SSM and technology management: Developing multimethodology through practice

Growing competition and economic recession is driving the need for more rapid redesign of operations enabled by innovative technologies. The acquisition, development and implementation of systems to manage customer complaints and control the quality assurance process is a critical area for engineering and manufacturing companies. Multimethodologies, and especially those that can bridge ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ OR practices, have been seen as a possible means to facilitate rapid problem structuring, the analysis of alternative process design and then the specification through to implementation of systems solutions. Despite the many ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ OR problem structuring and management methods available, there are relatively few detailed empirical research studies of how they can be combined and conducted in practice. This study examines how a multimethodology was developed, and used successfully, in an engineering company to address customer complaints/concerns, both strategically and operationally. The action research study examined and utilised emerging ‘soft’ OR theory to iteratively develop a new framework that encompasses problem structuring through to technology selection and adoption. This was based on combining Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) for problem exploration and structuring, learning theories and methods for problem diagnosis, and technology management for selecting between alternatives and implementing the solution. The results show that, through the use of action research and the development of a contextualised multimethodology, stakeholders within organisations can participate in the design of new systems and more rapidly adopt technology to address the operational problems of customer complaints in more systemic, innovative and informed ways.     

Boundary critique and its implications for conflict prevention

This paper reviews developments in the theory of boundary critique, which has been used in a number of OR projects to support conflict resolution. The authors argue that this theory (and associated models) is also useful for conflict prevention. It indicates the need to support people in discussing their differences before conflict arises. Potential conflicts can be reframed through dialogue focusing on values, and participative governance can institutionalise fair processes for making decisions in the absence of consensus. Some of the boundary critique models also support people in recognising and countering the systemic conditions that enable stereotyping, stigmatisation and the victimisation of minorities. The paper ends by presenting a new model that was originally developed to inform mediation practice, but also has implications for conflict prevention. This helps explain how different interpretations of a common concern arise, and suggests ways to improve mutual understanding between people and/or reframe the common concern in order to defuse a potential conflict.     

Robert Leslie Ellisʼs work on philosophy of science and the foundations of probability theory

The goal of this paper is to provide an extensive account of Robert Leslie Ellis?s largely forgotten work on philosophy of science and probability theory. On the one hand, it is suggested that both his ‘idealist’ renovation of the Baconian theory of induction and a ‘realism’ vis-à-vis natural kinds were the result of a complex dialogue with the work of William Whewell. On the other hand, it is shown to what extent the combining of these two positions contributed to Ellis?s reformulation of the metaphysical foundations of traditional probability theory. This parallel is assessed with reference to the disagreement between Ellis and Whewell on the nature of (pure) mathematics and its relation to scientific knowledge.     

Systemic problem structuring applied to community involvement in water conservation

Many advocates of problem structuring approaches mix methods to enhance the flexibility and responsiveness of OR practice. A number of ‘multi-methodology’ approaches have been developed to support practitioners in doing this, and one of these is systemic intervention. A distinguishing feature of systemic intervention is boundary critique: a theory and set of methodological ideas for exploring the inclusion, exclusion and marginalization of both people and issues. This paper argues that boundary critique can enhance the choice and process of application of problem structuring methods. An application of boundary critique is presented to illustrate the argument, focusing on community participation in the management of ongoing water shortages in a small seaside town in New Zealand. The theory of boundary critique helped to reframe people's understanding of a 30-year conflict between the District Council and community. This led to the design of a participative problem structuring workshop, and a way forward was identified that both the District Council and community could accept. Feedback from the workshop participants suggested that the intervention generated valuable results for all the parties involved. The paper concludes with some brief reflections on how the research agenda on boundary critique and problem structuring methods can be progressed into the future.     

Problem structuring methods ‘in the Dock’: Arguing the case for Soft OR

Problem structuring methods (‘soft’ OR) have been around for approximately 40 years and yet these methods are still very much overlooked in the OR world. Whilst there is almost certainly a number of explanations for this, two key stumbling blocks are: (1) the subjective nature of the modelling yielding insights rather than testable results, and (2) the demand on users to both manage content (through modelling) and processes (work with rather than ‘on behalf’ of groups). However, as evidenced from practice there are also a number of significant benefits. This paper therefore aims to examine the case of Soft OR through examining the case for and against problem structuring methods.     

Towards a new framework for evaluating systemic problem structuring methods

Operational researchers and social scientists often make significant claims for the value of systemic problem structuring and other participative methods. However, when they present evidence to support these claims, it is usually based on single case studies of intervention. There have been very few attempts at evaluating across methods and across interventions undertaken by different people. This is because, in any local intervention, contextual factors, the skills of the researcher and the purposes being pursued by stakeholders affect the perceived success or failure of a method. The use of standard criteria for comparing methods is therefore made problematic by the need to consider what is unique in each intervention. So, is it possible to develop a single evaluation approach that can support both locally meaningful evaluations and longer-term comparisons between methods? This paper outlines a methodological framework for the evaluation of systemic problem structuring methods that seeks to do just this.     

Exploring Middle School Girls’ Science Identities: Examining Attitudes and Perceptions of Scientists when Working “Side‐by‐Side” with Scientists

This article is the culmination of an extensive inquiry‐focused interactive experience involving female middle school students and five university scientists, which demonstrated that middle school girls ‘perception of science and scientists can be successfully improved. The study exposed students to adult professional scientists over a period of a few days in laboratory and field exercises. Based on student journal entries and pictorial illustrations, as well as attitude surveys, the experience resulted in a keen appreciation of the sciences among the majority of participants and both a heightened and broadened awareness of Science as a Human Endeavor. The students’ resulting perceptions reinforce the importance for science educators to expose their students to adult professional scientists in order for students, especially female students, to develop a better understanding of science and the role of scientists. Engaging scientists in helping promote science as a positive, exciting and satisfying career goal will help debunk common myths in the minds of young students about science and drive students, especially female students, to consider science careers.     

The reality of Mathematics

The power of mathematics is discussed as a way of expressing reasoning, aesthetics and insight in symbolic non-verbal communication. The human culture of discovering mathematical ways of thinking in the enterprise of exploring the understanding of the nature and the evolution of our world through hypotheses, theories and experimental affirmation of the scientific notion of algorithmic and non-algorithmic ‘computation’, is examined and commended upon.     

Promoting students’ graphical understanding of the calculus

Our purpose in this paper is to report on an observational study to show how students think about the links between the graph of a derived function and the original function from which it was formed. The participants were asked to perform the following task: they were presented with four graphs that represented derived functions and from these graphs they were asked to construct the original functions from which they were formed. The students then had to walk these graphs as if they were displacement-time graphs. Their discussions were recorded on audio tape and their walks were captured using data logging equipment and these were analysed together with their pencil and paper notes. From these three sources of data, we were able to construct a picture of the students’ graphical understanding of connections in calculus. The results confirm that at the start of the activity the students demonstrate an algebraic symbolic view of calculus and find it difficult to make connections between the graphs of a derived function and the function itself. By being able to ‘walk’ an associated displacement time graph, we propose that the students are extending their understanding of calculus concepts from symbolic representation to a graphical representation and to what we term a ‘physical feel’.     

Soft OR in China: A critical report

As China’s reform steps into the ‘deep water zone’ where value complexity becomes paramount, general-purpose decision-making aids such as Operational Research (OR) are increasingly confronted with the challenge of dealing with interest conflicts. However, due to historical events and institutional circumstances, OR in China to date is largely constrained by a technocratic approach which is not fit for purpose. Encouragingly, recent OR innovations inside China signify a conscious move to embrace value plurality and tackle social conflicts. OR is not merely a neutral tool for solving technical problems, but a world-building discourse that shapes society. The future of OR, particularly Soft OR, in China will be determined by whether OR workers are willing and capable to act as institutional entrepreneurs promoting scientific and democratic decision-making that deepens the reform toward an open, just and prosperous society. The implications go beyond the OR community and China’s borders.     

Stakeholder Preference Mapping—seeking a way forward for the processing of spent nuclear fuel

Continuing concern in many countries about the processing of spent nuclear fuel has sparked new interest in how best to make evidence-based decisions about divisive issues. Stakeholder Preference Mapping (SPM), described here, is a way of applying multi-attribute decision analysis to structured dialogue and engagement with stakeholders. It uses the recorded views of stakeholders, supplemented where necessary by direct stakeholder contact, to understand and evidence stakeholder perspectives and to anticipate arguments for and against particular outcomes. It is illustrated in this paper through an exercise to examine competing options for the processing of spent nuclear fuel. The potential merits of SPM in terms of informing, focusing and accelerating stakeholder interactions and its relationship to other similar approaches are described and discussed.     

Public policy structuring incorporating reciprocal expectation analysis

This paper proposes a method of structuring public policy by incorporating reciprocal expectation analysis. The proposed method is characterized by three components: identification of the problem structure perceived by stakeholders using cognitive maps, policy structuring analysis with a value–driver matrix and a reciprocal expectation matrix, and feasibility analysis of agreements among the stakeholders. The three types of relationship among stakeholders are derived from the feasibility analysis, which are “Dosho-imu”, “Isho-imu”, and “Domu”. Three tests of feasibility to reach the agreement are then proposed: “information-sharing test”, “bargaining test”, and “reframing test”. A case study is presented, applying the method to strategic transportation planning in the Kanto region of Japan. Finally, the potential functions of the proposed method in practice are discussed.     

基于分段策略评分的冲突主体偏好排序方法及其应用

冲突中各利益主体的偏好信息对冲突局势的演变和纠纷调解具有重要影响。现有的冲突偏好排序方法主要基于决策者对冲突局势或状态、策略权重和声明信息的主观判断和理解,缺乏科学的数据来源支撑。为准确获取冲突主体的偏好信息,本文提出了一种基于调查法的分段策略冲突偏好排序方法。首先,根据决策者类别将冲突策略集合进行分段,并通过问卷、调研等方法获取每个冲突主体对所有分段策略的重要度评分信息。在此基础上,计算决策者对各个冲突状态的综合偏好评分,进而得到状态偏好的排序结果。最后以医患纠纷为例,对比分析了传统策略权重法和分段策略评分法的偏好排序和稳定性分析结果,进一步验证了所提方法的有效性。     

基于合作博弈的移动支付商业模式动态联盟企业利益分配研究

移动支付是近年来的热门发展方向,但是目前我国还没有形成统一的移动支付商业模式,已有研究没有量化各参与主体的价值贡献,导致利益分配产生冲突。针对这一问题,采用合作博弈理论系统分析通信运营商、金融机构、第三方支付平台在移动支付商业模式中的价值贡献,在基于Shapley值法量化的基础上引入资源投入、风险分担、创新能力三要素进行改进,计算得到各参与主体在合作联盟中的综合量化值。研究结果表明,将改进的Shapley值法应用于移动支付商业模式利益分配研究更能体现公平性和科学性,为解决各参与主体合作冲突、构建协同创新与利益共享的移动支付商业模式提供理论借鉴与参考。     

邻避冲突中的利益相关者演化博弈分析——以污染类邻避设施为例

工业化、城市化进程的加快在推进社会经济发展的同时,也催生了公民权利意识和环保意识的觉醒。在整体利益与局部利益、经济利益与环境利益等一系列矛盾交织的宏观背景下,继劳资纠纷、征地拆迁之后,污染类邻避设施成为诱发群体性事件的关键因子。因此,探究政府、邻避设施营建企业与周边民众三方间利益关系,理清相关主体的利益诉求对于邻避冲突的预防和处置具有重要实践意义。本文基于利益相关者理论,探究污染类邻避设施相关利益主体在冲突中所扮演的角色和发挥的作用,进而从博弈论视角出发构建政府、邻避设施营建企业和周边民众之间的三方演化博弈模型。在此基础上,通过对政府、营建企业和周边民众的稳定演化博弈策略选择分析,得出推动博弈三方向演化稳定策略点收敛的条件。利用Matlab对三方演化模型模拟仿真,结果表明政府采取不监管策略、营建企业采取合作策略及周边民众采取不抵抗策略是邻避冲突中三方利益相关者演化博弈的稳定策略点;高强度的政府奖励力度有利于促进营建企业采取合作策略,而抑制周边民众抵抗行为策略的选择;营建企业的经济补偿对于降低民众抵抗力度具有临界点,只有高额的经济补偿才会激励民众选择不抵抗的行为策略;而周边民众的抵抗力度对营建企业的策略选择无显著影响。本文研究结果对邻避冲突中相关利益主体起到一定启示作用:第一,政府作为邻避设施建设的监管者,应注重把握监管力度,完善公众参与渠道,降低个体风险感知;第二,营建企业作为邻避设施建设的实施者,应积极采用环保技术,构建科学利益补偿机制;第三,周边民众对于邻避设施的“落地”发挥关键作用,应加强自身公共理性,合理评估邻避风险,自觉维护社会公共利益。     

Conflict dissolution in the public sector: A case-study

The construction of a new railway link to the port of Lisbon has been postponed many times as a result of a conflict of different viewpoints held by various public stakeholders, namely between the municipality of Lisbon and the Lisbon Railway Node Bureau, while the Portuguese Railway Company has assumed a more flexible attitude. Over recent years, three groups of solutions, totalling nine alternative projects, have been proposed by each of these three actors, but none has been simultaneously accepted by all the three. The development of the urbanisation plan for Alcântara (the zone of the city where the railway line links to the port) has presented an opportunity to try to dissolve the conflict. This paper describes the multicriteria approach followed to support the creation of a new “good” (win–win) compromise solution by the planning team based on the study of the consequences of the existing alternatives. In particular, we describe the structuring phase of the study and the use of a disaggregation–aggregation approach to take into account the different value systems of the stakeholders.     

A strategic decision support system framework for energy-efficient technology investments

Energy systems optimization under uncertainty is increasing in its importance due to on-going global de-regulation of the energy sector and the setting of environmental and efficiency targets which generate new multi-agent risks requiring a model-based stakeholders dialogue and new systemic regulations. This paper develops an integrated framework for decision support systems (DSS) for the optimal planning and operation of a building infrastructure under appearing systemic de-regulations and risks. The DSS relies on a new two-stage, dynamic stochastic optimization model with moving random time horizons bounded by stopping time moments. This allows to model impacts of potential extreme events and structural changes emerging from a stakeholders dialogue, which may occur at any moment of the decision making process. The stopping time moments induce endogenous risk aversion in strategic decisions in a form of dynamic VaR-type systemic risk measures dependent on the system’s structure. The DSS implementation via an algebraic modeling language (AML) provides an environment that enforces the necessary stakeholders dialogue for robust planning and operation of a building infrastructure. Such a framework allows the representation and solution of building infrastructure systems optimization problems, to be implemented at the building level to confront rising systemic economic and environmental global changes.     

Exploring Graduate‐Level Scientists' Participation in a Sustained K‐12 Teaching Collaboration

To increase scientific literacy in America, the National Science Foundation has implemented the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K‐12 Initiative (GK‐12). In these programs graduate level scientists, known as Graduate Teaching Fellows (GTFs), act as resources for science teachers (Partner Teachers). This research examines the influence of participation in this program on the GTFs involved in one GK‐12 sustained collaboration that emphasizes the codevelopment and co‐implementation of hands‐on, inquiry‐based activities. Qualitative data in the form of interviews and observations were collected from a single cohort of Partner Teachers, GTFs, and the academic advisors of the GTFs for one academic year. The GTFs identified three benefits they received from working in the GK‐12 program: enhanced understanding of science content, fuller understanding of the complexities of teaching science, and understanding of inquiry‐based science teaching and its value. At the same time the GTFs experienced tensions related to differing views of science and science teaching held by the GTFs and the Partner Teachers. The GTFs also experienced professional risks in at least two ways due to their involvement in this program. One risk was the result of the time commitment required to be a GTF. The other was the result of what was termed competing foci. Illustrated in this case by the difficulties encountered as GTFs attempted to learn how to teach in a secondary science classroom while still learning to become research scientists.     

Developing shift problems to foster geometrical proof and understanding

Meaningful learning of formal mathematics in regular classrooms remains a problem in mathematics education. Research shows that instructional approaches in which students work collaboratively on tasks that are tailored to problem solving and reflection can improve students’ learning in experimental classrooms. However, these sequences involve often carefully constructed reinvention route, which do not fit the needs of teachers and students working from conventional curriculum materials. To help to narrow this gap, we developed an intervention—‘shift problem lessons’. The aim of this article is to discuss the design of shift problems and to analyze learning processes occurring when students are working on the tasks. Specifically, we discuss three paradigmatic episodes based on data from a teaching experiment in geometrical proof. The episodes show that is possible to create a micro-learning ecology where regular students are seriously involved in mathematical discussions, ground their mathematical understanding and strengthen their relational framework.