A
diagramming-based literature review on Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research
Joseph Kim-keung Ho
Independent
Trainer
Hong
Kong, China
Dated:
July 10, 2016
Abstract: The
Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research, as an academic venture, has a
history of more than 20 year. Recently, it has undergone rejuvenation. Because of
that, it is useful to offer an update account of its research project status.
This task is carried out in this paper with a diagramming-based literature
review. It results in rendering a rich knowledge structure on the MPSB
Research. The references identified in the literature review further provide a comprehensive
reading list for interested readers to study the MPSB Research subject.
Keywords: cognitive map, diagramming-based literature review, mind
map, multi-perspective, systems-based (MPSB) research, systems map
Introduction
Launched in 1992, the
Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research has been conducted by the
writer for more than twenty years by now. Thirty five published works have been
produced on it. As such, it is deemed timely to conduct an updated literature
review on the MPSB Research. This constitutes the main task of this paper.
Moreover, other than a conventional essay-form literature review, this paper
also presents a complementary diagramming-based literature review on the MPSB
Research. By doing so, it not only provides a consolidated account of the
current status of the MPSB Research, but also contributes to the theoretical
development of diagramming-based literature review, a fresh topic in the MPSB
Research.
A brief history of the MPSB Research
In its original conception in 1992,
the Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research was primarily a Hong Kong
University PhD degree research project of the writer. Its research theme is on
studying decision support systems with critical systems thinking. Critical
systems thinking was what the writer learned in his Master of Arts (Management
Systems) Degree programme at the University of Hull from 1982 to 1985, see Ho
and Jackson (1987). More specifically, critical systems thinking was at the
formative stage at that time; the Department of Management Systems and Sciences
of the University of Hull, led by the systems theorists, M.C. Jackson and P.
Keys, was the key driving force behind the development of critical systems
thinking (Jackson, 2000). This writer’s education background and working
experience in the 1990s was in systems thinking and three management
disciplines, i.e., information systems, management accounting and supply chain
management. With this personal educational and career profile at that time, the
writer came up with the PhD research theme on investigating decision support
systems via the critical systems lens. Shortly afterward, the research theme
was expanded to cover all the three management disciplines of information
systems, supply chain management and management accounting. The intellectual outcome
of the MPSB Research was the publication of a number of academic articles as
well as a PhD thesis report from 1994 to 2001. The main works on the MPSB Research
include:
1.
Ho and Sculli (1994a) on "A Multi-perspective,
Systems-based Framework for Decision Support Systems Design";
2.
Ho and Sculli (1994b) on an MPSB view on rich-picture
building;
3. Ho (1995a) on "Formulating MPSB Frameworks, using Logistics
Management as an example: A Research Note";
4.
Ho (1995a) on “An Example on the Operation of the MPSB
Filter”;
5. Ho (1995c) on “MPSB Frameworks Explained”;
6.
Ho (1996a) on “MPSB Research Explained”;
7.
Ho (1996b) on “Development
of Multi-Perspective, Systems-Based Frameworks”;
8.
Ho (1997a)
on “MPSB Frameworks and Decision Support Systems studies”;
9.
Ho (1997b)
on “What can contemporary systems thinking offer to logistics
management as a management discipline?”.
10. Sculli and Ho (2001) on an MPSB Framework to Office
Automation study.
From 1998 to 2012, the MPSB Research venture was
essentially dormant, partly because it was difficult to publish academic works
in refereed journals. This publication venue problem was solved in 2013 with
the appearance of the open access journal of European Academic Research and subsequently the journal of American Research Thoughts. This led to
the substantial number of academic papers published in these two journals from
2013 onward; in the reference list of this paper, 24 articles on the MPSB
Research published from 2013 up to now are shown, all of them appeared in European Academic Research and American Research Thoughts. A terse description of the MPSB Research is: “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, 2015a). There is a recent extension of study scope to cover the subject of
housing studies. Thus, the research is not exclusively about management
disciplines now. MPSB Research is also conceived as a sub-systems movement,
i.e., a theoretical development pathway in the systems movement (Ho, 2014a). Other than the MPSB Research, a closely related
research project called managerial intellectual learning (MIL) was also initiated
by the writer in 2013. The discussion of MIL is outside the scope of this
paper, thus not elaborated on here. Having introduced the brief history of the
MPSB Research, the next section will conduct a brief literature review of it
and highlight the main ideas that make up the MPSB Research. After that, a
diagramming-based literature review on the MPSB Research will be presented.
The main ideas that make up the MPSB Research in 2016
As a sub-systems movement, the MPBS
Research has been expanding its scope of study that covers new concepts and
issues over the years. As at 2016, the following ideas can be identified from
the MPSB Research literature. These ideas are grouped into five themes, namely
(i) elaboration of research scope and strategy, (ii) elaboration of key MPSB
concepts, (iii) application in specific management disciplines, (iv) application
in housing studies, and (v) implications on managerial intellectual learning
and problem-solving. Details are as follows:
Theme 1: Elaboration of research scope and strategy
Idea 1.1.
An explanation of MPSB Research (Ho, 1996a; 1996b);
Idea 1.2.
An explanation of MPSB Research strategy and scope in
terms of the MPSB Knowledge Supply Chain Framework (Ho, 2014g);
Idea 1.3.
A review of systems thinking and practices (STAP) in
Hong Kong, with reference to the MPSB Research (Ho, 2016d);
Idea 1.4.
An examination of the MPSB Research as a major pathway
to pursue transdisciplinary research (Ho, 2016g);
Idea 1.5.
An examination of the MPSB Research as a sub-systems movement (Ho, 2014a);
Theme 2: Elaboration of key MPSB concepts
Idea 2.1.
An explanation of MPSB Frameworks (Ho, 1995c);
Idea 2.2.
An explanation of Enlightening Management Education
(Ho, 2013);
Idea 2.3.
Formulation of an enriched rich picture building exercise
(ERPBE) (Ho, 2015d; 2015e; Ho and Sculli, 1994b);
Idea 2.4.
Employment of diagramming in the MPSB Research (Ho,
2016a; 2016b; 2016c; 2016h);
Theme 3: Application in specific management
disciplines
Idea 3.1.
Formulation of MPSB Frameworks in Logistics Management
(Ho, 1995a; 1997b);
Idea 3.2.
Formulation of MPSB Frameworks in Decision Support
Systems Study (Ho, 1997a; Ho and Sculli, 1994; Ho and Sculli, 1995);
Idea 3.3.
Formulation of double-hybrid management accounting and
the profile of double-hybrid management accountants (Ho, 2014b; 2014c; 2014d);
Idea 3.4.
Formulation of an MPSB Framework in Office Automation
study (Sculli and Ho, 2001):
Idea 3.5.
Formulation of an MPSB Framework on Information
Systems/ Information Technology project appraisal (Ho, 2014f);
Idea 3.6.
Formulation of the MPSB notion of relationship-managing
organization (Ho, 2015b);
Theme 4: Application in housing studies
Idea 4.1.
Formulation of the subject of Housing Imagination (Ho,
2014e);
Idea 4.2.
Formulation of a Systems-based Housing Imagination
Evaluation Framework (Ho, 2014i);
Idea 4.3.
Formulation of the space-place-home (sph) matrix,
which is multi-perspective, systems-based (Ho, 2016e; 2016f);
Theme 5: Implications on managerial intellectual
learning and problem-solving
Idea 5.1.
Application of the MPSB knowledge filter in the world
of management practices (Ho, 1995b);
Idea 5.2.
An explanation of Enlightening Management Education
(Ho, 2013);
Idea 5.3.
Professional development to be an MPSB
scholar-practitioner (Ho, 2014h).
The five themes with their
ingredient ideas reveal the present status of the MPSB Research. It also
attests to the evolutionary and scope expansion nature of the MPSB Research.
The managerial intellectual learning (MIL) idea in theme 5 has accumulated
quite a sizable literature of its own (re: the Facebook page on managerial intellectual learning shown in the bibliography), which is more appropriate
to be reviewed in a separate paper. The next section is going to employ
diagramming to reveal the knowledge structure of the MPSB Research.
A diagramming-based literature review on the MPSB
Research
Diagramming has been employed in
literature review and qualitative data analysis with conceptual exploration on
its relevance to managerial intellectual learning. (Ho, 2016a; 2016b; 2016c;
2016h). The three main diagramming
techniques considered in these works are mind mapping, systems mapping and
cognitive mapping. These diagrams are also explained on the UK Open University
website on diagramming (re: the bibliography).
Each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses for diagramming purpose; when
used together in a diagramming-based literature review, they complement each
other to render a rich image on the knowledge structure of a topic under
investigation. This approach is now employed to review the topic of the MPSB
Research. To begin with, a mind map is constructed and shown in Figure 1.
In Figure 1, the core topic under
review is the MPSB Research; there are 5 main mind map branches, which
correspond to the five MPSB themes as introduced in the previous section. There
are also sub-branches with key words as nodes attached to the five main
branches. In this mind map, two nodes, namely, “enlightening management
education” and “MPSB knowledge filter”, are attached to two main branches,
namely, “key MPSB concepts” and “intellectual learning and problem-solving”, as
these two notes are related to the two themes simultaneously. By using
branches, key words and colors, the mind map is easy to grasp at a glance. The
knowledge structure produced in this mind map is primarily in tree-form. The
next diagram, shown as Figure 2, is a systems map.
The systems map (re: Figure 2)
consists of words and blobs to exhibit the structure of a system of interest;
in this case, the system of interest is the MPSB Research subject. The blobs
correspond to the MPSB Research themes of research
scope and strategy (theme 1), the key
MPSB concepts (theme 2), applications
(management disciplines and housing studies) (themes 3 and 4), and implications on managerial intellectual
learning and problem-solving (theme 5). The arrows are added by the writer
to indicate roughly where the blobs (sub-systems) are related to each other.
The systems diagram, stressing the structural dimension of the system of
interest, is especially useful for presentation purpose. The third diagram is a
cognitive map, see Figure 3.
The cognitive map expresses the
writer’s view of how the eight variables influence each other to make up the
development cycle of the MPSB Research venture. It is a rather systemic and
processural image of the knowledge structure on the MPSB Research, as
contrasted with the tree-form view of the mind map (re: Figure 1) and the
structural view of the systems map (re: Figure 2). Again, the variables in the
cognitive map can be traced to the literature review’s findings in the previous
section. For examples, “formulate meaningful research scope” (variable 1) of
the cognitive map comes from idea 1.2;
“strengthen knowledge supply chain working” (variable 4) is associated with theme 4; “make progress as a sub-systems
movement” is related to idea 1.5.
Together, the three maps render a
rich and current knowledge structure of the MPSB Research subject. They also
illustrate how diagramming-based literature review is done as well as how they
complement the essay-form literature review. This kind of literature review is
primarily taken up at the initial conception formation phase of a research
project – it is a preliminary literature review to learn the overall
intellectual landscape of an academic theme considered to be highly relevant to
a dissertation project topic or concern. Diagramming-based literature review is
flexible enough to be applied at the later stage of a research project, but it
is not illustrated in this paper. Readers interested in the subject of the MPSB
Research are also referred to the Facebook page on the MPSB Research for
details of the subject (re: the bibliography).
Concluding remarks
Due to the recent rejuvenation of
the MPSB Research, it is timely to provide an undated account of the current
status of the MPSB Research. This is now presented in this paper. In addition,
the account makes use of both essay-form as well as diagramming-based
literature review. By doing so, the paper demonstrates how diagramming-based
literature review can be carried out. It thus also offers some pedagogical
value on the diagramming-based literature review topic (Ho, 2016a, 2016b,
2016c). This paper does not go into details to explain the MPSB Research; the
references provided in the literature review are useful for interested readers
to study the subject. Finally, due to the substantial works on the MPSB
Research topic of managerial intellectual learning, it is also valuable to go
through a diagramming-based literature review on it. This, however, requires another
paper to do so.
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