Managing and Engineering in Complex Situations

✍ Scribed by Andres Sousa-Poza Ph.D. (auth.), Samuel F. Kovacic, Andres Sousa-Poza (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 261
• Series: Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality 21
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

With so many terms available to define the same thing, it would seem nearly irresponsible to introduce yet another term (complex situation) to describe a phenomenological state of such as a system. However, a complex situation infers both a broader meaning and imposes a different perspective. Complex in this context is dependent on understanding and reality rather than observer and knowledge. Situation imposes a gestalt that cannot be characterized within a singular perspective that relegates paradox to a superior/subordinate hierarchy. This also infers that complex situation has no monotonic definition or each definition is by default incomplete. Therefore the perennial derivations for systems such as complex systems, system of systems, federation of systems is no longer a sufficient descriptor for complex situation. Ergo system and its genealogy lack the constitution to define complex situations. The books' intent is to explore this pathology through a series of papers written by authors that work in complex situations and have dealt with the limitations of the status quo: systems.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-vi
Introduction and Overview....Pages 1-9
Front Matter....Pages 11-11
A Narrative of [Complex] Situations and Situations Theory....Pages 13-44
PRISM – A Philosophical Foundation for Complex Situations....Pages 45-78
Understanding and Complex Situations....Pages 79-93
The Gestalt Imperative: A Proposition for Understanding....Pages 95-105
Front Matter....Pages 107-107
Sustainable Development as a Wicked Problem....Pages 109-128
Complexity and Command at the Operational Level of War....Pages 129-141
The Wicked Problem of a Cognitive Environment in Complex Situations....Pages 143-147
Reverse Decision Making: An Interpretive Framework for Pragmatic Decision Making....Pages 149-163
Leadership in Complex Situations....Pages 165-181
United States Joint Forces Command: As Wicked Problem....Pages 183-199
Front Matter....Pages 201-201
Using Systems Design to Solve Complex Problems: Case Studies from Iraq....Pages 203-223
Making Sense of Messy Medical Data Through Constructed Charts of Functional Distances....Pages 225-250
“Effectively Living Near the Edge”: An Extraordinary Management Tool for Mastering Wicked Problems....Pages 251-267

✦ Subjects

Complexity;Social Sciences, general;Economics/Management Science, general