Download or read book Metadecisions written by John P. van Gigch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metadecisions: Rehabilitating Epistemology constitutes an epistemological inquiry about the foundations of knowledge of a scientific discipline. This text warns contemporary scientific disciplines that neglecting epistemological issues threatens the viability of their pronouncements and designs. It shows that the processes by which complex artefacts are created require a pluralistic approach to artefact design. It argues that viable solutions to fundamental problems in each discipline require cooperation, creativity and respect for contributions from all walks of life, all levels of logic and all standards of rigor - be they in the natural sciences, the social sciences, engineering sciences, management, the law or political sciences. Several true cases, obtained from different walks of life are used to illustrate logic levels in problems and how the application of the process of modeling/metamodeling helps to conceptualize problem dysfunctions and to convert decisions into metadecisions. Ten cases spanning subjects like Doctor Assisted Suicides (DASs), Advising Women on The Risks of Mammograms, a Deregulation Crusade, The Crash of TWA Flight 800, The Control of The World Wide Web, The Creation of the US Department of Homeland Security, among others, are used to illustrate the application of the metasystem framework to increase knowledge and meaning of fundamental problems. The design of any human activity requires the intervention of several inquiring systems where the manager, the engineer, the scientist, the lawyer, the epistemologist, the ethicist and even the artist contribute to shape how problems in the real-world are formulated, how decisions/metadecisions to solve problems are taken, and finally, how actions are implemented.
Download or read book The Illusion Of Presidential Government written by Hugh Heclo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Presidential government is an illusion. It is an image that misleads presidents no less than the media and the American public." Thus begins this realistic look at the presidency, in which nine leading presidential scholars examine how and why we are under the illusion of presidential government and ask such questions as: What is the president's actual role? What has happened to his traditional tools of executive leadership? How is the office of the president organized to deal with domestic, economic, and national security affairs? is federal regulation an area of potential power for the president? And, if "presidential government" is indeed a myth, what can be done to help the presidency play a more effective part in constitutional government? Each chapter probes a different facet of the image of presidential government by looking at the major operations of the modern presidency-from struggles with Congress for control of administrative detail to problems of managing the economy and national security. The book closes with the final report of the National Academy of Public Administration's Panel on Presidential Management. Not surprisingly, the authors do not always agree; nevertheless, they are united in the view that the managerial role of the president must be seen as a whole-and without illusions.
Download or read book Pure Strategy written by Everett Dolman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stimulating new inquiry into the fundamental truth of strategy - its purpose, place, utility, and value. This new study is animated by a startling realization: the concept of strategic victory must be summarily discarded. This is not to say that victory has no place in strategy or strategic planning. The outcome of battles and campaigns are variables within the strategist's plan, but victory is a concept that has no meaning there. To the tactical and operational planner, wars are indeed won and lost, and the difference is plain. Success is measurable; failure is obvious. In contrast, the pure strategist understands that war is but one aspect of social and political competition, an ongoing interaction that has no finality. Strategy therefore connects the conduct of war with the intent of politics. It shapes and guides military means in anticipation of a panoply of possible coming events. In the process, strategy changes the context within which events will happen. In this new book we see clearly that the goal of strategy is not to culminate events, to establish finality in the discourse between states, but to continue them; to influence state discourse in such a way that it will go forward on favorable terms. For continue it will. This book will provoke debate and stimulate new thinking across the field and strategic studies.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Medical Decision Making written by Michael W. Kattan and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2009-08-15 with total page 1281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decision making is a critical element in the field of medicine that can lead to life-or-death outcomes, yet it is an element fraught with complex and conflicting variables, diagnostic and therapeutic uncertainties, patient preferences and values, and costs. Together, decisions made by physicians, patients, insurers, and policymakers determine the quality of health care, quality that depends inherently on counterbalancing risks and benefits and competing objectives such as maximizing life expectancy versus optimizing quality of life or quality of care versus economic realities. Broadly speaking, concepts in medical decision making (MDM) may be divided into two major categories: prescriptive and descriptive. Work in the area of prescriptive MDM investigates how medical decisions should be done using complicated analyses and algorithms to determine cost-effectiveness measures, prediction methods, and so on. In contrast, descriptive MDM studies how decisions actually are made involving human judgment, biases, social influences, patient factors, and so on. The Encyclopedia of Medical Decision Making gives a gentle introduction to both categories, revealing how medical and healthcare decisions are actually made—and constrained—and how physician, healthcare management, and patient decision making can be improved to optimize health outcomes. Key Features Discusses very general issues that span many aspects of MDM, including bioethics; health policy and economics; disaster simulation modeling; medical informatics; the psychology of decision making; shared and team medical decision making; social, moral, and religious factors; end-of-life decision making; assessing patient preference and patient adherence; and more Incorporates both quantity and quality of life in optimizing a medical decision Considers characteristics of the decisionmaker and how those characteristics influence their decisions Presents outcome measures to judge the quality or impact of a medical decision Examines some of the more commonly encountered biostatistical methods used in prescriptive decision making Provides utility assessment techniques that facilitate quantitative medical decision making Addresses the many different assumption perspectives the decision maker might choose from when trying to optimize a decision Offers mechanisms for defining MDM algorithms With comprehensive and authoritative coverage by experts in the fields of medicine, decision science and cognitive psychology, and healthcare management, this two-volume Encyclopedia is a must-have resource for any academic library.
Download or read book Computer Aided Design of User Interfaces II written by Jean Vanderdonckt and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computer-Aided Design of User Interfaces, 21-23 October 1999, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Download or read book Wisdom Knowledge and Management written by John P. van Gigch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (C. West Churchman, 1979) is one of Churchman’s most significant works. In this particular writing he displayed two main tendencies, that he was a Skeptic and that he showed Socratic Wisdom. In this book the editors seeks to follow up on these two themes and reveal how modern authors interpret Churchman’s ideas, apply them to their own line of thinking and develop their own brand of Systemics.
Download or read book Governing for Resilience in Vulnerable Places written by Elen-Maarja Trell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-22 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Governing for Resilience in Vulnerable Places provides an overview and a critical analysis of the ways in which the concept ‘resilience’ has been addressed in social sciences research. In doing so, this edited book draws together state-of-the-art research from a variety of disciplines (i.e. spatial planning, economic and cultural geography, environmental and political sciences, sociology and architecture) as well as cases and examples across different spatial and geographical contexts (e.g. urban slums in India; flood-prone communities in the UK; coastal Japan). The cases present and explore challenges and potentials of resilience-thinking for practitioners and academics. As such, Governing for Resilience in Vulnerable Places aims to provide a scientifically robust overview and to generate some conceptual clarity for researchers, students and practitioners interested in the potential of resilience thinking as well as the application of resilience in practice.
Download or read book Facilitator s Guide to Participatory Decision Making written by Sam Kaner and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unleash the transformative power of face to face groups The third edition of this ground-breaking book continues to advance its mission to support groups to do their best thinking. It demonstrates that meetings can be much more than merely an occasion for solving a problem or creating a plan. Every well-facilitated meeting is also an opportunity to stretch and develop the perspectives of the individual members, thereby building the strength and capacity of the group as a whole. This fully updated edition of The Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making guides readers through the struggle and the satisfaction of putting participatory values into practice, helping them to fulfill the promise of effective group decision-making. With previous editions already embraced by business and community leaders and consulting professionals around the world, this new book is even more insightful and easy to use. New for this edition: 60 pages of brand new skills and tools Many new case examples Major expansion and reorganization of the advanced sections of the book. New chapter: Teaching A Group About Group Dynamics Doubled in size: Classic Facilitator Challenges. Substantially improved: Designing Realistic Agendas – now three chapters, with wise, insightful answers to the most vexing questions about meeting design.
Download or read book Safety and Security in Multiagent Systems written by Mike Barley and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-09-30 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As intelligent autonomous agents and multiagent system applications become more pervasive, it becomes increasingly important to understand the risks associated with using these systems. Incorrect or inappropriate agent behavior can have harmful - fects, including financial cost, loss of data, and injury to humans or systems. For - ample, NASA has proposed missions where multiagent systems, working in space or on other planets, will need to do their own reasoning about safety issues that concern not only themselves but also that of their mission. Likewise, industry is interested in agent systems that can search for new supply opportunities and engage in (semi-) automated negotiations over new supply contracts. These systems should be able to securely negotiate such arrangements and decide which credentials can be requested and which credentials may be disclosed. Such systems may encounter environments that are only partially understood and where they must learn for themselves which aspects of their environment are safe and which are dangerous. Thus, security and safety are two central issues when developing and deploying such systems. We refer to a multiagent system’s security as the ability of the system to deal with threats that are intentionally caused by other intelligent agents and/or s- tems, and the system’s safety as its ability to deal with any other threats to its goals.
Download or read book Handbook of Marketing written by Barton A Weitz and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2006-08-11 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'Handbook of Marketing' presents a major retrospective and prospective overview of the field of marketing when many of the traditional boundaries and domains within marketing have been subject to change.
Download or read book Post Kyoto Climate Governance written by Asim Zia and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-02-11 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the midst of human-induced global climate change, powerful industrialized nations and rapidly industrializing nations are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Even if we arrive at a Hubbert’s peak for oil extraction in the 21st century, the availability of technologically recoverable coal and natural gas will mean that fossil fuels continue to be burned for many years to come, and our civilization will have to deal with the consequences far into the future. Climate change will not discriminate between rich and poor nations, and yet the UN-driven process of negotiating a global climate governance regime has hit serious roadblocks. This book takes a trans-disciplinary perspective to identify the causes of failure in developing an international climate policy regime and lays out a roadmap for developing a post-Kyoto (post-2012) climate governance regime in the light of lessons learned from the Kyoto phase. Three critical policy analytical lenses are used to evaluate the inherent complexity of designing post-Kyoto climate policy: the politics of scale; the politics of ideology; and the politics of knowledge. The politics of scale lens focuses on the theme of temporal and spatial discounting observed in human societies and how it impacts the allocation of environmental commons and natural resources across space and time. The politics of ideology lens focuses on the themes of risk and uncertainty perception in complex, pluralistic human societies. The politics of knowledge lens focuses on the themes of knowledge and power dynamics in terms of governance and policy designs, such as marketization of climate governance observed in the Kyoto institutional regime.
Download or read book The International Yearbook of Organization Studies 1981 RLE Organizations written by David Dunkerley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The diverse topics in this volume bring together developments in the field of organization studies. Although the approaches are by no means undifferentiated the articles share a commitment to a revitalized organizational analysis, an historically based analysis and one which attempts to understand the structure and impact of organizations in terms of the location of these organizations within structure of class and power.
Download or read book Routledge Library Editions Organizations 31 vols written by Various and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page 9483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Re-issuing volumes originally published between 1949 and 1995 this 31 volume set examines the theory and behaviour of organizations. Topics covered include: the sociology of work leadership and organizations politics at work theory and practice of company organization patterns of business organization company strategy and organizational design.
Download or read book Diplomacy Games written by Rudolf Avenhaus and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-11 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, leading experts in international negotiations present formal models of conflict resolution and international negotiations. It examines how the abstract concept of formal models can be made more understandable to those not trained to work with them, what can be done to encourage the use of formal methods in the real world, and ways in which politicians and diplomats can apply formal methods to the problems they are currently facing.
Download or read book Self Organization of Complex Structures written by Frank Schweitzer and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1997-07-16 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past twenty years, a broad spectrum of theories and methods have been developed in physics, chemistry and molecular biology to explain structure formation in complex systems. These methods have been applied to many different fields such as economics, sociology and town planning, and this book reflects the interdisciplinary nature of complexity and self-organisation. The main focus is on the emergence of collective phenomena from individual or microscopic interactions. Presents a wide-ranging overview from fundamental aspects of the evolution of complexity, to applications in biology, ecology, sociology, economics, and urban structure formation.
Download or read book System Design Modeling and Metamodeling written by John P. van Gigch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a venture in the worlds of modeling and of metamodeling. At this point, I will not reveal to readers what constitutes metamodeling. Suf fice it to say that the pitfalls and shortcomings of modeling can be cured only if we resort to a higher level of inquiry called metainquiry and metadesign. We reach this level by the process of abstraction. The book contains five chapters from my previous work, Applied General Systems Theory (Harper and Row, London and New York, First Edition 1974, Second Edition 1978). More than ten years after its publication, this material still appears relevant to the main thrust of system design. This book is dedicated to all those who are involved in changing the world for the better. In a way we all are involved in system design: from the city manager who struggles with the problems of mass transportation or the consolidation of a city and its suburbs to the social worker who tries to provide benefits to the urban poor. It includes the engineer who designs the shuttle rockets. It involves the politician engaged in drafting a bill to recycle containers, or one to prevent pesticide contamination of our food. The politician might even need system design to chart his or her own re-election campaign.
Download or read book Inventing Christic Jesuses Rules and Warrants for Theology written by Charles A. Wilson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first comprehensive proposal for revisionist theology's deployment of historical Jesus research, Inventing Christic Jesuses rejects positions that insulate theology from Jesus research. By setting out theological methods, warrants, and rules, in dialogue with an analysis of the Jesus historians of the Third Quest (c. 1980-2010), the study charts a path toward a quested christology positioned between categorical rejection and uncritical acceptance of historical results on Jesus. Volume 1, Method, analyzes the methods and values of historical research on Jesus and identifies the retrojective activity of value production when historians, in conversation with historical sources, invent images of Jesus. Volume 2, Christological Recommendations, gathers potential contributions of Jesus research for revisionist theology according to the cataphatic, apophatic, and eminent pattern of classical theology. By attending to the limits and opportunities afforded by historical research, both negative and positive, the argument retrieves for theology the complex way that historians shape same and different, association and dissociation in the production of their Jesuses. Then it analyzes how values shape Jesuses in a pervasive Narcissus project to invent a self (and a community) through imaging Jesus. Proposing that the disciplined invention of Jesuses is highly useful for theology, the book ends with recommendations for a quested christology.
