Search results for "Systems thinking"
showing 10 items of 32 documents
Systems Thinking Research in the Twenty-First Century
2017
In this opinion article, the author aims to depict the state of systems thinking research through the lens of my own personal experience. His point of view is that of a relatively young scholar who has the privilege to be involved in the international systems thinking community in many ways. Indeed, in 2012 he established, with other colleagues, an academic society named Business Systems Laboratory (BSLab), which has rapidly become an important society for research into the application of systems thinking to society, business and organizations. Through his activity of organization of conferences and his editorial activity at the journals associated with BSLab (and recently as Editor-in-Chie…
Systems Thinking and Sustainability in Organisations
2015
This set of articles arises from a series of conferences (Business Systems Laboratory Symposia, 2013-2015) and in particular from the 2nd Business systems Laboratory International Symposium, Rome 2014 with the theme ‘Systems Thinking for a Sustainable Economy’, concerned with systems thinking and its relations with sustainable management, where the relevance of systems thinking was demonstrated. The current period of our global society is characterised by intense transformations in the competitive logics of organisations, markets, and, generally speaking, society. Social circumstances today are typified by dynamism, connectivity, nonlinearity, and emergent properties — in other words by ‘co…
Towards a learning community: understanding teachers’ mental models to support their professional development and learning
2021
Amidst societal, demographic and educational changes, teachers are expected to engage in professional development and learning (PDL) throughout their careers. This study explores school teachers’ mental models about their work in the framework of Senge’s learning organisation, aiming to support their PDL during curriculum reform and organisational changes. The study’s data comprise 41 semi-structured interviews with each teacher in one school community. These interviews were analysed using qualitative, data-driven yet theory-informed content analysis. In the first analysis phase, fragments of mental models concerning teachers’ work and their school community were explored. These fragments i…
Systems thinking and adult cognitive development
2020
This chapter explores the links between scientific systems approaches and adult cognitive development. First, it describes the premises and basic concepts of systems thinking. It then continues to give an overview of the history of systems approach and the development of the main models and theories from its roots, which lie in the natural sciences. This is followed by an examination of the three systems paradigms, namely, Closed Systems, Open Systems, and Dynamic Systems and their implications to research and operational interests, in addition to their explanatory power in today’s world. Second part of the chapter focuses on describing the intersections between the Dynamic Systems paradigm…
Information systems and strategy design
1999
Abstract Strategic thinking forms a wide-ranking, complex area of thought. It also seems to be an extremely interesting and important field in both management practice and literature. Recently, the areas that the different functions (like accounting, marketing, production and information systems) of firm and strategic thinking have in common have been lively discussed. In this paper, the applicability of information systems thinking to strategic thinking is outlined. For that purpose, three modes of strategy-making are explicated: strategy-making as management process, as game-playing and as leadership. In each of these three modes, the strategy design phase and especially the essentials of…
Pupil's ecological reasoning with help of modeling tool
2006
Ecological concepts, and in particular population dynamics, has been found to be among the most difficult topics in biology. Some researchers pointed to students' relatively weak mathematical background as the main source of learning difficulties. This paper reports on an investigation of pupil's (n=73) reasoning about the ecological phenomena by using an iconic modelling tool, WorldMaker. The simulations eliminated the need for understanding of mathematical equations, and made the ecological concepts much more accessible to some children. However, many of the pupils reasoned from an anthropocentric perspective that obstructed their ability to predict ecological phenomena which requires sys…
Transforming food systems at local levels: using participatory system dynamics in an interactive manner to refine small-scale farmers’ mental models
2017
Food systems will need to undergo considerable transformation. To be better prepared for and resilient to uncertainty and disturbances in the future, resource users and managers need to further develop knowledge about the food and farming system, with its dominating feedback structures and complexities, and to test robust and integrated system-based solutions. This paper investigates how participatory system dynamics modeling can be adapted to groups at the community level with low or no formal educational background. The paper also analyses the refinement of workshop participants’ mental models as a consequence of a participatory system dynamics intervention. For this purpose, we ran two w…
Challenges to the development of energy performance measurement : a systems thinking approach
2016
Growing global energy consumption and its consequent hindrance to sus-tainable development poses one of the greatest challenges of today. Impro-vement of the end-use energy efficiency is commonly regarded as one of the most basic and significant countermeasures for curbing the rising energy needs. However, it seems that the progress of end-use energy management is currently hindered due to the complexities involved in the measurement and management of energy efficiency. In essence, the lack of appropriate energy performance metrics constitute a gap between the current organizational needs and scientific literature. Furthermore, the current scientific debate has questioned whether ener-gy ef…
Innovating business processes in public administrations: towards a systemic approach
2020
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the credit collection process in public administrations in order to develop a conceptual model which goes beyond the traditional logic of linearity, adopting system thinking approaches.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyses the case of an Italian local government-owned enterprise. Data collection through semi-structured interviews and document analysis has enabled the development of propositions, the identification of systemic variables, and the development of an explanatory modeling process based on the system dynamics approach.FindingsThis paper shows that public administrations can effectively involve external actors, especially citize…
The Complex System Theory for the Analysis of Inter-Firm Networks: A Literature Overview and Theoretic Framework
2011
In this paper we discuss the body of knowledge known as complex system theory and its relevance to the analysis of inter-firm networks. We start by addressing the development of systems thinking. Through a literature overview, we point out the main elements for the development of systemic thought from its beginning, through its application in business sciences, to the birth of Complex Systems Theory (CST). With these initial annotations we provide an introduction to the concepts of the complex systems theory. We will underscore those aspects of CST that can be useful to analyze inter-firm networks, in order to highlight the evolutionary dynamics of the networks and to clarify the logical li…