From Action Research to System in Environments: A Method

被引：0
作者：
Rossana C. Alvarez
Merrelyn Emery
机构：
[1] University of New Mexico,Anderson Schools of Management
[2] Australian National University,Centre for Continuing Education
[3] Fred Emery Institute,undefined
来源：
Systemic Practice and Action Research | 2000年 / 13卷
关键词：
action research; causal path analysis; contextualism; genotypical design principles; extracted knowledge; open systems; qualitative data; quantitative data;
D O I：
暂无
中图分类号：
学科分类号：
摘要：
This paper describes a breakthrough method for obtaining a quantitative picture of an organization in its environments from qualitative Search Conference data. As such it validates the concept of a system in transaction with its environments, the relevant uncertainty of the current extended social environment with its mixture of ideal seeking and maladaption, and many other OST(E) constructs. The organization is a region of the USDA–Forest Service which used a series of 13 Searches to plan the future of the region. The overall picture produced demonstrates how the method extends the joint purposes of social science to generate further hypotheses about changing systems in today's global social field. It also shows that three beliefs in the social science literature can be dispelled; (1) it is difficult to measure complex phenomena, (2) qualitative and quantitative data are incommensurate, and (3) only a small number of variables can be handled simultaneously.
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页码：683 / 703
页数：20
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