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To determine the influence of cybernetics and systemic thinking on psychotherapy from a personal viewpoint.

Describes the author's own development.

Shows the major influence that cybernetics and systemic thinking had on psychotherapy. Beginning with the concept of simple feedback he spins the thread of circular understanding to the contributions of Heinz von Foerster and others, finally arriving at shamanistic and indigenous rites, becoming ever more a topic in the research of communication and healing.

Provides a personal viewpoint of the contribution of the work of Heinz von Foerster.

Aims to define the conceptual tools of Gregory Bateson's epistemology – the nature of difference, logical typing, and recursion – and to apply this to understanding how we can approach the analysis of ethnographic reports of the Bushman n/om‐kxaosi (shamans) and the Bushman rock art of Southern Africa.

The paper argues that kinesthetic interaction with n/om‐kxaosi provides a vehicle for learning their way of construing the world.

The n/om‐kxaosi have a kinesthetic lexicon and a set of dominant metaphors rooted to their ecstatic body expression that provide coherence to their ways of healing and spiritual understanding. The previously assumed incoherent nature of Bushman religious views noted by anthropologists is argued to have been the consequence of underestimating the importance Bushman thinking gives to circularity and transformation of all aspects of their experience.

Illuminates the analysis of the Bushman culture.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the influence of the late Heinz von Foerster in the life of an admirer and friend who remains a leader in the field of family therapy.

The approach is autobiographical. The method is (loosely) process recall and personal theoretical reflection. Objectives are achieved by organizing major tenets of von Foerster's constructivism into personal categories of meaning.

Findings included a deep philosophical influence on the author's professional life; an abiding impact on his personal life; and a durability of von Foerster's ideas across disciplines, time, and the ever‐changing theories and politics of the mental health profession.

This paper adds value to the social sciences in general, and to the field of family therapy in particular, because it highlights the interconnectedness of person and profession and the confluence of the messenger/message. Some might say this is cybernetics in vivo. There may be little that is “new” in this paper in terms of theoretical constructs, but the autobiographical nature of the reflections may be its most valuable contribution to others struggling with such concepts.

To provide direct access to original documents relevant to the emergence of applied constructivist and cybernetic epistemology in the behavioral sciences.

This paper employs hermeneutic analysis

Direct evidence of the cybernetic, interactional theory articulated by Gregory Bateson provides the theoretical foundation for the problem formation, problem resolution model set forth by research associates at the Brief Therapy Center of the Mental Research Institute.

This is a rare, never previously published address by a principal founder of communication/interactional theory

The increased use of the Internet has suggested that there may be many advantages to both suppliers and consumers in using e‐commerce in a Web‐based environment. However, numerous concerns and disadvantages have also been expressed, mainly in the academic literature. The importance placed on these disadvantages by suppliers has not yet been studied. This study determines whether or not the advantages and disadvantages of e‐commerce revealed in the literature are deemed to be important by sample firms. This enables conclusions to be drawn about the level of insight these firms have into the technology, and their preparedness for the implementation of e‐commerce functions. This study provides evidence to suggest that there is no significant difference between the advantages of e‐commerce perceived by the responding suppliers and those presented in the literature, but that there is a significant variation with respect to the perceived disadvantages.

Entrepreneurs make a significant contribution to the health of any economy and higher education is regarded as pivotal in efforts to grow entrepreneurial talent. Entrepreneurship education has grown rapidly; yet, there is still controversy over the best way to educate and assess students. This chapter presents a study gathering a consensus of entrepreneur opinion on the concepts critical to thinking as an entrepreneur, in order to inform entrepreneurship curriculum development. There is a general lack of entrepreneurship education research that integrates the external stakeholder perspective in this way.

Using a Delphi-style method with twelve entrepreneurs, five candidate entrepreneurship threshold concepts are identified. Threshold concepts have a powerfully transformative effect on the learner, and important integrative qualities, allowing the learner to make the sense of previously isolated pockets of knowledge. A ‘new world-view’ or episteme can be constructed – a kind of disciplinary thinking, peculiar in this case, to entrepreneurs.

This chapter contributes to the call for more research grounded discussion on the quality and effectiveness of entrepreneurship education initiatives. Designing curricula around the threshold concepts in entrepreneurship will enable educators to offer particular support in areas where students are likely to get ‘stuck’ and will facilitate constructive alignment with assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and establish the contours of trust in learning analytics and to establish steps that institutions might take to address the “trust deficit” in learning analytics.

“Trust” has always been part and parcel of learning analytics research and practice, but concerns around privacy, bias, the increasing reach of learning analytics, the “black box” of artificial intelligence and the commercialization of teaching and learning suggest that we should not take stakeholder trust for granted. While there have been attempts to explore and map students’ and staff perceptions of trust, there is no agreement on the contours of trust. Thirty-one experts in learning analytics research participated in a qualitative Delphi study.

This study achieved agreement on a working definition of trust in learning analytics, and on factors that impact on trusting data, trusting institutional understandings of student success and the design and implementation of learning analytics. In addition, it identifies those factors that might increase levels of trust in learning analytics for students, faculty and broader.

The study is based on expert opinions as such there is a limitation of how much it is of a true consensus.

Trust cannot be assumed is taken for granted. This study is original because it establishes a number of concerns around the trustworthiness of learning analytics in respect of how data and student learning journeys are understood, and how institutions can address the “trust deficit” in learning analytics.

The purpose of this paper is to identify practical activities that are essential for managing enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation projects and that answer to the expectations of the widely recognized critical success factors (CSFs).

This work is based on an extensive literature review on CSF, which has been followed by a Delphi survey with a panel of ERP experts. For each CSF, it obtained a range, validated by experts, of practical actions to perform, supported by the resolution of the problems usually encountered in these areas.

The work carried out has a practical scope: the principles of the proposed method directly affect all actors in ERP projects and gives them practical results that they can apply immediately. When applied in the framework of the methodology the paper suggests, these actions will result in better oversight over the requirements of each area of expertise. In this way, overall grasp of the project is facilitated, reducing the inherent uncertainties.

Findings may be limited by the small number of respondents, but each one had participated in several implementations. Moreover, no industry sector was specifically targeted; thus, the results apply a priori to most implementations.

This research helps to draw the academic and professional domains together by proposing, for the first time, a way for theoretical findings to be translated into practical actions. These results will allow all actors in an ERP implementation to understand the project imperatives faster and more accurately.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The relentless onslaught of computers and communications technologies has recently descended on the healthcare industry. Fortunately, however, the utilization of technologies in healthcare delivery and administration could not be timelier because of the need to control escalating health costs. While the proliferation of information and communication technologies in healthcare, referred to as health management information systems (HMIS), is certainly long overdue in healthcare organizations (HCOs), it is important to recognize and be prepared for the vulnerabilities of these technologies to natural, technological, and man‐made disasters. This paper describes how HCOs have justifiably become dependent on HMIS and how these organizations may proactively plan for disasters which can impact on HMIS. A phased approach, referred to as the disaster recovery and business continuity (DRBC) planning model, is presented in the paper as an approach to develop and implement business continuity plans in HCOs.