Hernán López Garay and Alfonso Reyes
Present-day engineering education is in dire need to expose would-be engineers to a systemic view of the world. Society’s problems are getting increasingly complex “wicked”…
Abstract
Purpose
Present-day engineering education is in dire need to expose would-be engineers to a systemic view of the world. Society’s problems are getting increasingly complex “wicked” problems, and they require inter and transdisciplinary approaches to understand and “dissolve” them (that is to solve them systemically). In this context, the purpose of this paper is to invite engineering educators to reflect on the need to teach systems thinking and spark their interest on finding appropriate methods to do so. This paper aims to describe an actual intervention at Universidad de Ibagué (UNIBAGUE), Colombia, where the methodology of teaching systems thinking as a foreign language has been on trial for one year.
Design/methodology/approach
Starting with a simple model of teaching systems thinking, and using an action-research methodology, the teaching model is gradually evolved to a model for teaching systems thinking as a foreign language.
Findings
The authors only have preliminary qualitative results with this systems-thinking teaching model. Although these results are encouraging (the authors think basic systems concepts are better apprehended by the students), further research is needed. One objective of the present paper is precisely to invite engineering educators to experiment with this teaching model.
Research limitations/implications
The authors think it is necessary to exploit further the teaching-a-foreign-language analogy. There is a vast experience on methods for teaching second and foreign languages. They could enrich the method and hint at possible directions for further research.
Practical implications
Teaching systems thinking is a field still open for wide research. The pedagogical model developed in this research to teach systems thinking could benefit other teachers of systems thinking to build upon.
Social implications
As one of the referees pointed out: “The implications of the insides obtained in this research are very significant to society. The problem observed in the systems thinking researchers and practitioner's community about how to disseminate systems thinking knowledge and how to embed this way of thinking into the minds of young people (K-12, university, etc.) is addressed in this research. In it is shown an experience that provides very valuable insides about how this can be done.
Originality/value
The idea of teaching systems thinking as a foreign language has not been widely explored. Furthermore, we feel that inasmuch as systems thinking is more of a skill or competency, than a technique or theory, then the model of teaching which emerges from this case study might be more appropriate than models of teaching based in the old educational paradigm.
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The purpose of this paper is to show, through a case study, the relationship between organizational learning and the need to improve the organization's management of complexity.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show, through a case study, the relationship between organizational learning and the need to improve the organization's management of complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study is used.
Findings
The case study illustrates both how organizational learning needs a requisite structure to occur and how learning loops contribute to the viability of a project.
Originality/value
This case study shows that designing learning loops requires setting up the structural conditions for a Human Communication System in the organization.
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Roberto Zarama, Alfonso Reyes, Eduardo Aldana, Jorge Villalobos, Juan C. Bohorquez, Juan P. Calderón, Alonso Botero, Nelson L. Lammoglia, José L. Villaveces, Luis Pinzón, Ricardo Bonilla, Andrés Mejía, José Bermeo, Isaac Dyner, Neil F. Johnson and Juan A. Valdivia
This paper seeks to present a proposal to change the form in which knowledge is produced in Colombia.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to present a proposal to change the form in which knowledge is produced in Colombia.
Design/methodology/approach
Discusses the key issue – to transform the way in which the production of knowledge is currently taking place at the university level.
Findings
To be able to increase the production of knowledge in this country there is a need to create bonds among industrial, governmental, and academic institutions. It is believed that this can be done by the development of a system capable of continuously forming researchers at a doctoral level.
Originality/value
The paper puts forward a proposal for the construction of such a system based on the developments of organizational cybernetics. The proposal is based on the concept of autonomy which is crucial to solve this problem.
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This paper is an account of management and organisational interventions in multiple institutions and enterprises in Colombia during the past 10 years, mainly influenced by…
Abstract
This paper is an account of management and organisational interventions in multiple institutions and enterprises in Colombia during the past 10 years, mainly influenced by Stafford Beer's ideas and work. It offers comments about the use of these ideas in three projects; particularly it focuses on an intervention in the National Controller's Office. These are accounts of failure and success. However, assessments of success and failure are tempered by difficulties in appreciating the complexity of social processes and our inability to see cause‐effect connections. The paper offers insights about concrete aspects of these interventions and the footprints they have left in the country.
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Carolina Serra Folch and Cristina Martorell Castellano
This paper aims to review the history of Roldós y Compañía, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the world and the oldest currently operating. This research aims to highlight…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the history of Roldós y Compañía, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the world and the oldest currently operating. This research aims to highlight the importance of this agency and its founder, Rafael Roldós Viñolas – the first documented advertising agent in Spain to this day – in shaping the emerging Spanish advertising industry at the end of the 19th century.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used in this paper is based on a review of period and contemporary literature, as well as on newspaper sources and documents from the private archive of Roldós, S.A.
Findings
In its early years, the agency’s participation in two of the most significant events for the modernization of the city of Barcelona, the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and the International Exhibition of 1929; as well as the ideation and implementation of several urban projects with the aim of finding new formulas and advertising media are factors that make it one of the most important in the country. In 1929, the alliance Roldós-Tiroleses, S.A. de Publicidad, the first great merger of advertising agencies in Spain, which lasted three years, was led. The outbreak of the Civil War and the subsequent post-war period marked a few years of business irregularities and advertising silences that gave instability to its activity. During the last third of the 20th century, the agency was immersed in the generalized advertising euphoria around the world. With the arrival of North American agencies in Barcelona and the consequent business movements, Roldós, S.A. specializes in the processing of advertisements and media planning. The 21st century began with important changes in the media planning sector, and the agency was forced to restructure its services and organizational structure. In 2022, it celebrates 150 years of uninterrupted activity, recognized by the country’s business sector.
Practical implications
This research aims to internationalize the history of the Roldós y Compañía agency, so that it can be studied together with other names of Anglo-Saxon advertising pioneers who were contemporaries of Rafael Roldós.
Originality/value
Scientific research on the history of advertising agencies, especially in Spain, is scarce, so this paper aims to help fill this gap.