We examine how project complexity influences the choice of a project management strategy and present a framework that facilitates managers in selecting a suitable project management strategy. We distinguish the complexity of project domains from two dimensions, the degree of structural complexity and the degree of dynamic complexity, resulting in four generic project types. Four generic project management strategies are identified that match these project types. This complexity framework for project management allows key players to determine a better project management strategy and related practices given its content, the internal context, and the external environment.
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Engineering students have to learn to create robust solutions in professional contexts where new technologies emerge constantly and sometimes disrupt entire industries. The question rises if universities design curricula that enable engineering students to acquire these cognitive skills. The Cynefin Framework (Kurtz & Snowden, 2003; Snowden & Boone, 2007) can be used to typify four complexity contexts a system or organisation can be found in: chaos, complex, complicated and obvious.The Cynefin framework made it possible to create the research question for a case-study: To what extend does the Business Engineering curriculum enable bachelors to find business solutions in the complexity contexts of the Cynefin framework? The results show that 80% of the methods are suitable for complicated contexts and no distinction is made between contexts. This means students are taught to approach most contexts in the same way and are not made aware of differences between the contexts. Making sense of the methods in the curriculum with the Cynefin framework was insightful and suggestions for improvement and further research could be substantiated
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This paper proposes an epistemological transition based on Edgar Morin's complexity paradigm to analyse authenticity in a complex tourism environment, avoiding fragmentation, and integrating relevant actors and relationships. The results show that storytelling is an important element of these tourism experiences, legitimising and unifying the authenticity of the experience and relating objects, social environment and individual experiences. The size of the tour groups and the rigidity of the itinerary were important elements for constructing authenticity. Tourists, service providers and government bodies all directly or indirectly participate as co-creators, making the perception of authenticity a constant negotiation between the elements of the experience and the actors involved in it.
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The inefficiency of maintaining static and long-lasting safety zones in environments where actual risks are limited is likely to increase in the coming decades, as autonomous systems become more common and human workers fewer in numbers. Nevertheless, an uncompromising approach to safety remains paramount, requiring the introduction of novel methods that are simultaneously more flexible and capable of delivering the same level of protection against potentially hazardous situations. We present such a method to create dynamic safety zones, the boundaries of which can be redrawn in real-time, taking into account explicit positioning data when available and using conservative extrapolation from last known location when information is missing or unreliable. Simulation and statistical methods were used to investigate performance gains compared to static safety zones. The use of a more advanced probabilistic framework to further improve flexibility is also discussed, although its implementation would not offer the same level of protection and is currently not recommended.
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For five decades complex socio-technical systems have been studied in an attempt to understand and prevent the occurrence of accidents. In this paper, the authors define a concept for a System Complexity metric, comprising the total of all direct interactions between the system elements and the tools the controller has to control the system. Subsequently, the human performance of the operator is taken into account to arrive at the Perceived System Complexity. Finally a hypothesis for a relation between the dynamic actually perceived system complexity, and the occurrence of incidents is postulated, which are still to be proven in practice.
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This book – Complexity and Territorial Development – tells the story of how academic staff and students at the Van Hall Larenstein university of applied sciences deal with complexity and planning in education and research. It is intended for everyone who is involved in complex projects, but in particular for current and future students at the university who will be trained in how to handle complex projects. In this book we want to show why planning has become complex, what theories about this subject are relevant, and how this fits in with the practical experience of staff and students.
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The challenges we collectively face, such as climate change, are characterized by more complexity, interdependence, and dynamism than is common for educational practice. This presents a challenge for (university) education. These transition challenges are often described as wicked or VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) problems. In response, educational innovations that are inspired by ecology such as living labs are starting to emerge, but little is known about how learners engage within and with these more ecological forms of education. This work is an exploratory study into how learners navigate VUCA learning environments linked to tackling sustainability transition challenges, with a focus on the positive qualities of these experiences. This is done through interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of seven students (using semi-structured interviews) of the MSC Metropolitan Analysis, Design and Engineering program, a joint degree from Wageningen University and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The main findings, which are both psychological and educational, of this exploration include openness to new experiences (1), flexibility (2), a process appreciation of learning (3), a desire to create a positive impact on one’s direct biophysical environment (4) and society (5). In addition, we discuss the potential limitations of the malleability of these different qualities and propose future avenues for research into ecological learning for universities. This work closes by highlighting recommendations for educators to consider when designing or engaging in ecological forms of higher education that connect students to sustainability transitions.
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To adequately deal with the challenges faced within residential care for older people, such as the increasing complexity of care and a call for more person-centred practices, it is important that health care providers learn from their work. This study investigates both the nature of learning, among staff and students working within care for older people, and how workplace learning can be promoted and researched. During a longitudinal study within a nursing home, participatory and democratic research methods were used to collaborate with stakeholders to improve the quality of care and to promote learning in the workplace. The rich descriptions of these processes show that workplace learning is a complex phenomenon. It arises continuously in reciprocal relationship with all those present through which both individuals and environment change and co-evolve enabling enlargement of the space for possible action. This complexity perspective on learning refines and expands conventional beliefs about workplace learning and has implications for advancing and researching learning. It explains that research on workplace learning is itself a form of learning that is aimed at promoting and accelerating learning. Such research requires dialogic and creative methods. This study illustrates that workplace learning has the potential to develop new shared values and ways of working, but that such processes and outcomes are difficult to control. It offers inspiration for educators, supervisors, managers and researchers as to promoting conditions that embrace complexity and provides insight into the role and position of self in such processes.
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De zogenoemde “21th century skills” worden, aldus het Ministerie van Onderwijs, steeds belangrijker. Het zijn eigenschappen die we terugvinden in de eindtermen van vrijwel alle hbo-opleidingen en die – in de woorden van Donald Schön – de kern zijn van een “reflective practitioner” : een vakvrouw of –man, die zichzelf in complexe situaties kan sturen en daardoor productief blijft. Eerder onderzoek van het lectoraat Pedagogiek van de Beroepsvorming heeft aangetoond dat een leeromgeving gericht op zelfsturing aan drie condities moet voldoen: er moet sprake zijn van praktijkgestuurd onderwijs, studenten moeten de kans krijgen een dialoog aan te gaan over de zin en betekenis van hun ervaringen in het praktijkgestuurde onderwijs en studenten moeten medezeggenschap hebben over hun eigen leerproces. Met name het realiseren van een dialoog blijkt echter heel moeilijk te zijn. Zowel docenten als studenten (en ook de onderwijsmanagers) zijn gewend aan onderwijs waarin zin en betekenis nauwelijks ter discussie staat. Het gevolg is dat ze vooral gericht zijn op reproductief en niet op betekenis-gericht leren. Zelfsturing vereist evenwel deze laatste vorm van leren. Zelfsturing vereist een dialoog over de zin en betekenis van ervaringen die de student “raken”. Dergelijke ervaringen roepen veelal emoties op die in eerste instantie niet begrepen worden. Zin en betekenis zijn “geen dingen in een doosje”; ze worden gaandeweg duidelijk in een gesprek waarin de docent verklaart noch verheldert, maar samen met de student op zoek gaat naar de juiste woorden. Dat zijn woorden waarvan de student voelt dat ze haar in staat stellen iets uit te drukken dat voorheen nog niet onder woorden gebracht kon worden. In dit boek wordt vanuit verschillende perspectieven en op basis van empirisch onderzoek ingegaan op de vraag in hoeverre het hbo er in slaagt een dergelijke dialoog met haar studenten te realiseren. Tevens wordt stilgestaan bij methoden om zo’n dialoog te realiseren.
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Emergence, the coming-into-being of new entities, new organizations, or new structures out of the interactions of individual agents in networks, is becoming a central concept in today's management literature. We are now evolving from the age of reductionism to the age of emergence, meaning that organizations in the connected society can no longer predict what is going to happen but will find themselves continuously doing things (creating value) in co-evolution with their environment, things that are not necessarily in line with actions planned in advance. In such a dynamic environment managers must learn to enable emergent processes in real time if an organization is to turn unpredictability to its competitive advantage. The importance of the perspective of emergence is introduced in regard to the growing complexity in society.
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