Make use of action learning (AL) ideas to enrich the topic of practice-based intellectual learning: a white paper

An exercise to make use of action learning (AL) ideas to enrich the topic of practice-based intellectual learning in managerial intellectual learning (MIL)

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer, Hong Kong, China

Abstract: As a newly developed topic, practice-based intellectual learning in managerial intellectual learning (MIL) needs to be conceptually enriched. In this paper, the writer conducted a literature review on action learning (AL) in order to consider how AL ideas can be employed in practice-based intellectual learning, thus enriching the topic. Out of the review exercise, a set of AL ideas have been identified that are found useful to enhance practice-based intellectual learning practice. Nevertheless, in order to maintain the theoretical foundation of practice-based intellectual learning on critical systems thinking/ the Multi-perspective,  Systems-based (MPSB) Research, the paper argues that the principle of pluralism in critical  systems thinking be upheld when importing AL ideas into  practice-based intellectual learning. For the same reason, practice-based intellectual learning is also required to apply the key MPSB concepts in the MPSB Research so that it remains multi-perspective and systems-based.

Key words: action learning, managerial intellectual learning (MIL), multi-perspective, systems-based (MPSB) research, practice-based intellectual learning

Introduction

In the academic venture of developing managerial intellectual learning (MIL) theories, the writer proposed that MIL involves practice-based intellectual learning, among other learning activities. This paper takes a closer look at this topic. Specifically, it undertakes a literature review on the subject of action learning (AL) so as to introduce some useful AL ideas to enrich the topic of practice-based intellectual learning in MIL. By doing so, the paper aims at making further theoretical development on the topic of practice-based intellectual learning. The next section starts with an introduction of MIL, with particular reference to one of its ingredient activities, namely, practice-based intellectual learning. It is then followed by a literature review on AL. Finally, how AL ideas can be introduced into practice-based intellectual learning practice, while maintaining the theoretical foundation of practice-based intellectual learning is explored. Such a foundation is critical systems thinking and the Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research.

managerial intellectual learning and its ingredient activities

By managerial intellectual learning (MIL), the writer is referring to a specific academic research venture launched by this writer in 2013 (Ho, 2013a). It is chiefly about learning academic theories in business management using Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) thinking to build up managerial intellectual competence (see the bibliography on The Multi-perspective, Systems-based Research Facebook page for details[1].). The main writings on the subject are Ho (2013a; 2013b; 2014a; 2014b; 2014c; 2014d; 2015a; 2015b; 2016a; 2016b). There is also a managerial intellectual learning Facebook page, maintained by the writer. The ingredient activities, support infrastructure and constraints involved in MIL have been acknowledged in a framework on MIL (Ho, 2014b), now shown in Figure 1 as follows:

Referring to Figure 1, the managerial intellectual learning process works like a continuous learning cycle with environmental influences and constraints (i.e., the component of “work & non-work influences, support and constraints”) and infrastructural support (i.e., the component of “infrastructural support”) (see also Ho (2013b) on e-learning support and Ho (2015a) on coaching  and mentoring support.). The learning process is propelled by a set of mechanisms called managerial intellectual learning capability-building mechanism (MILCBM). As to the ingredient activities of the MIL process itself, there are four of them: (i) data management, (ii) absorbed reading. (iii) the MPSB knowledge compilation and (iv) practice-based intellectual learning. These four ingredient MIL activities are inter-related. Data management and absorbed learning are essentially literature search and literature review as explained in Research Methods textbooks (see Ho (2015c) on literature review via the managerial intellectual learning lens.). The MPSB knowledge compilation is a prime activity that renders the defining characteristic of the MIL, which is that the managerial intellectual learning process is multi-perspective, systems-based. Specifically, it makes use of the key MPSB concepts[2] to comprehend and organize knowledge structures that are conceptually grounded on the MPSB Research which comprises the key MPSB concepts. These knowledge structures can range from generic with low actionable value to context-specific with high actionable value. These knowledge structures are also conceived as the cognitive filters for managers to cope with concerns and issues that they encounter in their working lives (Ho, 2014a). Underlying the MIL is a set of theoretical principles, such as pluralism, that essentially endorse critical systems thinking (Ho, 2015b; Jackson, 2000: part III). Finally, the fourth ingredient activity of Practice-based intellectual learning is about learning via practices, notably in real-world managerial work-settings. In Ho (2014b), practice-based intellectual learning is conceived as applying the notions of “knowing in practice”, “work-based learning”, “action learning mindset” and “management learning by walking around”. (Further information on managerial intellectual learning can be found in the managerial intellectual learning Facbook page, maintained by the writer, see Bibliography for information). In this paper, the writer takes a closer look at the subject of action learning with the specific aim of further enriching the subject of practice-based intellectual learning in MIL. Before doing so, this paper conducts a literature review on the main action learning ideas in the next section.

The main ideas of action learning in the academic literature

Action learning (AL) was developed in the late 1930s by Reg Revans (Jacobs, 2008). It has since evolved into a subject with a substantial literature and impacts in the field of management learning, e.g., in leadership development, organization development fields (Bong et al., 2014), nursing and health disciplines ((Jacobs, 2008). There is an academic journal, namely, Action Learning: Research and Practice (Routledge), dedicated to the subject. Action learning embraces a set of ideas in its thinking and practices, which are described here. The fact remains that: (i) it is not easy to provide a clear definition on what is action learning, as Revans “never gave an authoritative definition of action learning” (Simpson and Bourner, 2007), (ii) “AL
has been variously interpreted over time” (Kozubska and MacKenzie, 2012), (iii) “..The design of any AL initiative is contingent upon understandings of factors such as philosophy, purpose, time frame, degree of change and epistemology” (Kozubska and MacKenzie, 2012), and (iv) there are now different schools and approaches of AL, e.g., critical action learning (Soffe et al., 2011; Ram, 2012; Jacobs, 2008), virtual action learning (Dickenson et al., 2010), the scientific, the experiential, the critical reflection and the tacit schools (Marsick and O’Neil, 1999). Nevertheless, to convey a working AL image to readers, AL can be understood as dynamic group-based real-problem-driven learning process that brings benefits to participating group members and their organization (Schwandt and Marquardt, 2000). Revans (2011) has also identified eight AL components: individuals/teams, sponsors/clients/participants, problems, the learning equation, the set, induction exercises, program phases, and supporting assemblies. The main action learning ideas, categorized into four groups, namely, group 1 (learning experience and outcomes-related), group 2 (learning practices-related), group 3 (action-related) and group 4 (academic domain-related). Details are provided below (Bourner, 2011; Hawkins, 2011; Ingram et al., 2000; Jones et al., 2014; Simpson and Bourner, 2007; Soffe et al., 2011; Stephens and Margey, 2015; Kozubska and MacKenzie, 2012; Pedler, 1997; 2008; Rigg and Trehan, 2004; Rooke et al., 2007; Waddill and Marquardt, 2011):

Group A: Learning experience and outcomes-related

Idea a1: “prepositional knowledge (knowing about) only really comes to have internalised and real meaning as knowledge when the receiving learners begin to apply that prepositional knowledge to themselves, by relating in some way to their experience” (Rooke et al., 2007);

Idea a2: Al involves learning from experience;

Idea a3: “Individuals and groups construct learning from the action or experience as well as norms and meaning [note: a constructivist perspective]” (Soffe et al., 2011);

Idea a4: AL was initially formulated for manager development; now its usage has been broadened to cover personal, professional and community development (Rooke et al., 2007);

Idea a5: AL requires manager-learners to become reflective practitioners (Stephens and Margey, 2015);

Group B: Learning practices-related

Idea b1: AL is chiefly group-based (i.e., “working with peers in an action set” (Stephens and Margey, 2015; Rooke et al, 2007);

Idea b2: AL employs facilitators of learning but is intended to be self-managed ultimately (i.e., “without the ongoing presence of a set advisor at set meetings to facilitate the process” (Bourner, 2011).);

Idea b3: AL is evolutionary and emergent in nature;

Idea b4: AL encourages asking insightful and moral questions;

Idea b5: AL needs to be more attentive to the emotional and power dynamics in the learning process (Rigg and Trehan, 2004);

Idea b6: Learning in AL is driven by open-ended, important and challenging real problems in real time;

Idea b7: AL endorses the notions of voluntary engagement, comradeship in adversity, resilience, commitment and perseverance (i.e., “an ability to cope with the frustration of not knowing” (Kozubska and Mackenzie, 2012);

Idea b8: An AL initiative can be conceived as “a network of interactions between different stakeholders” (Hawkins, 2011), thus “the interests, perspective and biases of particular stakeholders” need to be adequately taken into consideration in such learning process (Kozubska and MacKenzie, 2012);

Idea b9: AL can be resource intensive, time-consuming (Ingram et al., 2000; Jones et al., 2014), too theoretical (Pedler, 1997), too focused on individual learning (Waddill and Marquardt, 2011) and too conservative as “it mobilises current organisational power structures rather than allowing for critical thought and radical change” (Pedler, 2008);

Group C: Action-related

Idea c1:  Action is chiefly an input and a learning facilitator, not the aim of action learning; the primary aim of AL is on learning (Rooke et al., 2007);

Idea c2: AL involves critically exploring issues (i.e., ‘learning by doing something different’ and own thinking (Simpson and Bourner, 2007) and asking fresh questions) and taking practical actions via repeated cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflection;

Idea c3: Actions in AL can be personal actions, social actions, or both;

Group D: Academic domain-related

Idea d1: AL’s main focus is on developing the learners’ problem-solving skills and understanding of the problems under scrutiny, not contributing to “new knowledge to the public domain” (Simpson and Bourner, 2007);

Idea d2: The group members participating in AL are encouraged to analyze and debate on academic principles relevant to the problems they are coping;

Idea d3: AL involves “embedding academic knowledge in a working environment and solving real problems” (Stephens and Margey, 2015).

Altogether, via literature review, 20 AL ideas have been presented which capture the AL experience, outcomes, action, learning practices and academic domains. Their applicability in practice-based intellectual is to be examined in the next section.

Enhancing Practice-based intellectual learning in mil with action learning ideas

The AL literature clearly offers a broad array of ideas and practical experiences at the theoretical and practice levels to enrich practice-based intellectual learning in MIL (re: Figure 1). It not only provides relevant practical and clarifying guidelines for practice-based intellectual learning, but also indicates the constraints of its practice as well as the diversity of theoretical perspectives (including schools of thinking on AL) on which AL can anchor. The AL themes of learning experience, learning practices and action are certainly of tremendous interest in practice-based intellectual learning study. In this regard, practice-based intellectual learning’s theoretical position is as follows:

a.     Practice in practice-based intellectual learning is very much about application of intellectual ideas in real-life setting, from which application experience is gained. Such application inevitably involves actions of some kind.

b.     It is prepared to consider the various schools of thinking and approaches of AL under the principles of critical systems thinking, notably on pluralism[3]. This is because MIL itself is explicitly grounded on critical systems thinking.

c.     With practice-based intellectual learning, the academic principles to be employed (re: AL idea d2) have to include the key MPSB concepts from the MPSB Research, in addition to any other academic principles that are considered relevant to the problems under review in the AL or practice-based intellectual learning initiative.

As practice-based intellectual learning is based on critical systems thinking and the MPSB Research, its practice, which can be happily enriched with the AL ideas, it is appealing to adopt the form of triple loop learning of Flood and Romm (1996). The reason is that triple-loop learning is an authoritative critical systems-based learning methodology. The topic of how practice-based intellectual learning can take the form of triple-loop learning is not further examined in this paper. The following table, Table 1, offers specific comments on the applicability of AL ideas, as identified in the previous section, to practice-based intellectual learning.

Table 1: Comments on the applicability of AL ideas to practice-based intellectual learning

AL ideas	Comments on applicability to practice-based intellectual learning
Idea a1: prepositional knowledge only really comes to have internalised and real meaning as knowledge when the receiving learners begin to apply that prepositional knowledge to themselves, by relating in some way to their experience	This AL idea underlines the importance of experience in intellectual learning, notably on one based on application (practice). It is able to clarify the rationale of practice-based intellectual learning in this respect.
Idea a2: Al involves learning from experience	This AL idea is relevant for learning based on experience reflection; it is equally applicable to practice-based intellectual learning.
Idea a3: Individuals and groups construct learning from the action or experience as well as norms and meaning	This AL idea is a useful reminder of the subjective and intersubjective nature of intellectual learning process, including the practice-based version. Nevertheless, practice-based learning should be capable to be reflective and critical too.
Idea a4: AL was initially formulated for manager development; now its usage has been broadened to cover personal, professional and community development	This idea points to a much larger scope of AL application; such situation is equally applicable to practice-based intellectual learning. Nevertheless, when more participants get involved in the learning process, inevitably the process becomes much more challenging to manage. Consequently, practice guidelines should differ when the number of participants changes significantly.
Idea a5: AL requires manager-learners to become reflective practitioners	It is also the aspiration of practice-based intellectual learning to develop reflective practitioners; this AL idea is thus readily shared in practice-based intellectual learning.
Idea b1: AL is chiefly group-based	To be group-based learning is desirable in practice-based intellectual learning. (It is also in line with the AL idea of b8.) However, it may not be feasible sometimes. Regardless, practice-based intellectual learning can also be a personal activity.
Idea b2: AL employs facilitators of learning but is intended to be self-managed ultimately	This idea resonates with that of practice-based intellectual learning using coaches and mentors to facilitate the learning process (Ho, 2015a). Thus, this AL’s idea is informative to the study of practice-based intellectual learning.
Idea b3: AL is evolutionary and emergent in nature	This AL idea clarifies the exploratory nature of learning in a problematic situation facing the learner(s). The idea is equally appropriate to describe practice-based intellectual learning.
Idea b4: AL encourages asking insightful and moral questions	This AL idea is also one of the aspirations of critical systems thinking, on which practice-based intellectual learning is theoretically grounded.
Idea b5: AL needs to be more attentive to the emotional and power dynamics in the learning process	This idea is quite compatible with critical systems thinking, thus also applicable on practice-based intellectual learning.
Idea b6: Learning in AL is driven by open-ended, important and challenging real problems in real time	This is in line with the practice-based intellectual learning thinking. It is highly applicable to practice-based intellectual learning in this case.
Idea b7: AL endorses the notions of voluntary engagement, comradeship in adversity, resilience, commitment and perseverance	This AL idea should also be relevant for practice-based intellectual learning in group form. It enriches our understanding of group-form practice-based intellectual learning. It is much less relevant for personal-form practice-based intellectual learning.
Idea b8: An AL initiative can be conceived as a network of interactions between different stakeholders, thus the interests, perspective and biases of particular stakeholders need to be adequately taken into consideration	This AL idea is applicable to practice-based intellectual learning, whether it is individual, group or organization-based. This is because the intellectual learning happens in a real-world social setting with concerns and issues associated with a range of stakeholders
Idea b9: AL can be resource intensive, time-consuming, too theoretical, too focused on individual learning and too conservative	The AL limitations could exist if the learning process is formal and the academic principles are intellectually demanding for learners to learn, among other reasons. These limitations could also happen in practice-based intellectual learning. Learners do need to be aware of them in going through the practice-based learning process. Other than that, when sufficiently informed by critical systems and MPSB thinking, practice-based intellectual learning should not be conservative (i.e., unimaginative); instead it should be holistic, critical and creative.
Idea c1:  Action is chiefly an input and a learning facilitator, not the aim of action learning; the primary aim of AL is on learning	Similar to AL, practice-based intellectual learning’s utmost concern is on intellectual learning, not actions. On the other hand, practices (and action, broadly understood[4]) make up an inseparable ingredient of this learning process.
Idea c2: AL involves critically exploring issues and asking fresh questions, and taking practical actions via repeated cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflection	This idea is quite compatible with the aspiration of critical systems thinking and the Multi-perspective, Systems-based Research which make up the theoretical foundation of practice-based intellectual learning. For this reason, the AL experience on this idea is relevant to practice-based intellectual learning. Alternatively, AL can also learn from critical systems thinking and the MPSB Research on this topic.
Idea c3: Actions in AL can be personal actions, social actions, or both	This AL idea is also relevant for describing actions arising from practice-based intellectual learning. Such actions can be personal, group-based, organizations-based or social in nature. This idea is closely related to AL idea b4.
Idea d1: AL’s main focus is on developing the learners’ problem-solving skills and understanding of the problems under scrutiny, not contributing to “new knowledge to the public domain”	This idea is compatible with the emphasis on learning and intellectual learning capability building in practice-based intellectual learning. Developing new knowledge is primarily the aspiration of the MPSB Research[5], not practice-based intellectual learning per se, although the MPSB Research offers the intellectual inputs to the practice-based intellectual learning. This idea is closely related to AL idea a5.
Idea d2: The group members participating in AL are encouraged to analyze and debate on academic principles relevant to the problems they are coping	Applying academic principles is a defining characteristic of intellectual learning, including the practice-based one. Nevertheless, for practice-based learning, more specifically, it is mandatory to employ the key MPSB concepts. Otherwise, it is not practice-based intellectual learning in the MIL subject at all.
Idea d3: AL involves embedding academic knowledge in a working environment and solving real problems	This AL idea is useful to clarify the nature of practice-based intellectual learning. It is closely associated to AL idea d2.

This ends the discussion on the applicability of AL ideas to practice-based intellectual learning. Via the discussion, the subject of practice-based intellectual learning has been enriched by relating to the AL literature. The next section makes some concluding remarks on this study.

concluding remarks

Via the literature review on AL, this writer recognizes the rich source of AL ideas and practice experience relevant to practice-based intellectual learning in MIL. Nevertheless, the importation of AL ideas into practice-based intellectual learning needs to be done in a way that keeps the practice-based intellectual learning’s theoretical foundation on critical systems thinking and the MPSB Research unbroken. In particular, the diversity of AL perspectives is recommended to be handled by heeding the pluralism principle in critical systems thinking [requirement 1]. For the same reason, the key MPSB concepts have to be the mandatory academic principles to apply in practice-based intellectual learning [requirement 2].  [Certainly, practice-based intellectual learning also is receptive to ideas from other disciplines.] With that two requirements met, practice-based intellectual learning has no conceptual difficulty to assimilate AL ideas into its practice. Lastly, given the theoretical nature of this paper, it is recommended that more empirical research works need to be carried out on this topic to make concrete conceptual advancement in practice-based intellectual learning. Readers are also referred to the MIL and the MPSB Research literature for further details of them, as this paper does not elaborate on these two subjects.

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[1] The MPSB Research is defined as “A research programme that makes use of critical systems thinking to review management disciplines with a view to developing knowledge structures of management disciplines as a path to make theoretical advancements in systems thinking” (Ho, 2015d).

[2] The key MPSB concepts are: (i) multi-perspective, (ii) systems-based, (iii) the MPSB research, (iv) MPSB frameworks, (v) perspective, (vi) a perspective switch, (vii) a migration of perspective, (viii) perspective anchoring, (ix) an MPSB rich picture building exercise, (x) an MPSB knowledge compiler, (xi) the in-built tension of pluralism, and (xii) an MPSB cognitive filter for management (Ho, 2015d).

[3] The principle of pluralism, e.g., Midgley (1992), is singled out here as it is able to consider all the different schools of AL thinking (endorsing diverse theoretical perspectives) at the same time.

[4] For the writer, actions can be (i) communicating and (ii) using academic ideas to comprehend a problem-situation in a systematic way. It is not exclusively about individual, group or organizational interventions.

[5] The MPSB Research and the MIL do share the intellectual aspiration to further develop the MIL theories, including those on practice-based intellectual learning.

A literature review on housing market using diagramming techniques

A literature review on housing market using diagramming techniques

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Dated: May 10, 2016

Abstract: The topic of using diagrams to conduct literature review is not novel. The research angle in this paper is slightly different. It presents an account on how diagramming-based literature review can be conducted as complementary to scholarly essay-form of literature review. The diagramming techniques employed included mind mapping, systems mapping and cognitive mapping. The review topic in this case is housing market. Besides confirming the observations made by an earlier paper by the writer on employability (Ho, 2016a), this paper also discusses how diagramming-based literature review is relevant to managerial intellectual learning, another research project launched by the writer (Ho, 2013; 2014a; 2014b). In this respect, the study offers some novelty as an academic work on literature review and managerial intellectual learning.

Keywords: diagramming techniques, housing market, literature review, managerial intellectual learning

Introduction

In dissertation projects done by tertiary education students, literature review has always been a struggle for most students, based the writer’s long-time teaching experience. In Ho (2015), the writer argues that difficulties on the students’ part to conduct literature review reflect students’ ineffective intellectual learning. In a more recent work on literature review, Ho (2016a) explored usage of diagramming techniques to carry out literature review on employability, which he argued to be more engaging and stimulating than solely relying on scholarly essay writing skills. This paper follows the same approach to conduct literature review, this time on the subject of housing market. Specifically, the objectives of the paper are to:

Objective 1: to improve understanding, via a hands-on exercise, on how literature review can be facilitated by diagramming techniques.

Objective 2: to render a more vivid intellectual landscape on the subject of housing market via literature review with diagramming techniques.

The study in this paper is expected to offer academic value on the subjects of housing market and literature review as well as pedagogical value on teaching of these two subjects.

Literature review on housing market with scholarly essay writing

A housing market comprises “the supply and demand for houses, usually in a particular country or region” (Pettinger, 2015). Features of a housing market include: (i) housing supply, (ii) housing demand, (iii) house prices, (iv) rented sector and (v) government intervention in the housing market (Pettinger, 2015). For a start, primary research topics on housing market can be gauged from the coverage of the International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis (Emerald). Topics, with regard to this journal coverage, include:

·       Examination of individual house price, design and cost factors;

·       Examination of housing trends and influencing factors, e.g., demographics, unemployment rates, financial and economic factors, urban planning and advancement of technology;

·       Government policy and influences on housing;

·       Social housing considerations;

·       Examination of housing markets in developed and developing countries;

·       Examination of buyers and sellers in a housing market.

Beyond that, the subject of housing market is of interest to several disciplines, i.e., housing studies, economics, property management and urban studies. This is manifested by where academic articles on house market have been published, e.g., Housing Studies (Taylor and Francis), Housing, Theory and Society (Taylor and Francis), International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis (Emerald), Urban Studies (Sage), Urban Policy and Research (Taylor and Francis), International Journal of Strategic Property Management (Taylor and Francis), Journal of Property Research (Taylor and Francis), Journal of Post Keynesian Economics (Taylor and Francis), Journal of Housing Economics (Academic Press), Real Estate Economics (American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association) and The Economic Journal (Wiley) and Regional Science and Urban Economics (North-Holland). These diverse journals take up different perspectives to study housing market. Via the literature review on these academic journals by the writer, the main ideas from the housing market literature are synthesized into seven associated themes.

Theme 1: housing demand

Idea 1.1: Investors are interested in residential property as it provides “a different risk-return profile from commercial real estate” (Pomogajko and Vigtländer, 2012).

Idea 1.2: There was a concern expressed by some economists about irrational exuberance taking place in some housing markets (Hargreaves, 2008).

Idea 1.3: Low interest rates stimulate tremendous surge in housing demand (Taylor, 2007).

Idea 1.4: “Gradually homeownership became deeply embedded in the UK psyche as the tenure of aspiration” (Pryce and Sprigings, 2009).

Idea 1.5: “In the UK… first time buyers increasingly rely on parents to fund the higher value deposits necessary to enter the homeownership market” (Pryce and Sprigings, 2009).

Idea 1.6: “Low-income households …..find it harder to enter the cycle at the most profitable point – i.e. to buy when prices are low – because of the correlation between credit availability and house price movements” (Pryce and Sprigings, 2009).

Idea 1.7: “Conventional wisdom holds that it is better to own a home than any other option because the home then becomes an investment that affords people a great deal of flexibility in their future financial options…” (Fowler III and Lipscomb, 2010).

Idea 1.8: “.. Housing is a particularly powerful symbol of status and prestige …  which, according to the conspicuous consumption hypothesis, leads to a desire for a relatively larger house” (Leguizamon, 2010).

Theme 2: housing supply

Idea 2.1: In Guangzhou, China, residential areas are divided into two categories: those built before and after the 1990s. This reflects the “gradual transition from the central supply and allocation to marketization”; the intention of the government was to alleviate “the housing shortage problem, diversifying housing provision, nurturing the private real-estate market, and improving the quality of dwellings” (Jim and Chen, 2007).

Idea 2.2: “Quantifying unsold stock in Italy is a subject that is attracting the attention of various players in the construction and real estate sector, such as public bodies involved in planning projects, promoters and developers….” (Ciaramella and Celani, 2014).

Theme 3: housing prices and returns on investment

Idea 3.1: Housing prices can be conceived as being determined by macroeconomic variables (the homogeneous housing market theory camp) or by the interplay between housing market segments (the heterogeneous housing market theory camp) (Borgesen, 2014).

Idea 3.2: Inflation, population, unemployment and GDP are important determinants of returns on housing (Fereidouni and Bazrafshan, 2012).

Idea 3.3: Synchronization of business cycles, especially between nearby countries, affects co-movement of housing prices among countries (Pomogajko and Vigtländer, 2012).

Idea 3.4: “…rents drive house prices and not vice versa” (Hargreaves, 2008).

Idea 3.5: The hedonic pricing method can be and has been employed to assess monetary values of housing attributed to environmental externalities (Jim and Chen, 2007).

Idea 3.6: “In a competitive market, the systematic variation in the price of a heterogeneous property is comprised of a bundle of characteristics. The realized sale price could be attributed to the willingness-to-pay for the characteristics” (Jim and Chen, 2007).

Idea 3.7: “In equilibrium the price paid by consumers for the flow of services from the housing stock, the real rental price of housing services, should equal the real user cost, which is the opportunity cost of investing in those services” (Pain and Westaway, 1996).

Idea 3.8: “There are two main measures to determine whether property prices are in bubble territory: the P/E (price/earnings) ratio and the price-to-income ratio” (Mercille, 2014).

Idea 3.9: “.. Although the income of average household in Beijing is increasing, it appears that house prices have been rising at a faster rate, causing an  affordability problem….” (Liu, Reed and Wu, 2008).

Idea 3.10: “..the fundamental reason driving both the rise in the real price of housing and its increased volatility is the increasing constraint on the supply or urban space applied by the British system of land use planning and its attempts to contain urban areas” (Chesire, 2004).

Theme 4: housing market size and dynamics

Idea 4.1: “An examination of historical house sales data reveals that housing markets are cyclical” (Hargreaves, 2008).

Idea 4.2: “…. the focus on the economic analysis of the housing market has been at the individual urban housing market or regional level” (Jones, 2002). Now, the concept of “a housing market area” has also been worked on by academics (Jones, 2002).

Idea 4.3: “The term “bubble” …. refers to a situation in which excessive public expectations of future price increases cause prices to be temporarily elevated… The term “housing bubble” had virtually no currency until 2002…” (Case and Shiller, 2003).

Idea 4.4: “…instability in property markets is closely related to financial crises, such as the property bubble collapses in Japan and Scandinavia in the early 1990s, the USA financial crisis triggered by the Lehman Shock in 2008, and so forth.” (Shimizu and Karato, 2014).

Idea 4.5: “The importance of transaction costs and conversion costs in the market for residential housing suggests that the observed housing consumption of an individual household will generally differ from its “equilibrium” level of demand …” (Hanushek and Quigley, 1979).

Idea 4.6: Housing prices diffuse, e.g., a shock in price movement in one region, to neighbouring regions over time (Brady, 2011).

Idea 4.7: North Sea oil development influences “the owner occupied housing market of Aberdeen sub-region in the 1970s and the consequent response by private housebuilders” (Jones and Maclennan, 1986).

Theme 5: major stakeholders and their activities

Idea 5.1: Successive UK governments have been promoting property as an investment (Pryce and Sprigings, 2009).

Idea 5.2: “news organisations largely sustained the [housing] bubble until the property market collapsed” (Mercille, 2014).

Idea 5.3: “…since 1922,… successive [Irish] government, rather than addressing adequately social housing conditions, …subsidised private-sector developers and mortgage lenders, therefore gradually pushing larger sections of the population into owner-occupation….” (Mercille, 2014).

Idea 5.4: “the increased number of real estate agents [In Iran] and their activities positively significantly stimulate housing prices and rents…” (Fereidouni, 2012).

Idea 5.5: “..In a centrally planned economy, as China was until recently, housing was not a commodity,…but merely as a social obligation to be met by administrative organizations, state enterprises or municipal government” (Fu, 2000).

Idea 5.6: “…privatization [of Hungary’s publicly owned rental housing] would bring savings in rent subsidies to the overstretched central budget” (Dániel, 1997).

Idea 5.7: “Most governments recognized at least three major purposes for intervention in the private housing market: allocation, stabilization, and growth and redistribution” (Ha, 2013).

Theme 6: market segmentation

Idea 6.1: “Within urban and real estate analyses, it has become clear that submarkets differentiated by housing or neighborhood type serve important purposes in urban analyses, and even more important purposes in home and property assessment” (Goodman and Thibodeau, 2003).

Idea 6.2: “Analysts have taken different approaches to identifying submarket boundaries within metropolitan areas” (Goodman and Thibodeau, 2003).

Idea 6.3: “Affordable housing is usually targeted at those whose housing needs cannot be met by the open market due to inadequate purchasing power” (Ayoade and Ahmed, 2014).

Idea  6.4: “in equilibrium the housing market will be racially segmented under a wide variety of conditions…” (Courant, 1978).

Idea 6.5: “there are two basic housing markets. The first one is the market for housing services, and the other is the market of the stock of housing structures, and that is the investment market” (Ha, 2013).

Theme 7: impacts and contributions to the society

Idea 7.1: “….some home owners …increase spending on consumer items by borrowing against increased home equity…” (Hargreaves, 2008).

Idea 7.2: If increases in house prices cannot be justified by increased labour market productivity, then house price increases “represent an intergenerational transfer payment between existing and aspiring home owners” (Hargreaves, 2008).

Idea 7.3: The general business cycle and real estate cycle were strongly correlated though not necessarily synchronised (Hargreaves, 2008).

Idea 7.4: “… the housing market lies at the heart of the European unemployment problem… By making it expensive to change location, high levels of home-ownership foster spatial mismatch between workers' skills and the available jobs…” (Oswald, 1999).

Idea 7.5: “Housing impacts on the real economy via the construction, financial, estate agency and legal sectors and through housing-equity financed consumption, all of which are sensitive to housing market fluctuations, and all have become increasingly inter-linked across nations as a result of the globalisation of capital and labour…” (Pryce and Sprigings, 2009).

Idea 7.6: “… the long-term prospects for housing wealth remain strong for those that can access and maintain mortgage finance” (Pryce and Sprigings, 2009).

Idea 7.7: “Rising property prices directly benefitted builders and developers, banks, the government and property firms and, indirectly, the broader economy, thanks to high levels of growth” (Mercille, 2014).

Idea 7.8: “…The promotion of home-ownership in East Asian countries has had a positive impact, but has generated inequality and speculation” (Ha, 2013).

The numerous housing market ideas illustrated above underline the huge and diverse theories and viewpoints examined in the housing market literature. Other than grouping them into the aforementioned seven themes, it is also useful to review all these ideas from different perspectives, e.g., the six perspectives adopted in the space-place-home matrix (Ho, 2016b; 2016c): (i) objective and history-sensitive, (ii) objective and history-insensitive, (iii) subjective and history-sensitive, (iv) subjective and history-insensitive, (v) critical and history-sensitive, and (vi) critical and history-insensitive perspectives. Adopting a multi-perspective stance to conduct literature review fosters a comprehensive, critical and creative way to conduct intellectual learning and problem-solving (Ho, 2013; 2014a; 2014b). Such an exercise is outside the scope of this study, though. All in all, a general intellectual landscape of the housing market field of study is provided via such literature review in essay form. So far, the literature review exercise is chiefly exploratory in nature and not focused enough to inform a research project with specific research objectives and questions. It remains useful for a preliminary literature review to stimulate thinking on figuring out a research theme by a researcher on housing market study, depending on a researcher’s specific research interest and concerns. The intellectual landscape on housing market is further visualized via diagramming techniques. Such an exercise is presented in the next section.

Literature review on housing market with diagramming techniques

Using diagramming techniques for literature review is not a new idea. It has been discussed in research methods textbooks, such as Saunders et al. (2012). Using the mind mapping, cognitive mapping and system mapping to conduct literature review on employability have been reported in Ho (2016a). Here, the same three diagramming tools are again employed to render more vividly the intellectual landscape on housing market, based on the essay form of literature review presented in the previous section. The first diagram is a mind map (Buzan and Buzan, 1995), followed by a system map (Open University, 2016); finally, a cognitive map (Eden et al., 1983) is provided. Figure 1 is thus the mind map, shown as follows:

Regarding Figure 1, the mind map puts the core idea of housing market as the central node on the map. The seven branches out of the central node “Housing Market” represent the seven themes as identified in the previous section. Sub-branches out of the seven main branches stand for the main ideas associated with the main branches. Overall, the tree-form mind map (re: Figure 1) renders a visual and coloured picture on the knowledge structure on housing market, which is easier to comprehend at a glance than an essay form of literature review. Nevertheless, it does not indicate how the various main ideas of housing market are related with a tree-form knowledge structure.

The next figure, Figure 2, is the system map on the housing market literature. The figure identifies the main topics to cover, i.e., the structure of the system of interest, in presenting the housing literature to readers. The map chiefly uses blobs, words and boundaries to convey the system of interest, in our case, the housing market literature. This writer also recommends usage of arrows as an additional symbol to indicate the inter-relatedness of the various sub-systems in the map as an additional map symbol (Ho, 2016a). In Figure 2, the main sub-systems of the system map correspond to the seven themes in the housing market literature. Here, the system map is simpler than the mind map, but more clearly convey the key themes of housing market to audience in a presentation exercise. [Clustering the system map with more details in the blobs is considered by the writer to be overwhelming to its readers.]

The last figure, Figure 3, is a cognitive map that portrays how certain housing market variables interact with each other to make up a systemic and dynamic housing market situation.

The twelve variables are selected from the housing market literature. Their influences with each other are indicated by the arrows that connect them. A +ve sign on the arrow indicates a positive correlation between the connected variables while a –ve sign signifies a negative correlation between the variables. Some of the variables are connected to form feedback loops. In this regard, a positive loop (e.g., +, +, +; or -, -, +) is self-amplifying whereas a negative loop (e.g., +, +, -) is self-stabilizing. Compared with Figures 1 and 2, Figure 3 is capable to depict a systemic situation with a housing market theme whereas Figures 1 and 2 cannot. 

On the whole, the diagramming techniques enable us to utilize more of our right brain to conduct literature review. The exercise, as presented in this paper, confirms the view of Ho (2016a) that diagramming techniques do not replace, but complement literature review with scholarly essay-form of literature review (which is mainly a kind of left-brain activity). Moreover, it also largely confirms the observations by Ho (2016a) about these three diagramming techniques with regard to (i) resolution level, (ii) perspective expressiveness, (iii) knowledge structure forms, and (iv) stimulation and engagement of thinking. The value of the diagramming-based literature review for managerial intellectual learning (Ho, 2013; 2014a; 2014b) is examined in the next section.

The value of diagramming-based literature review for managerial intellectual learning

The kind of literature review carried out in this paper as well as in Ho (2016a) is chiefly exploratory in nature. It is what a researcher would do to make an overall grasp of a particular research topic without clearly formulated research objectives and questions. In short, it amounts to a preliminary literature review exercise at the very initial stage of a research project. From the perspective of intellectual learning, this exercise is intellectually highly stimulating itself. Using scholarly essay writing together with diagramming techniques have been demonstrated here and in Ho (2016a) to be very useful to go through this preliminary literature review exercise. In terms of the managerial intellectual learning thinking of Ho (2013; 2014a; 2014b), such a literature review involves managerial intellectual learning, but still not Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) managerial intellectual learning. Specifically, it is directly associated with Phase 1 (Data Management) and Phase 2 (Absorbed reading) of the managerial intellectual learning framework of Ho (2013; 214a; 2014b), not yet involving Phase 3 (The Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) knowledge compilation) and Phase* (Practice-based intellectual learning). As such, the general intellectual knowledge gained via this preliminary literature review inevitably has very low actionable value. Nonetheless, it is a required learning exercise to enable MPSB managerial intellectual learning to be carried out subsequently. For this reason, the observations and illustrative examples on diagramming-based literature review made here and in Ho (2016a) have academic value in terms of contribution to the theoretical development of managerial intellectual learning as launched by Ho in 2013. Viewed from this academic context, this paper and the previous one (Ho, 2016a) can be regarded as supporting an academic endeavour which is innovative, even though the topic of using diagrams in literature review per se is not novel in the research methods field.

Concluding remarks

Using diagramming techniques in literature review, whether done alone or in groups, can be an engaging and creative exercise. This is what this paper and Ho (2016a) intend to convey to readers. At the same time, different diagramming techniques have different strengths and weaknesses in terms of idea stimulation and presentation quality. Thus, it is useful for researchers to assess the practical value of these techniques for literature review. Finally, diagramming techniques for preliminary literature review, as done in this paper, are also useful in managerial intellectual learning. Exactly how relevant they are in managerial intellectual learning has been discussed in this paper in terms of the managerial intellectual learning framework of Ho (2013; 2014a; 2014b). In this respect, the discussion is chiefly exploratory; more research works need to be carried on this topic still.

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