Systems and Meaning

by Haslebo, Gitte; Nielsen, Kit Sanne; Silver, Dorte Herholdt

• ISBN13: 9781855752351
• ISBN10: 1855752352
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Karnac Books

Summary

This book looks at organisational problems occurring in a particular context, and clearly traces the way problems arise out of relations amongst the different parts of the larger system. It also pursues the meanings that these problems have for individuals and organisations alike. The authors, who are both practitioners experienced in working with organisations, show how their ideas can be implemented in different settings.

Table of Contents

About the Authors	ix
Editors' Foreword	xi
Preface	xiii
Organizational consultation in a systemic perspective	1	(16)
Gitte Haslebo
When consultation is considered	3	(14)
Organizational consultation and learning	17	(22)
Gitte Haslebo
Learning in Organizations	17	(5)
Stages in the collective learning process	22	(7)
Consultation as the staging of collective learning processes	29	(6)
Methodological considerations and the collective learning process	35	(4)
``Assess our manager and expose his shortcomings'': A consultation in a private company	39	(34)
Kit Sanne Nielsen
Case study	40	(21)
A systemic model of learning	61	(3)
The consultant's final reflections	64	(1)
Putting systemic concepts into practice	65	(8)
``Free us from the past!'': a consultation in a municipality	73	(28)
Gitte Haslebo
Case study	74	(20)
Turning systemic ideas into practice	94	(7)
Key concepts in systemic thinking	101	(38)
Gitte Haslebo
Kit Sanne Nielsen
First-and second-order cybernetics	101	(3)
The linear and the circular line of thinking	104	(6)
From neutrality to irreverence	110	(5)
The professional domains	115	(8)
Hypothesizing	123	(5)
Interventions	128	(11)
The consultant's cognitive processes in practice: When two consultants work together	139	(18)
Kit Sanne Nielsen
How I learned to be an organizational consultant	139	(2)
Cooperating with other consultants: Similarities and discrepancies	141	(4)
Cooperating with internal consultants	145	(6)
The consultant's own learning: the qualitative leap	151	(6)
The consultant's cognitive processes in practice: receiving supervision	157	(14)
Gitte Haslebo
How I learned to be an organizational consultant	157	(4)
Supervision	161	(8)
Receiving supervision and the individual learning spiral	169	(2)
Epilogue	171	(6)
Gitte Haslebo
Kit Sanne Nielsen
Consultation work requires personal development	171	(2)
Consultation work is a learning process in itself	173	(1)
The end of the information society?	173	(2)
Future leaders have to be experts at learning processes	175	(2)
References and Bibliography	177	(6)
Index	183