acts, performed by individuals, – by modes of action. Enabled by their structure that mirrors the hierarchical system of activity, institutions integrate this hierarchical system of activity in a “top-down” manner. Actualization of the institutional standards proceeds in the opposite direction and integrates levels of activity in a “bottom-up” manner. The usual occurrence of deviations require supplementary remedial and sanctioning activities that penetrate all hierarchical levels and, in turn, create bottom-up pressure to change institutional standards at all levels. The two-way integration results in tight interdependence of the hierarchical levels of the activity system, necessitating consideration of the entire hierarchical context, if one is to understand and effectively act upon activity systems of any scale.

A COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS VIEW OF RESILIENCE IN A PROJECT TEAM

Mary C Edson — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This research paper follows the theoretical paper, Group Development: A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective (Edson, 2010) presented at the 54th Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in Waterloo, Canada. This case study explored resilience in a project team through analysis of group development from a complex adaptive systems perspective. Three research questions focused on the team’s consciousness of a need to change under adversity, its response through adaptive action, and its potential for innovation through creative destruction. The study used flexible design and mixed methods by applying grounded theory coding techniques to understand a retrospective case study. The subject was the CUSD2009 Team of approximately 200 students and faculty members, which designed and built a solar house over a 2-year period for an international competition with 19 other teams sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Data analysis used a multilevel approach consisting of coding the data through the lenses of two models and a theory. Relationships between models of group development, the complex adaptive cycle, and complex adaptive systems theory were established theoretically and empirically. Results of the 3 research questions indicated that the team exhibited agency through the following: (a) collective consciousness of a need for change to maintain the team’s function toward the project goals, (b) collective action to make necessary changes, and (c) emergence of innovation through creative destruction entailing renegotiation of group norms in response to an adversity. The multilevel analysis culminated in an integrated systems perspective with conclusions about resilience in project teams, specifically the role of environmental feedback. Implications for future research using complex adaptive systems as a theoretical foundation for studying group development and resilience include organizational culture, inflection points, nested adaptive cycles, emergence of leadership, and emergence of innovation. This research contributes a deeper understanding of project team resilience in organizational systems such as companies, non-profits, governmental, and non-governmental entities by revealing the importance of environmental feedback and organizational learning to build adaptive capacity.

SUMMARY OF THE FOURTH ANNUAL WORKSHOP - SERVICE SYSTEMS SCIENCE

Mary C Edson, Kyoichi Kijima — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

From March 6 through March 8, 2011, Kyoichi Kijima, Ph.D., Professor of Decision Systems Science, hosted the Fourth Annual Workshop and Open Symposium on Service Systems Science, sponsored by Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX), Japan Science and Technology (JST), at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The purpose of the workshop and symposium was to bring together leading researchers, educators, and practitioners from North America, Europe, Asia, and Japan to share experiences and exchange expertise related to service science, management, and engineering (SSME). Through participation in the workshop, these leaders clarified important concepts, practices, and challenges in a collaborative venue using a systems science perspective. At the open symposium, distinguished speakers shared their experience from the frontiers of the field and their visions for the future of service systems science. The three days concluded with a panel discussion about state-of-the art approaches to advance the field of service systems science. This paper presents a summary of the workshop proceedings and shares ideas about next steps in the development of the field of service systems science.

THE RECURSIVE FOCUS OF THE VSM TOWARDS THE JOINED ENDEAVOURS TO THE IMPLEMENTING OF THE GPS IN THE STATE OF MEXICO

Adrian Elizalde-Medrano, Oswaldo Morales-Matamoros, Jorge A. Rojas-Ramirez — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This research paper shows how to enhance the productivity levels of the trucking industry through a proposal of applying the viable system model (VSM) methodology so as to link the GPS system implementation to the specific case of the State of Mexico. Nowadays it is a very well known fact that the trucking industry suffers from an awful disorder in its logistic operations. Thus, we do consider that the transportation companies must work harder in order to join the stakeholders endeavours to reach the solutions of their essential problems. Certainly, this research makes up a viable proposal to organize all the participating elements in the logistics of the trucking network for commercial, farming, and livestock farming markets in particular. Notwithstanding, the current model´s application was compared with the ideal VSM model which allowed us to identify the weaknesses and strengths regarding financial productivity. That is why we can conclude that the trucking industry needs some viable patterns which correspond to the specific features of each market demand. We hope that this model can be implemented in the trucking industry under study to reach a better management and control of all the supplying chain processes in this logistic activity. Moreover, the VSM model offers the possibility to improve the duty with the GPS system implementation in every recursión level. In fact not only the VSM model does state the possibility to maintain the current system in a separated way, but also its identity to face the environmental changes for considering the variety of likely states into a great diversity. Meanwhile the viability reasoning applies its properties by means of Ashby´s law of requisite variety and thus it will allow us to manage the system´s complexity.

USING COMPLEX NETWORK ANALYSIS AND VISUALISATION TO ANALYSE PROBLEMATIC ENTERPRISE SCALE INFORMATION SYSTEMS?

David Greenwood, Ian Sommerville — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Society is demanding larger and more complex information systems to support increasingly complex and critical organisational work. During or after the deployment of these systems it is typical for problematic socio-technical issues to arise. Whilst troubleshooting socio-technical issues in small-to-medium scale situations may be achievable using approaches such as rapid ethnography combined with a theoretical framework such as distributed cognition or activity theory; troubleshooting enterprise scale situations is an open research question because of the overwhelming number of socio-technical elements and interactions involved.

Techniques and tools for complex network analysis enable the analysis of systems comprising large numbers of nodes. These tools are becoming increasingly accessible to non-computer scientists and mathematicians and so have been used to analyse a diverse variety of large-scale systems from social networks through to metabolic pathways in living organisms. We believe there is scope to use similar techniques to facilitate the analysis of problematic enterprise scale socio-technical systems.

This paper demonstrates, via means of a case study, proof-of-concept tools for large-scale network analysis and visualisation that may provide a promising avenue for identifying problematic elements and interactions amongst an overwhelming number of socio- technical elements. We demonstrate the potential of this approach by showing that: i) a problematic situation may be represented as a directed graph such that the elements in the situation are represented as nodes, and interactions between nodes as edges; ii) that eigenvector centrality may be used to rank the importance of elements in a situation and that highly ranked elements match those identified as important by a human analyst; iii) the ‘complexity’ of a situation, or a part of a situation, may be characterised using a feedback degree score which provides an indication of the extent elements are highly interconnected and involved in feedback loops. These findings indicate that computers may be used to aid the analysis of problematic large-scale complex socio-technical situations by highlighting elements, or groups of interacting elements, that are important to the overall outcome of a problematic situation.

TOWARDS A GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY OF NURSING: A LITERATURE REVIEW

David Anthony Glenister — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Although systems thinking in nursing is a vital tradition there have been no previous attempt to understand this systemically. This paper addresses nursing as a disciplinary matrix by systematic reviewing the relevant literature. The search engine ‘CINHAL with Text’ 1990-2011 is used along with a search of foundation and primers texts. There are both first-order homeostatic and second-order dynamic and to a much more limited extent third-order social contextual cybernetic systemic theories in the nursing literature. The development of nursing theory over time resulted from the personal perspectives of the nurse theorists, for example, Martha Rogers (1970), rather than phases of development. The practice development of family systems nursing, developed by Wright and Leahey (1984) and Marie-Luise Friedmann (1989) arose through international academic-practitioner networking. The systemic nursing management literature demonstrates open systems, complex adaptive systems and chaos theories. The literature reviewed suggests systemic ideas arose to address the problematics of specific domains. Specifically, the problematic of professionalization resulted in the development of systemic nursing theories in the academic domain and family systems nursing in overlap between the practice and academic domains, and the problematic of cost-containment and risk management in the governance and government domains. There is limited connection between systemic thinking by nurses in the largely domain specific literature. The conclusions of this review are that: first, there appears to be some consensus about the value of attachment (Bowlby 1951) and ecological developmental theories (Bronfenbrenner 1979) in nursing practice: and secondly, the slow development of nursing as an academic project can be viewed as an opportunity for transdisciplinary considerations of biological, psychological, sociological and political systems in nursing theory and practice. This paper is an expression of an attempt to address the puzzle of considering the coherence of systemic thinking in nursing from the author’s position as academic and practitioner. The potential for developing a general systems theory of nursing practice, nursing administration, healthcare administration, and global healthcare remains, and may be of value in positioning the profession’s practices in its policy and political environments.

A HOLISTIC SOCIOECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS APPROACH AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL – THE EMPI (EMMI).

Erik Grönlund — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

In this paper the EMPI [EMMI] approach is described together with its use and intended use in the Mid Sweden region, the counties of Jämtland and Västernorrland. EMPI is an abbreviation of the Swedish words “Energi, Materia, Pengar och Information”, which in English gives EMMI: Energy, Matter, Money, and Information. The EMPI [EMMI] approach has to some extent so far been used in a project assessing the ecosystem services in the five northern counties of Sweden, “Norrland”, and later in a strategic document regarding energy and climate on the county level. The emergy methodology (by H.T. Odum) has been the inspiration for the EMPI [EMMI] approach. But since the emergy concept is not yet fully accepted by the scientific community, the EMPI [EMMI] approach does not use the controversial parts of the emergy approach, but rather has the aim to work as a general background material for any regional analysis, may it be emergy, ecological footprint, material flow or substance flow assessements, regional monetary accountings or other types. Finally future plans for the EMPI [EMMI] approach is presented, as application on the watershed level connected to the EU Water Framework Directive, and further development of the ecosystem services concept. Maybe most interesting is that the work with the EMPI [EMMI] and emergy approaches have revealed a lack of measure for quality aspects of information. The scientific community seem today only use the quantitative measure of information, the bit, while the general public definition of information includes a large qualitative aspect.

Mass media and urban tribes, Analysis of their relations By Viable System Model Stafford Beer´s.

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

In the last 60 years (1950-2010), the influence of the mass media and advertising over individual decisions-making processes has deepened, in terms of age range to which have targeted advertising and that expanded for almost the entire Western world. With this, leading to the culture diversity, naturally given, toward one only culture standardized prevailing in the whole West nowadays.

Only in the last 20 years (1990-2010) we have been witnesses of how advertising has been directing its efforts toward a public increasingly helpless of resisting the suggestion of advertising, transforming them into the new triggers in purchasing decisions. In the 60's were the women, then the young people during 70's, and then were children in the 80's and during the 90's over early childhood, almost from the when we learn to speak

(3 years). (4) Achieving brand loyalty among very young children and the brands of products for this age group.

From this perspective, urban tribes (5) have taken control of the lives of young people. Offering a false freedom, at moment of choose "How to be yourself" from options given in the market as a "catalogue of predesigned Identities" (6). The short-term vision, characteristic among adolescents, make imperceptible to them, the various strategies of compulsion to consume that the mass media is using on them. Isolated into a vision of short term, the adolescents are prisoners in a system of beliefs (7) predesigned by advertisers in response to emotional shortcomings and / or psychological present in our society and that beats most strongly among adolescents making them highly dependent on the urban tribe than they belong.

The great fallacy of this and abuse in our opinion, is the false freedom that young people, they think have gained at the moment of integrating some urban tribe, because they have used their "freedom of choice" (6) at the choose some option between of the catalogue of available urban tribes, taking decisions that benefit only the tribe in the short term, while longer to decide according to their own benefit in the long term, leaving the studies, breaking family relationships, in short, Mortgaging the future of youth in exchange for an quick existential solution when they choose for a predesigned identity, imposed by the pressure of the group or tribe and that nowadays is offered by the mass media in the "free market."

A phenomenon so complex, it requires a holistic conceptual framework that can make explicit its components and relations between them and the relationship with internal and external environment. In particular, the VSM provides a way to analyze communication’s problems thus clarifying; how, when and where, repair and control into the organization, helping to identify strategies to improve decision-making. Given the recursive nature of the VSM, is possible navigate within the phenomenon, through her different recursion’s levels and all its different components for each recursion’s level. Thereby help to the young population to understand the role than they have adopted, as consumption entity when they assume any of these subcultures. The punctually will be help to define more assertive and effective policies by health authorities, education and government in general and also help to someone person among young people to see themselves inside of a consumption dynamic and thus can leave the domain and enter to a meta-domain, with more wisdom and consciousness.

The Great East Japan Earthquake

Colin Harrison — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The frequency of natural disasters has increased sharply in the last 50 years and their impact - in terms of societies disrupted, the destruction of the productive capacity of land and waters and of public and private property, and beyond - grows faster with increasing densification and globalization of our societies. The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 exemplifies all of these problems. How do we put society back together after an event of this kind in the age of information and globalization? Japan’s culture strongly emphasizes inclusiveness, debate, and consensus and today we see the nation moving onward from disaster response and restoration and toward the planning of the reconstruction. This work is based on personal experience, beginning on March 11, 2011, of the opinions, challenges and approaches across Japanese society, which are compounded by a long period of economic stagnation. The paper will describe and illustrate the major impacts of the March 11th event and the methods employed during the response and restoration phases to secure the refugees and later to move them to more stable environments. Japan is now beginning a long and complex debate from the level of villages up to the central government about how to reconstruct the society and indeed what kind of society to reconstruct. Opinions vary from “re-build it as it was” to “a chance to re-invent Japan”. Cities and citizens are beginning the deliberative dialogues and the complexity of the decision-making begins to appear. The March 11th earthquake and tsunami heavily damaged a region that takes part in both global industrial and food supply chains and the event serves to underline the global inclusiveness that will be an increasing characteristic of major disasters. From radiation hazards, to food safety and GDP impacts, nations around the world feel that they are stakeholders in this event. We also see that information technologies can serve to increase the resilience of society but also introduce new risks. The notion of “Design for Resilience” emerges. Perhaps too we need some supra-national processes – akin to the roles played by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in stabilizing the global financial systems – to stabilize public safety, health, and industry.

A Theory of Smart Cities

Colin Harrison, Ian Abbott Donnelly — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

We entered the 21st century with a strong, global trend to increasing concentration of the population in relatively few, large cities. Large, dense cities can be highly productive, innovative, and per capita very green and hence desirable for our future. However the rapid influx of new citizens presents overwhelming challenges to their governments. Along with the positive benefits that accumulate from dense, diverse cities come in equal measure the negative aspects such as informal development, traffic congestion, waste management, and access to resources and crime. The demand for services is immediate, but the tax revenues to fund them come later. At the same time, globalization has connected cities on opposite sides of the planet in forms of competition previously unknown – for capital, for resources, and for the Creative Class. These challenges lead to experiments with new approaches to the planning, design, finance, construction, governance, and operation of urban infrastructure and services that are broadly called Smart Cities. Some of these approaches are related to emerging roles of information technology. A new professional community – the Urban Systems Collaborative – has formed to foster mutual learning among members of the architecture, planning, engineering, transportation, utilities, information technology, operations research, social sciences, geography and environmental science, public finance and policy, and communications profession. One of its hypotheses is a new theory of cities that makes use of new, rich sources of information about what is going on in the city. Among other things, it seeks to understand the impact that information technology can have on the urban fabric and norms of behaviour. Systems Science, in particular work on systems of systems and scaling laws, has provided new observations of urban systems at a macro-level. The Smart City provides new instrumentation that enables observation of urban systems at a micro-level. This paper describes steps towards a model that can unify the perspectives of the professions in the Urban Systems Collaborative. It begins with examples of Smart Cities and why this movement is so active. It describes how information technology plays roles in shaping new norms of behaviour intended to facilitate the continuing growth of dense populations. It then explains a key hypothesis of the Urban Systems Collaborative that the increasing accessibility of information will enable us to develop Urban Systems models that are capable of helping citizens, entrepreneurs, civic organizations, and governments to see more deeply into how their cities work, how people use the city, how they feel about it, where the city faces problems, and what kinds of remediation can be applied.

A Transdisciplinary World Model

Anthony Malcolm Hodgson — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The complexities and non-linearities of the world system are increasing the mismatch between the way we think about the world and the actual behaviour of the world. In systems science this is summarised by expressions like unintended consequences, counter intuitive outcomes, emergent properties, synchronous failures and unpredictable knock-on effects. This whole field has been summed up as the global problematique. Increasing the match between our espoused world models and the behaviour of the real world in policies, strategies and decisions requires a major shift to holistic transdisciplinary approaches

This paper will describe the innovation and pilot testing of a transdisciplinary approach to stimulating systemic interconnected thinking about complex issues from the global level (for example climate change) to the local level (for example increasing resilience in a village community). The approach is based on a world system model which is designed to promote holistic and transdisciplinary conversations across twelve key dimensions of sustainable communities. The model serves several purposes ranging from a ‘World Game’ that groups of people can play to strategic workshops which challenge decision making beyond conventional scenario planning methods, to ways of mapping global impacts of climate change.

The paper will summarise some of these application experiments but also describe some of the main foundations from systems thinking that underpin the model. These include multi-factor modelling, variety engineering, feedback coupling, and non-linear behaviour.

ANALYSIS OF CHINA'S ECONOMY SYSTEM FAILURE

Yi Hu — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Volume of real estate market in some China’s large cities decreased sharply in 2010. Based on rational reconstruction of some basic economic thought and analytical narrative of the real estate price bubble ,I conclude that it should be contributed to a big gap between demand and supply, and financial crisis would break out in the coming few month in China. I make proposal that government should be reducing state-owned share.

Systems Thinking Courses in the Master's Programme in Creative Sustainability at Aalto University: Reflections on Design and Delivery of the 2010-2011 Sessions

David Ing — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

In fall 2010 and winter 2011, two new courses in systems thinking were initiated as core curriculum in the master’s programme in Creative Sustainability at Aalto University in Finland. As intensive courses, each was to be conducted as three full days of lectures over eight days, with students fulfilling credit hour requirements both independently and in group activities over a two-to-three month period. To complement the teaching staff at the university, a researcher active in the systems science community was brought in from abroad as a subject matter expert for the two courses.

In the summer preceding the first session, a reading list for the courses was drawn from current leading sources in the systems sciences, starting from 2010 and linking back to prior references of relevance. Lectures were prepared as minimal critical specifications, with concepts mapped into clusters of references, with the majority of sources available electronically over the Internet. On each set of the three lecture days, the courses were delivered in a face-to-face classroom setting, coupled with group activities designed in the style of Singerian inquiring systems. Coordinating artifacts from the instructors evolved and were incrementally updated on a publicly-accessible web site, and students followed the social media style of posting their reflections on publicly-visible weblogs linked with notifications on an activity stream at a systems community hub.

Supplementing the chronological recollections of development and learning during the courses sessions, theoretical reflections constructed in hindsight may serve to inform the form and content of similar educational opportunities in other contexts.

Preparations are underway as the courses are being naturally evolved for a second cohort of students in fall 2011. The completion of one cycle of two courses presents an opportunity for reflections on the approach employed in the innovation/startup cycle, with considerations for improvements and/or replication for similar programs in the future.

Public Acceptance of Electric Vehicles in Toronto

Adam Ing — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Habitants of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) currently suffer from extreme commutes due to urban sprawl, lack of major roadways, and insufficient public transit. As gas prices continue to increase, people are constantly looking for ways to reduce their fuel costs and reduce carbon emissions, and battery electric vehicles can reduce both of these needs. The lack of charging infrastructure is causing “range anxiety” – fear of being stranded without power. As public charging stations become more common, range anxiety should be alleviated and allow for wider public acceptance.

Currently there are three main categories of electric vehicles: gasoline/diesel hybrid electric vehicle, plug-in electric hybrid, and battery electric vehicles. All of these vehicles have the common parts: electric motor, inverter, and battery.

There are 3 levels of battery charging: Level 1 charging is from a common electrical 110V outlet, and may take up to 20h to fully charge a depleted pack; Level 2 charging uses a 220V (washing machine) outlet, and will require 4-6 hours; Level 3 charging will complete in less than 30 minutes, and will be similar to a gas station.

Based on the acceptance of hybrid electric vehicles, early adopters aged 40 to 50 with at least a bachelors degree should adopt the technology first. Car sharing programs, taxis, and delivery trucks will also quickly adopt electric vehicles into their fleets because it is more economical than gasoline cars. Each of the 44 wards in Toronto were scored on population, age, household income, level of education, and number of daily auto trips. According to the normalized score, the first wards to adopt electric vehicle technology are wards 23, 22, 25, 27, and 16. Infrastructure should be built in these wards to accelerate public acceptance.

In the near future, automakers should: retrain their staff to service electric vehicles, focus on reducing car weight and size to maximize vehicle range, continue battery research and development, and determine how to properly dispose of batteries.

The Toronto government should follow lead of other governments and regulate gasoline prices, and provide tax incentives and subsidies to electric vehicles and infrastructure to promote adoption.

HAZAN-OZBEKHAN MODEL LIKE SOLUTION FOR SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS

Cirilo Gabino Leon Vega — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Communications systems offer different kinds of transmission and reception in voice, audio, video, broadband data, etc., this systems provide an efficient service and are have the best technology. To achieve this,we shown a proposed continuous improvement through technology management in the Mexican satellite system, like a way to improve user services to get them with speed, quality, less cost, security, etc.. This new proposals are based on the needs of the country, private and public institutions. This involves national and international managing of the aspects technological, political, social and economic.

This paper shows too, like are deploy the work of George Steiner, Russell Ackoff, HazanOzbeckhan to detect the Mexican satellite system problems.

Post Globalization: Economy, Systems Science & Academy

Jon Li — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

1. The global Internet means turning everything around so that you are the center of the universe, and it does revolve around you. The future poses many questions about our sustainability. Now what do you do?

2. Post Globalization, chaotic unpredictable economy, with escalating data pollution.

3. Pre-Globalization businesses and institutions are structured as rigid bureaucracies that focus on retaining the status quo over adapting to a changing environment.

4. A scientific tool, called the Viable System Model, lays out an empirically derived map of the communication/information/decision flows that are necessary and sufficient for sustainability, whether a person, a machine, a work group, an organization, or an economy. The closest similarity in the history of science is what the “cell” became as the basic unit for biology (Robert Hooke, 1665), VSM is for social science. The VSM was invented by Stafford Beer in England in the 1950s to identify communication problems in a steel mill. The VSM model of ONE single layer of a bureaucracy allows you to identify distinctions in relation to that layer’s metasystem and its subsystems. Several different layers’ communication conflicts can then be identified, and the structure redesigned so that some of the communication conflicts can be dissolved. We can now turn to a concept of management that has the power to manage, that is to say, it may do something now so that the future will be different from the future that would otherwise have been.

5. To be sustainable in the 21^st century, organizations must become more flexible and adaptive in new ways that the global internet encourages to the point of necessity not only for sustainability, but increasingly for survival at all.

The word that dominated the 20^th century was “growth”, and it has brought us to the point of global concern about the future. The word that encapsulates that concern for the future is “sustainability” which is broadly defined as the capacity to endure - elastic in the short run, resilient over time; in ecology, how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time; for humans, improving the quality of life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems; human organizational sustainability is defined in terms of viability.

In Cradle to Cradle: Remaking how we make things architect William McDonough advocates changing how we design and build everything so that it is either biodegradable or technically recycleable – redesign how we make EVERYTHING. In too many areas, the only solution is to do a much better quality job with a much smaller quantity of resources and effort.

Old Standards are Crumbling: The global economy suffered a meltdown September 2008 that has been masked by the US TARP bailout. All of the major countries in the Euro are running an accumulating deficit, ranging from Greece’s 130% of the country’s annual gross domestic product, and Italy’s 130%, to Spain’s 72%, France’s 92%, and Germany’s 80%, and all are growing worse. The Euro depends on Germany, but support is fading: according to a recent German poll, 20% thought the Greek rescue was right, and 47% opposed it. When Germany shifts back to the Mark, the Euro will disappear.

The US dollar has been growing trade deficit since 1993, and is held up with debt to the Chinese. The Chinese economy focuses on quantity at the expense of quality. China is poisoned by political repression and environmental tragedy: Of China's 1.3 billion people, at least 400 million breathe heavily polluted air, and over 300 million have no safe water supply. According to official statistics, about 30% of China's rivers are so dirty they aren't fit for even industrial or agricultural uses, let alone human consumption. More than 75% of the water in rivers flowing through China's urban areas is unsuitable for drinking or fishing. Sixty million people have difficulty getting access to water, and almost three times that number drink contaminated water daily.

The modern Chinese economic miracle of sustained growth, at per capita GDP increase of 7% per year for the entire 1978-2005, is the most sustained period of rapid economic growth in human history. But “Growth must be sustainable to deliver its benefits” and China has not figured that one out at all. According to a 2000 report by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, pollution costs the Chinese economy anywhere from 3 to 8 percent of GDP each year. In addition, ecological damage potentially costs another 5 to 14 percent. Even at the low end of these estimates, environmental damage is roughly equivalent to annual economic growth, meaning that the economy is producing no net national wealth at tremendous long term social and ecological expense.

The Viable System Model is a lens for looking at effective communication, especially between humans. At this time in history, most human organizations have poor communication channels, especially about adapting to the future. The VSM is a filter to help identify what would be useful, from now on. The mission of VSM is to identify an improved state of well-being, what Aristotle labeled “eudemony” and Thomas Jefferson called “the pursuit of happiness”.

As important as political democracy is, it is meaningless if we don't have economic democracy as well. As a working definition, “economic democracy” is a structured information environment where economic resource decisions are publicly transparent, so that a decision reflects who benefits as well as who pays, and individuals are held accountable for the consequences of group actions.

This is a discussion about re-conceptualizing our information world – so that the social systems work. About turning the economic information system inside out, so that instead of it being difficult for everyone, make it so intuitively useful that it is commonly practical and easy to obtain whatever information you need. Anatomically, a fig fruit is surrounded by its skin, all covered; if you invert it, and expose the fruit with the skin at the bottom, it is a strawberry. This idea is to invert the global economic information system so that it is easy to use. For everybody. Turn the global economic information system from a mystery that you spend your life losing out to (the “fig” that you cannot see into) into a transparent information structure that is designed for the user (the “strawberry” that you can see all the good parts whenever you need them).

WikiLife/WikiEconomy: a computer information idea for creating a global grassroots economy. Basically it is a dynamic information catalogue for all the parts of a woman's life: income, food, housing, health care, transportation, clothing, education, media, entertainment, taxes, managing the economy, public services, infrastructure, utilities. That information matrix has components that scale up physically/geographically: family, 10; neighborhood, 100; village, 1,000; community, 10,000; district, 100,000; and region, 1,000,000. Matrilineal?

Let’s face it: 3000+ years of patriarchy has failed. Socially, ecologically and evolutionarily.

The main purpose of this model is for the INDIVIDUAL to be able to have a standard grid for her to put all of the important information in her life in an organized way. It needs to be supportive of different scales of data, for unique people, to help her organize her way out of her problems and challenges, social, organizational, and economic – both as a consumer and as a producer.

Most of the global economy is hidden, and in a lot of trouble. This is a mechanism to turn the global economy inside out, so that most of it is transparent, and manageable. WikiLife/WikiEconomy is like the strawberry: you can see everything you want to look for. It is an information structure that allows many people to fill in the beginning of cells of a decentralized economy at the neighborhood, village & community levels locally, while other people will discover what is actually happening in the larger economy at the regional, state, national, continental and global levels. It would need to focus on the local community that makes up the environment of an individual and their extended family. Recognize tribal connections without allowing cultural traditions to prevent self-determination by every woman and her children. And it would need to be able to take into account the national/international economy.

Praxis: Consolidate California State Master Plan for Higher Education: One board/administration/budget: University of California (10 campuses), California State University (19 campuses), Community Colleges (108 campuses); coordinate regionally, cut administration in half.

Praxis: The University of California at Davis is the premier agricultural research institution with a recognized mission of global responsibility. This is a proposal to apply the Viable System Model to bring the campus of 30,000 students, 1900 faculty and 15,000 staff to a real time information system in two weeks, Design and Implementation. Outcomes: build a Viable System Model of the Planet for multi-species sustainability as the campus mission (“external”); build a Viable System Model of the University of California at Davis decision flow (“internal”); be able to measure 12 indicators daily (each made up of 10 indices) for both mission and decision process; total of 264 daily measures.

Subexperiences: the first VSM models of the Planet and of UCD will be like black and white Polaroid pictures from the 1950s, probably a dozen layers - that is what it looks like on the web site at the beginning of Design Week. By the end of Design Week, the web model is like Polaroids that have been painted over with water colors. Monday 8 am Implementation Week, part of it is iMovies, and part of it is Garage Band. By the end of Implementation Week, most UCD administrative staff should experience the web site as the coolest thing that Steve Jobs and James Cameron (“Avatar”) didn't think of first. Faculty, students, researchers, prospective students and their parents, the public and elected officials should feel like they are inside.

Praxis: Every community on the planet is now in an economic survival mode. This is a proposal to build a model of our (Davis's) economy, and the Tahrir Square Egyptian economy, and for a different set of challenging reasons, the economy/ecology of Northern Japan, with the idea being to build out of the rubble of the current information chaos towards a more sustainable future. The better you can understand the reality of the current situation, the more likely you can have a useful discussion about improvements and a course of mutually agreed future action. Too much of current decision taking is based on long obsolete data being presented as useful information.

Since the first of the year, a lot has changed in the world as the Middle East has taken on new meaning.

Tahrir Square was an anonymous car roadway and parking lot that squatters turned into many things:

- foremost, it is a real world symbol for the aspirations of the Egyptian people;

- Tahrir means freedom, so it is also a state of mind;

- History was earned there with courageous people sacrificing for the future;

- It can become a metaphor - for a respected place, in the tradition of the Greek Agora, a place where community is manifest;

- A safe area within a school, sometimes the whole school grounds, defined by the users.

To the question of quality, Stafford Beer’s answer is discovery, personal and social.

The All-in-One Model ∞

Kingkong Lin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

How to put all together is always a big question asked by systems science researchers. We have quite a few approaches to probe the question, and the best one of them is to use models.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the All-in-One Model ∞ may be the simplest one. First of all, we have to inquire into the General Systems Theory(GST) or Theory of Everything(TOE). There drive us to the question whether there has the General Systems Model(GSM) or Model of Everything(MOE).

It will be useful, to begin with, to make a distinction between three levels of models of theory. The three levels look like a upside-down triangle(▽). The most upper level is full of every kind of models of disciplinary theory, for example, Easton’s politics system model. The middle level is the models of multi-disciplinary theory, or trans-disciplinary theory. Parsons’s social systems model, Holling’s adaptive cycle model and CAS(Complex adaptive Systems) model are notable examples. The lowest level is the model of General Systems Theory, or Theory of Everything. Miller’s living system mode, Wilber’s AQAL model and Ritzer's Integration Model are the illustrations of the same point.

There are considerable evidences to prove that the All-in-One Model ∞ may be the simplest one in the lowest level. This article choses some representativeness of models of theory from the three levels, like Cybernetics, Game theory, Systems dynamics, Beer’s VSM, Checkland’s SSM, Flood and Jackson’s TSI, etc., and uses the All-in-One model ∞ to explain them and prove the generative appliance to all models of theory.

In the end of article, we propose that All-in-One model ∞ can be used widely in image search engine of www, and open a new method for image searching.

PERCIEVED ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AS A MODERATOR IN LEADERSHIP-OUTCOME RELATIONSHIP

Amber Jamil, Saima Naseer — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The purpose of this study is to examine the interactive effects of the perceived organizational politics and three leadership types (Transactional, Transformational and LMX) on three organizational outcomes (Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Job Performance). It is proposed that transactional leadership will have strong positive relationship with outcomes when perceived organizational politics is low whereas transformational leadership will have a strong positive relationship with outcomes when perceived organizational politics is high. It is also proposed that high quality LMX will have a strong positive relationship with outcomes when perceived organizational politics is high whereas the relationship between low quality LMX and outcomes will be stronger when perceived organizational politics is low.

How can the educational system enhance the capability of system thinking?

Anja Janischewski, Barbara Brock — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Climate change requires a reduction of the use of fossil resources – on the same time we still use more and more of them. – On one hand everyone wants to earn as much money as possible and on the other hand we want the government to pay for social security, education and other common needs. – Husband and wife are annoying each other and everyone blames the other one for being guilty.

These are just a few examples to demonstrate, how helpful system sciences could be in solving such problems. Looking back at our own school time we recognised, that in fact already children are able to think in systems in a certain way. Always when children or people in general learn anything new, they connect it to something they already know. Before we enter school, we are used to interdisciplinary learning, in school we start to section our knowledge into subjects.

The main flaw is represented by the fact that most of the exercises are set up in a manner that children are trained to unlearn system thinking. When we are adults, it is quite hard to change our thinking pattern. It is paradox that we try to learn something being an adult that we already knew as a child. Therefore we want to search for methods how to enhance the capability of system thinking during education in general.

Another reason why we chose this topic is that we are kind of specialists on it, because we just came from school and are attending the university. During our education we got to know methods to include system thinking and we want to share our experiences with you. Further more we looked for projects or methods, which already exist. For example:

1. “Netzwerk” – network, a project of interdisciplinary learning at a school in Austria

2. “Umweltsystemwissenschaften” – environmental-system sciences – a study course at the University of Graz, Austria

3. The experimental game “Schule als Staat”, in English: “a school transformed into a state” which took place at a school in Germany

4. Ecopolicy^® - the cybernetic strategy game by Frederic Vester

To evaluate these methods we asked users about their experience with them. In general we dealt with the following questions: How does the method work in general? What are the important points you should remember while introducing system thinking into educational systems? What are frequent problems that occur and which solutions can be found? Using this knowledge, we thought about ideas how to include system thinking in our education in a better way and wrote them down. Further more we made an analysis how system thinking in schools would affect our education and in the end the whole society.

HANDLING THE VARIABILITY OF INFORMATION PROCESSING IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS: AN INFORMATION SYSTEMS DESIGN PERSPECTIVE

Roberto R Kampfner — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The variability of the dynamics of a system introduces variability in the way in which information needs to be processed. Complex adaptive systems such as modern organizations usually include computer-based processes as part of the information processing aspect of their dynamics. According to an adaptability-programmability tradeoff (Conrad, 1985), however, despite the tremendous speed, capacity, accuracy, and communication capabilities of digital computers digital computing faces important challenges, especially when it comes to the support of unstructured processes or of processes where the variability of information processing is high.

In this paper we discuss an approach to handling the variability of information processing in a system as goal of the design of computer-based information systems. We use the view of information processing as an aspect of the dynamics of systems as a means of identifying the requirements that the dynamics imposes on the way in which information needs to be processed. Our approach considers the analysis of the degree of structure of the processes that participate in the dynamics, the uncertainty of the changes occurring in these processes, and the computational and adaptability properties of the processors available in the system. Central to our approach is finding a combination of digital computing, human intelligence, and other forms of information processing on whose basis a computer-based information system that effective supports the functions of the system and contributes to its adaptability can be designed. A function support principle of design and the adaptability-programmability tradeoff provide the necessary guidance.

Equifinality in Project Management

Maria Kapsali — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Projects are the best means of creating and diffusing innovation in complex and risky environments. However, surveys reveal that the majority do not achieve their goals and waste huge amounts of resources. Notorious examples are the NHS NPfIT project which has massively overspent its initial budget by £10 billion in addition to lagging behind completion by several years, and many multibillion EU funded projects involving innovations that were abandoned after the pilots. Research from academics and practitioners in the past two decades suggests that this failure is the result of using conventional project management methods, which fail to capture the serendipitous, evolutionary and experimental nature of the activities in innovation projects. Therefore the question remains as to the best method to manage projects that involve high levels of change. The results of my previous research based on multiple EU healthcare innovation projects revealed that a key concept taken from system thinking is most suitable to be developed into a method that helps managing change in projects. This concept, called equifinality, refers to the fact that similar results can be achieved flexibly through different trajectories and in spite of initial circumstances. However a robust method based on equifinality has not yet been established, which is the basis for this proposal. The research question is: How can the system thinking concept of equifinality be applied to current project methods, so as to empower project managers in the handling of change, thereby improving the achievement of their goals? This paper critically assesses the ways equifinality has been explored in previous research in other fields of management like operations and manufacturing, the discontinuous application of system thinking in management research and explores methods based on multiple case studies and triangulation through which equifinality can be explored further in project management. The issues of holism and interdisciplinarity are discussed as critical to the application of system thinking in project management. This research does not only provide a new theoretical framework. By taking a concept from one theoretical field (system thinking ) and applying it to another (project management), it proves that academia will benefit substantially because by crossing its disciplinary boundaries theory will be enriched through a more holistic way of organizing, improving both the relevance to practice of explanatory rigour of theory and methods

R-THEORY: A FURTHER COMMENTARY ON THE SYNTHESIS OF RELATIONAL SCIENCE

John Kineman — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

A plain language description of the author's 2010 synthesis of the late Dr. Robert Rosen's relational complexity theory is provided to explain some of the implications of that theory for current and future science. Priority directions for research are also discussed.

The Impact of Leadership in Applying Systems Thinking to Organizations

Brian Roy Martens — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Leadership plays a key role in bringing systems thinking into organizations and can foster or inhibit systems ideas being adopted. When leadership influences people to take a new look at the organization as a system, the people within the organization begin to see their relationships differently. They pay attention to how every thought and action affects everything in the organization and in their lives. Like the natural world, people start to look and think with a broader and deeper vision and realize how they depend on the relationships around them.

This paper focuses on the impact leadership is having on systems thinking in organizations, inspired by what the new sciences are finding out about systems and the impact of systems thinking in schools. Thinking systemically is a process that can begin at any point or level in an organization and is a much larger idea than I originally thought. Systems thinking is a natural way to look at the world and all the relationships and interconnectedness that are involved in its functioning.

Data were gathered from current practitioners and consultants who have an understanding of systems thinking and the impact it can have on organizations. These individuals bring their own skills and talents in the application of systems thinking to the clients and organizations they work with and show that thinking systemically can bring a new awareness, energy, and vitality to the work.

DESIGNING AND DEVELOPING “THE INTELLIGENT PROJECT (TIP)” USING THE VIABLE SYSTEM MODEL IN COLOMBIA

Clemencia Morales Montejo — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

A reflection of the impact of the certification for internationalize the software industry, considers understanding, solving, evaluating and implementing the TIP project using the VSM. The VSM was used as an organizational design tool for a better understanding of the software sector, and has been useful in developing the internal managerial capacity to adapt to internal and external change and opportunities.

Method for visualizing risk factors of system failures and its application to ICT systems

Takafumi Nakamura, Kyoichi Kijima — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper proposes a method for visualizing risk factors of system failures. This method enables us to visualize risk factors and monitor them over time and compare them among systems. This is valuable for promoting system safety and reliability. First we introduce a methodology of holistically defining system failure then introduce our method for quantifying the risk factors of system failures with an interaction and coupling (IC) chart using normal accident theory (Perrow, 1999). Defining system failure is done using system of system failure (SOSF) (Nakamura and Kijima, 2007, 2008b, 2009a) with a meta-system frame called system of system methodology (SOSM) (Jackson, 2003, 2006). System of system failure enables us to understand system failure holistically. The IC chart is used to classify object systems – nuclear power plants, chemical plants, aircraft and air traffic control, ships, dams, nuclear weapons, space missions, and genetic engineering- using interaction (i.e. linear and complex) and coupling (i.e. tight and loose) between the components that constitute such systems. The IC chart (Perrow, 1999) is limited by the subjectivity in classifying target systems. We propose a method for quantitatively measuring risk factors (i.e. objective) from incidents that have occurred over time to complement the current IC chart shortcoming (i.e. subjective). This enables us to understand system features and the effectiveness of countermeasures quantitatively introduced to object systems. There have been several findings with this methodology. It enables us to quantify the risk factors in terms of the IC chart. Stock exchange, meteorological, and healthcare systems are located sequentially from linear to complex interaction and tight to loose coupling. Intel Architecture (IA) servers’ quality control measures (i.e. educating engineers for becoming hybrid engineers and altering server design goal) cause a shift in the linear interaction and tight coupling directions with less incident rates. Healthcare systems are migrating toward the complex interaction and loose coupling direction with deteriorating system quality. The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) policy in the healthcare sector is one of the reasons for this migration. Application examples in information and communication technologies (ICT) engineering demonstrated that using the proposed method to quantitatively monitor risk factors will help improve safety and quality of various object systems.

Quantifying Qualitative OD Results: Dispelling the touchy-feely stigma

Lisa Nielsen — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Evaluation enables agility and ability to self-correct mid-course. It provides Organization Development (OD) practitioners with an opportunity to continually learn from their experiences to catalyzing the evolution and refinement of their tools and skills. Oddly, the field of OD does not have an extensive history of evaluation; the quality, scarcity and validity of its evaluations have been heavily questioned since the field’s inception. In contrast to the reflective rigor one might expect from a discipline that advocates high degrees of reflection from its clients, OD evaluations have provided largely anecdotal information; criteria for success has been subjective and testimonial in nature. This phenomenological research paper examines what forms of evaluation current OD practitioners utilize, what is missing from their approach, and the implications this has for the longevity of the field of OD. The ideological lineage of Behavioral Science epistemology leads to encouraging a type of empirically based evaluation practice, as represented in Campbell and Stanley’s (1963) 12 Threats to Validity that may not be a good fit for Behavioral Science consultants engaging in systemically scaled interventions in a business context. This paper makes recommendations for further developments in evaluation methodology that more aptly suit a capitalist marketplace.

GST PARADIGM FOR BUSINESS

Vincent O'Rourke — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Business is defined using General Systems Theory (GST) as a paradigm. As GST theory has been used and abused for over sixty years, the article first reviews GST to establish a basic substrate upon which the author’s views are based. Much of the literature in the field, in an attempt to develop GST into a polished, all-encompassing theory, includes every aspect and nuance that could be encountered. While the quest for this goal sheds new light on the theoretical side of GST, to the average business practitioner, or especially to the average student, applying GST to the study or evaluation of a business as a practical matter becomes more of a daunting challenge as the theory becomes more complicated. This article presents the business paradigm in the simplicity of the original concept of general systems theory, as offered by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, using the trusted, established concepts of business organization and management that have been studied, researched, applied, and taught for many years. The marriage of these business concepts to the explanatory power of general systems theory provides a model that is easy to understand, teach, and apply. The resulting business definition reflects von Bertalanffy’s concept of the applicability of GST to organizations.

Systems & Design Thinking: A Conceptual Framework for Their Integration

John Pourdehnad, Dennis Wilson, Erica Wexler — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper explores the relationship between Systems and Design Thinking. It specifically looks into the role of Design in Systems Thinking and how looking at the world through a systems lens influences Design. Our intention is to show the critical concepts developed in the Systems and Design Thinking fields, their underlying assumptions, and the ways in which they can be integrated as a cohesive conceptual framework.

While there are many important distinctions that must be considered to understand the similarities and differences of these concepts, gaining a complete understanding of these factors is more than can be covered in this paper. Nevertheless, the most critical classifying variable used to distinguish these concepts will be discussed in order to make their integration possible.

This variable, the recognition of purposeful behavior, will be used to develop a conceptual vision for how a combined approach can be used to research, plan, design and manage social systems.Systems in which people play the principle role.

DIALOGUE: CREATING SHARED MEANING AND OTHER BENEFITS FOR BUSINESS

Cecile Querubin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This qualitative, phenomenological study explores the process of dialogue built upon the method described by the physicist David Bohm. The study specifically explores the use of the process in business environments as a means to understanding its effects on the business. It describes the dialogue process and explores how it shifts both individuals and a group to a collective, shared understanding. This study describes the experiences of individuals who have facilitated and participated in dialogue processes in a business environment, and their personal accounts of those experiences. The author interviewed six professionals: three external consultants and three internal employees, for the study. It seeks to explore those experiences and show the benefits of shared meaning to business organizations. The findings of this study explain the challenges of introducing the process into a fast paced, task-oriented culture and the courage required by managers and subordinates to suspend roles and status. They explain how, when groups explore their own thinking and behavior together, as experienced in a dialogue circle, group awareness moves toward a shared understanding of problems and issues relevant to the group. They show how the participants of a dialogue process foster an awareness of systems thinking. Participants begin to operate from a position that acknowledges how their decisions affect other parts of the organization. The findings demonstrate the way the process allows the group to access what emerges as new possibilities for future action. The study identifies this state as presence, the necessary capacity for harnessing a group’s emerging future.

The Malik SuperSyntegration as the most effective and efficient tool for large-scale disaster response coordination

Anja Reissberg — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

My proposal is to use the Malik SuperSyntegration (MSS) as a tool to set up the most efficient and effective disaster response for catastrophic events – in as short as 2,5 or 3,5 days, organized right after the event.
MSS is a revolutionary highly innovative tool based on our 30 year research tradition in cybernetic management. This method is an extremely effective and efficient problem-solving tool with groundbreaking superlative results to deal with high complexity and solve the biggest challenges and the most pressing decisions of the top management level. It uses the power of up to 40 key players and their collective knowledge in the intelligence-enhancing, brain-interlinking architecture of the Syntegration.
It has three parts:
- an innovative cybernetic communication process for knowledge and intelligence enhancement
- our holistic management systems for effective and efficient functioning of organizations
- a menu of simultaneously implemented cybernetic instruments to control complexity
The decision process is speed up 100-fold and the people effectiveness is enhanced 80-fold. It is holistic and integrates 4 dimensions: technical, cultural, management/control and time level.
Right after a catastrophic event, as seen during Katrina and in Haiti, resources poor in and much efficiency and effectiveness is lost in the beginning due to coordination and information failures. This unique tool comes to solutions with enormous speed and implementation power to coordinate organizational networks. MSS has proven successfully in over 500 applications without failures, in the business and non-business sector. I am proposing to use this tool as a setup to coordinate disaster management efforts and enhance resource (time, money, manpower) efficiency by a great deal to help victims more quickly.
A more interlinked world needs more effective organizations. Cybernetic tools entail completely different, innovative and creative solutions for the business and non-business sector that the methods used today cannot provide.

Leadership Theories and Stories: An Open-Space Exploration

Shankar Sankaran — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Members of ISSS are being invited to participate in an interactive workshop to be held at the 55^th ISSS Meeting being held at the University of Hull, UK in August 2011 to explore four emerging Western leadership theories – authentic leadership, servant leadership, spiritual leadership and relational leadership with stories and narratives from non-Western cultures to build connections between these traditions. The workshop will be facilitated using an Open Space Technology Meeting format to initiate dialogue between participants to explore these connections and move from passion to action. The theme for the open space meeting is leadership research in not-for-profit charitable or church-based organizations in which the facilitator is deeply involved. The facilitator will briefly introduce the four leadership theories being discussed. He will then describe the Open Space Technology process and its four principles and one law. Participants will then announce discussion topics at the village marketplace that will be created during the workshop where storytelling is encouraged. Reflection and dialogue will take place in the open space (a circle of chairs with a space within) after these discussions. Summaries of discussions held at the marketplace will be collected and posted to all participants after the workshop.

This is the first of a series of similar workshops that are being planned. The workshop at Hull will be followed by a similar workshop at an action research conference in Brisbane, Australia in September 2011 and a workshop being planned in the US in October 2011. The themes captured from these workshops will form the basis of a paper to be published in the Proceeding of the 55^th ISSS meeting in 2012.

STUDY ON AN AUTONOMOUS INTELLIGENT CONTROL SYSTEM FOR AN ARM ROBOT WITH SPEECH RECOGNITION/SYNTHESIS THAT DOES NOT REQUIRE TEACHING

Yoshishige Sato — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper describes research conducted on an advanced, autonomous intelligent-type arm robot that does not require teaching, and that can execute spoken work commands and work reports through speech synthesis. This intelligent arm robot has been developed with the ability to recognize and determine the shape, color, and position of an object, and subsequently grasp the object.

SYSTEMIC APPROACH FOR CREATING AND MANAGING SYSTEMIC RESEARCH GROUPS: THE EXPERIENCE OF A BRAZILIAN RESEARCH GROUP

Mayara Segatto, Verônica Angélica Freitas de Paula, Dante Pinheiro Martinelli — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Universities, research and teaching institutes, as organizations, are influenced by social changes, which require more and more systemic action to deal with complex situations. They are supposed to act in a more systemic way, developing more practical solutions to fulfill the need for a stronger linkage between academic research - especially those in applied social sciences - and social transformations. The new regulatory specifications of academic action are also elements that contribute to incorporate the systemic view into the practice of research groups. It happens because they involve multiple dimensions of groups’ performance, such as qualifying students, demands for publications, attention to funding agencies, monitoring the activity of international research groups, establishing international partnerships with other organizations, keeping the linkage between publications and monitoring the state of the art in its area among others. As research groups are also responsible for training qualified people to handle such situations, it is important to consider that those groups could do their job in a more effective way if they apply systemic assumptions to their own existence. The systemic approach allows groups to be systemic on their own identities. Besides that, the systemic view can help research groups understand their reality more broadly, considering various aspects through the analysis of the relationships that are established during its performance. From a literature review, this article aims at demonstrating the importance of the systemic approach to the creation and maintenance of research groups, highlighting the potential benefits of adopting systemic assumptions to the management of such groups. Furthermore, this paper presents the experience of a Brazilian research group created in order to be systemic in its own identity, describing the benefits, challenges and constraints identified over time since its creation. This academic research group was planned and designed to be systemic, based on studies of Systems Theory, the Soft Systems Methodology and the Viable System Model. The group was created upon the systemic perspective, with specific goals and objectives. Meanwhile, it has evolved into a larger structure and had modified its goals and concerns, dealing with challenges to maintain the systemic profile and the systemic way of working. Thus, this paper aims at exposing what kinds of challenges research groups can undergo while intending to be systemic. In order to accomplish these goals, a single case study is used. This is a descriptive study, with qualitative approach. Both secondary and primary data are used. Semi-structured interviews with former and current members of the group are developed. The main results obtained include a description of the group studied showing its creation process, first accomplishments, evolution and current scenario. The main difficulties faced by the group members, as well as the solutions they have built, are also described, demonstrating the benefits of the systemic approach to the activities of research groups.

OBSERVATIONAL DECISIONS AND METAPHORS IN THE THEORY CONSTRUCTION PROCESS: THE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM METAPHOR

Duncan Robert Shaw, Timothy F H Allen — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Metaphors from ecology are common in business and the business research literature. Such metaphors are attractive because they potentially give access to new insights and they help to communicate complex issues. But there are dangers to using them erroneously. The role of metaphors in theory construction is to increase conceptual variety of theory to match the variety of the research problem. The process of theory construction includes many opportunities for increasing conceptual variety. The researcher’s role is to generate and filter candidate conceptual systems and the perspective of the researcher strongly affects the success of this role. Hierarchy theory is a theory of observation that helps us to define how the perspective of the researcher affects theory construction and the use of metaphors. We use this theory of observation to develop a model for avoiding error and bias whilst making best use of the researcher’s preconceptions and metaphors. We illustrate our model using to assess the business ecosystem metaphor, which is common in the business literature.

RADIO-HELP AS A SMART EARLY WARNING AND NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

Jan Skrbek — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Crises can occur on any day in our lives. Contemporary society is increasingly exposed to a multitude of situations where it is required to reconcile the diverse information needs of differing groups of people in different places. The consequential level of economic and human loss depends on timely and relevant information distribution together with appropriate guidance to actual and potential victims.

The sharing, distribution and dissemination of adequate information in special and unexpected situations is one of the crucial roles of any governmental level. Unfortunately this role is not always fulfilled correctly. The current emergency and communication systems, controlled mostly by governmental agencies, are currently unable to satisfy the existing information needs of individuals as well as distributing the required information only to affected areas. Critical deficiencies of current warning system are highlighted in the paper, including failure of information channels during electrical black-outs and absence of positional based broadcasting.

The article describes Radio-Help as a possible solution based on the integration and exploitation of existing ICT. The special broadcasting sender transmits in HD-Radio or DRM mode data and voice to Personal Communication Terminals (PCT) that are, for the most part, already integrated within mobile phones. The role of PCT is compared with that of position codes in digital broadcasting. Matching of internal and received codes activates radio reception in the target location. The Radio-Help receivers could be realized as an integral part of any audio/video devices.

This paper outlines systemic approach to alternatives based on the integration and application of Radio-Help system with respect to real problems using examples in transport and electricity distribution.

Feminist Systems Thinking: The effectiveness of practicing the principles

Anne Stephens — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Bringing together both systems theory and ecofeminism has produced an original set of principles that contain implications for community development and social research.

The ‘systems’ theory contribution the principles enriches our repertoires of methods and tools with an emphasis on systems thinking, characterised by the use of boundary analysis, and ideally situated to enhance systemic intervention practice (an application of action research and participatory research practices).

The ecofeminist contribution 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.

This workshop will briefly describe the principles and their origin, but provide practitioners to use the principles in an evaluation exercise to assess the value of the principles to community development projects. A case study will be presented to demonstrate recent findings, which will serve to scaffold practitioners own thinking as they explore the principles in the context of their own work.

A SYSTEMIC APPROACH TO IMPROVING PROJECT MANAGEMNT PERFORMANCE.

Paul Summers — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper describes how a systemic approach to problem solving was applied to improve project management performance in a UK unitary local authority. This will detail the background to the problem, the approach taken, how a solution was implemented and iterated in practice.

The starting position applied Vickers concept of appreciation reviewing the history and status of project management within the organisation with wide consultation and reflection to ascertain why despite previous interventions project delivery was poor. As part of this enquiry positive deviance was looked for and an appreciation of the reasons for such deviance. Following this appreciative inquiry a systemic framework was designed which built on successes and addressed identified areas of weakness.

The framework comprised three elements:

1. A methodology to ensure that projects undertaken are the right ones and they are done in the right way.

2. A learning and development suite of activities to improve competence.

3. A network of project managers to share good practice and lessons learned.

The framework is principles based to enable it to be applied in differing contexts and disciplines. In the context described in this paper the framework is built on good practice identified from project management and on a suite of learning and development activities to raise organisational capacity and capability to deliver projects successfully.

The methodology element was built on both academic and project management association’s Body of Knowledge together with personal experience and knowledge of project management gained from my Master’s degree studies 2003-5, certification as PRINCE2 and MSP practitioner and 25 years delivering projects in different sectors.

The second element involved the design and refinement of a suite of learning and development workshops based on the strategic requirement of the organisation. The main component is the licensed project managers development programme (LPMDP) a systemic approach to learning and development which created a learning environment. This programme is aimed at increasing learning ability and uses enquiry based and self-directed learning which is a radical departure from the traditional form of training usually encountered within project management and the UK local government sectors. The LPMDP emphasises the systemic nature of project management stressing context and perspective. The intention is to create a body of project managers who are adaptive in delivering projects having garnered thorough understanding of the activities and knowledge of the purpose of their projects.

The learning and development suite of workshops are designed with the intention of creating learners not knowers and to be transformative rather than transmissive with exercises designed to elicit information from the delegates and for them to learn from each other.

Action research was chosen as the research method during the implementation of the proposed framework, observing how this works in a unitary authority and evaluate the findings before iterating again. A key element in this method is that the process is iterated and the framework evolves over time. Using action research involved me as practitioner and the research is interpretive and subjective being based largely on interviews and observations. I am aware of my influence as a participant in the learning and development programme as a facilitator and my working within the boundary of the framework; this is a position which soft systems research argues is best.

This research has the potential for application throughout the public sector at a time when funding and value for money within the sector is coming under increasing pressure. The requirement to deliver projects showing a good return on investment is a key priority in the sector at the present time with budgets being greatly reduced following the Comprehensive Spending Review of 2010.

The Causal SWOT Analysis Using Systems Thinking As A Tool for Situational Analysis Workshop

Koichi Takahashi, Takashi Maeno — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

SWOT analysis is a tool for current situational analysis on organizational activities. It was developed as a framework to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of internal environment as well as opportunities and threats of external environment. Each quadrant in the framework explains its corresponding factors. On the other hand, the TOWS Matrix is developed as a tool for developing alternative strategies based on current situational analysis. The characteristic of the TOWS matrix is developing strategies that matches external environment according to the cross-tabulation table called Interaction matrix. Previous studies on both tools show that they have something in common, that is, with regards to the subject, they sort out factors in its corresponding quadrant and spot the problem present with the permutation analysis method. Also, with the TOWS matrix, alternative strategies are developed based on current situational analysis. The Causal SWOT analysis is a workshop technique that aims to share the perception about the present state and makes use of the concept of Causal loop and Leverage Point in Systems Thinking. In The Causal SWOT analysis, internal variables related to subject and cause-and-effect-relationship of external variables is tied together with an arrow. The arrows showing the cause-and-effect relationship between variables are saved for the decision making process. While viewing the causal relation chart that has many arrows, participants discover independent variable that has multiple dependent variables. According to the leverage point specified, verification is done with regards to holding the workshop a few times so as to convince participants.

Design and manage local organic food supply chains: Benefits of using Soft Systems Methodology

Elena Tavella, Carsten Nico Hjortsø — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Local organic food supply chain partners face uncertainties such as poor collaboration, communication and information sharing that cannot be reduced through the application of traditional, quantitative supply chain design and management techniques. Such techniques are known to improve supply chain coordination and efficiency, but they do not adequately consider major aspects of local organic food supply chains such as ethics, sustainability and human values that influence decision making and thus, supply chain activities. Supply chain design and management approaches suitable to small-scale, local organic food enterprises are lacking and need to be developed. The aim of this paper is to suggest Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as a new and suitable approach to design and manage local organic food supply chains. We illustrate how SSM can be used to reduce uncertainties within local organic food supply chains based on a German case study within the organic cereal sector. This illustration serves to identify benefits of using SSM compared with ad hoc, pragmatic and less structured approaches. Organisation of thought, intervention and change, as well as action-oriented, meaningful and participatory decision making are the major benefits. SSM is a promising alternative to traditional supply chain design and management techniques, and an approach to enable long term collaboration, coordination and communication along local organic food supply chains.

BOUNDARY GAMES: A LANGUAGE AND INTENTION BASED FRAMEWORK FOR BOUNDARY CRITIQUE

Jorge Ivan Velez-Castiblanco — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Exploring ways to understand the boundary of a problematic situation is fundamental to intervention. The boundary draws a difference between what is relevant and what is not relevant for the problem situation. In other words, it points out what it is and is not the system. Boundary Critique Theory, has used the notion of boundary to built ways to examine and reflect critically about the intervention process. It has developed ways to manage situations such as conflict, exclusion and the generation of reasonable discourse among the participants. These developments use ideas from sources such as critical theory, pragmatic philosophy, sociology, biology and cybernetics. This paper contributes to the range of theories informing Boundary Critique by adding a framework of Boundary Games. The framework is based on Wittgenstein’s Language Games and Relevance Theory (a theory from Language Pragmatics). It shows new ways to reflect on the actions and language on a setting. Particularly, it proposes six possible “moves”, intentions or games in relation to the boundary. The framework implies a shift in how the boundary is usually managed in Boundary Critique, from a boundary that shapes our actions towards a boundary that is shaped by every action.

The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence

Vincent Vesterby — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

George Henry Lewes introduced anthropomorphism into the emergence literature. This opened the way for attempts to define emergence with factors that are not relevant to its intrinsic nature. In this paper, the general context of emergence in the universe is presented, mainly in terms of general systems understanding. This is followed by a descriptive definition of the intrinsic nature of emergence, and a discussion of how the process of emergence changes due to the roles of various factors.

Material-reality is composed of elementary particles organized into seemingly endless patterns-of-organization of material structure and process. The difference between the smaller or the simpler patterns and the larger or the more complex patterns is the quantity of elementary particles and the patterns-of-organization of those particles.

Reality is that which exists. There is but one reality—all that exists. Reality develops, that is, everything that exists takes part in one way or another in a universally omnipresent transition, a sequential-difference from one time, place, part, pattern, level, condition, or situation to another involving some form of enhancement.

Emergence is a type of development. Emergence is a general-factor, a process-pattern-of-organization that plays a universal role in the coming into existence of new pattern-of-material-organization as a consequence of motion. Emergence itself develops, occurring in simple form in situations where few factors are playing roles, and in more complex form in situations where more factors are playing roles. Some additional factors that result in the foundational developments of emergence are combinatorial-enhancement, contact, causal push, throughflow wherein the flow of energy reorganizes matter and blocking matter reorganizes the flow of energy, and coherent bonding of one part of matter with another. Emergence is intrinsically determinate in that, in the process of emergence, the existence and intrinsic qualities of what goes before determine the existence and intrinsic qualities of what follows. Both complexity and the hierarchic organization of material-reality are consequences of emergence.

General Systems and the Process of Creating a Painting

Pamela Vesterby, Vincent Vesterby — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper describes the developmental procedure Pam uses as a watercolor artist, and points out some of the general systems factors that play roles in her process. The discussion compares the forms of these factors in Pam's process with their general descriptive definitions. These descriptive definitions are from the published work of Vincent Vesterby from 2007 to 2010, and from current work.

Twenty-two general systems factors were identified in relation to portrait painting: (1) initiator, (2) consequent-existence, (3) self-identity, (4) transformation-point, (5) situation, (6) situation-development, (7) precursor, (8) structural-logic, (9) general-factor, (10) design-archetypes, (11) psychological-archetypes, (12) combinatorial-enhancement, (13) bonding-coherence, (14) organizational-coherence, (15) template, (16) direct-transitional-factor-development, (17) sequentially-direct-precursor, (18) reality-referent, (19) feedback, (20) self-organization, (21) deep-structure, and (22) emergence.

Many of these factors play roles at the spatial, temporal, and material foundations of reality, at the foundations of all that exists. That they are also present and playing their roles in the creation of art, which requires the extraordinary complexity of living systems, conscious awareness, culture, and creativity, demonstrates the universality of general systems.

The Transformative Nature of the Good Argument: Reason and Care as the Foundation for the Transformation of Human Systems

E John Vodonick — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This essay addresses the use of language--spoken, written and implied--in a specific way, and the transformational effect of the use of that specific form of language on the subject and the family, neighborhood, community and other organizations within which the subject exists to lay the foundation for the good argument. Specifically, the nature of discourse ethics and the effect of discourse ethics upon the person and the community are explored through the development of Habermas' (1981/1987) discourse ethics as part of the subset of his theory of communicative action within the larger context of his enlightenment project. A review of the theme of reason as the foundation of Habermasian discourse ethics and the presentation of examples of the appropriation of discourse ethics in human deliberative settings will demonstrate the practical relevance of this discussion. By looking at the feminist critiques of Habermasian discourse ethics, the theme of caring becomes apparent as an enhanced (or new) foundation for ethical discourse.

Next, examples from recent empirical studies in democratic institutions are presented to demonstrate the applicability of discourse ethics from the Habermasian and feminist points of view. I then show the expansion of the ethic of reason to accommodate an ethic of care through the development of human rights and the human transformation that grows from that development. Finally, the essay questions the argument that there is an inherent incompatibility between reason and care. In this exploration, it is argued that reason and care are not necessarily best conceived of as related to male or female identity or personality, nor are they mutually exclusive as ethical norms. Rather, the addition of care as an ethical foundation of discourse will bring about the transformation of human beings and the human systems in which they participate.

In this essay, a neo-pragmatist interpretation of reason, as opposed to the classic Kantian interpretation is developed. While Kantian reason may be a useful tool to measure normative conduct, it is not the only tool. The use of care as a moral norm is also useful as a tool. This presentation will demonstrate that the use of a combination of care and reason as a justification for a claim of communicative validity is transformative of the person and the community. Both are necessary for the good to exist in what I am calling a good argument. Both are compatible with the neo-pragmatic understanding of reason.

SYSTEMS PRACTICE IN ENGINEERING: REFLECTIONS ON DOCTORAL LEVEL SYSTEMS SUPERVISION

Mike Yearworth — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) in Systems, a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the University of Bath, offers an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Systems Programme which is aimed at high-calibre engineers from graduate level to early/mid-career stage with the purpose of developing the systems-thinking capabilities of future leaders in industry. Research Engineers on this programme are based ~75% of their time in industry and focussed on a research project defined by their sponsoring company. This paper presents a personal reflection on the role of the systems supervisor on this programme with a focus on four areas of particular interest to the author i) alignment of industry needs and academic research, ii) developing an appreciation for the need for systems thinking, iii) navigating the systems literature, and iv) teaching research methods for doctoral research in systems. The purpose is to encourage and engage in debate on the development of systems practice in engineering.

RELATIONAL SCIENCE: A SYNTHESIS

John Kineman — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This paper proposes a synthesis of two avenues of development of relational complexity theory that have followed the work of Robert Rosen (1934-1998). These avenues are: (1) further development of Rosen’s causal entailment in category theory (Rosen 1978 Rosen 1985 Rosen 1991 Rosen 1999 Louie 2009); and (2) contextual entailment based on Rosen’s modeling relation (Rosen 1985 Rosen 1991 Rosen 1999 Kineman 2007 Kineman 2008 Kineman Banathy and Rosen 2007 Kineman and Kumar 2007). These two tracks represent different theory structures that have not been fully integrated to date. Category theory describes causes in terms of entailments expressed as mappings between sets of a domain and co-domain. Modeling relations describe a complementarity between descriptive and, as argued here, prescriptive potentials of a system and their natural realizations; mediated by information relations. The synthesis presented here combines these two theory tracks to bring their mathematical and graphical systems of analysis into correspondence with each other and with a natural interpretation of causality. Such a synthesis requires asking if the current causal mapping algebra is sufficiently comprehensive to describe natural modeling relations, or alternatively, if the application of modeling relations as a fundamental analysis of nature requires additional algebraic elements.

TACIT KNOWLEDGE EXTRACTION FOR SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION (SRS): A PROPOSAL OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY DESIGN AND EXECUTION FOR KNOWLEDGE VISUALIZATION

Tunc Medeni, Serbülent Ünsal, Meryem Ayas, İhsan Tolga Medeni — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Knowledge extraction and visualization is becoming an important research area for the organizations in order to get and share the knowledge. Most important and useful part of the knowledge extraction and visualization is dedicated to tacit knowledge.

There are already known methods to acquire the tacit knowledge. Yet, these methods are mostly general approaches applicable to all the areas in need of tacit knowledge extraction and become too abstract when applied to a specific domain. One such specific domain is the requirement specification process for the software project development. Our own experiences in the area as well as the scientific researches have shown that Software Requirement Specification (SRS) process has field-specific problems that need to be eliminated by using the suitable tacit knowledge extraction techniques. For example, the experts and/or users may not have a clear idea of their requirements. They may also be technically unsophisticated or have different vocabularies than the software developers. Benefiting from the existing body of academic literature in the related fields, as well as co-authors' experience from their domains of practice, this paper aims to find the concrete methods for extracting the tacit knowledge in the area of software project development with specific implications for these academic fields and practice domains, as well as more general suggestions for all related or concerned.

To provide a base for future work, the paper also presents a proposal that aims to develop a tacit knowledge visualization framework to support know-where requirements of the organizational knowledge. With the implementation of our framework in a software application, it is aimed to create a virtual environment, where subject-based knowledge requirements will be answered by the visualized tacit knowledge of individuals and possibly the relations among individual members of the organization.

Knowledge Science – Modeling the Knowledge Creation Process

Yoshiteru Nakamori — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Knowledge science is a problem-oriented interdisciplinary field that takes as its subject the modeling of the knowledge creation process and its application, and carries out research in such disciplines as knowledge management, management of technology, support for the discovery, synthesis and creation of knowledge, and innovation theory with the aim of constructing a better knowledge-based society. This paper considers what knowledge science should be, introducing a forthcoming book entitled Knowledge Science – Modeling the Knowledge Creation Process (Nakamori ed., 2011). The authors of this book are experienced researchers in knowledge science with the background of systems science, and core members of the International Society for Knowledge and Systems Sciences. This book introduces six important concepts in knowledge science, which are knowledge technology, knowledge management, knowledge discovery, knowledge synthesis, knowledge justification, and knowledge construction. Finally, the paper briefly describes a theory of knowledge construction systems; its fundamental part was already published in Systems Research and Behavioral Science (Nakamori et al., 2011)

SYSTEMIC VISION TOWARD THE STUDIES OF WU-LI SHI-LI REN-LI SYSTEM APPROACH

Xijin Tang — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Since the Wu-li Shi-li Ren-li system approach proposed by Jifa Gu and Zhichang Zhu at the University of Hull in November of 1994, the studies on WSR system approach undergo continual development. As an oriental system approach, WSR is mainly based on systems practice in China. With a collection of literatures relevant to WSR system approach, we apply the iView, a supporting technology toward qualitative meta-synthesis, to those literatures to show a systemic vision towards the studies on WSR system approach. The scopes, especially the practical areas are detected. Moreover, the main themes and expansions of topics are detected at different periods. The results are based on computing and visualized for better understanding and exploratory analysis. Such a study not only shows the development of WSR studies, but also exhibits that the iView analysis is an effective technology to support such kind of qualitative study.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: A PRACTICAL GUIDE

Zhichang Zhu — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Knowledge is increasingly regarded as the only sustainable source for continuous innovation and competitive advantage of persons, organisations and nations in the 21^st century where economies and human-ecology well-being are said to be knowledge-based, and knowledge management as an indispensable means for survival, growth and betterment. Adopting a pragmatist and holistic perspective, this article introduces readers to the theories and practices of knowledge-oriented management in organisations, which covers purposeful coping of three differentiated yet related areas: knowledge assets, knowing processes and knower relations. It suggests that a systems approach that promotes synergy between efficiency, creativity and legitimacy will increase opportunities for organisations in the search for competitive advantage and sustainable prosperity.