36 research outputs found
Organisational learning - a critical systems thinking discipline
Original Paper European Journal of Information Systems (2001) 10, 135â146; doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000394 Organisational learningâa critical systems thinking discipline P Panagiotidis1,3 and J S Edwards2,4 1Deloitte and Touche, Athens, Greece 2Aston Business School, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK Correspondence: Dr J S Edwards, Aston Business School, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK. E-mail: [email protected] 3Petros Panagiotidis is Manager responsible for the Process and Systems Integrity Services of Deloitte and Touche in Athens, Greece. He has a BSc in Business Administration and an MSc in Management Information Systems from Western International University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA; an MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design from City University, London, UK; and a PhD degree from Aston University, Birmingham, UK. His doctorate was in Business Systems Analysis and Design. His principal interests now are in the ERP/DSS field, where he serves as project leader and project risk managment leader in the implementation of SAP and JD Edwards/Cognos in various major clients in the telecommunications and manufacturing sectors. In addition, he is responsible for the development and application of knowledge management systems and activity-based costing systems. 4John S Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Operational Research and Systems at Aston Business School, Birmingham, UK. He holds MA and PhD degrees (in mathematics and operational research respectively) from Cambridge University. His principal research interests are in knowledge management and decision support, especially methods and processes for system development. He has written more than 30 research papers on these topics, and two books, Building Knowledge-based Systems and Decision Making with Computers, both published by Pitman. Current research work includes the effect of scale of operations on knowledge management, interfacing expert systems with simulation models, process modelling in law and legal services, and a study of the use of artifical intelligence techniques in management accounting. Top of pageAbstract This paper deals with the application of critical systems thinking in the domain of organisational learning and knowledge management. Its viewpoint is that deep organisational learning only takes place when the business systems' stakeholders reflect on their actions and thus inquire about their purpose(s) in relation to the business system and the other stakeholders they perceive to exist. This is done by reflecting both on the sources of motivation and/or deception that are contained in their purpose, and also on the sources of collective motivation and/or deception that are contained in the business system's purpose. The development of an organisational information system that captures, manages and institutionalises meaningful informationâa knowledge management systemâcannot be separated from organisational learning practices, since it should be the result of these very practices. Although Senge's five disciplines provide a useful starting-point in looking at organisational learning, we argue for a critical systems approach, instead of an uncritical Systems Dynamics one that concentrates only on the organisational learning practices. We proceed to outline a methodology called Business Systems Purpose Analysis (BSPA) that offers a participatory structure for team and organisational learning, upon which the stakeholders can take legitimate action that is based on the force of the better argument. In addition, the organisational learning process in BSPA leads to the development of an intrinsically motivated information organisational system that allows for the institutionalisation of the learning process itself in the form of an organisational knowledge management system. This could be a specific application, or something as wide-ranging as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Examples of the use of BSPA in two ERP implementations are presented
Towards methodological adventure in cost overrun research : linking process and product
The continued adoption of singular paradigms in the study of construction phenomena has elicited dialectical debates in scholarly literature. Calls have been made for more adventurous research methods, beyond the positivist versus interpretivist philosophical divide traditionally embraced by the industry. This study analyses the extensive scholarly debates, advancing and advocating philosophical positions to understand construction phenomena, and further narrows down the argument to within the specific domain of cost overrun research. A systematic and chronological literature review of the methodological/philosophical underpinnings of 41 papers was carried out. The papers were selected by following a staged exclusion criterion. The study outcome reveals that similar dialectical debates and methodological conservatism are still evident, with the predominance of mono-paradigm studies in the bulk of the empirical literature. Most of the empirical literature either provides interpretivist theoretical explanations from qualitative data or positivistically analyses quantitative data to provide technical explanations. To this end, mixed paradigm examples are spotlighted, demonstrating the relevance of linking process and product via methodological adventure in cost overrun research. Transcending the paradigmic divide is necessary to develop a more useful and contextually anchored view of practice, essential to mitigate and provide a holistic understanding of what drives cost overruns in public projects
Internalised Values and Fairness Perception: Ethics in Knowledge Management
This chapter argues for ethical consideration in knowledge management (KM). It explores the effect that internalised values and fairness perception have on individualsâ participation in KM practices. Knowledge is power, and organisations seek to manage knowledge through KM practices. For knowledge to be processed, individual employeesâthe source of all knowledgeâneed to be willing to participate in KM practices. As knowledge is power and a key constituent part of knowledge is ethics, individualsâ internalised values and fairness perception affect knowledge-processing. Where an organisation claims ownership over knowledge, an individual may perceive being treated unfairly, which may obstruct knowledge-processing. Through adopting ethical KM practices, individual needs are respected, enabling knowledge-processing. Implications point towards an ethical agenda in KM theory and practice
Growth Hacking: Exploring the Meaning of an Internet-Born Digital Marketing Buzzword
This study attempts to explore and triangulate with different methods the essence, definition, and methods of the grassroots practitioner term growth hacking. In the qualitative first part of our study, we conduct 12 expert informant interviews and a case study. In the quantitative second part of the study, we conduct a quantitative Twitter analysis to gain additional insights on the findings from the qualitative first part. As a result, we differentiate growth hacking from traditional marketing strategies and create a growth hacking process model depicting a sort of consensus of what can be thought to be integral parts of growth hacking
Systems methodologies and enabling technologies: a role for group support systems?
Abstract not available
An exploration of opportunities for a theory of information inadequacy
Our everyday experiences show that the lack of needed information in various human affairs may give rise to consequences that we would like to avoid â e.g. the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia. However, we still do not have a coherent theoretical body that addresses such experiences of information inadequacy as this changes everything in respect to the current conception of the information society, where technology plays a central role. To this end, we provide an initial exploration of opportunities for such a theory: when needed information is not available in human affairs, for any reason. We start with diagnoses of five existing central theoretical bodies that constitute promising candidates to account for instances of information inadequacy. The results show though that these do not offer a comprehensive account for situations where needed information is missing. Secondly, an empirical investigation was conducted, utilizing grounded theory approach, where fifty cases of information inadequacy were analysed. This revealed a number of patterns of plausible causes of information inadequacies in human affairs, which offer a preliminary foundation for a future theory of information inadequacy. This result suggests that information inadequacies may be understood as various instances of information-lack and information-overflow. These two, in turn, include numerous factors that cause information inadequacies, ranging from political and cultural structures, through human individual capabilities, and ending with procedural set-ups and technological artefacts. We advocate that further research should be conducted to explore various instances of information inadequacy aimed to the formulation of a coherent theory