On plagiarism-dissolving

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Dated: February 6, 2016

Abstract:

Plagiarism has been frequently discussed both as a research topic and as a key concern in the real-world business education setting. This paper conducts a literature review on plagiarism and highlights the soft complexity nature underlying the plagiarism theme. It maintains that dissolving, based on Ackoff’s Interactive Planning methodology, rather than solving or resolving the plagiarism problem is more effective, given this nature of soft complexity of plagiarism. To dissolve plagiarism by a teacher alone, however, is too demanding to ask for. Nevertheless, by making use of the digital social media ecosystem to provide a stimulating e-learning environment to students, a teacher, as a gardener in cyberspace, is still able to contribute to the plagiarism-dissolving process.

Keywords:     Ackoff’s Interactive Planning methodology, digital social media ecosystem, e-learning support, management education, plagiarism, systems thinking

An earlier version of the paper appears in the journal of European Academic Research as: Ho, J.K.K. 2014. “On plagiarism-dissolving: A Research Note” European Academic Research 1(11) February: 4274-4290.

Introduction

The topic of plagiarism is pervasive in the education sector: news on plagiarism comes up from time to time; plagiarism has been committed by students and by academics; the topic of plagiarism has been frequently raised at staff meetings at educational institutions that have been participated by this writer as a part-time teacher on business subjects. This prompts the writer to conduct a review on the problem of plagiarism. In this paper, such a review is conducted with a systems thinking lens, and mainly from the standpoint of a teacher in the business education field.

***************

For further details of the article, please click on this link.