Systemic Practice and Action Research最新文献

In 2018, Lisbon won the title of Green capital of Europe 2020. It was described by the Expert Panel as an inspirational city which had started its journey towards sustainability during a period of economic crisis. A year later, Covid-19 had become a global pandemic. Imposed confinements highlighted the extent to which globalisation has spread the virus, as well as the particular fragility of places like cities where people, living together, were asked to not physically interact anymore. Exploring further that very particular global crisis can help to identify the faults in our economic systems and to ask why Lisbon was neither resilient nor sustainable in the face of that adversity. In addition to highlighting how weak our health is, Covid-19 has exacerbated vulnerabilities in Lisbon such as job losses (especially in the touristic sector), food supply (Portugal imports 70% of its food) and food waste. This paper explores how the activity which, 'par excellence', meets the most basic of our needs (food), through the example of Urban Agriculture (UA), could contribute to discussions on what makes a city sustainable. A literature review on UA in Lisbon highlights its various benefits, complemented by a broader literature review which converges to showing how UA can help to address the vulnerabilities generated or exacerbated by Covid. Having shown its potential contribution to addressing crises, this article then suggests to examine how systems approaches could help to incorporate UA further in a new type of more participatory urbanism aimed at creating sustainable cities.

'Ecology of mind' (Bateson, 1972) is a key concept applied to this project engaged in by a social anthropologist, a policy researcher, and a Sundanese Chief. Together we explore how the agendas for COP 26 could be attained and to what extent the Nobel economist Elinor Ostrom's (2018) eight principles are relevant for managing the commons and key learnings that can be shared more broadly.The paper details the Sundanese forest community's organisational systems to support living in ways that re-generate and sustain the forest and the way that the community has connected with Universitas Padjadjaran and an NGO called the Common Room Networks (common room.id), in order to support and extend their learning with nature program within and beyond Indonesia. Decolonising and learning from Indigenous leadership can be fostered through forming communities of practice between universities and indigenous leaders. The paper discusses how the Ciptagelar community demonstrates low carbon living and how they have organised agriculture in terms of a seasonal calendar. It makes the case that sharing their agricultural methods and community lifestyle to lower emissions could help to inspire others to follow their re-generative approach to governance and their organisational strategies. The paper demonstrates the relevance of Ostrom's principles which are considered in relation to the case study. On the basis of a series of conversations held via zoom and email we make a case for learning from the leadership rooted in the Sundanese culture and demonstrated in West Java First Nations. It can be read as a twin paper with the paper on the Venda forest, titled 'Eco-centric living: a way forward towards zero carbon'.

Optimising available resources and minimising production costs and throughput time is vital for first-tier suppliers in the worldwide automotive sector. To develop this type of optimisation and efficiency, MAHLE applied Action Research (AR) in one of its factories located in Spain. A multidisciplinary collaborative work team was created with the aim of deploying the AR initiative in combination with Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma tools. Four improvement and learning cycles were deployed and key performance metrics were defined to collect and measure data in order to analyse the improvements achieved. The application of the AR initiative in the production line of a power filter device enabled improvements in both production times and quality indicators in the manufacturing process. The most outstanding results were the improvements made in the decrease in initial throughput time (34.78%) and in average daily rejections (73.53%). In addition, the AR initiative generated practical and theoretical contributions for business and academia, allowing the AR initiative to be applied in other areas of the company, and contributing to the current state of the art in the industrial application of this methodology.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the cultural barriers that existed at various stages of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation process, using the Middle-Eastern oil and gas sector as a case study. Due to a variety of cultural implications, ERP implementation rates in the oil and gas sector in Middle-Eastern developing countries are extremely low. Although the literature highlighted numerous ERP implementation theories that attempted to overcome the cultural complexities of ERP systems, there are few studies that have framed these complexities using action research theory in order to provide potential solutions to these challenges, particularly in Middle-Eastern developing countries where cultural settings are distinct from those in Western developed countries. Action research AR, in conjunction with documentation, observations, and interviews, aided in the exploration of the culturally complex barriers encountered during the pre-implementation (plan and propose), implementation (do), and post-implementation (assess and improve) stages of ERP projects conducted within a Middle-Eastern oil and gas organisation. This article confirms numerous cultural implications at each stage of the ERP implementation process, including team conflict, managerial authority, and a lack of an IT culture, all of which contributed to the project's delay. Other impediments, such as a lack of commitment to training and technophobia, persisted throughout the post-implementation phase and the subsequent follow-up experience under the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This article contributes to theory and practise by highlighting the culturally complex barriers that underpin many ERP implementations in the Middle Eastern oil and gas sector. This information can assist practitioners and researchers in developing future research and ideas to mitigate future ERP implementation challenges in this region.

This paper adopts the hybrid use of soft systems methodology (SSM) as a process of inquiry into understanding the lack of a framework for evidence-based teaching (EBT) in hospitality and tourism education in Vietnam. By combining SSM techniques with interview data, we also develop an EBT framework for the hospitality and tourism profession. The proposed framework addresses three essential sources of evidence for teaching: (1) research-based professional and pedagogical methods, (2) industry-based materials to ensure education-industry linkage, and (3) instructors' knowledge, experience and assumptions about their teaching roles in the classroom. This conceptual framework can be used as a guideline for conducting relevant curriculum renewal and pedagogical reforms in hospitality and tourism institutions in Vietnam.

The purpose of this paper is to present an action research (AR) study of the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) implementation in a mid-sized automotive components company located in Brazil. This study provides a detailed empirical exploration of the S&OP implementation steps, challenges and results obtained in the researched context. An AR method was adopted in this work, seeking: (1) to find effective solutions to the dynamics of the specific context faced during the S&OP implementation, and (2) to promote large-scale changes through the engagement of the company and the researcher in the problem. The S&OP implementation presented significant results in the organization, streamlining inventory, and maintaining the service level desired by the company. The reactivity of the S&OP process also led to a quick adaptation to the COVID-19 challenges, which stands out in the operational key performance indicators (KPIs) analyzed in the period. This work contributes to theory and practice by reporting in-depth empirical research on S&OP implementation and its benefits. Practitioners and researchers can benefit from this research by understanding the best practices, challenges, and potential outcomes of implementing S&OP.