Navigating the gap between purposeful action and a Serving Information System

Thesis from De Montfort University, Milton KeynesThis work has been directed at the problem of developing practical means of supporting those involved in a problem situation, in designing their own information systems. The research is underpinned by an interpretive stance, and assumes that information systems are created to support purposeful action in continuously socially constructed organizational settings. It is argued that the initial phase of information system design necessitates undertaking sense making to create a shared appreciation of the situation amongst those involved. One of the main difficulties of designing technology-based information systems is that the methods suited to sense making in social situations are entirely different to the methods and techniques that have been employed to marshall knowledge into a suitable format to facilitate software design. The work offers the notion of navigating an inquiry process from a focus on creating ideas for purposeful action, to creating a logical specification for a technology-based information system. To facilitate this shift in focus, some explicit intellectual devices, or navigational devices, are offered, to structure and support further debate. These navigational devices enable those involved in the situation of concern, the clients, to conceptualise how purposeful action might unfold in the real world, so that some ideas for a serving system can be considered. Previous work addressing this problem area has been criticised for failing to provide a coherent movement from any ideas for purposeful action, to a logical specification for a supporting technology-based information system. By regarding the process of Client Led information system design as a collaborative sense making effort, the design process can be regarded as a learning system, or an appreciative system in Vickers' sense. By employing the same principles of inquiry throughout the design process and by using devices that maintain a similar view of any potential action, it is argued that a sense of coherence can be maintained and this is supported by experiences from practice.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) within the second round of the programme: Systems Engineering for Business Process Change (SEBPC, 1996

Exploring Comparative Advantage in the Context of Climate Change with Māori Organizations

Purpose –The purpose of this research is to investigate perceptions of comparative advantage in the context of climate change with Māori organizations in New Zealand. This study seeks insights, from an alternate paradigm into how concepts within strategy, such as values and identity, can help to achieve comparative advantage in an increasingly carbon constrained world. Design/methodology/approach – Peter Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) has been employed as a framework for exploring Māori perceptions of achieving comparative advantage in the context of climate change in order to identify areas of transformation and define actions. A total of 10 organizations active in land-based sectors in New Zealand participated in this research study. Findings – The key area of action, or transformation, identified through the research process was for Māori organizations, and New Zealand more broadly, to be aware of the potential comparative advantage that Māori organizations have in the context of climate change. Research limitations/implications – While Soft Systems Methodology and Kaupapa Māori principles were applied to this research, a full participatory action research approach was not possible due to time and resource constraints. The participatory nature of the research could be expanded by narrowing the scope to one organization in order to see the methodology through to implementing actions. Originality/value – This research highlights the importance of perceptions in achieving action on climate change, by understanding where organizations may have a particular comparative advantage given their unique values and identity. It has value within the New Zealand economy, and potentially for businesses struggling with how to incorporate climate change into their business strategy globally

A Case Study Using Soft Systems Methodology in the Evolution of a Mathematics Module

This paper describes the application of Soft Systems Methodology as a tool for facilitating the review of a taught mathematics module so that the views of those engaged with the module could be captured and conflicting expectations and views highlighted. Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology is used since it enables the capture of stakeholder views and addresses both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ aspects of the learning experience. Stages in the application of Soft Systems Methodology are illustrated including the development of a rich picture and conceptual models and the work was conducted using a stakeholder group that included students taking the module (surveyed by questionnaire) and discussion with staff involved in the design and delivery of the material. Changes made to the delivery of the module are described particularly in the way that student support is delivered. The benefits derived from the application of this methodology are illustrated together with module monitoring and control mechanisms that help to trace the development of students. The paper argues that the application of this approach can enhance the understanding that faculty members have of student perceptions of a module, allows individual views to be understood and challenged and that this type of learning cycle undertaken periodically can be used to structure the evolution of a taught module

An exploration of executive coaching as an experiential learning process within the context of the integrated experiential coaching model.

This research project involved a phenomenological exploration of executive coaching as an experiential learning process within the context of the Integrated Experiential Coaching Model. This model proposes that executive coaching is about facilitating integrated experiential learning in individuals in order to facilitate personal growth and development with the aim of improving individual and organizational performance. It is not therapy. It is integrated in that it caters for Schumacher’s Four Fields of Knowledge and Wilber’s Integral Model which caters for personal development through various levels of consciousness, especially in the personal and transpersonal levels. It is experiential in that it uses Kolb’s Experiential Learning model as the injunction and uses Harri-Augstein and Thomas’s concept of Learning Conversations as the primary learning tool. An adapted version of the Transcendental Phenomenological Methodology of Moustakas was chosen to explore and discover the meaning and essence of the learning experience while being coached within the context of the Integrated Experiential Coaching Model. It was hypothesised that the Integrated Experiential Coaching Model facilitated both the prehension and transformational dimensions of Experiential Learning in individuals. The co-researchers understood and owned some significant behavioural dynamics inside of themselves, as well as between themselves and other significant colleagues. This underlines the possibilities of coaching as a staff development intervention to facilitate self-authorisation by working through one’s own unconscious and dynamic behavioural issues. It was hypothesised that coaching presented from this model empowers individual employees to work towards their own cognitive insight, the experience of emotional meaningfulness and taking of responsibility for their own growth and career development

Using SSM in Project Management: aligning objectives and outcomes in organizational change projects

This paper aims to contribute to the use of SSM in Project Management, by exploring what happens in a real-world organisational change projects when stakeholders seem to agree in a set of initial-objectives and final-outcomes of the project. SSM Analyses are then use to explore the misalignments between initial-objectives and final-outcomes along the project life cycle. Initial results suggest that SSM helps to “shadow” these misalignments when structuring an unclear complex situation such as organisational change projects and that the application of SSM facilitates negotiations, generates debate, understanding and learning. This leads to meaningful collaboration among stakeholders and enables key changes to be introduced reflecting on the potential misalignments. Results also support SSM analysis of changes in role, norms or value adversely influencing project outcome

Organization based multiagent architecture for distributed environments

[EN]Distributed environments represent a complex field in which applied solutions should be flexible and include significant adaptation capabilities. These environments are related to problems where multiple users and devices may interact, and where simple and local solutions could possibly generate good results, but may not be effective with regards to use and interaction. There are many techniques that can be employed to face this kind of problems, from CORBA to multi-agent systems, passing by web-services and SOA, among others. All those methodologies have their advantages and disadvantages that are properly analyzed in this documents, to finally explain the new architecture presented as a solution for distributed environment problems. The new architecture for solving complex solutions in distributed environments presented here is called OBaMADE: Organization Based Multiagent Architecture for Distributed Environments. It is a multiagent architecture based on the organizations of agents paradigm, where the agents in the architecture are structured into organizations to improve their organizational capabilities. The reasoning power of the architecture is based on the Case-Based Reasoning methology, being implemented in a internal organization that uses agents to create services to solve the external request made by the users. The OBaMADE architecture has been successfully applied to two different case studies where its prediction capabilities have been properly checked. Those case studies have showed optimistic results and, being complex systems, have demonstrated the abstraction and generalizations capabilities of the architecture. Nevertheless OBaMADE is intended to be able to solve much other kind of problems in distributed environments scenarios. It should be applied to other varieties of situations and to other knowledge fields to fully develop its potencial.[ES]Los entornos distribuidos representan un campo de conocimiento complejo en el que las soluciones a aplicar deben ser flexibles y deben contar con gran capacidad de adaptación. Este tipo de entornos está normalmente relacionado con problemas donde varios usuarios y dispositivos entran en juego. Para solucionar dichos problemas, pueden utilizarse sistemas locales que, aunque ofrezcan buenos resultados en términos de calidad de los mismos, no son tan efectivos en cuanto a la interacción y posibilidades de uso. Existen múltiples técnicas que pueden ser empleadas para resolver este tipo de problemas, desde CORBA a sistemas multiagente, pasando por servicios web y SOA, entre otros. Todas estas mitologías tienen sus ventajas e inconvenientes, que se analizan en este documento, para explicar, finalmente, la nueva arquitectura presentada como una solución para los problemas generados en entornos distribuidos. La nueva arquitectura aquí se llama OBaMADE, que es el acrónimo del inglés Organization Based Multiagent Architecture for Distributed Environments (Arquitectura Multiagente Basada en Organizaciones para Entornos Distribuidos). Se trata de una arquitectura multiagente basasa en el paradigma de las organizaciones de agente, donde los agentes que forman parte de la arquitectura se estructuran en organizaciones para mejorar sus capacidades organizativas. La capacidad de razonamiento de la arquitectura está basada en la metodología de razonamiento basado en casos, que se ha implementado en una de las organizaciones internas de la arquitectura por medio de agentes que crean servicios que responden a las solicitudes externas de los usuarios. La arquitectura OBaMADE se ha aplicado de forma exitosa a dos casos de estudio diferentes, en los que se han demostrado sus capacidades predictivas. Aplicando OBaMADE a estos casos de estudio se han obtenido resultados esperanzadores y, al ser sistemas complejos, se han demostrado las capacidades tanto de abstracción como de generalización de la arquitectura presentada. Sin embargo, esta arquitectura está diseñada para poder ser aplicada a más tipo de problemas de entornos distribuidos. Debe ser aplicada a más variadas situaciones y a otros campos de conocimiento para desarrollar completamente el potencial de esta arquitectura

Visionary Realism And The Emergence Of A Eudaimonistic Society: Metatheory In A Time Of Metacrisis

This thesis aims to support the conditions for the emergence of a eudaimonistic, freeflourishing planetary society by helping ignite the potentials of metatheory as a transformational cultural force vis-à-vis our complex twenty-first century challenges. I argue that metatheory in its appropriate form provides indispensable intellectual scaffolding for the crucial psycho-spiritual, cultural, and social transformations demanded by these interconnected global challenges, or what I call the metacrisis. I advance these aims, first, by reflection on the nature, role, and function of metatheory in geo-historical context, articulating a vision for the revindication of metatheory as integrative metatheory 2.0; and, second, the development of the contours of a particular metatheory through an exploratory-dialogical encounter between what are arguably amongst the most comprehensive and sophisticated integrative metatheories arising in the wake of postmodernism: namely, critical realism, founded by Roy Bhaskar (1944–2014), and integral theory, founded by Ken Wilber (1949–). Thus, in this thesis, I deploy the methodology of hermeneutical dialectics and the method of immanent critique to forge a non-preservative synthesis of aspects of these two metatheories into a new metatheory—a visionary realism—that might help us to better understand and wisely respond to the metacrisis. I then apply this visionary realist framework to sketch the contours of the metacrisis at large, analyzing and synthesizing the philosophical, cultural, and psychological aspects of the metacrisis to identify key principles and holistic solution patterns that may inform deliberate social transformation

Second-order Science and Policy

In March 2016, an interdisciplinary group met for two days and two evenings to explore the implications for policy making of second-order science. The event was sponsored by SITRA, the Finnish Parliament's Innovation Fund. Their interest arose from their concern that the well-established ways, including evidence-based approaches, of policy and decision making used in government were increasingly falling short of the complexity, uncertainty, and urgency of needed decision making. There was no assumption that second-order science or second-order cybernetics would reveal any practical possibilities at this early stage of enquiry. On the other hand, some members of the group are practioners in both policy and in facilitating change in sectors of society. Thus, the intellectual concepts were strongly grounded in experience. This is an account of the deliberations of that group and some reflections on what came out of the various shared contributions and ensuing dialogues. The overall conclusion of the event is that there definitely are possibilities that are worthy of further research and exploration.</p