Multi-stakeholder Decision Making For Complex Problems: A Systems Thinking Approach With Cases


Book Description

In the complex world of today, important policy and business decisions are still made with a 17th Century reductionist mindset and approach. Yet, complex challenges such as climate change, poverty, public health, security, energy futures, and sustainability transcend any single science, discipline or agency. Rather, they require integration of social, economic, cultural, political, and environmental concerns to achieve acceptable and sustainable outcomes. This entails synthesis of diverse knowledge and perspectives in a transparent and unifying decision-making process, engaging stakeholders with competing interests, perspectives, and agendas under uncertain and often adversarial conditions.Multi-Stakeholder Decision Making for Complex Problems — A Systems Thinking Approach with Cases brings together a unique self-contained volume to address this challenge. The book introduces the systems approach in non-technical language for multi-issue, multi-stakeholder decision making supplemented by numerous case studies including business, economics, healthcare, agriculture, energy, sustainability, policy, and planning. The book provides a fresh and timely approach with practical tools for dealing with complex challenges facing evolving global business and society today.




Multi-stakeholder Decision Making for Complex Problems


Book Description

This book entails synthesis of diverse knowledge and perspectives in a transparent and unifying decision-making process, engaging stakeholders with competing interests, perspectives, and agendas under uncertain and often adversarial conditions. It uses a Systems Thinking Approach with Cases bringing together a unique self-contained volume to address this challenge of the global business and society evolving today.




Collaborating for Our Future


Book Description

This book explains why multistakeholder partnerships are needed to solve societal problems in the 21st century. It identifies global problems and contexts where multistakeholder partnerships are currently in use and offers numerous case examples of such partnerships to help readers grasp their nature and operation.




Sustainable Water Services


Book Description

Sustainable Water Services: A Procedural Guide is the result of the Sustainable Water industry Asset Resource Decisions (SWARD) project, undertaken by a consortium of UK academics in collaboration with water service providers in Scotland, England and Romania. It has been developed to act as a practical tool to assist with the explicit inclusion of ?sustainability? in the decision-making processes of those responsible for providing water services. The book contains a framework that comprises a set of decision support processes that can be used by water service providers to explicitly incorporate sustainability considerations into their decision-making procedures, through the use of sustainability principles, criteria, indicators and processes. These principles and criteria can be applied at an overall corporate strategic level, for example in the service provider?s mission statement, or at an application level, where these strategic principles are being applied to a particular decision. Sustainable Water Services is designed to inform and to provide support for strategic activity, both as a resource containing information about sustainability, and by employing feedback from application to inform the strategic processes of the water service provider. Presents an inclusive and generic set of sustainability criteria for use in water industry decision making processes; Discusses the legislative drivers for sustainable decision making for the UK water industry; Presents clear case study examples of the sustainability framework in action; Discusses the use and applicability of a wide range of tools and techniques for undertaking environmental, economic and social analyses, e.g. life cycle assessment, multi-criteria analysis.




Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems


Book Description

This book explores three interwoven and challenging areas of research and development for future ICT-enabled applications: software intensive systems, complex systems and intelligent systems. Software intensive systems are systems that extensively interact with other systems, sensors, actuators, devices and users. More and more domains are now employing software intensive systems, e.g. the automotive sector, telecommunication systems, embedded systems in general, industrial automation systems and business applications. Moreover, the outcome of web services offers a new platform for enabling software intensive systems. Complex systems research is focused on the overall understanding of systems rather than their components. Complex systems are very much characterized by the changing environments in which they operate through their multiple internal and external interactions. They evolve and adapt through (internal and external) dynamic interactions. The development of intelligent systems and agents, which is increasingly characterized by the use of ontologies, can be beneficial for software intensive systems and complex systems alike. Accordingly, recent research in the areas of intelligent systems, robotics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and the cognitive sciences is essential to the future development of software intensive and complex systems.




Water Management in New Zealand's Canterbury Region


Book Description

The book is designed to achieve two major purposes. The first is to describe the developments in water management policy in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand. The strategic approach, the collaborative engagement, and, the nested adaptive systems approach represent a paradigm shift in water management in New Zealand. The second is to delineate the sustainability framework that underpins the Canterbury approach. The framework is based on the concept of developing sustainability strategies to address critical failure pathways. While the focus of the book is on Canterbury, comparative applications of the framework to issues in other parts of New Zealand and international issues are proposed. The book can be used in at least two ways. The first is the application of a sustainability framework to the management of water in Canterbury region. The second is the exposition of a sustainability framework that can be applied to the management of water in a region with the application to Canterbury as an illustrative case study.




Advanced Information Networking and Applications


Book Description

This proceedings book covers the theory, design and applications of computer networks, distributed computing and information systems. Today’s networks are evolving rapidly, and there are several developing areas and applications. These include heterogeneous networking supported by recent technological advances in power wireless communications, along with silicon integration of various functionalities such as sensing, communications, intelligence and actuations, which is emerging as a critically important disruptive computer class based on a new platform, networking structure and interface that enables novel, low-cost and high-volume applications. However, implemeting these applications has sometimes been difficult due to interconnection problems. As such, different networks need to collaborate, and wired and next-generation wireless systems need to be integrated in order to develop high-performance computing solutions to address the problems arising from these networks’ complexities. This ebook presents the latest research findings, as well as theoretical and practical perspectives on the innovative methods and development techniques related to the emerging areas of information networking and applications




Advances on Broad-Band Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications


Book Description

This proceedings book presents the latest research findings, innovative research results, methods and development techniques related to the emerging areas of broadband and wireless computing, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Today’s information networks are going through a rapid evolution. Different kinds of networks with different characteristics are emerging, and are being integrated into heterogeneous networks. As a result, there are numerous interconnection problems that can occur at different levels of the hardware and software design of communicating entities and communication networks. Such networks need to manage an increasing usage demand, provide support for a significant number of services, guarantee their QoS, and optimize the network resources. The success of all-IP networking and wireless technology has changed the way of living for people around the globe. Advances in electronic integration and wireless communications will pave the way to offering access to wireless networks on the fly, which in turn will allow electronic devices to share information with each other wherever and whenever necessary.




Redesigning Organizations


Book Description

This book offers readers a deeper understanding of the Cyberspace, of how institutions and industries are reinventing themselves, helping them excel in the transition to a fully digitally connected global economy. Though technology plays a key part in this regard, societal acceptance is the most important underlying condition, as it poses pressing challenges that cut across companies, developers, governments and workers. The book explores the challenges and opportunities involved, current and potential future concepts, critical reflections and best practices. It addresses connected societies, new opportunities for governments, the role of trust in digital networks, and future education networks. In turn, a number of representative case studies demonstrate the current state of development in practice.




Burnout or Breakout


Book Description

How can church leaders be effective without sacrificing their marriage, their family, or their health in the process? How can good leaders get stuck churches unstuck without becoming another casualty? Burnout or Breakout provides answers to both. The burnout epidemic among church leaders, combined with cultural volatility, uncertainty, and complexity catalyze with unhealthy church processes to get churches stuck. All these forces combine to stifle good leaders until it seems that no reasonable leadership effort can succeed. This book brings new insights to churches and church leaders frustrated with making tireless efforts to move the church, yet constantly falling short of their goals and objectives. It helps church leaders avoid quick-fix solutions that actually keep churches stuck by applying systemic, long-term solutions. This book brings hope to stifled leaders on the verge of burnout. Building on biblical and experiential evidence, the author presents burnout as a systemic problem. Seeing from a systems perspective enables leaders to discover how their church really works and provides tools and strategies to help them realign their church system for health and effectiveness. Based on a comprehensive introduction to systems thinking, leaders are encouraged to see their congregations as complex systems of interrelated and interdependent elements. Effective leadership, from a systems perspective, aligns the church to achieve intended outcomes. Based on the account of Jethro and Moses in Exodus 18, leaders are equipped to identify and diagnose church systems designed for burnout and provides strategies to overcome the stifling forces within the church. Leaders are further equipped to apply systemic thinking to common church system problems, such as declining attendance, mission confusion, and volunteer shortages. Brings hope that stifled leaders and stuck churches can break out of their limiting conditions by investing time and effort to learn and practice seeing from a new systems perspective.