My Systems Thinking Before and After a Year of Social Systems Sciences

The paper reflects on the following three systems thinking books: Fred E. Emery & E L Trist. Towards a Social Ecology, Plenum Press, New York, 1973: Due to many references both personal and in print made to Eric Trist, and, to a lesser degree, Fred Emery, I wanted to familiarize myself with their work. Russell L. Ackoff & Fred E. Emery. On Purposeful Systems, Intersystems, Seaside CA, 1972: I had wanted to read it since having sat in on several sessions of your course in behavioral variables last spring. Russell L. Ackoff. Creating the Corporate Future, J. Wiley & Sons, New York, 1983: Assigned for the course. I went ahead to read the whole thing in order to get started on our interactive design project, and also to do my own personal idealized design

A Revolution in Organizational Concepts

The postwar period has been variously referred to as the postindustrial age or the age of the computer. However, to best appreciate the fundamental changes characteristic of our era, we must address ourselves to the revolutionary new kinds of thinking being considered and adopted throughout our society

On the design of systems-oriented university curricula

This paper proposes a tool called the Systems Education Matrix (SEM) for use in informing the work of developers of systems-oriented curricula at colleges and universities around the world. The SEM was developed by Team 1 at the 2008 IFSR Fuschl Conversation held at Fuschl am See in Austria. In order to manage the complex problems we are dealing with today, systems thinking is essential. It is clear that systems education should be acknowledged as an important 'scientific method' that can help today's society to deal with the complexities of contemporary issues. To serve this role effectively, systems education needs to be focused towards the various needs that exist. The members of Team 1 have focused on the nature of systems education that will be required to not only train systems specialists, but to make systems thinking and analysis an integral part of discipline focused research and management

Motivaciones de los jóvenes para beber en grupo y consecuencias personales, sociales y medioambientales

Partiendo de los tipos psicológicos de Jung y de investigaciones previas de los investigadores Russell L. Ackoff y Fred Emery , los investigadores buscan las razones por las que los jóvenes beben en grupo los fines de semana. Formulan cinco hipótesis y, después de administrar un cuestionario a 625 jóvenes de cuatro ciudades españolas- Madrid, Valencia, Oviedo y Albacete- creen que quedan confirmadas las hipótesis. Estas conclusiones muestran que entre los jóvenes bebedores aparecen representados los cuatro tipos psicológicos de Jung, con sus hábitos de bebida respectivos. Las combinaciones de estos tipos, que se detallan, están presentes en las respuestas dadas por los jóvenes, y explican sus comportamientos y hábitos sociales, familiares, emocionales e incluso medio-ambientales. Tanto las conclusiones específicas como las generales pueden servir de base para que las Instituciones organicen planes de comunicación para tratar adecuadamente la práctica de beber en grupo en sus aspectos personales, sociales y medioambientales

A Systems Thinking Approach to Redesigning the Patient Experience to Reduce 30 Day Hospital Readmission

INTRODUCTION The cost of medical care is spiraling out of control, and one of the many reasons is lack of preventative care, poor communication to the patient and primary caregiver(s) both in an inpatient and outpatient setting. There are potentially many reasons for this cost escalation, one of the drivers of this cost is 30 day readmission after a hospitalization and this is what was examined in this analysis. The purpose of this paper in particular is to share what has been learned using a systems thinking approach to hospital readmissions and the patient experience. It is critical to understand the problems that occurred in the past. In addition, we will explain the methodology utilized and bring awareness to the iterative process. We will also demonstrate a suggested redesigned model

Systems thinking and practice for action research

This chapter offers some grounding in systems thinking and practice for doing action research. There are different traditions within systems thinking and practice which, if appreciated, can become part of the repertoire for practice by action researchers. After exploring some of these lineages the differences between systemic and systematic thinking and practice are elucidated – these are the two adjectives that come from the word 'system', but they describe quite different understandings and practices. These differences are associated with epistemological awareness and distinguishing systemic action research from action research. Finally, some advantages for action research practice from engaging with systems thinking and practice are discussed

Strategic Leadership Newsletter: Volume 4, Number 2

Jefferson Strategic Leadership Newsletter reports information relevant to the Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) Doctor of Management Program in Strategic Leadership (DSL) and its community including personal and professional events and accomplishments, new practices, research, opportunities, and suggestions

Public policy that does the right thing rather than the wrong thing righter

Motivated by the reprisal of ‘wicked problems’ in Australian public policy discourse we make the case for understanding climate change adaptation, water and river managing, and other complex, uncertain, natural resource issues as ‘wicked problems’. This ‘framing’ of social planning dilemmas dates back 40 years yet public policy practitioners still do not seem well equipped in terms of understandings and practices to engage with these situations and to effect systemic improvements. Drawing on a decade of research in Europe we make the case for investing in social learning as an alternative governance mechanism and as a form of praxis for managing in ‘wicked problem’ situations. We outline our main research findings to explain how we understand and enact social learning. In doing so, we also draw on the Open University UK’s 35 years of experience of teaching systems thinking and practice for managing ‘wicked problems’. We conclude by opening up an invitational space to explore the commonalities and differences in research on social learning with that on deliberative practices and governance