Systems thinking, a consilience of values and logic

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-274
Author(s):  
Sameer Kumar ◽  
Thomas Ressler ◽  
Mark Ahrens

This article is an appeal to incorporate qualitative reasoning into quantitative topics and courses, especially those devoted to decision-making offered in colleges and universities. Students, many of whom join professional workforce, must become more systems thinkers and decision-makers than merely problem-solvers. This will entail discussion of systems thinking, not just reaching “the answer”. Managers will need to formally and forcefully discuss objectives and values at each stage of the problem-solving process – at the start, during the problem-solving stage, and at the interpretation of the results stage – in order to move from problem solving to decision-making. The authors suggest some methods for doing this, and provide examples of why doing so is so important for decision-makers in the modern world.

Author(s):  
Ibrahim Suleiman Yahaya ◽  
Maryam M.B Yusuf

This paper The search paper aimed at introducing new development in decision-making and problem-solving models which will enable the decision-makers to have more options on the way of handling any give scenarios that might occur in the process of daily life or organizational activities, this will improve fast decision by individual or organization. Decision making is an acceptable part of human daily life. People have to make different important decisions nearly every day, hence the reason that often-making decisions can be a difficult action to take. However, a significant number of observational studies have shown that most individuals are much worse in decision-making in organizations. Thus, people started paying more attention to learning how to make an acceptable decision through the related hypotheses and models that fit their scenarios. Along with the line hundred (100) sample of the design developed model with a Likert-Scale from 1-5 was attached and sent to some prominent leaders who virtually make a decision and solved problems almost every day, for their assessment’s/analysis in order to collect data to determine both input and output of the developed model which some accepted as it was designed while some make changes and other make a recommendation for future research work. The decision-making tools are needed at the critical time of Covid.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virupaxi Bagodi ◽  
Biswajit Mahanty

PurposeManagerial decision-making is an area of interest to both academia and practitioners. Researchers found that managers often fail to manage complex decision-making tasks and system thinkers assert that generic structures known as systems archetypes help them to a great deal in handling such situations. In this paper, it is demonstrated that decision makers resort to lowering of goal (quick-fix) in order to resolve the gap between the goal and current reality in the “drifting the goals” systems archetype.Design/methodology/approachA real-life case study is taken up to highlight the pitfalls of “drifting the goals” systems archetype for a decision situation in the Indian two-wheeler industry. System dynamics modeling is made use of to obtain the results.FindingsThe decision makers fail to realize the pitfall of lowering the goal to resolve the gap between the goal and current reality. It is seen that, irrespective of current less-than-desirable performance, managers adopting corrective actions other than lowering of goals perform better in the long run. Further, it is demonstrated that extending the boundary and experimentation results in designing a better service system and setting benchmarks.Practical implicationsThe best possible way to avoid the pitfall is to hold the vision and not lower the long term goal. The managers must be aware of the pitfalls beforehand.Originality/valueSystems thinking is important in complex decision-making tasks. Managers need to embrace long-term perspective in decision-making. This paper demonstrates the value of systems thinking in terms of a case study on the “drifting the goals” systems archetype.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
yola febriani ◽  
Hade Afriansyah ◽  
Rusdinal

This article aims to describe how is the process of decision making. Decision making is something that is never separated from human life, both simple decision making and complex problems. Everyone is always faced with the choice to take a decision. To be able to take the right decisions, every person should know the steps. This article presents what the decision-making steps and what is the importance of creative thinking in decision making. Creative thinking will help decision makers to improve the quality and effectiveness of problem solving and decision making results were made. In relation to the process of decision making, creative thinking is needed, especially in identifying problems and develop alternative solutions. The methodology used to arrange this article is Systematic Literature Review (SLR). First, researcher find relevant theories, and then make a conclusion about it, then analyzing, and finally make a new information based researcher analyzing.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
yola febriani ◽  
Hade Afriansyah ◽  
Rusdinal

This article aims to describe how is the process of decision making. Decision making is something that is never separated from human life, both simple decision making and complex problems. Everyone is always faced with the choice to take a decision. To be able to take the right decision, every person should know the steps. This article presents what the decision making steps and what is the importance of creative thinking in decision making. Creative thinking will help decision makers to improve the quality and effectiveness of problem solving and decision making results were made. In relation to the process of decision making, creative thinking is needed, especially in identifying problems and develop alternative solutions. The methodology used to arrange this article is Systematic Literature Review (SLR). First, researcher find relevant theories, and then make a conclusion about it, then analyzing, and finally make a new information based researcher analyzing


1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry E. Pate ◽  
John E. Young ◽  
Robert L. Swinth

This study examined the group problem-solving process with 115 subjects in face-to-face groups responding to complex novel problems. A working theory of group problem-solving behavior in organizational settings was partially tested in a role-play task simulating top executive decision-making. Two problem-solving conditions were examined, a search condition (joint problem-solving) and a no-search condition (authority, impose and vote/mechanistic procedures). No significant differences were found between conditions with respect to (a) type of issue resolutions (integrative versus win-lose), (b) individual goal attainment, and (c) individual member's acceptance. Surprisingly, the direction of the results for completely achieved goals was opposite from that predicted. The findings may have been a result of perceived role ambiguity attributed to the confederate group leader.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gentrit Berisha ◽  
Besnik Krasniqi ◽  
Rrezon Lajçi

Purpose This paper aims to reveal the effects of birth order in decision-making style, conflict handling style and propensity for participative decision-making. The intention is to open the perspective of birth order research in organizational studies, as an important individual difference of managers. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with 230 managers from different industries in Kosovo. Self-report measures were used for decision-making style, conflict handling style and participatory decision-making constructs. Findings Results indicate that only children are more avoidant and spontaneous decision-makers. Firstborns are rational in decision-making and prefer problem-solving in conflict handling. Middleborns are intuitive decision-makers and use compromising in conflict handling. Lastborns make decisions rationally and use both compromising and problem-solving in conflicting situations. In addition, lastborns appeared to have a more positive attitude toward participative decision-making, followed by middleborns, firstborns and only children. Research limitations/implications Birth order affects managers’ behaviors in decision-making and conflict situations. Relationship dynamics in sibships are reflected in organizational settings, affecting how people behave in decision-making and conflict handling. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to attest how birth order influences the ways managers make decisions, handle conflicts and involve others in decision-making. As birth order cannot be changed, such knowledge is critical.


2000 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 192-193
Author(s):  
Gerald E. Gannon ◽  
Mario U. Martelli

Problem solving is generally recognized as one of the more important functions of mathematics, and producing “problem solvers” is one of the more important jobs of a mathematics teacher. In most problemsolving strategies, the final step is taking a look back after the problem has been solved to see whether the problem and the solution can be generalized. We believe that most classroom teachers would agree that this step is often the most difficult one in the problem-solving process. Hence, our purpose here is to suggest a possible generalization to a classic problem, one that is inherently interesting and that has a solution that is within the reach of most high school mathematics students.


2003 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Williams

Problem solving is generally recognized as one of the most important components of mathematics. In Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics emphasized that instructional programs should enable all students in all grades to “build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving, solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts, apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems, and monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving” (NCTM 2000, p. 52). But how do students become competent and confident mathematical problem solvers?


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3690
Author(s):  
Changbeom Choi ◽  
Seungho Yang ◽  
Seon Han Choi ◽  
Sooyoung Jang

Modern society consists of various groups according to their respective interests. The importance of the citizen participation decision-making process in which such various groups get involved in the numerous decision-making of the society has been emerging. The living lab (LL) can be a sustainable approach in such a modern society because all stakeholders can participate in the problem-solving process. In LL, every group communicates, defines their problems, and discusses with experts to find the best solution. For this process to work effectively, the discussions should be based on clear scientific evidence instead of vague words. This study introduces the modeling and simulation (M&S) process to establish a theoretical basis to help the participants in LL identify problematic situations and analyze the solutions. This process involves discrete event system formalism with a set-theoretical modular form among various modeling and simulation theories and the execution environments. Based on them, participants can reuse or extend the existing simulation model to accelerate the problem-solving process of LL. The case study for multi-modal transit station analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of M&S in LL.


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