The characteristics of problem structuring methods: A literature review

Smith, Christopher; Shaw, Duncan

doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2018.05.003

Cited by 111 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Within this logic, high complexity decision problems emerge that require the use of PSMs because of the problems' unmanageable structure. PSMs are often called "soft operations End of Table 1 research" or "soft systems", and these methods are effective tools with which trained facilitators can help groups facing challenges on a decision-making level (Marttunen et al, 2017;Smith & Shaw, 2019). Fuzzy cognitive mapping is one of the most well-known PSMs.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Constructivist Model of Bank Branch Front-Office Employee Evaluation: An FCM-Sd-Based Approach

Faria

Ferreira

Dias

et al. 2020

Technological and Economic Development of Economy

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The banking sector is one of the primary drivers of economic development. This sector has been affected by various crises throughout its history – most recently, the 2008 financial and economic crisis. In response, banking institutions have had to make diverse changes to their procedures and deal with new concerns related to changes within markets. One of the main recent developments in this sector is the new commercial function assigned to bank branch front-office employees, who have become responsible for selling financial products and services, as well as recruiting and retaining clients. As a result, the sector needs new employee performance evaluation methods in line with banks and staff members’ requirements. This study combined fuzzy cognitive mapping techniques and the system dynamics (SD) approach to develop a well-informed performance analysis system for assessing bank branch front-office employees. The proposed system was validated by the Business Process Management Competence Center director at Millennium BCP – a Portuguese private banking corporation. The main difference between the model constructed in the present research and current evaluation practices is that the criteria were collected directly from multiple specialists working at different commercial banks, who deal daily with this decision problem. The model’s theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Constructivist Model of Bank Branch Front-Office Employee Evaluation: An FCM-Sd-Based Approach

Faria

Ferreira

Dias

et al. 2020

Technological and Economic Development of Economy

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“…Rosenhead and Mingers [32] further established the characteristics of these PSMs, namely that they are non-optimising, are less dependent on quantitative data, integrate hard and soft data with social judgement, are simple and transparent, conceptualise people as active subjects, facilitate planning from the bottom up, accept uncertainty and aim to keep options open. Recently, Smith and Shaw [39] highlighted through an exploratory review of the literature that four additional characteristics of PSMs can be added based on a four-pillar framework that focuses on system characteristics, knowledge and the involvement of stakeholders, the values of model building and structured analysis. These additional characteristics of PSMs are as follows: the approach identifies a system to model, the model-building process is generic and transferrable to multiple problem contexts, the approach structures knowledge through different stages of analysis and the approach has distinct phases of divergent and convergent thinking.…”

Section: Current Problem-structuring and Decision-making Methods In Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These additional characteristics of PSMs are as follows: the approach identifies a system to model, the model-building process is generic and transferrable to multiple problem contexts, the approach structures knowledge through different stages of analysis and the approach has distinct phases of divergent and convergent thinking. The major PSMs that confirm all the characteristics, as listed by Smith and Shaw [39], are soft systems methodology (SSM) [40], the strategic choice approach (SCA) [41], strategic options development and analysis [42] and robustness analysis (RA) [32].…”

Section: Current Problem-structuring and Decision-making Methods In Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explore, Design and Act for Sustainability: A Participatory Planning Approach for Local Energy Sustainability

Fouché

Brent

2020

Sustainability

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This paper focuses on the development of a participatory planning approach for local energy sustainability. The characteristics of a complex problem were reviewed to establish that the problem of sustainable energy at a local government level is complex. In order to better manage complex problems, the literature shows that soft operational research or problem-structuring methods need to be applied, and hence these methods were used as a starting point for developing a participatory planning approach. The requirements for a planning approach were elicited, namely that the approach must be participative and inclusive, holistic, simple and transparent. In addition, the approach must include the identification and assessment of risks as part of the deliberation process, the development of a realistic action plan must be attainable at the end of the stakeholder engagement, the approach must be dynamic, and should be formalised with clear institutional arrangements. A novel participatory approach, namely EDAS—to Explore, Design and Act for Sustainability—was then developed, applied, and evaluated as part of a case study with a local municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The insights are relevant not only for local governments, but for any institution on a journey towards sustainability.

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“…In addition, PSMs have been criticised for their apparent stagnation in their development within academia, amidst notions that the development of PSM skills are difficult, that the wider OR community has not bought-into PSMs and that the PSM community is small, though active (Morrill 2007). Nevertheless, there is still activity with more recent developments relating to the evaluation of PSMs (Midgley et al 2013;Lami and Tavella 2019), the characterisation of PSMs (Smith and Shaw 2019) and application in Community OR (Johnson et al 2018), with Behavioural OR examining how people engage with OR methods to support problem solving (Hämäläinen et al 2013;Kunc et al 2016;Franco and Hämäläinen 2016;White et al 2020). Other developments include those of practitioners, but these tend not to be written formally for wider consumption (Morrill 2007).…”

Section: How a Problem Is Defined Through The Or Lensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing the VIPLAN Methodology (with VSM) for Handling Messy Situations – Nine Lessons

Harwood

2020

Syst Pract Action Res

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This paper examines the utility of a novel and relatively unknown approach to handling messy situations. This approach, developed by Raul Espejo, is the VIPLAN Methodology. It is presented as a heuristic and comprises a set of six activities which act as ‘pointers’ to guide thinking and actions. The methodology’s contribution rests upon its explicit focus upon the context within which messy situations are handled. This draws attention to the cybernetics of the situation (Cybernetic Loop), which can be made sense of using the Viable System Model. However, one of the challenges of the methodology is the perception that it is complex and difficult to use. A case-study is used to investigate how the methodology can be operationalised. This reveals a set of nine lessons, which are offered as guidelines to enhance our understanding of how to use the VIPLAN Methodology.

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The characteristics of problem structuring methods: A literature review

Cited by 111 publications

References 56 publications

A Constructivist Model of Bank Branch Front-Office Employee Evaluation: An FCM-Sd-Based Approach

A Constructivist Model of Bank Branch Front-Office Employee Evaluation: An FCM-Sd-Based Approach

Explore, Design and Act for Sustainability: A Participatory Planning Approach for Local Energy Sustainability

Introducing the VIPLAN Methodology (with VSM) for Handling Messy Situations – Nine Lessons

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