Citation
Ramage, M., Bissell, C. and Chapman, D. (2013), "Editorial", Kybernetes, Vol. 42 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-09-2013-0216
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type:
Editorial
From:
Kybernetes, Volume 42, Issue 7
We begin this issue with a welcome piece of news: Dr Bernard Scott, an editorial board member of Kybernetes since 2002, was presented with the Warren McCulloch Award of the American Society for Cybernetics at their 2013 annual conference in Bolton, UK. The citation reads: “for outstanding and profound lifelong contributions to nurturing cybernetics through the development of both cybernetically based praxis in education, and major theories concerning learning and the learnable. We offer our congratulations to Bernard for this richly – deserved award. The full citation can be found at: http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/organization/awards/Scott_McCulloch.pdf.
In this issue we are pleased to present eight papers which are very practical, applied to a wide range of situations, from team management to financial systems. The papers in this issue are as follows.
Zaiwu Gong et al. analyse group decision making, and ask how a new form of consensus can be reached when new decision makers become involved. They study this through an analysis of “fuzzy preference relations, and create a model for exploring consensus-building. The article is largely mathematical, but highly applicable to practical situations.
Chiu-Chi Wei et al. write from the perspective of project management and look at the issue of how to form an effective team with a well-balanced set of personality types. Using Belbins team roles, they create a model for the optimal assignment of individuals to a team, to ensure a balance of personality types.
Suodi Zhang et al. have studied the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in China. Using the technology acceptance model as their framework, they study the factors which impact upon the acceptance of ERP systems within a sample of Chinese organisations, given the potentially disruptive nature of such systems.
Hesam Odin Komari Alaei and Alireza Yazdizadeh present a highly applied study of methods to estimate levels in petroleum reservoirs, a complicated task given the levels of noise involved. Their solution is to apply a combination of neural networks and Bayesian statistics to analyse the levels. They apply their method to a specific oil field in Iran.
Yoshihiro Takebe et al. discuss the use of sensor technologies, specifically accelerometers and RFID, to improve the process of nursing. Their study used these sensors, combined with pattern classification algorithms, to recognise different forms of activity being carried out by nurses. Having such a system working fully would enable much greater efficiency in scheduling. Commendably, their study discusses both the strengths and weaknesses of their approach.
Hasan Dincer and Umit Hacioglu examine automated methods for performance evaluation in the Turkish banking sector, based on customer satisfaction levels. Their study uses a model based on the fuzzy VIKOR and AHP method. Strikingly, they demonstrate that there is a statistically significant relationship between customer satisfaction and bank performance (including stock market performance).
S.M.B. Malaek and Hadi Farhangi present a study of deficiencies in the global financial system, using a biological model of parasitic behaviour. They draw upon general systems theory and game theory to analyse financial systems, in particular the financial crisis in Greece. Although their article is not politically – motivated, it draws important conclusions for the financial system.
Jian Liu et al. study business process management, and how prediction can be used to optimise business processes. Their model is based on process mining, using adjacency matrices to study workflow patterns. They demonstrate their model largely with synthetic data, but also apply it to the patent system of the USA.
Magnus Ramage, David Chapman and Chris Bissell