International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
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Towards a vitalist holism: Deleuze's Theory of Assemblage
No full textIn this paper, we propose and evaluate an epistemology of systems thinking in relation to the vitalism of social systems and to develop systems approach for understanding the vitalist holism by construing the emergence and reproduction of social and organizational systems of the ‘civilizing process’ as non-linear and rhizomic events. We present and appreciate Deleuze’s theory of an assemblage in order to explore social and organizational complexities as researchers rethink the value of ‘systems thinking’ through the unfolding process of problematization in terms of virtualities and actualities. It allows participants to be ‘critical thinkers’ on the given situations. To be critical thinkers, what is important for the process of action learning and research is not so on what is true of ‘scientific knowledge’ being appreciated, but it is on our thought and learning to what the ‘practical and discursive knowledge’ produces in particular, contingent contexts. In this sense, we reappreciate the value of Deleuze theory of assemblage theory towards understanding of the ‘vitalism’ of social systems, which are evolved from the continuity and transformation of the relationships between life and (non) living bodies
Development of an Intelligent Controller Embedded Intelligent Robust Design Using Fuzzy Neural Network-based Control
No full textRecently, electric controllers that use the model-based control of modern control theory have had frequent failures and become a problem for industry. This is due to the fact that the control gain is fixed. To address this problem, we have developed the first intelligent controller incorporating intelligent robust design using next-generation fuzzy neural network-based control, which presents the only solution to the problem. This controller includes a new kind of intelligent robust gain compensator that adaptively adjusts gain to changes in target trajectory error for sufficient control against system parameter variations, sudden disturbance, and target changes
SYSTEMIC INTERVENTION WITH COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (COP): A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
No full textSystemic intervention focuses on both methodological pluralism and boundary critique which makes explicit the need to explore issues and people included, excluded, or marginalised in the systemic analysis. This research perspective also concerns about the agent identities. Within a systemic intervention there is a need to surface different interpretations of agent identities. Although some attempts to analyse agent identities have been proposed, there is still a need to generate analytical frameworks about identity within a systemic intervention, taking into account the social learning process of those agents involved in the intervention. This paper thus presents a conceptual framework that includes the social aspects of learning, in particular the Communities of Practice - CoP analytical framework - within a systemic intervention approach. In doing so, the paper aims to enrich the systemic intervention perspective considering the CoP perspective about participants’ identities and the constitutive elements of social learning. The CoP view of identity is that formed by the negotiation of experience, community membership, learning trajectory, the nexus of multimembership, the process of participation between and within communities, and the acknowledgement that non-participation can take many forms and these forms also define identity. Hence, the CoP analytical framework is proposed to help with the boundary and issue reflections regarding agent identities. This could be seen as a synergy for systemic interventions. To describe this synergy first, the paper presents the bases of the systemic intervention framework and previous proposals about managing identity issues. Then, it presents the conceptual framework of CoP. Finally, there is an explanation of how to work with this framework, and some reflections about this proposal
Rethinking Project Management Goals and Methods to Suit Service Systems
No full textIndustrial economies of the past are now moving towards becoming service-intensive, creative and knowledge-based economies that incorporate human creativity and social capital as the basis of value creation and productivity improvements. Moreover, they are radically transforming the manner in which they design, deliver and operate, thereby creating new services and market opportunities. Further, the fact that services are varied, have unique attributes — such as intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability, and inseparability (simultaneous consumption and delivery) — with the customer as a provider of input, make them complex in nature and difficult to understand and analyse. This has inspired a flurry of activity in government, industry and universities. There is now a growing recognition of the need for transdisciplinary research and new business models to propel innovation in services, commonly referred to as Services Science — an interdisciplinary cross-functional stream that brings together engineering, social sciences and management. In addition, business success is becoming less associated with tangible outcomes, embedded value and physical transactions, but more reliant on intangible resources, relationships, networks and co-creation of value. In the unfolding global economy, supply chains and value networks play a crucial role, and service organisations have to find innovative ways for attaining sustainable competitive advantage. Beyond this direct economic contribution, service industries have an ongoing role to deliver considerable indirect embodied value to goods production. Transformations in organisational structures and relations can imply changes in some or all of the mechanisms used to govern projects. Moreover, there is a growing consensus that project managers have to be more strategically instrumental than before in transforming organisational practices and processes when accomplishing project objectives. Underpinned by changing dynamics, project management objectives are becoming difficult to understand. The old norms of the triple constraint of time-cost-quality in managing competing project requirements in order to deliver products, services or infrastructure are not sufficient. Projects are becoming increasingly subject to unparalleled risks, uncertainty and complexity, thus making it difficult for project managers to govern projects in line with changing strategic objectives and imperatives. Recent trends in project management research and practice is driving organisations and their project managers to take a holistic approach to managing projects. The development of program and portfolio management standards by professional project management associations such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Association for Project Managers (APM) has pushed project management beyond the sphere of just implementing what was authorised by the organisation. There is also increased emphasis on project governance and organisations are setting up Project Management Offices (PMO) and steering committees to ensure that projects deliver the intended benefits to the organisations and stakeholders. Project managers of megaprojects are now being trained to deal with complexity in such projects. Recently, the International Council on Systems Engineering(INCOSE), the PMI and the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) have agreed to work together to develop competencies required by project and program managers to deal with complex projects. While project managers are being taught to look at projects holistically through systems approaches such as systems dynamics, soft systems thinking and viable systems in postgraduate programs (such as the one taught at the University of Technology Sydney), they are not being taught about the emerging science of service systems. It is for this reason that in this paper we conceptualise the service science ecosystem as seen through a project manager’s lens. Additionally, there is a push to compete through new services and service innovation, creation of knowledge, products and services enabled through technological advancements, online communities of companies and consumers, and adoption of distributed co-creation; all of which are still in their infancy — and so is their project management. Thus, a major challenge faced by contemporary project managers is to develop knowledge and understanding of complex service ecosystems and their functions. In other words, why are the new breed of project managers disconcerted about service science ecosystems, and what do they need to know and why? This paper enables us to disburden project management from its longstanding theoretical heritage, discusses recent research challenges in this field and proposes a new framework for project management
Existing and Emerging Methods for Integrating Theories Within and Between Disciplines
No full textFor natural systems or service systems most research may be categorized as inductive or deductive. While these are good for “normal” science, more interesting revolutions in science may occur when a deep thinker considers two theories and seeks to compare, contrast, and combine them. Galileo and Einstein both began with this kind of approach. Because of the paradigmatic revolutions they triggered, we all lead much richer lives. Were they unique in their ability to seek and find new insights from existing theories? Or, is this an approach that we all may use? In this paper, we will investigate multiple methods for integrating theories to determine which ones might be more useful. The results suggest that more rigorous methods provide a more useful and more systemic approach to integrating theories
Vertical and Horizontal Scaling Strategies to Avoid Destruction in the Modern Contest
No full textNot available
A Phenomenology of Polyrhythmic Music
No full textThe thesis I will develop in this paper is the claim that polyrhythms have a property of ‘emergence’ that is distinct from the perception associated with atomic rhythms, as aided by the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel's theory of phenomenology. I will argue that the specific qualia sensations associated with apprehending polyrhythms are distinct from both the sensations of mono-rhythmic music and polyrhythmic music taken as just the sum of atomic rhythms. Using Hegel’s text, ‘The Phenomenology of Spirit’, I will demonstrate how Hegel’s concepts of ‘Sense-Certainty’ and ‘Perception’ play a crucial role in understanding the cognition of polyrhythms at the phenomenological level. Using Hegelian concepts such as: the indexicality of ‘Here’ and “Now’ and the perception of ‘Also’ and ‘One’, I will demonstrate how polyrhythms are a specific phenomena that is greater than the sum of its parts, such as how a chair is not perceived as a bunch of wood arbitrarily constructed but as a unified whole. The key difference that I will make is that it is possible for a listener to apprehend a coherent soundscape that is perceived as a unified whole while at the same time retaining the multitude of differences contained within it; in this sense, polyrhythms have an ‘emergent’ property. In part 1 of this paper, I will discuss Hegel's phenomenology of music, as aided by the section on 'Consciousness' within the chapter on 'Perception' ; in Part 2, I will describe the Hegelian understanding of poly-rhythms as two terms of my own: 'notion-of-polyrhythm' and 'itself-of-polyrhythm'
A Performative-Extended Mind and a Law of Optimal Emergence
No full textThis paper introduces a performative-extended model of the mind; adds time as a new element to previous accounts; proposes a law of optimum emergence then uses the present financial crisis as an example to show that this new model of the brain has profound practical implications, since psychologically reified concepts (like values) can be understood better using this new model of the mind. This model based on “deep simplicity creating surface complexity” underpins a model of a “performative extended emergent mind” that is not “under the skull”. Psychology’s set of so-called “intangibles”, like human values can be redefined as “emergent properties”. Values are attractors created by messy patterns of behavior over time without logical cause-effect relationships, stabilized by memory. The performative-extended mind where movement (time), diversity and tangibles (feedback loops) create emergence can be linked to a law of optimal emergence in order to explain fundamental psycho-social processes, like values. The mind becomes an eco-system within a larger eco-system. Growth can be seen as an S-curve shaped shift from feed-forward-steering to feedback-control. In this process, conditions for stable emergence shift from conditions that are “non-favorable” (no-tangibles) to “favorable” (a dynamic balance between tangibles and no-tangibles) to “non-favorable” (too many tangibles). Growth creates, then destroys emergent properties in a time-dependent process. Stable emergent characteristics can only exist for a while in the middle part of an S-curve. A real life example might be that leaders who focus on financial growth and administrative rules often create corrupt organizations. This might be a falsifiable general systems law with implications for organizational and leadership practice. This is an example of how the “performative-extended mind/ law of optimal emergence” combination can lead to relevant implications for the future of sustainable society, governance and business
Value Orchestration Platform for ICT security services
No full textThis paper explains the service science approach to ICT security. The first half of 2011 should prove to be the “year of the breaches.” We saw numerous security breaches targeting high-profile organizations such as, Sony PlayStation, Lockheed Martin, and a dozen of other companies and government organizations. Mitsubishi heavy industries have suffered security attack from anonymous group. The attack, which involved several types of data-stealing malware on Mitsubishi computers, occurred in August 2011. The impacts of the security breach are quite sever for enormous number of people’s private information and top secret information in corporations (or governments) were disclosed in those cases. The damage of the corporate in terms of reliability and economy are enormous. However the security is a non-functional requirement therefore it tends to be ignored at ICT design phase to implement security requirement. The service science approach to ICT security shed a light to the ICT security area to maximize ICT security measures and investments. This paper provides the concept of value orchestration platform for ICT security services. Firstly we survey the current ICT security market, and we conceptualized this situation as two parties’ model between customers and providers. Then we use ICT security standard as security service platform. This enables us to visualize current ICT security venerability or inappropriate investments. Lastly we conceptualize this solution as three parties’ model (i.e. value orchestration platform) between customers, providers and security service platform providers. We conclude that the three parties’ model contribute maximizing ICT security measures and investments as value orchestration platform
Modeling Organizational Ethics as Nonlinear Dynamic Systems (a modest proposal)
No full textThis paper explores the methods by which human values are expressed in the decision making process that is called ethics. In this paper I argue that modeling human ethical structures, particularly in these times of rapid social and environmental change is helpful if not necessary to understand why some decision making processes do not result in an outcome that coincides with fundamental values. This paper begins with an exploration of the methodology of modeling and the use of models as sense making tools. The structure and theory of modeling is presented from the viewpoints of Woofram, Bateson and Miller and Page. The selection of the model of nonlinear complex adaptive systems as a model for organizational ethics systems is justified by drawing on the use of that model in other human systems. Next, the ethical landscape is presented to illustrate the breadth of human value structure and ethical systems. The serious nature of the disconnect between fundamental human values and the ethical systems that drive the decision making processes in human organizations is discussed and a model of nonlinear complex adaptive systems built from the structure of those ethical processes with regard to the elements of phase space, attractors, emergent properties and self-organization. Finally some possible applications for this model in the organizational environment are discussed