scholarly journals Using Systems Thinking to Improve Tourism and Hospitality Research Quality and Relevance: A Critical Review and Conceptual Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-172
Author(s):  
Gianna Moscardo
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Problem Area ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Research Quality ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Tourism And Hospitality ◽  
Published Research

This paper argues that that much published tourism and hospitality research has had little influence on tourism or hospitality practice especially with regard to the problems of sustainability because of a failure to use systems thinking to guide research questions and approaches. This critical review and conceptual paper demonstrates how a systems thinking approach could be used to improve both the relevance of, and theoretical development in, tourism and hospitality research in the area of sustainability. This paper reviewed recent published research into tourism’s social impacts to demonstrate the power of taking a systems approach to map out the research problem area. It then critically reviewed the use of concepts from psychology in published research into guest engagement in sustainability programs in hospitality businesses to demonstrate the value of systems thinking for organising theoretical concepts. In both of the reviewed areas the overwhelming conclusion was that the majority of the research lacked both practical relevance and was based on inappropriate or deficient theoretical understanding.

scholarly journals Are you really using Yarning research? Mapping Social and Family Yarning to strengthen Yarning research quality

2021 ◽  
pp. 117718012110154
Author(s):  
Petah Atkinson ◽  
Marilyn Baird ◽  
Karen Adams
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Research Quality ◽  
Aboriginal Community ◽  
Participant Recruitment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Convenience Sampling ◽  
Missing Feature ◽  
Published Research

Yarning as a research method has its grounding as an Aboriginal culturally specified process. Significant to the Research Yarn is relationality, however; this is a missing feature of published research findings. This article aims to address this. The research question was, what can an analysis of Social and Family Yarning tell us about relationality that underpins a Research Yarn. Participant recruitment occurred using convenience sampling, and data collection involved Yarning method. Five steps of data analysis occurred featuring Collaborative Yarning and Mapping. Commonality existed between researcher and participants through predominantly experiences of being a part of Aboriginal community, via Aboriginal organisations and Country. This suggests shared explicit and tacit knowledge and generation of thick data. Researchers should report on their experience with Yarning, the types of Yarning they are using, and the relationality generated from the Social, Family and Research Yarn.

Cognitive risk culture and advanced roles of actors in risk governance: a case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruchi Agarwal ◽  
Sanjay Kallapur
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Risk Governance ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cognitive Risk ◽  
Risk Culture ◽  
The Uk

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the best practices for improving risk culture and defining the role of actors in risk governance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents an exemplar case of a British insurance company by using a qualitative case research approach.FindingsThe case study shows how the company was successful in changing from a compliance-based and defensive risk culture to a cognitive risk culture by using a systems thinking approach. Cognitive risk culture ensures that everybody understands risks and their own roles in risk governance. The change was accomplished by adding an operational layer between the first and second lines of defense and developing tools to better communicate risks throughout the organization.Practical implicationsPractitioners can potentially improve risk governance by using the company’s approach. The UK regulator’s initiative to improve risk culture can potentially be followed by other regulators.Originality/valueThis is among the few studies that describe actual examples of how a company can improve risk culture using the systems approach and how systems thinking simultaneously resolves several other issues such as poor risk reporting and lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities.

scholarly journals INTER-RELATIONS BETWEEN JET BEHAVIOR AND HYDRAULIC PROCESSES OBSERVED AT DELTAIC RIVER MOUTHS AND TIDAL INLETS

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Charles G. Bates ◽  
John C. Freeman, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Measurement ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Tidal Inlets ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Delta Formation ◽  
Jet Behavior ◽  
River Mouths ◽  
Hydraulic Processes

Price (1951) has stated: "(in) geological oceanography as practiced today there is constant emphasis on quantitative measurement and quantitative theoretical development." As a demonstration of this geophysical approach to geological problems the authors have studied the theory of processes involved when sediment-laden water flows into a currentless, tideless, wave-free basin. The theoretical concepts developed have then been tested against the actual occurrences in nature. The result is that it is possible to propose a comprehensive theory of delta formation which may explain many of the features observed near mouths of rivers. According to this theory, there are three distinct and basic types of river inflow into a still basin, as shown in Figure 1:

Systems Thinking in Strategy Development

2012 ◽  
pp. 32-60
Keyword(s):  
Marketing Strategy ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Business Performance ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Causal Models ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
Marketing Process ◽  
The Given

Systems thinking is considered as an important tool in developing strategic decision in marketing. The systems approach enables connecting objects of various types to a single platform of thinking, to organize different forms of activity within the given time and space of the situation in business. This chapter describes how systems thinking could provide a framework to various marketing process and create a map of the value chain that specifies relationships among the components of the marketing processes. Discussions in the chapter provide a conceptual framework of the development of systems thinking and systems methodologies and explain how such approaches can deal with issues of market complexity. Causal models in developing marketing strategy are illustrated, and new insights on thinking as a method to achieve desired business performance are also discussed.

Information-As-System in Information Systems

2010 ◽  
pp. 99-118
Author(s):  
Tuan M. Nguyen ◽  
Huy V. Vo
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Structure Function ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Holistic Thinking ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Nature Of Information

This article investigates the complex nature of information in information systems (IS). Based on the systems thinking framework, this study argues that information in IS is a system in its own right. A conceptual model of information-as-system is built on the systems thinking perspective adopted from Gharajedaghi’s holistic thinking rooted from Ackoff systems approach, which is developed through Peirce’s semiotics with the validity support of Metcalfe and Powell’s perspective of information perception, Mingers and Brocklesby’s schema of situational actions, Toulmin’s theory of argumentation and Ulrich’s theory of systems boundary. The proposed model of information-as-systems is described in terms of triads–on the structure, function, and process, all interdependent–in a context of information-as-system in IS.

scholarly journals Health in cities: is a systems approach needed?

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 9-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana V. Diez Roux
Keyword(s):  
Population Health ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Urban Health ◽  
Conceptual Models ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Potential Utility ◽  
Systems Approaches ◽  
Data Gaps ◽  
New Policies

Abstract This paper reviews the potential utility of using the concepts and tools of systems to understand and act on health in cities. The basic elements of systems approaches and the links between cities as systems and population health as emerging from the functioning of a system are reviewed. The paper also discusses implications of systems thinking for urban health including the development of dynamic conceptual models, the use of new tools, the integration of data in new ways and the identification of data gaps, and the formulation of different kinds of questions and identification of new policies. The paper concludes with a review of caveats and challenges.

Systems Thinking

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sytse Strijbos
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
P Systems ◽  
Systems Science ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Von Bertalanffy ◽  
Scientific Program ◽  
World Picture ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of

Systems thinking was launched by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and others in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary movement with a broad and bold scientific program. The movement attempts to overcome the dominating mechanistic world picture and related reductionism in the sciences which is regarded as one of the main causes of the problems of the modern world. This chapter discusses the sixty-year history of systems thinking and sketches some main lines of its three domains: systems science, systems approach in technology and management, and systems philosophy. This interdisciplinary movement has stimulated fruitful theory formation in the first mentioned domain, although it has not succeeded in achieving its original far-reaching goals. Furthermore, integrative, interdisciplinary systems approaches in technology and management have become well accepted. Finally, recent developments signal a return to the intellectual-spiritual roots of the systems movement aiming for a renewal of its scientific agenda.

scholarly journals A Systems Approach to Establishing an Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Institute

Systems ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Gregory Harris ◽  
Lauren Caudle
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Advanced Manufacturing ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
National Network ◽  
Engineering Discipline ◽  
Manufacturing Innovation ◽  
Engineering Effort

Systems engineering is a methodology where an interdisciplinary approach is applied, using systems thinking, to the development of a system of interest. The systems engineering discipline has emerged as an effective way to guide the engineering of complex systems, but has been applied most readily in the realm of cyber physical systems. In some circles of the Federal Government, the mention of systems engineering processes immediately leads people to think of a long, inefficient effort due to an often applied bureaucratic approach, where the focus is on documentation rather than the development of the system of interest, which comes from a view that the product of the systems engineering effort is the document, not the system itself. In this paper, the authors describe the application of systems thinking and the systems engineering process to the design and creation of an Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII, part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation) established under Department of Defense (DoD) authority for the Office of the President, that was swift, efficient, and implemented without formality.

scholarly journals Development and application of ‘systems thinking’ principles for quality improvement

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. e000714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan McNab ◽  
John McKay ◽  
Steven Shorrock ◽  
Sarah Luty ◽  
Paul Bowie
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Healthcare Setting ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
System Safety ◽  
Work Systems ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Improvement Intervention

Introduction‘Systems thinking’ is often recommended in healthcare to support quality and safety activities but a shared understanding of this concept and purposeful guidance on its application are limited. Healthcare systems have been described as complex where human adaptation to localised circumstances is often necessary to achieve success. Principles for managing and improving system safety developed by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL; a European intergovernmental air navigation organisation) incorporate a ‘Safety-II systems approach’ to promote understanding of how safety may be achieved in complex work systems. We aimed to adapt and contextualise the core principles of this systems approach and demonstrate the application in a healthcare setting.MethodsThe original EUROCONTROL principles were adapted using consensus-building methods with front-line staff and national safety leaders.ResultsSix interrelated principles for healthcare were agreed. The foundation concept acknowledges that ‘most healthcare problems and solutions belong to the system’. Principle 1 outlines the need to seek multiple perspectives to understand system safety. Principle 2 prompts us to consider the influence of prevailing work conditions—demand, capacity, resources and constraints. Principle 3 stresses the importance of analysing interactions and work flow within the system. Principle 4 encourages us to attempt to understand why professional decisions made sense at the time and principle 5 prompts us to explore everyday work including the adjustments made to achieve success in changing system conditions.A case study is used to demonstrate the application in an analysis of a system and in the subsequent improvement intervention design.ConclusionsApplication of the adapted principles underpins, and is characteristic of, a holistic systems approach and may aid care team and organisational system understanding and improvement.

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