scholarly journals Using a Complex Network Methodology to Track, Evaluate, and Transform Fundamental Care

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria A Pinero De Plaza ◽  
Tiffany Conroy ◽  
Alexandra Mudd ◽  
Alison Kitson

In this study, we drew on methods originating in complex adaptive systems and social network analysis to develop a novel way to quantify fundamental care. Data were obtained from a public statement from the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Results support the importance of using a systemic approach to assess the multiple dimensions of the fundamentals of care. Our method allows measurement of the problem within its system, providing a detailed quantification of care events and identifying excellence and improvement opportunities. We illustrate the strengths of this approach using principal component analysis and heat mapping. The application of the proposed methodology in healthcare decision-making, planning, and quality improvement is discussed.

Author(s):  
Peter R. Monge ◽  
Noshir Contractor

To date, most network research contains one or more of five major problems. First, it tends to be atheoretical, ignoring the various social theories that contain network implications. Second, it explores single levels of analysis rather than the multiple levels out of which most networks are comprised. Third, network analysis has employed very little the insights from contemporary complex systems analysis and computer simulations. Foruth, it typically uses descriptive rather than inferential statistics, thus robbing it of the ability to make claims about the larger universe of networks. Finally, almost all the research is static and cross-sectional rather than dynamic. Theories of Communication Networks presents solutions to all five problems. The authors develop a multitheoretical model that relates different social science theories with different network properties. This model is multilevel, providing a network decomposition that applies the various social theories to all network levels: individuals, dyads, triples, groups, and the entire network. The book then establishes a model from the perspective of complex adaptive systems and demonstrates how to use Blanche, an agent-based network computer simulation environment, to generate and test network theories and hypotheses. It presents recent developments in network statistical analysis, the p* family, which provides a basis for valid multilevel statistical inferences regarding networks. Finally, it shows how to relate communication networks to other networks, thus providing the basis in conjunction with computer simulations to study the emergence of dynamic organizational networks.


2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Liang Thow Yick

Human organizations with human beings as interacting agents are complex adaptive systems. Such organizations continuously consume information, make decisions, and evolve with the changing environment. In this respect, all human organizations including businesses must enhance their collective intelligence in order to learn faster and compete more effectively. Thus, adopting an intelligent structure is vital to all businesses as the world moves deeper into the knowledge economy. The paradigmatic shift in thinking, structure, management and operation requires all intelligent human organizations to be designed around intelligence. An intelligent structure encompasses an orgmind, an intangible deep component, as well as a physical component. At the physical structure perspective, being able to identify, design and develop an artificial information systems network that synchronizes well with the orgmind is critical. The connectivity of the organization, and the manner in which it behaves, communicates and collaborates, depend on the effectiveness of its information systems network and its orgmind. The orgmind which is at least the collection of all the interacting human thinking systems must be fully aware of both the internal and external environments. Inevitably, in the new economy, intelligent human organizations must be equipped with a well-integrated intelligent information network which functions similarly to the nervous system in biological beings. This study examines the current status of artificial information systems and their networks in businesses with respect to the above concepts.


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