Duncan Shaw

• The University of Manchester

This article explores through interviews the influence of legitimacy on place leadership within regional soft spaces in England during the COVID-19 pandemic. Legitimacy is an important yet underexamined facet of place leadership. Employing a tripartite legitimacy framework – input, throughput and output legitimacy – we illuminate novel insights on...

A soft spaces lens enables a nuanced perspective on regional resilience governance to disruptions. Focusing on COVID-19, this article illuminates comparative insights on resilience governance in England and how the regional soft spaces of Local Resilience Forums differentially experienced this momentous disruptive event. The pandemic has exposed th...

Disasters are a primary influence in the global development landscape given their unequal impacts across society and calls for transformative change in their aftermath. Recovering from disasters is one component of development that is coming under scrutiny. This is especially so in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, whose scale, scope, and casca...

The UK's journey from the Brexit referendum on 24th June 2016 until activating Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon on 29th March 2017 was turbulent. Through applying soft Operational Research (OR) tools within a Critical Realist (CR) philosophy we analyse 86 televised interviews with leading politicians conducted during these nine months, this study...

This paper examines the short and long-term societal impact of prolonged power outages caused by a disaster, and the way of coping that the community develops. Community resilience is used as a conceptual framework to analyse the community responses to power outages following the 2010 Chile earthquake. Based on empirical evidence from longitudinal...

This paper examines changes in gender relations in a small coastal community as a result of the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami. Vulnerability and resilience are used as a conceptual framework to analyse these changes. Based on empirical evidence from a seven-year longitudinal study and quasi-ethnographic work, we explore changes in power relatio...

Problem structuring methods (PSMs) are a class of qualitative operational research (OR) modelling approaches that were first developed approximately 40 years ago. Different definitions of PSMs have been proposed, some focusing on the types of problems that PSMs typically address, others on how they address these problems. Despite this, there is no...

Operational Research (OR) has delivered significant benefits to the analysis of information across organisations, not least from Soft Systems Methodology, yet the potential of many other OR methods are only partially reported in OR journals. For example, the Viable System Model (VSM) offers useful analytical structures for organisational informatio...

The outcome of the UK's referendum on whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union (so-called Brexit) came as a jolt to many across Europe. In this paper, we use causal mapping from soft OR to analyse longitudinal data from nine televised Brexit debates spread across the 4 weeks leading up to the referendum. We analyse these causal m...

Chile is one of the countries located at the Ring of Fire. This belt concentrates subduction zones such as between the Nazca and South America Tectonic Plate, which is the reason for the intense seismic and volcanic activity in Chile. The strongest earthquake in the last years (Mw 8.8), took place the 27th February 2010. The earthquake triggered a...

Chile is one of the countries located at the Ring of Fire. This belt concentrates subduction zones such as between the Nazca and South America Tectonic Plate, which is the reason for the intense seismic and volcanic activity in Chile. The strongest earthquake in the last years (Mw 8.8), took place the 27th February 2010. The earthquake triggered a...

This article focuses on the involvement and management of spontaneous volunteers (SVs). It develops a new theory—which we call the “involvement/exclusion” paradox—about a situation which is frequently manifested when SVs converge in times of disaster. After reviewing research and policy guidance relating to spontaneous volunteering, we present find...

This paper investigates the strategic environmental decisions of a luxury car manufacturer. Through case study research, the investigation sheds light on why and how the company is adopting green technologies. Being pressured by different stakeholders to become greener, luxury car manufacturers carry significant opportunities for environmental impr...

Experimental methods of policy evaluation are well-established in social policy and development economics but are rare in industrial and innovation policy. In this paper, we consider the arguments for applying experimental methods to industrial policy measures, and propose an experimental policy evaluation approach (which we call RCT+). This approa...

As the world’s natural resources dwindle and critical levels of environmental pollution are approached, sustainability becomes a key issue for governments, organisations and individuals. With the consequences of such an issue in mind, this paper introduces a unifying approach to measure the sustainability performance of socio-economic systems based...

Every year, natural and man-made disasters affect hundreds of thousands of people and cause extensive damage. OR has made substantial contributions to disaster response and these have been the subject of several recent literature reviews. However, these reviews have also identified research gaps for OR – two of which are (1) limited contribution fr...

This paper explores why complex systems produce avoidable waste, and presents a new qualitative method to help managers think strategically about waste avoidance. Some approaches to analysing waste creation focus on measuring waste (e.g. Life Cycle Assessment), while others model process solutions (e.g. Lean). However, these are somewhat limited as...

Many major incidents have significant impacts on people’s health, placing additional demands on health-care organisations. The main aim of this paper is to suggest a prioritised agenda for organisational and management research on emergency planning and management relevant to U.K. health care, based on a scoping study. A secondary aim is to enhance...

This paper discusses how system dynamics and computer modelling contribute to the debate of management of technologies in response to sustainability crises. The basic components and properties of socio-ecological systems were modelled in order to understand possible responses to resource scarcity or exceeding levels of pollutions in a given system....

Government organisations, emergency managers and the public have used Web 2.0 applications (especially Twitter, Facebook, Ushahidi, but also others) in response to recent disasters such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, the Brisbane floods in Australia, and Typhoon Haiyan. The objective of Disaster 2.0 is to establish how EU countries can use...

The following case studies were collected in the course of undertaking the project entitled “Disaster 2.0: Using Web 2.0 applications and Semantic Technologies to strengthen public resilience to disasters.” This project was funded by the European Commission DG Home Affairs as a CIPS project under grant number HOME/2010/CIPS/AG/002. The research pro...

This report examines the results of a pilot study, which used a method of evaluation called randomised control trials (RCTs) to see if a popular business support scheme called Creative Credits worked effectively. The pilot study, which began in Manchester in 2009, was structured so that vouchers, or 'Creative Credits', would be randomly allocated...

The car is dead, long live the car! We are about to celebrate 100 years of Ford model T, the most iconic symbol of the popularisation of cars as the means of personal mobility. The automotive industry is going through an incredible journey of redefining its purpose and the traditional characteristics of its products. More than ever, car manufacture...

We propose that strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices nurture a context of knowledge sharing where tacit knowledge can be turned into explicit knowledge and that this type of knowledge sharing promotes innovative behaviours. We draw on the fields of knowledge management and international human resource management to show why organisa...

This paper addresses an important gap in sustainability and technology management studies: the strategies for sustainable operations. Based on analysis of cases from automotive, textile, chemical, and food processing industries, the authors discuss the responses companies take to environmental and social pressures when aiming at increasing profitab...

Earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding and terrorist attacks continue to threaten our society and, when the worst happens, lives depend on different agencies to manage the response. The literature shows that there is significant potential for operational research (OR) to aid disaster management and that, whilst some of this potential has been delivered,...

Disasters cause widespread harm and disrupt the normal functioning of society, and effective management requires the participation and cooperation of many actors. While advances in information and networking technology have made transmission of data easier than it ever has been before, communication and coordination of activities between actors rem...

Large-scale evacuations are a recurring theme on news channels, whether in response to major natural or manmade disasters. The role of warning dissemination is a key part in the success of such large-scale evacuations and its inadequacy in certain cases has been a ‘primary contribution to deaths and injuries’ (Hayden et al., 2007). Along with techn...

The 21st century has seen substantial changes in how countries plan for and manage emergencies. Events such as terrorist outrages and the swine flu pandemic have focused attention on the need for emergency preparedness across health care systems. Even without such events there are challenges arising from climate and socioeconomic changes, and from...

This paper extends existing understandings of how actors' constructions of ambiguity shape the emergent process of strategic action. We theoretically elaborate the role of rhetoric in exploiting strategic ambiguity, based on analysis of a longitudinal case study of an internationalization strategy within a business school. Our data show that actors...

This paper proposes a more profound discussion of the philosophical underpins of sustainability than currently exists in the MOT literature and considers their influence on the construction of the theories on green operations and technology management. Ultimately, it also debates the link between theory and practice on this subject area. The paper...

Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods that use spatial data can assess risk/vulnerability for emergency management. These risk/vulnerability assessments are used by emergency managers to support resource allocation and disaster mitigation projects. Improvements can be made to risk/vulnerability assessments by utilizing a spatial disaggreg...

Decisions drive change and change evokes decisions, a seesaw of causality which is a hallmark of leadership. This chapter focuses on a mechanism for collaborative decision- making, for making shared, robustly defended, broadly considered decisions particularly relevant in mission critical, ambiguous and fast-changing situations.

This paper investigates the main strategies automotive companies adopt to address the issue of dealing with end-of-life vehicles and spare parts. Furthermore, it investigates the reasons behind take-back strategies, i.e how and why automotive companies undertake initiatives in reverse logistics. The research findings indicate that companies are try...

This paper uses systems thinking to analyse environmental decisions and their interactions in the automotive industry. The motivation comes from the findings of an environmental decision making investigation undertaken from 2006 to 2010. Using data from 10 case companies, five principles of systems thinking theory were identified in a visual patter...

This Evacuation Preparedness Assessment Workbook (EPAW) is a tool to assess the level of preparedness of Government Organisations (GOs) for the mass evacuation of their public. It has its origins in the results of a three-year, EU-funded research project called Evacuation Preparedness by Government Organisations (ERGO) which sought to research and...

Timely warning of the public during large scale emergencies is essential to ensure safety and save lives. This ongoing study proposes an agent-based simulation model to simulate the warning message dissemination among the public considering both official channels and unofficial channels The proposed model was developed in NetLogo software for a hyp...

This paper contributes a new methodology called Waste And Source-matter ANalyses (WASAN) which supports a group in building agreeable actions for safely minimising avoidable waste. WASAN integrates influences from the Operational Research (OR) methodologies/philosophies of Problem Structuring Methods, Systems Thinking, simulation modelling and sens...

While most of the research in Knowledge Management (KM) has focused on business communities, there is a breadth of potential applications of KM theory and practice to wider society. This paper explores the potential of KM for rural communities, specifically for those that want to preserve their social history and collective memories (what we call h...

This paper provides an understanding of the current environmental decision structures within companies in the manufacturing sector. Through case study research, we explored the complexity, robustness and decision making processes companies were using in order to cope with ever increasing environmental pressures and choice of environmental technolog...

The literature on ambiguity reflects contradictory views on its value as a resource or a problem for organizational action. In this longitudinal empirical study of ambiguity about a strategic goal, we examined how strategic ambiguity is used as a discursive resource by different organizational constituents and how that is associated with collective...

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual analytical framework to measure environmental performance of supply chains. Design / methods: This paper’s theoretical underpins are based upon three major areas: supply chain management, environmental management and performance measurement using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)...

Within the context of sustainability in operations management the aim of this paper is to investigate the environmental initiatives and decisions of a British manufacturer of luxury cars. Through case study research, our investigation sheds light on why and how the company is taking environmental decisions for manufacturing, the origin of ideas for...

This paper examines the field of knowledge management (KM) and identifies the role of operational research (OR) in key milestones and in KM's future. With the presence of the OR Society journal Knowledge Management Research and Practice and with the INFORMS journal Organization Science, OR may be assumed to have an explicit and a leading role in KM...

The objective of this paper is to present the potential contribution of systems thinking theory to the development of environmental strategies in operations. Environmental management practices have been establishing their place in business agenda over the last 40 years from, for example, end-of-pipe solutions in the 70s, pollution prevention in the...

Causal mapping can help managers to think through the causal influence between issues, enabling them to base a decision on a more structured consideration. Even in regular meetings, learning and the integration of knowledge from diverse stakeholders can benefit from causal mapping. Four causal mapping meetings with management teams are analysed to...

This paper presents a new methodology called Waste And Source-matter ANalyses (WASAN) which helps a group to analyse waste-production and build actions to minimise avoidable waste. Designed for Licencees of nuclear facilities as Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Guidance on what constitutes good practice, WASAN uses lessons from Systems Thinking, W...

Methodologies for understanding business processes and their information systems (IS) are often criticized, either for being too imprecise and philosophical (a criticism often levied at softer methodologies) or too hierarchical and mechanistic (levied at harder methodologies). The process-oriented holonic modelling methodology combines aspects of s...

Purpose – The international nuclear community continues to face the challenge of managing both the legacy waste and the new wastes that emerge from ongoing energy production. The UK is in the early stages of proposing a new convention for its nuclear industry, that is: waste minimisation through closely managing the radioactive source which creates...

The heightened threat of terrorism has caused governments worldwide to plan for responding to large-scale catastrophic incidents. In England the New Dimension Programme supplies equipment, procedures and training to the Fire and Rescue Service to ensure the country's preparedness to respond to a range of major critical incidents. The Fire and Rescu...

Purpose: The international nuclear community continues to face the challenge of managing both the legacy waste and the new wastes that emerge from ongoing energy production. The UK is in the early stages of proposing a new convention for its nuclear industry, that is: waste minimisation through closely managing the radioactive source which creates...

Purpose – Many managers would like to take a strategic approach to preparing the organisation to avoid impending crisis but instead find themselves fire-fighting to mitigate its impact. This paper seeks to examine an organisation which made major strategic changes in order to respond to the full effect of a crisis which would be realised over a two...

Many of those involved in the Problem Structuring Methods (PSM) community have commented on the struggle that novices face in building the craft skills associated with conducting a PSM intervention. As part of this year's Operational Research Society Conference, we have three 2-hour practical sessions which demonstrate the use of PSMs. These sessio...

We report on teaching Information Systems Analysis (ISA) in a way that takes the classroom into the real world to enrich students' understanding of the broader role of being an IS professional. Through exposure to less controllable and more uncomfortable issues (e.g., client deadlines; unclear scope; client expectations; unhelpful colleagues, compl...

Attracting clients who are willing to invest in using a problem structuring method (PSM) can be particularly difficult for the emerging generation of modellers. There are many reasons for this, not least that the benefits of a problem structuring intervention are vague and evidence of benefits are often anecdotal for example, claims of constructing...

The views of the Mark Westcombe, L Alberto, and Duncan Shaw, on the factors that delayed development of problem structuring methods (PSM) till 2000 are presented. The delay was due to the failure of researchers in talking an active role in developing the theory and application of problem structuring. Many PSMs relies on the same basic methods propo...

The study sought to understand the components of knowledge management strategy from the perspective of staff in UK manufacturing organizations. To analyse this topic, we took an empirical approach and collaborated with two manufacturing organizations. Our main finding centres on the key components of a knowledge management strategy, and the relatio...

The social processes involved in engaging small groups of 3-15 managers in their sharing, organising, acquiring, creating and using knowledge can be supported with software and facilitator assistance. This paper introduces three such systems that we have used as facilitators to support groups of managers in their social process of decision-making b...

Problem-structuring group workshops can be used in organizations as a consulting tool and as a research tool. One example of the latter is using a problem-structuring method (PSM) to help a group tackle an organizational issue; meanwhile, researchers collect the participants' initial views, discussion of divergent views, the negotiated agreement, a...

The heightened threat of terrorism has caused governments worldwide to reconsider their plans for responding in the immediate aftermath to large-scale catastrophic incidents. This paper discusses the use of discrete event simulation modeling to understand how a fire service might position its resources before an attack takes place, to best respond...

The concept of communities of practice (CoPs) has rapidly gained ground in fields such as knowledge management and organisational learning since it was first identified by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Brown and Duguid (1991). In this article, we consider a related concept that we have entitled “communities of implementation.” Communities of implement...

During group meetings it is often difficult for participants to effectively: share their knowledge to inform the outcome; acquire new knowledge from others to broaden and/or deepen their understanding; utilise all available knowledge to design an outcome; and record (to retain) the rationale behind the outcome to inform future activities. These are...

During group meetings it is often difficult for participants to effectively: share their knowledge to inform the outcome; acquire new knowledge from others to broaden and/or deepen their understanding; utilise all available knowledge to design an outcome; and record (to retain) the rationale behind the outcome to inform future activities. These are...

In the IS literature, commitment is typically considered to involve organizational or managerial support for a system and not that of its users. This paper however reports on a field study involving 16 organizations that attempted to build user involvement in developing a knowledge management strategy by having them design it. Twenty-two IT-support...

In data envelopment analysis (DEA), operating units are compared on their outputs relative to their inputs. The identification of an appropriate input–output set is of decisive significance if assessment of the relative performance of the units is not to be biased. This paper reports on a novel approach used for identifying a suitable input–output...

Purpose To consider the role of technology in knowledge management in organizations, both actual and desired. Design/methodology/approach Facilitated, computer‐supported group workshops were conducted with 78 people from ten different organizations. The objective of each workshop was to review the current state of knowledge management in that orga...

This paper makes a case for taking a systems view of knowledge management within health-care provision, concentrating on the emergency care process in the UK National Health Service. It draws upon research in two casestudy organizations (a hospital and an ambulance service). The case-study organizations appear to be approaching knowledge (and infor...

The concept of communities of practice (CoPs) has rapidly gained ground in fields such as knowledge management and organisational learning since it was first identified by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Brown and Duguid (1991). In this article, we consider a related concept that we have entitled “communities of implementation.” Communities of implement...

This paper describes the organizational processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing, retention and utilisation as it affected the internal and external communication of knowledge about performance in an English police force. The research was gathered in three workshops for internal personnel, external stakeholders and chief officers, using Journey...

Problem structuring methods (PSMs) aim to build shared understanding in a group of decision makers. This shared understanding is used as a basis for them to negotiate an agreed action plan that they are prepared to help implement. Engaging in a social process of negotiation with a large number of people is difficult, and so PSMs have typically focu...