Group model-building: tackling messy problems

Vennix, J.A.M.

doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-1727(199924)15:4<379::aid-sdr179>3.0.co;2-e

Cited by 507 publications

(407 citation statements)

References 96 publications

(57 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

387

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Stakeholders often possess a diversity of beliefs about the level of (un)desirability of various behaviors, acceptability of intervention, or even how best to intervene when prevention is agreed upon. Such disagreement plagues prevention science with what Vennix refers to as Bmessy problems^-Bless tangible, ill-defined strategic issues…that is, situations in which there are large differences of opinion on the problem or even on the question of whether there is a problem^ [68] (p.380). Several additional types of uncertainty that are important include: uncertainties in the data and evidence (e.g., natural variability, measurement, and sampling errors), uncertainty in the nature of causal relationships (e.g., causal mechanisms, association versus causality, strength of intervention effects, presence or strength of feedback loops), or uncertainty in the shape of relationships (e.g., linear, U-shaped, sigmoid).…”

Section: Original Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translating research into prevention of high-risk behaviors in the presence of complex systems: definitions and systems frameworks

Lich

Frerichs

Fishbein

et al. 2016

Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To impact population health, it is critical to collaborate across disciplinary and practice-based silos and integrate resources, experiences, and knowledge to exert positive change. Complex systems shape both the prevention outcomes researchers, practitioners, and policymakers seek to impact and how research is translated and can either impede or support movement from basic scientific discovery to impactful and scaled-up prevention practice. Systems science methods can be used to facilitate designing translation support that is grounded in a richer understanding of the many interacting forces affecting prevention outcomes across contexts. In this paper, we illustrate how one systems science method, system dynamics, could be used to advance research, practice, and policy initiatives in each stage of translation from discovery to translation of innovation into global communities (T0-T5), with tobacco prevention as an example. System dynamics can be applied to each translational stage to integrate disciplinary knowledge and document testable hypotheses to inform translation research and practice.

show abstract

Section: Original Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translating research into prevention of high-risk behaviors in the presence of complex systems: definitions and systems frameworks

Lich

Frerichs

Fishbein

et al. 2016

Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This was consistent with findings in literature where facilitator skills were found to highly influence the ability to retain the interest of participants and provide equal opportunity for participants to contribute to discussion. This was in addition to holding specific roles that collectively encouraged a supportive and non-threatening learning environment (Richardson and Anderson, 1995;Vennix, 1999;Cash et al, 2006;Muro and Jeffrey, 2008).…”

Section: N=23mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social learning: A knowledge and capacity building approach for adaptive co-management of contested landscapes

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…These constructs are defined by an individual's "worldview", the problem structuring approach acknowledged these and worked with them #29 , #119, #120, #128, #134, #154, #190, #224, #238, #365 6 Messiness The problem context in which the problem structuring approach was used was recognised as messy|wicked|swampy following definitions such as contained in (Ackoff, 1979(Ackoff, , 1981Rittel & Webber, 1973;Rosenhead, 1992;Vennix, 1999) #22, #24, #40, #239…”

Section: Methodological Lessonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The non-codified use of problem structuring methods and the need for a generic constitutive definition

Yearworth

White

2014

European Journal of Operational Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-When we use a PSM what is it we are actually doing? An answer to this question would enable the PSM community to considerably enlarge the available source of case studies by the inclusion of examples of non-codified PSM use. We start from Checkland's own proposal for a "constitutive definition" of SSM, which originated from trying to answer the question of knowing when a claim of SSM use was legitimate. By extending this idea to a generic constitutive definition for all PSMs leads us to propose a selfconsistent labelling schema for observed phenomena arising from PSMs in action. This consists of a set of testable propositions, which, through observation of putative PSM use, can be used to assess validity of claims of PSM use. Such evidential support for the propositions as may be found in putative PSM use can then make it back into a broader axiomatic formulation of PSMs through the use of a set-theoretic approach, which enables our method to scale to large data sets. The theoretical underpinning to our work is in causal realism and middle range theory. We illustrate our approach through the analysis of three case studies drawn from engineering organisations, a rich source of possible non-codified PSM use. The combination of a method for judging cases of non-codified PSM use, sound theoretical underpinning, and scalability to large data sets, we believe leads to a demystification of PSMs and should encourage their wider use.2

show abstract

Group model-building: tackling messy problems

Cited by 507 publications

References 96 publications

Translating research into prevention of high-risk behaviors in the presence of complex systems: definitions and systems frameworks

Translating research into prevention of high-risk behaviors in the presence of complex systems: definitions and systems frameworks

Social learning: A knowledge and capacity building approach for adaptive co-management of contested landscapes

The non-codified use of problem structuring methods and the need for a generic constitutive definition

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About