A Guide to Systems Research

Mary C. Edson is President of the International Federation for Systems Research and leads the Systems Research Team at its biennial Conversations. She is also President of Equipoise Enterprises, a coaching and consulting firm focused on building leadership competencies and adaptive capacity in individuals, groups, and teams for cultivation of organizational resilience.Mary engages students in experiential learning in the Masters of Organizational Leadership program at Union Institute and University. She is interested in advancing systemic inquiry at the intersection of organizational behavior, project management, and the systems sciences. Pamela Buckle Henning is Associate Professor of Management at the Robert B. Willumstad School of Business at Adelphi University in New York, where she teaches organizational behavior, leadership, teamwork, and group dynamics. Her scholarly and clinical work is oriented around the perspective that human psychologyis a complex system embedded in densely interconnected biological, interpersonal, institutional, and environmental systems. She collaborates with international researchers investigating the cognitive and emotional processes involved in systems thinking, and the worldviews and values systems of systems thinkers. Shankar Sankaran is Professor of Organizational Project Management at the University of Technology Sydney, where he teaches systems thinking and supervises doctoral students. He has worked in industry as well as academia.His research interests lie primarily in systems thinking and action research. He is the current Vice President, Research and Publishing, at the International Society for the Systems Sciences and the Chair of the Action Research Special Integration Group.

Foreword.- 1. Philosophical Foundations of Systems Research.- 2. Systems Research Framework.- 3. Problem Structuring and Research Design in Systemic Inquiry.- 4. Modeling and Simulation.- 5. Taking Action Using Systems Research.- 6. Systems Research Reporting.- 7. Competencies Necessary for Systems Research.- 8. Evaluating the Impact of Systems Research.