- Theoretical foundation for diagramming for managerial intellectual learning.
- An MPSB framework - on decision support systems
- Diagramming employed in studying strategic management accounting
- Rich picture building - the theory
- Rich picture building - the application
- Diagramming for literature review: on employability
- Diagramming for literature review: on housing market
- Building a rich picture on problem-situation: a case study
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
e-book on diagramming for managerial intellectual learning
A e-book on diagramming for managerial intellectual learning
Saturday, February 6, 2016
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
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.
Friday, February 5, 2016
A review on the Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research sub-Systems Movement (sub-SM)
A review on the Multi-perspective,
Systems-based (MPSB) Research sub-Systems Movement (sub-SM)
Joseph Kim-keung Ho
Independent Trainer
Hong Kong, China
Dated: February 6, 2016
Abstract:
As an essentially personal academic journey all along,
the Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research is inevitably not well
understood in the academic community. At the same time, over the last two
years, the MPSB Research has been evolving quite fast. This paper tries to
uncover the structure of the MPSB Research as a sub-Systems Movement (sub-SM)
in terms of its evolutionary paths. Its aims are: (i) to make the MPSB Research
comprehensible to the academic community, (ii) to serve as a consolidation
effort on the MPSB Research as well as (iii) to invite academics to participate
in this intellectual venture. In the discussion, the notion of sub-Systems
Movement has been formulated and employed.
Keywords a sub-SM map, a sub-Systems Movement (sub-SM), key
MPSB notions, systems thinking, the MPSB Research, the Systems Movement,
An earlier version of the
paper appears in the journal of European
Academic Research as: Ho, J.K.K. 2014. “Mapping and explaining the
Multi-perspective, Systems-based Research sub-Systems Movement” European Academic Research 2(9)
December: 11880-11900.
Introduction
The Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research
was launched by the writer in 1992 as the research theme for the writer’s Ph.D.
Degree programme at the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems
Engineering, the University of Hong Kong. This research programme culminated in
the production of a Ph.D. thesis of Ho (1996a) which was also summarized in Ho (1995;
1996b). Recently, the revitalized MPSB Research programme has been reviewed by
Ho (2014a). This paper makes an attempt to uncover the structure of the
evolutionary paths of the MPSB Research to date so as to achieve the following three
related aims:
Aim
1: to make the
MPSB Research comprehensible to the academic community.
Aim
2: to consolidate
the MPSB Research works in an organized diagrammatic form made to date.
Aim
3: to invite
academics to participate in this intellectual venture as a community-based one.
This endeavor to
explain, review and synthesize the MPSB notions and the evolutionary paths of
the MPSB Research in the form of a System Movement map is deemed necessary to
meet the three related aims. The main reason is that this research has
essentially been a one-man intellectual venture, thus not much known to the
academic community. To pave the way for the discussion of MPSB evolutionary
paths, a description of the newly developed MPSB Research notions is provided
in the next section. These notions are inevitably referred to in the mapping
and explaining exercise.
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For further details of the article, please click on this link.
An introduction on the Facebook-based questionnaire survey method for academic research in business studies
An introduction on the Facebook-based
questionnaire survey method for academic research in business studies
Joseph Kim-Keung Ho
Independent Trainer
Hong Kong, China
Dated: February 6, 2016
Abstract:
The subject of online survey has been discussed in
both the academic community and the business community, especially by survey
tool vendors. This paper examines a specific type of online survey, i.e.,
Facebook-based questionnaire survey for academic research, based on the
writer’s recent experience in this form of research exercise. The findings from
these exercises largely agree with the evaluation viewpoints from the academic
community in general. Nevertheless, this paper also points out that the
contemporary technological platform and tools for conducting online survey via social
network sites, such as Facebook are more user-friendly, more widely available and
more powerful than ten years ago. The paper also serves to inform university students,
mainly on business studies, who are interested in doing online survey research
on how to do so, especially in an agile research mode. In this sense, this
paper has pedagogical value, other than academic value.
Key
words: academic
research, agile research mode, Facebook, online questionnaire survey
Introduction
Conducting academic research, especially by students
in universities, has always been a challenge – it can be time-consuming,
intellectually testing and communication-intensive, among others. In this
paper, the writer examines Facebook-based questionnaire survey as an agile
approach for academic research. Agility
implies leanness, flexibility and responsiveness in this case. Here, the aims
are:
Aim
1: to review Facebook-based
questionnaire survey as an agile academic research method, mainly for
university students in business studies[1].
Aim
2: to offer an
account of how to conduct Facebook-based questionnaire survey based on the
writer’s recent experience with this kind of research approach.
The discussion,
the writer believes, offers both academic and pedagogical values, especially to
university students in business studies who are involved in doing dissertation
projects with tight time-constraint.
A study of complexity sources on housing affordability (HA) in Housing Studies
A study of complexity sources
on housing affordability (HA) in Housing Studies
JOSEPH KIM-KEUNG HO
Independent Trainer
Hong Kong, China
Dated: February
5, 2016
Abstract:
In Housing Studies, housing affordability (HA) is a
key concept. This is especially relevant to Housing Studies in Hong Kong as the
city has long been reported to have the worst housing affordability status in
the world. This paper examines the sources of complexity of the housing
affordability notion and concerns based on literature review, newspaper
articles study and a Facebook questionnaire survey. It argues for the
methodological relevance of using the systems-based Housing Imagination
evaluation framework of Ho (2014a) to examine complex Housing Studies topics
such as housing affordability. Indeed, housing affordability is conceptually
complex and housing affordability concerns in the real world are very often
also intricate.
Key
words: Facebook-based
questionnaire survey; Housing affordability; Newspaper articles study; The
systems-based Housing Imagination evaluation framework; The System Complexity
model
An earlier
version of the paper appears in the journal of European Academic Research as: Ho, J.K.K. 2015. “An
examination of the sources of complexity on housing affordability (HA) as a
concept and concerns in Housing Studies” European
Academic Research 2(10) January: 13128-13152.
Introduction
In Housing Studies, housing affordability (HA) is a
key topic of study, see, for example, Balchin and Rhoden (2002: chapter 11). Typically,
the HA topic examines (i) effects of house price/earnings ratios and house
price/income ratios, (ii) affordability among people of different profiles and
(iii) ways of increasing affordability (Balchin and Rhoden, 2002) and (iv) the
reasons for high housing prices (Lau and Li, 2006). Two concepts appear
fundamental, i.e., housing affordability
and affordable housing. The former is
about people’s housing concerns while the latter is more on housing solutions
and products. Both concepts deal with the core attribute of affordability. For Stone, Burke and
Ralston (2011), there are three main questions in housing affordability study:
(i) affordable to whom?, (ii) on what standard of affordability?, and (iii) for
how long? In Hong Kong, where the writer lives, it has long been reported to
have the least housing affordability status in the world, e.g., Liu (2014) and
Holliday (2014). Thus housing affordability is described as a big issue (Lam,
2012) or the Number 1 priority (South
China Morning Post, 2014) in the city. Out of both teaching and research
interest, the writer makes an attempt to uncover the complexity sources of the
housing affordability notion and concerns via literature review, newspaper
articles study and a Facebook-based questionnaire survey. It then argues for
the relevance of using the systems-based Housing Imagination evaluation
framework of Ho (2014a) to study housing affordability concerns.
***************
For further details of the paper, please click on this link.
A proposed systems-based Housing Imagination evaluation framework for research and pedagogical practices
A proposed systems-based Housing Imagination evaluation
framework for research and pedagogical practices
Joseph Kim-Keung Ho
Independent
Trainer
Hong
Kong, China
Dated:
February 5, 2016
Abstract:
For
a new subject in Housing Studies (HS), Housing Imagination (HI) needs to
establish its theoretical foundation more clearly, which includes the
formulation of HI methodologies and theoretical frameworks. This task is taken
up in this paper, which proposes a systems-based HI evaluation framework for
examining Housing Studies-related phenomena. It is argued that such kind of
theoretical frameworks and methodologies are also useful for improving
pedagogical practices on HI. Other than that, the paper recommends more usage
of real-life examples for illustration in HI pedagogical practices. Finally,
this paper lauds the value of mutual learning between (a) HI theoretical
development efforts and (b) HI pedagogical practices as well as the
contribution of contemporary systems thinking to HI theoretical development.
Key words:
a systems-based HI evaluation framework,
Housing Imagination, inquiry system, pedagogical practices, system complexity,
systems thinking
Introduction
As
a newly established subject, Housing Imagination (HI) needs a clearly
articulated and sound theoretical foundation. While its intellectual root and its core
investigation approach have been described in Ho (2014a; 2014b), both its
methodologies, theoretical frameworks as well as pedagogical practices need to
be further clarified, enriched and refined. This paper examines three HI issues
as related to theoretical development and pedagogical practices:
Issue 1:
How can an HI approach produce valid knowledge for Housing Studies?
Issue 2:
How can an HI approach be capable in investigating HI phenomena and issues that
very often possess tremendous soft complexity?
Issue 3:
How can the subject of HI be taught to students more effectively?
The first issue is related to the topic
of Inquiry System (IS) while the second issue touches on the notion of system
complexity and the need for HI methodologies capable of dealing with high
system complexity. These two issues are
inter-related. Clarifying these two issues contribute to improved HI
pedagogical practices (Issue 3). The ensuing discussion is going to address
these issues in details.
*******
For further details of the article, please click on this link.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
A study on the elusiveness and charm of empowerment via the managerial lens
A study on the elusiveness
and charm of empowerment via the managerial lens
Joseph Kim-keung Ho
Independent
Trainer
Hong Kong, China
Dated: February 5,
2016
Abstract:
The empowerment
notion, albeit being around for many years, has been described as highly
elusive, loose and attractive in the academic literature. Its intellectual
influence spans both the business management and non-business management
domains. In this paper, the empowerment notion is examined based on a
literature review, including newspaper article study, and a Facebook-based
questionnaire survey on its perceptions in Hong Kong. By doing so, it further
clarifies the essence of the empowerment notion as well as informs learning and
practices in the business and non-business sectors. Overall, the paper mainly
examines the empowerment notion from the managerial perspective. Finally, it
recommends mastery of literature review skills, e.g., on learning empowerment,
to strengthen an individual’s managerial intellectual learning capability.
Key words:
Delegation; Empowerment; Facebook-based questionnaire survey; Literature
review; Newspaper article study
An earlier version of the paper appears in the journal
of European Academic Research as
Introduction
From
time to time, the notion of empowerment comes up in the literature of business
management as well as other social sciences, e.g., housing studies. It catches
the writer’s attention in his teaching activities, especially with one of the
writer’s student doing a final-year dissertation on this topic. On top of that,
as an intellectual concept, empowerment is said to be “highly elusive”,
“attractive” and “loose” (Lincoln et al.,
2002). This sets up the context that motivates the writer to conduct a
literature review and a Facebook-based questionnaire on empowerment.
Specifically, the paper aims at:
(1) reviewing
the essence of the empowerment notion
(2) examining
people’s perceptions on and experience with the empowerment
Achieving
these two aims should inform the theoretical development of the empowerment
concept as well as students in social sciences, e.g., management and housing
studies, to learn this concept. The two aims are also related: knowledge on the
essence of the empowerment notion enables a better evaluation of people’s
empowerment perceptions and experience. The present study, nevertheless, is
done mainly via the managerial lens so as to make the scope of study
manageable.
**********
For further details of the paper, please click on this link
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