Organisational learning - a critical systems thinking discipline

Original Paper European Journal of Information Systems (2001) 10, 135–146; doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000394 Organisational learning—a critical systems thinking discipline P Panagiotidis1,3 and J S Edwards2,4 1Deloitte and Touche, Athens, Greece 2Aston Business School, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK Correspondence: Dr J S Edwards, Aston Business School, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK. E-mail: j.s.edwards@aston.ac.uk 3Petros Panagiotidis is Manager responsible for the Process and Systems Integrity Services of Deloitte and Touche in Athens, Greece. He has a BSc in Business Administration and an MSc in Management Information Systems from Western International University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA; an MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design from City University, London, UK; and a PhD degree from Aston University, Birmingham, UK. His doctorate was in Business Systems Analysis and Design. His principal interests now are in the ERP/DSS field, where he serves as project leader and project risk managment leader in the implementation of SAP and JD Edwards/Cognos in various major clients in the telecommunications and manufacturing sectors. In addition, he is responsible for the development and application of knowledge management systems and activity-based costing systems. 4John S Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Operational Research and Systems at Aston Business School, Birmingham, UK. He holds MA and PhD degrees (in mathematics and operational research respectively) from Cambridge University. His principal research interests are in knowledge management and decision support, especially methods and processes for system development. He has written more than 30 research papers on these topics, and two books, Building Knowledge-based Systems and Decision Making with Computers, both published by Pitman. Current research work includes the effect of scale of operations on knowledge management, interfacing expert systems with simulation models, process modelling in law and legal services, and a study of the use of artifical intelligence techniques in management accounting. Top of pageAbstract This paper deals with the application of critical systems thinking in the domain of organisational learning and knowledge management. Its viewpoint is that deep organisational learning only takes place when the business systems' stakeholders reflect on their actions and thus inquire about their purpose(s) in relation to the business system and the other stakeholders they perceive to exist. This is done by reflecting both on the sources of motivation and/or deception that are contained in their purpose, and also on the sources of collective motivation and/or deception that are contained in the business system's purpose. The development of an organisational information system that captures, manages and institutionalises meaningful information—a knowledge management system—cannot be separated from organisational learning practices, since it should be the result of these very practices. Although Senge's five disciplines provide a useful starting-point in looking at organisational learning, we argue for a critical systems approach, instead of an uncritical Systems Dynamics one that concentrates only on the organisational learning practices. We proceed to outline a methodology called Business Systems Purpose Analysis (BSPA) that offers a participatory structure for team and organisational learning, upon which the stakeholders can take legitimate action that is based on the force of the better argument. In addition, the organisational learning process in BSPA leads to the development of an intrinsically motivated information organisational system that allows for the institutionalisation of the learning process itself in the form of an organisational knowledge management system. This could be a specific application, or something as wide-ranging as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Examples of the use of BSPA in two ERP implementations are presented.

Directions for a troubled discipline:strategy research, teaching and practice introduction to the dialog

This Dialog responds to a growing debate about the relevance of business schools generally and the value of strategy theory and research for strategic management practice. The authors propose that academic theory and management practice can be better connected through management education. The academy researches practice, derives theory, and returns it to practice through the development of teaching materials and the teaching of current and future practitioners. The three articles in this Dialog examine how different approaches to strategy research inform strategy teaching and its application to practice. Joseph Bower explains the rise of business policy and the process research approach that informed that teaching tradition at Harvard Business School. Robert Grant responds by emphasizing the economic theory underpinnings of strategic management research and its impact on teaching. Paula Jarzabkowski and Richard Whittington conclude by proposing a strategyas-practice perspective and suggesting ways to better incorporate strategy-as-practice research into strategy teaching.

Hippocampal pathology in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP): a quantitative study of 8 cases

Objective: To quantify the neuronal and glial cell pathology in the hippocampus and the parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) of 8 cases of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Material: tau-immunolabeled sections of the temporal lobe of 8 diagnosed cases of PSP. Method: The densities of lesions were measured in the PHG, CA sectors of the hippocampus and the dentate gyrus (DG) and studied using spatial pattern analysis. Results: Neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and abnormally enlarged neurons (EN) were most frequent in the PHG and in sector CA1 of the hippocampus, oligodendroglial inclusions (“coiled bodies”) (GI) in the PHG, subiculum, sectors CA1 and CA2, and neuritic plaques (NP) in sectors CA2 and CA4. The DG was the least affected region. Vacuolation and GI were observed in the alveus. No tufted astrocytes (TA) were observed. Pathological changes exhibited clustering, the lesions often exhibiting a regular distribution of the clusters parallel to the tissue boundary. There was a positive correlation between the degree of vacuolation in the alveus and the densities of NFT in CA1 and GI in CA1 and CA2. Conclusion: The pathology most significantly affected the output pathways of the hippocampus, lesions were topographically distributed, and hippocampal pathology may be one factor contributing to cognitive decline in PSP.

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP):A quantitative study of the pathological changes in cortical and subcortical regions of eight cases

In eight cases of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) were numerous in the substantia nigra (SN), red nucleus (RN), locus caeruleus (LC), pontine nuclei (PN), and inferior olivary nucleus (ION) and abnormally enlarged neurons (EN) in the ION, LC and PN. Loss of Purkinje cells was evident in the cerebellum. Tufted astrocytes (TA) were abundant in the striatum, SN and RN and glial inclusions ('coiled bodies') (GI) in the midbrain (SN, RN) and pons (LC). Neuritic plaques were frequent in one case. NFT, GI, and TA densities were uncorrelated in most areas. NFT and EN densities were positively correlated in the midbrain and surviving neurons and disease duration in several areas. These results suggest: 1) predominantly subcortical pathology in PSP with widespread NFT while TA and GI have a more localized distribution, 2) little correlation between neuronal and glial pathologies, and 3) shorter duration cases may be more likely to develop cortical pathology. © 2007 Springer-Verlag.

Spatial topography of the neurofibrillary tangles in cortical and subcortical regions in progressive supranuclear palsy

Objective: To study the topography of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) in cortical and subcortical areas in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Methods: Pattern analysis was carried out on tau-positive NFT in eight PSP cases. Results: Of the areas studied, NFT were randomly distributed in 68%, regularly distributed in 3%, and clustered in 29%. A regular distribution of clusters was more frequent in cortical than subcortical areas. Conclusion: NFT topography in subcortical areas was similar to inclusions in the synucleinopathy multiple system atrophy (MSA) but in cortical areas was comparable to other tauopathies. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relationship between ocular perfusion pressure and retrobulbar blood flow in patients with glaucoma with progressive damage

PURPOSE: To evaluate the relationship between ocular perfusion pressure and color Doppler measurements in patients with glaucoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty patients with primary open-angle glaucoma with visual field deterioration in spite of an intraocular pressure lowered below 21 mm Hg, 20 age-matched patients with glaucoma with stable visual fields, and 20 age-matched healthy controls were recruited. After a 20-minute rest in a supine position, intraocular pressure and color Doppler measurements parameters of the ophthalmic artery and the central retinal artery were obtained. Correlations between mean ocular perfusion pressure and color Doppler measurements parameters were determined. RESULTS: Patients with glaucoma showed a higher intraocular pressure (P <.0008) and a lower mean ocular perfusion pressure (P <.0045) compared with healthy subjects. Patients with deteriorating glaucoma showed a lower mean blood pressure (P =.033) and a lower end diastolic velocity in the central retinal artery (P =.0093) compared with normals. Mean ocular perfusion pressure correlated positively with end diastolic velocity in the ophthalmic artery (R = 0.66, P =.002) and central retinal artery (R = 0.74, P <.0001) and negatively with resistivity index in the ophthalmic artery (R = -0.70, P =.001) and central retinal artery (R = -0.62, P =.003) in patients with deteriorating glaucoma. Such correlations did not occur in patients with glaucoma with stable visual fields or in normal subjects. The correlations were statistically significantly different between the study groups (parallelism of regression lines in an analysis of covariance model) for end diastolic velocity (P =.001) and resistivity index (P =.0001) in the ophthalmic artery, as well as for end diastolic velocity (P =.0009) and resistivity index (P =. 001) in the central retinal artery. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that alterations in ocular blood flow regulation may contribute to the progression in glaucomatous damage.

Bend and index insensitive long period grating in progressive three layered optical fibre

A long period fibre grating written in a progressive three-layered optical fibre is shown to exhibit an attenuation band that has a very low bending sensitivity (5.1×10 –2 nm m) compared to normal step-index fibre, and is also insensitive to changes in the refractive index of the surrounding medium. Applications to sensing and telecommunications are discussed.

Embedded progressive-three-layered fiber long-period gratings for respiratory monitoring

A long-period grating (LPG) was written into a progressive three-layered single-mode fiber that was embedded into a flexible platform as a curvature sensor. The spectral location and profile of the LPGs were unaltered after implantation in the platform. The curvature sensitivity was 3.747 nm m with a resolution of ±1.1×10–2 m–1. The bend sensor is intended to be part of a respiratory monitoring system and was tested on a resuscitation training manikin.

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP): general pathology and visual signs and symptoms

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a rare, degenerative disorder of the brain believed to affect between 1.39 and 6.6 individuals per 100,000 of the population. The disorder is likely to be more common than suggested by these data due to difficulties in diagnosis and especially in distinguishing PSP from other conditions with similar symptoms such as multiple system atrophy (MSA), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and Parkinson’s disease (PD). PSP was first described in 1964 by Steele, Richardson and Olszewski and originally called Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome. The disorder is the second commonest syndrome in which the patient exhibits ‘parkinsonism’, viz., a range of problems involving movement most typically manifest in PD itself but also seen in PSP, MSA and CBD. Although primarily a brain disorder, patients with PSP exhibit a range of visual clinical signs and symptoms that may be useful in differential diagnosis. Hence, the present article describes the general clinical and pathological features of PSP, its specific visual signs and symptoms, discusses the usefulness of these signs in differential diagnosis, and considers the various treatment options.

Public administration in an age of austerity:the future of the discipline

Reflecting changes in the nature of governance, some have questioned whether Public Administration is now an historical anachronism. While a legitimate debate exists between sceptics and optimists, this special issue demonstrates grounds for optimism by indicating the continuing diversity and adaptability of the field of Public Administration. In this introduction, we first sketch the variety of intellectual traditions which comprise the field of modern Public Administration. We then consider institutional challenges facing the subject given considerable pressures towards disciplinary fragmentation, and ideological challenges arising from a new distrust of public provision in the UK. Despite these challenges, Public Administration continues to provide a framework to analyse the practice of government and governance, governing institutions and traditions, and their wider sociological context. It can also directly inform policy reform - even if this endeavour can have its own pitfalls and pratfalls for the 'engaged' academic. We further suggest that, rather than lacking theoretical rigour, new approaches are developing that recognise the structural and political nature of the determinants of public administration. Finally, we highlight the richness of modern comparative work in Public Administration. Researchers can usefully look beyond the Atlantic relationship for theoretical enhancement and also consider more seriously the recursive and complex nature of international pressures on public administration. © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

Visual signs and symptoms of progressive supranuclear palsy

Progressive supranuclear palsy is a rare, degenerative brain disorder and the second most common syndrome in which the patient exhibits 'parkinsonism', that is, a variety of symptoms involving problems with movement. General symptoms include difficulties with gait and balance; the patient walking clumsily and often falling backwards. The syndrome can be difficult to diagnose and visual signs and symptoms can help to separate it from closely related movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy, dementia with Lewy bodies and corticobasal degeneration. A combination of the presence of vertical supranuclear gaze palsy, fixation instability, lid retraction, blepharospasm and apraxia of eyelid opening and closing may be useful visual signs in the identification of progressive supranuclear palsy. As primary eye-care practitioners, optometrists should be able to identify the visual problems of patients with this disorder and be expected to work with patients and their carers to manage their visual welfare.

An analysis of progressive addition spectacles lens design by the use of interferometry

Progressive addition spectacle lenses (PALs) have now become the method of choice for many presbyopic individuals to alleviate the visual problems of middle-age. Such lenses are difficult to assess and characterise because of their lack of discrete geographical locators of their key features. A review of the literature (mostly patents) describing the different designs of these lenses indicates the range of approaches to solving the visual problem of presbyopia. However, very little is published about the comparative optical performance of these lenses. A method is described here based on interferometry for the assessment of PALs, with a comparison of measurements made on an automatic focimeter. The relative merits of these techniques are discussed. Although the measurements are comparable, it is considered that the interferometry method is more readily automated, and would be ultimately capable of producing a more rapid result.

Physical and psychophysical analysis of progressive addition lens embodiments

The extent to which the surface parameters of Progressive Addition Lenses (PALs) affect successful patient tolerance was investigated. Several optico-physical evaluation techniques were employed, including a newly constructed surface reflection device which was shown to be of value for assessing semi-finished PAL blanks. Detailed physical analysis was undertaken using a computer-controlled focimeter and from these data, iso-cylindrical and mean spherical plots were produced for each PAL studied. Base curve power was shown to have little impact upon the distribution of PAL astigmatism. A power increase in reading addition primarily caused a lengthening and narrowing of the lens progression channel. Empirical measurements also indicated a marginal steepening of the progression power gradient with an increase in reading addition power. A sample of the PAL wearing population were studied using patient records and questionnaire analysis (90% were returned). This subjective analysis revealed the reading portion to be the most troublesome lens zone and showed that patients with high astigmatism (> 2.00D) adapt more readily to PALs than those with spherical or low cylindrical (2.00D) corrections. The psychophysical features of PALs were then investigated. Both grafting visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS) were shown to be reduced with an increase in eccentricity from the central umbilical line. Two sample populations (N= 20) of successful and unsuccessful PAL wearers were assessed for differences in their visual performance and their adaptation to optically induced distortion. The possibility of dispensing errors being the cause of poor patient tolerance amongst the unsuccessful wearer group was investigated and discounted. The contrast sensitivity of the successful group was significantly greater than that of the unsuccessful group. No differences in adaptation to or detection of curvature distortion were evinced between these presbyopic groups.

Cognitive neuroscience: the evolution of a discipline

Preface. The evolution of cognitive neuroscience has been spurred by the development of increasingly sophisticated investigative techniques to study human cognition. In Methods in Mind, experts examine the wide variety of tools available to cognitive neuroscientists, paying particular attention to the ways in which different methods can be integrated to strengthen empirical findings and how innovative uses for established techniques can be developed. The book will be a uniquely valuable resource for the researcher seeking to expand his or her repertoire of investigative techniques. Each chapter explores a different approach. These include transcranial magnetic stimulation, cognitive neuropsychiatry, lesion studies in nonhuman primates, computational modeling, psychophysiology, single neurons and primate behavior, grid computing, eye movements, fMRI, electroencephalography, imaging genetics, magnetoencephalography, neuropharmacology, and neuroendocrinology. As mandated, authors focus on convergence and innovation in their fields; chapters highlight such cross-method innovations as the use of the fMRI signal to constrain magnetoencephalography, the use of electroencephalography (EEG) to guide rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation at a specific frequency, and the successful integration of neuroimaging and genetic analysis. Computational approaches depend on increased computing power, and one chapter describes the use of distributed or grid computing to analyze massive datasets in cyberspace. Each chapter author is a leading authority in the technique discussed.

Tense, aspect and modality in first and second language

Time after time… and aspect and mood. Over the last twenty five years, the study of time, aspect and - to a lesser extent - mood acquisition has enjoyed increasing popularity and a constant widening of its scope. In such a teeming field, what can be the contribution of this book? We believe that it is unique in several respects. First, this volume encompasses studies from different theoretical frameworks: functionalism vs generativism or function-based vs form-based approaches. It also brings together various sub-fields (first and second language acquisition, child and adult acquisition, bilingualism) that tend to evolve in parallel rather than learn from each other. A further originality is that it focuses on a wide range of typologically different languages, and features less studied languages such as Korean and Bulgarian. Finally, the book gathers some well-established scholars, young researchers, and even research students, in a rich inter-generational exchange, that ensures the survival but also the renewal and the refreshment of the discipline. The book at a glance The first part of the volume is devoted to the study of child language acquisition in monolingual, impaired and bilingual acquisition, while the second part focuses on adult learners. In this section, we will provide an overview of each chapter. The first study by Aviya Hacohen explores the acquisition of compositional telicity in Hebrew L1. Her psycholinguistic approach contributes valuable data to refine theoretical accounts. Through an innovating methodology, she gathers information from adults and children on the influence of definiteness, number, and the mass vs countable distinction on the constitution of a telic interpretation of the verb phrase. She notices that the notion of definiteness is mastered by children as young as 10, while the mass/count distinction does not appear before 10;7. However, this does not entail an adult-like use of telicity. She therefore concludes that beyond definiteness and noun type, pragmatics may play an important role in the derivation of Hebrew compositional telicity. For the second chapter we move from a Semitic language to a Slavic one. Milena Kuehnast focuses on the acquisition of negative imperatives in Bulgarian, a form that presents the specificity of being grammatical only with the imperfective form of the verb. The study examines how 40 Bulgarian children distributed in two age-groups (15 between 2;11-3;11, and 25 between 4;00 and 5;00) develop with respect to the acquisition of imperfective viewpoints, and the use of imperfective morphology. It shows an evolution in the recourse to expression of force in the use of negative imperatives, as well as the influence of morphological complexity on the successful production of forms. With Yi-An Lin’s study, we concentrate both on another type of informant and of framework. Indeed, he studies the production of children suffering from Specific Language Impairment (SLI), a developmental language disorder the causes of which exclude cognitive impairment, psycho-emotional disturbance, and motor-articulatory disorders. Using the Leonard corpus in CLAN, Lin aims to test two competing accounts of SLI (the Agreement and Tense Omission Model [ATOM] and his own Phonetic Form Deficit Model [PFDM]) that conflicts on the role attributed to spellout in the impairment. Spellout is the point at which the Computational System for Human Language (CHL) passes over the most recently derived part of the derivation to the interface components, Phonetic Form (PF) and Logical Form (LF). ATOM claims that SLI sufferers have a deficit in their syntactic representation while PFDM suggests that the problem only occurs at the spellout level. After studying the corpus from the point of view of tense / agreement marking, case marking, argument-movement and auxiliary inversion, Lin finds further support for his model. Olga Gupol, Susan Rohstein and Sharon Armon-Lotem’s chapter offers a welcome bridge between child language acquisition and multilingualism. Their study explores the influence of intensive exposure to L2 Hebrew on the development of L1 Russian tense and aspect morphology through an elicited narrative. Their informants are 40 Russian-Hebrew sequential bilingual children distributed in two age groups 4;0 – 4;11 and 7;0 - 8;0. They come to the conclusion that bilingual children anchor their narratives in perfective like monolinguals. However, while aware of grammatical aspect, bilinguals lack the full form-function mapping and tend to overgeneralize the imperfective on the principles of simplicity (as imperfective are the least morphologically marked forms), universality (as it covers more functions) and interference. Rafael Salaberry opens the second section on foreign language learners. In his contribution, he reflects on the difficulty L2 learners of Spanish encounter when it comes to distinguishing between iterativity (conveyed with the use of the preterite) and habituality (expressed through the imperfect). He examines in turn the theoretical views that see, on the one hand, habituality as part of grammatical knowledge and iterativity as pragmatic knowledge, and on the other hand both habituality and iterativity as grammatical knowledge. He comes to the conclusion that the use of preterite as a default past tense marker may explain the impoverished system of aspectual distinctions, not only at beginners but also at advanced levels, which may indicate that the system is differentially represented among L1 and L2 speakers. Acquiring the vast array of functions conveyed by a form is therefore no mean feat, as confirmed by the next study. Based on the prototype theory, Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig’s chapter focuses on the development of the progressive in L2 English. It opens with an overview of the functions of the progressive in English. Then, a review of acquisition research on the progressive in English and other languages is provided. The bulk of the chapter reports on a longitudinal study of 16 learners of L2 English and shows how their use of the progressive expands from the prototypical uses of process and continuousness to the less prototypical uses of repetition and future. The study concludes that the progressive spreads in interlanguage in accordance with prototype accounts. However, it suggests additional stages, not predicted by the Aspect Hypothesis, in the development from activities and accomplishments at least for the meaning of repeatedness. A similar theoretical framework is adopted in the following chapter, but it deals with a lesser studied language. Hyun-Jin Kim revisits the claims of the Aspect Hypothesis in relation to the acquisition of L2 Korean by two L1 English learners. Inspired by studies on L2 Japanese, she focuses on the emergence and spread of the past / perfective marker ¬–ess- and the progressive – ko iss- in the interlanguage of her informants throughout their third and fourth semesters of study. The data collected through six sessions of conversational interviews and picture description tasks seem to support the Aspect Hypothesis. Indeed learners show a strong association between past tense and accomplishments / achievements at the start and a gradual extension to other types; a limited use of past / perfective marker with states and an affinity of progressive with activities / accomplishments and later achievements. In addition, - ko iss– moves from progressive to resultative in the specific category of Korean verbs meaning wear / carry. While the previous contributions focus on function, Evgeniya Sergeeva and Jean-Pierre Chevrot’s is interested in form. The authors explore the acquisition of verbal morphology in L2 French by 30 instructed native speakers of Russian distributed in a low and high levels. They use an elicitation task for verbs with different models of stem alternation and study how token frequency and base forms influence stem selection. The analysis shows that frequency affects correct production, especially among learners with high proficiency. As for substitution errors, it appears that forms with a simple structure are systematically more frequent than the target form they replace. When a complex form serves as a substitute, it is more frequent only when it is replacing another complex form. As regards the use of base forms, the 3rd person singular of the present – and to some extent the infinitive – play this role in the corpus. The authors therefore conclude that the processing of surface forms can be influenced positively or negatively by the frequency of the target forms and of other competing stems, and by the proximity of the target stem to a base form. Finally, Martin Howard’s contribution takes up the challenge of focusing on the poorer relation of the TAM system. On the basis of L2 French data obtained through sociolinguistic interviews, he studies the expression of futurity, conditional and subjunctive in three groups of university learners with classroom teaching only (two or three years of university teaching) or with a mixture of classroom teaching and naturalistic exposure (2 years at University + 1 year abroad). An analysis of relative frequencies leads him to suggest a continuum of use going from futurate present to conditional with past hypothetic conditional clauses in si, which needs to be confirmed by further studies. Acknowledgements The present volume was inspired by the conference Acquisition of Tense – Aspect – Mood in First and Second Language held on 9th and 10th February 2008 at Aston University (Birmingham, UK) where over 40 delegates from four continents and over a dozen countries met for lively and enjoyable discussions. This collection of papers was double peer-reviewed by an international scientific committee made of Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig (Indiana University), Christine Bozier (Lund Universitet), Alex Housen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Martin Howard (University College Cork), Florence Myles (Newcastle University), Urszula Paprocka (Catholic University of Lublin), †Clive Perdue (Université Paris 8), Michel Pierrard (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Rafael Salaberry (University of Texas at Austin), Suzanne Schlyter (Lund Universitet), Richard Towell (Salford University), and Daniel Véronique (Université d’Aix-en-Provence). We are very much indebted to that scientific committee for their insightful input at each step of the project. We are also thankful for the financial support of the Association for French Language Studies through its workshop grant, and to the Aston Modern Languages Research Foundation for funding the proofreading of the manuscript.