International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
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USING VIABLE SYSTEMS MODEL AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL OF THE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
No full textThe ethical awareness of sustainability has originated new ways to integrate the resources of natural systems with economic development, reducing the negative impacts caused by the traditional production systems of goods and services. In the current scenario there are few forms of sustainable management using appropriate diagnostic tools to support the management of the complexity of tourism systems. In this paper we propose: 1 diagnose sustainable tourism systems by mean of The Viable Systems Model considering international standards in sustainability. 2 Integrate the role of all involved, including tourism businesses, local governments, and the recipient population, among others. 3 Consider the design and implementation of public policies to control of ecological impact activities
TRUE, GOOD AND GENERAL SYSTEM THEORIES: How to Develop and Evaluate Them
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THE INFORMATION PROCESSING ASPECT OF THE DYNAMICS OF A SYSTEM AS A BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITS COMPUTER-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEMS
No full textABSTRACT All dynamic systems need to process information in order to function. This means that there is an information processing aspect to the dynamics of any system (Kampfner, 1998) that in fact embodies the way in which it processes information. Complex, adaptive systems such as modern organizations include natural and artificial means of information processing as part of their dynamics. Although the natural and the artificial forms of information processing are fundamentally different, they are also highly complementary of each other. One claim of this paper is that a synergistic combination of natural and artificial computing is essential to the ability of modern organizations to successfully perform their functions and persist in the face of an uncertain environment. I also argue that considering information processing as an aspect of dynamics is essential to finding the synergistic combination of natural and artificial computing that is needed for the effective support of function and adaptability in modern organizations. The development of computer-based information systems can be thought of as a means of integrating computer-based information processing into the dynamics of modern organizations. The abstraction-synthesis methodology of information systems development, or ASM, (Kampfner, 1987, 1997) provides a conceptual framework for this integration. In the ASM, the information needs of the functions that the computer-based information system will support are determined on the basis of the information processing aspect of its dynamics. This is followed by the design and development of the computer-based processes that will help to meet these information needs in a manner consistent with the adaptability of the system as a whole. The synergy of the combination of natural and artificial computing is possible because these two fundamentally different forms of information processing can complement each other in many useful ways.  
Identifying Great Places to Work: A Systems Framework
No full textEveryday life in the United States of America is infused with contact with organizations and a majority of adult citizens spend a large percentage of their working lives associated with them. With this much time invested, the working environment can have a significant influence on an individual’s well-being. Therefore, it is important that organizations provide fulfilling work environments for their employees. An analysis of Fortune magazine’s 100 Great Places to Work For listing provided clues that working environments are more satisfactory if the organization encouraged closeness, camaraderie, and trust among its employees. Closeness, camaraderie, and trust are attributes of effective groups, yet great places to work were identified largely through an aggregate of individual responses. This paper concentrated on the group dynamics inherent in organizations and their effect on how an organization was perceived as a great place to work by its employees. Using living systems theory combined with a systems approach to understanding organizations, nine characteristics common to both groups and organizations were identified. It was shown that the common attributes are expressed in a limited range in groups while organizations can tolerate a much wider expression of the factors. A framework was developed combining the nine characteristics common to both groups and organizations to provide insights into group dynamics present in organizations. Organizations that encourage group processes appeared to be considered superior places to work. Unlocking the secrets to aligning the interest of corporations and employees has primarily focused on individual responses. This study concentrated on organizations themselves as units of analyses and showed that group characteristics within organizations have a strong influence on how the organization is perceived by its employees
The Spiraling Propensities of Mind: Towards an Ecological Theory of Human Meaning Systems within a Panarchy of Adaptive Cycles of Human Consciousness
No full textThe initial conceptualization of the adaptive cycle of complex ecosystems (Holling, 1986) has led to the theory and analysis of adaptive cycles within social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions, beginning with the original panarchical considerations of these human dimensions (Holling & Gunderson, 2002; Berkes & Folke, 2002; Westley, Carpenter, Brock, Holling & Gunderson, 2002; Scheffer, Westley, Brock & Holmgren, 2002; Gunderson, Holling & Peterson, 2002). A decade later, however, the difficult inquiry into the complex systemics of human thought itself and of thought’s ostensible purpose – meaning – is still largely absent from the work done within panarchic frameworks. The need to include an ecological theory of meaning has begun to be understood as critical to the progression of socio-ecological systems theory (Varey 2010). This paper proposes a truly ecological (i.e., non-metaphorical) definition of meaning and outlines a panarchic theory of human meaning systems (HMS) that includes a consideration of the original sources of difference in the universe, then obeys Jørgensen’s “Fundamental Laws in Ecology” (Jørgensen, 2009), as HMS emerge, develop, collapse, and demonstrate rigidity, resilience, and unpredictability in complete relation to the identification, acquisition, and degradation (i.e., the processing) of exergy. The present theory of HMS proposes three “energetic orders” – i) local, ii) medial, and iii) permeative – that emerge as irreducible propensities for human life and encompassing human ecologies. These orders span the entire spectrum of life for the human, from the first necessity of maintaining thermodynamic disequilibrium in the local order; to manifesting ecosystemic dynamics in the medial order, described variously as the thorough degradation of exergy gradients (Schneider & Kay, 1994), the principle of self-organization for maximum emergy use (Odum, 1988), the maintenance and optimization of exergy (Jørgensen, 1992; Nielsen, 1995), and “centripetality” (Ulanowicz, 1997); to that ineluctable aspect of the human experience that is not only to aspire beyond what we understand but indeed to be constantly drawn to the unknown/unknowable in the permeative order (Gunderson, Holling & Light, 2005; Kauffman, 2000; Deacon, 2012). Some conclusions of this paper are: the individual’s or collective’s bias among the three energetic orders depends upon the perceptions of threat to survival (local), ecosystemic integrity (medial), or the need for greater interconnectivity beyond its perceptions (permeative); and that natural language emerges from a constant and fluid negotiation among the binary (local), communal/recurrent (medial), and the unknown/unknowable (permeative) orders that occurs simultaneously at multiple scales and in relation to the larger adaptive cycles, such that “meaning” phenomena – from basic logoi to the mythoi of individual and collective narratives, “histories,” and “identities” – are emergetic (Odum, 1983) products and recursive tools (to enable further emergetic processes) within human ecologies. Because there is a “bias” toward any one of the three orders at any given moment and scale – depending on the perceived position vis-à-vis the larger-scale adaptive cycle – what would otherwise seem to be a “linear” negotiation between the three “energetic orders” becomes cyclical and adaptive within the adaptive cycle. Gunderson and Holling’s adaptive cycle is partially renamed as “Adaptive Cycle of Human Consciousness” in order to emphasize the need for this new line of panarchic thinking that could unite “what we do” with “what we are,” as meaning-creating, meaning-acquiring, meaning-destroying homoiothermal organisms on planet Earth. Because inquiry into human systems of thought and meaning is relatively new to the field of panarchic systems ecology, some aspects of the theory are unavoidably novel. However, efforts have been made to ground individual aspects of the present theory in recent advances of systems ecology research. As with any such theoretical proposal, gaps and inconsistencies are anticipated, and possible solutions to these are invited and welcome
Cyber Adverse Selection Phenomenon in the Internet Market in China: Model and Case Study
No full textAdverse selection means the selection by the consumer when faced with the circumstance of asymmetric information. The ‘cyber adverse selection’ phenomenon in Internet market hinders the healthy development of Internet market. Based on the adverse selection model put forward by American economist George Akerlof , who is one of Nobel Economics Prize laureates in 2001, this paper set up a cyber adverse selection model in Internet market . This paper takes data from Taobao.com in China as samples and demonstratively analyzes the characteristics of cyber adverse selection problems in Chinese Internet market. The results showed that reputation mechanism can effectively reduce the appearance of adverse selection, as well as electronic intermediaries and business alliance can offset adverse selection problems. The results also reveal that the cyber adverse selection in Internet market not only exists but also occurs more serious, which affects the function of Internet market. Finally, this paper offers some strategic thought and encourages sellers and buyers to trade credibly
A Systems Science Perspective for Supply Chain Management
No full textThe Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a socio-technical system designed and managed to deliver products and services from raw materials to end customers through a logistic network of physical, information, financial and human resources.The physical components of a typical supply chain include several production facilities, inventory warehouses, modes of transportation and distribution channels.In order to synchronize demand of end products or services with supply of raw materials cash flow and human resources, it is necessary to have an information system like the popular Enterprise Resources Planning System (ERP) improved with some additional specific modules to strategic planning and corporate management of the Supply Chain.Of course the Supply Chain Management requires an especial organization different from the traditional hierarchy. The paper will describe a recursive special organization for the Supply Chains Management based on the Viable Systems Model (VSM). This model of organization takes in consideration several feedback cycles of the production systems the local future and vital interaction between the market and the supply chain.Incidentally, the inventory system in a supply chain has a special attribute that needs too much attention. It is called bullwhip effect (quite similar to the butterfly effect) because small changes in the demand downstream the supply chain; generate extreme changes in the supply positions upstream. It means that the inventories can quickly move from being backordered to being in excess
Understanding Systems Thinking: An Agenda for Applied Research in Industry
No full textWhy systems thinking is valuable is relatively easy to explain. However, in the authors’ work as university educators, teaching a student processes of enquiry that are themselves systemic is a difficult undertaking. The capacity to view the world in systemic ways seems an innate characteristic that some individuals possess. Might it be the case that being a systems thinker is dependent on holding a particular worldview? Systems theorists have evolved tools and methodologies to help people do systems thinking. Is being a user of systems methods the same as being a systems thinker? Are certain cognitive competencies, styles, or preferences required for people to make effective use of such tools and methodologies
Contested Modelling
No full textWe suggest that the role and function of expert computational modelling in real-world decision-making needs scrutiny and practices need to change. We discuss some empirical and theory-based improvements to the coupling of the modelling process and the real world, including social and behavioural processes, which we have expressed as a set of questions that we believe need to be answered by all projects engaged in such modelling. These are based on a systems analysis of four research initiatives, covering different scales and timeframes, and addressing the complexity of intervention in a sustainability context. Our proposed improvements require new approaches for analysing the relationship between a project’s models and its publics. They reflect what we believe is a necessary and beneficial dialogue between the realms of expert scientific modelling and systems thinking. This paper is an attempt to start that process, itself reflecting a robust dialogue between two practitioners sat within differing traditions, puzzling how to integrate perspectives and achieve wider participation in researching this problem space.