A revisit to the idea of the Hong Kong Systems Society in 2016: a personal account

A revisit to the idea of the Hong Kong Systems Society in 2016:  a personal account

Joseph Kim-Keung Ho

The writer’s personal account on the idea of the Hong Kong Systems society (HKSS) is that: the idea was floated in the late 1980s but was soon abandoned. That in 2015, with a substantial number of academics and university graduates in Hong Kong well versed in systems thinking, the HKSS has still not been established is quite unexpected and disappointing, at least to the writer. So, in May 015, this writer set up a Facebook public group for HKSS and invites intellectuals who either reside in Hong Kong or have some systems thinking related contents specific to the Hong Kong context to share such contents on this public social media platform. The aspiration, to the writer, is to make the public group platform engaging to the systems thinking community in Hong Kong.

Key words: Hong Kong Systems Society (HKSS); social media; Facebook public group

The genesis of the idea on the Hong Kong Systems Society formation

The idea of establishing the Hong Kong Systems Society (HKSS) was floated to the writer, who is a Hong Kong resident, back in the late 1980s by Michael C. Jackson. In 1986, the writer graduated with a Master of Arts Degree in Management Systems from the University of Hull, UK., and  went back to Hong Kong. At that time, Jackson was the Department Head at the Department of Management Systems and Sciences at the Hull University, whom this writer learned systems thinking from.  Shortly after returning to Hong Kong, the writer was invited by the Hong Kong branch of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), UK, to deliver a seminar to introduce systems thinking and methodologies to its members. The different strands of systems methodologies, including the soft systems methodology and Organizational Cybernetics, were well recognized by the Hong Kong branch of ICSA as some novel and important management topics. At the same time, they were not much known to them. Nevertheless, as the writer did not know other academics in Hong Kong who were interested in systems thinking and was busy with his full-time work, the idea of setting up an intellectual community on systems thinking in Hong Kong soon lapsed.

The establishment of the Hong Kong Systems Society in 2015

By this time, the writer would expect that someone must have established some kind of society for intellectuals who share an interest in systems thinking. Undoubtedly, there have been academic publications on systems thinking from Hong Kong; besides, at the present time, there must be a substantial number of university graduates in Hong Kong who have learned systems thinking.  Among them, some must have practical experience on systems thinking and systems methodologies gained in the Hong Kong context. To say the least, the writer has been teaching systems thinking and methodologies to part-time students in Hong Kong for many years. On top of that, with the free availability of the social media platforms, e.g., blogs, Facebook and Linkedin, one would expect that there must be some kind of social media-based platforms that offer a virtual forum for the systems thinking community in Hong Kong. When this writer did a Google search in May of 2015 with the phrase “Hong Kong Systems Society”, to his surprise, there was no such community in Hong Kong found by Google. Undeterred by this experience, the writer wrote a blog (Ho, 2015a) to announce the establishment of the Hong Kong Systems Society in the form for a public group on Facebook (Hong Kong Systems Society: Public Group on Facebook).

In current form, the HKSS public group mainly shows postings by the writer on some local news and academic works as related to systems thinking. A number of the published works on systems thinking come from this writer over the last two years, e.g., Ho (2013; 2015b; 2015c). As a public group on Facebook, it is accessible to anyone who has a Facebook account. The point the writer wants to make is this: to establish a social media-based platform technically for intellectuals in Hong Kong who hold a common interest in systems thinking is a non-issue. One key question is how to invite and convince them to share news and works on systems thinking, especially in the Hong Kong context, to others. An associated question is: what is the value of the Hong Kong Systems Society (HKSS), in the form of a Facebook-based public group, to them? Instead of trying to find out answers to these questions from them, the writer proposes what should be posted on the Hong Kong Systems Society public group by its visitors and then let them decide whether the contents are interesting or engaging to them. The following are the recommended contents:

1.     Education and training programmes on systems thinking in Hong Kong

2.     Videos or notes on systems thinking produced in Hong Kong

3.     Seminars, site visits and conferences on systems thinking conducted in Hong Kong

4.     Publications, i.e. academic papers and books, on systems thinking, produced by intellectuals in Hong Kong

As long as these contents are created by someone primarily located in Hong Kong or whose systems thinking-related contents are related to the Hong Kong context, they are suitable for sharing on the HKSS public group. Otherwise, they should be posted and published in forums on systems thinking elsewhere. The efforts to share systems thinking-related contents on this HKSS forum are easy to make. Once a critical mass of visitors and content is achieved, the HKSS public group can be quite engaging to the systems thinking community and be also sustainable. At present, there has been much interest in systems thinking (e.g., as evidenced by articles published in systems thinking journal such as the Systems Research and Behaviorial Science) and transdisciplinarity (e.g., Collin, 2009; Ramadier, 2004), which systems thinking endorses, in academic and professional communities, and given the unique economic, political and social setting of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the Peoples’ Republic of China, there is a strong reason why it is attractive to set up the HKSS which focuses on the Hong Kong context in sharing systems thinking ideas and experience. Besides, setting it up is not easier said than done. It is, instead, both easy to say and easy to do, unless only a few intellectuals in Hong Kong are genuinely interested in systems thinking. Finally, readers interested in the topic of the systems movement in Hong Kong are also referred to Ho (2016).

References

Collin A. 2009. “Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity collaboration: implications for vocational psychology” Int J Educ Vocat Guidance 9, Springer: 101-110.

Ho JKK. 2013. “Research Paper: A Research Paper: Providing E-Learning Support to Part-Time Students in Business Disciplines Using Facebook from the Multi-Perspective, Systems-Based (MPSB) Perspective” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 30: 86-97.

Ho JKK. 2015a. “Hong Kong Systems Society – Facebook-based” May 15. Joseph KK Ho e-resources. Available from: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2015/05/hong-kong-systems-society-facebook-based.html [Cited 6-12-2015].

Ho JKK. 2015b. “An examination of the Hong Kong Airport Third Runway project (HKATRP) using the mode 2 strategic assumptions and surfacing technique (SAST) rationale” American Research Thoughts 2(2) December: 3186-3205.

Ho JKK. 2015c. “Research Paper: An Exploration of the Problem of Plagiarism with the Cognitive Mapping Technique” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 32: 735-742.

Ho JKK. 2016a. “The MPSB Research as a major pathway to pursue transdisciplinary research: a proposal” American Research Thoughts 2(3) January: 3321-3334.

Ho JKK. 2016b. “A study on systems thinking and practices (STAP) in Hong Kong as a glocal systems movement” European Academic Research 3(10) January: 10350-10374.

Hong Kong Systems Society: Public Group on Facebook. Available from https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583955681877856/.

Ramadier T. 2004. “Transdisciplinarity and its challenges: the case of urban studies” Futures 36, Elsevier: 423-439.