Service science offers fresh perspective to reorient the debate on what is ‘progress’ and whether or not it is slowing down, and if so, what might be done to reframe progress ‘at the speed limit of what is possible’ with universities. When it comes to the ‘rate of progress’, universities can play a greater role in improving the deeply interconnected societal measures of innovativeness, competitive parity, sustainability and resiliency. During the current ‘great recession’, much is now being written about progress slowing down. From education levels to scientific discoveries to technical innovations to economic and environmental collapse, rhetoric about progress slowing down or nearing collapse or becoming uncompetitive in developed economies is on the rise. Boulding suggested in ‘the skeleton of science’ that over‐specialization could create communication barriers between scientific specialists slowing down profitable talk. We propose that a service science reframing of progress with universities as essential institutional actors might positively reorient the debate. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Much of systems thinking, as commonly espoused today, was developed by a generation in the context of the 1950s–1980s. In the 2010s, has systems thinking changed with the world in which it is to be applied? Is systems thinking learning and coevolving with the world? Some contemporary systems thinkers continue to push the frontiers of theory, methods and practice. Others situationally increment the traditions of their preferred gurus, where approaches proven successful in prior experiences are replicated for new circumstances. Founded on interactions with a variety of systems communities over the past 15 years, three ways to rethink systems thinking are proposed: ‘parts and wholes’ snapshots → ‘learning and coevolving’ over time social and ecological → emerged environments of the service economy and the Anthropocene episteme and techne → phronesis for the living and nonlivingThese proposed ways are neither exhaustive nor sufficient. The degree to which systems thinking should be rethought may itself be controversial. If, however, systems thinking is to be authentic, the changed world of the 21st century should lead systems thinkers to engage in a reflective inquiry. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Throughout the 20th century, the industrial age roots of hierarchical top‐down planning and command‐and‐control supervision have been the foundations for management thinking. At the beginning of the 21st century, many futurists and systems thinkers have widely declared that businesses must equip themselves to be more responsive to rapidly changing environments. Dynamic, knowledge‐based businesses require that rigid forms of business governance give way to networked forms. Since many successful businesses have shifted from autonomous independent enterprises to building alliances and inter‐organizational relationships, we advocate a renewed examination of negotiated order and a focus on the fluidity enabled by it. The traditional advantages of legal order are being outweighed by its inherent rigidity. Under conditions of rapid change, maintaining an internally consistent set of rules, essential to legal order, is inefficient and relatively ineffective. Systems of negotiated order are characterized by situational coordination of interests, flexible definitions of desired end states, and spontaneous initiatives by interested stakeholders. We examine the development of the Linux community and its negotiated system of self‐governance, and offer three additional business examples that suggest how negotiated order may provide a platform for stakeholders to innovatively leverage the dynamics of the contemporary environment. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
For professionals at the beginning of the 21st century, much of the conventional wisdom on business management and engineering is founded in the 20th century industrial / manufacturing paradigm. In developed economies, however, the service sector now dominates the manufacturing sector, just as manufacturing prevailed over the agricultural sector after the industrial revolution.This chapter proposes the development of a body of knowledge on services systems, based on foundations in the systems sciences. The approach includes the design of the systems of inquiry, acknowledging that body of knowledge on 21 st century service systems is relatively nascent. A program of action science is proposed, with an emphasis on multiple realities and knowledge development through dialectic. The outcome pursued is an increased number of T-shaped people with depth and breadth in service systems, in communities of inquiry of researchers and practitioners.
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