Case for Design Science very clear in this article - Howard Davies Hong Kong #mtw3 #mosocoop #oldsmooc

(Also posted to Posterous - will789gb - but running slow still)

I am still trying to find more through Google and blogs. Still almost nothing around the British Journal of Management, see previous post.

But I have found this

Improving the Relevance of Management Research: Evidence-Based Management: Design Science or Both?

Howard Davies

Faculty of Business, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

www.mbaworld.com/blr-archive/scholarly/9/index.pdf

It is available for download and is very clear. It shows the background of concerns about relevance and the case for design science.

The starting point for the Design Science approach, which builds on Herbert Simon’s 1969 classic The Sciences of the Artificial, is the recognition that there are three different types of science. First, there are the Formal Sciences, Logic and Mathematics, which have no empirical content in themselves. Then come the Explanatory Sciences, whose purpose is to explain existing phenomena. In the physical sciences that includes Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and in the social sciences Economics, Sociology and Psychology. Then there are the Design Sciences, whose purpose is to design solutions to real world problems. These include Architecture, Engineering, Medicine, and Design itself, all of which are centrally concerned to produce artifacts which are new to the world and preferred to those currently in existence.
The distinction between Explanatory Science and Design Science has not generally been made clear in respect of management research, which has been based almost entirely on the explanatory social sciences.

This is slightly different to the distinction made by Hodgkinson and Starkey. They refer to "Simon’s differentiation of explanatory-based and prescriptive-based social sciences" (page 359) 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00757.x/full

 I think this misses the scope of the danger for social science if design science is seen as defining the relevant from a practice point of view. There is a remark towards the end of the YouTube clip on Science 2 - the Design Science of Collaboration that implies social science is not always seen as contributing much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxBmKkLJCEc

I'm still looking for any blogs around the British Journal of Management articles. The publishing aspects are intriguing. If they do a freely available issue, why not do more publicity? If there is some comment, why wait three months to publish it? If the comments are behind a paywall, why not offer some clues or a shorter version somewhere else?

Now there is no university bookshop in Exeter I don't see any of the collections of readings that used to appear. On Design Science there could be a set of links for what can be found as open, and also what is only available through academic libraries. I suppose this could be on offer as a bundle with a specially costed day pass. Any suggestions welcome. 

draft aims, start of learning design, Sustainability, #designscience #mosocoop Mar 15th #mtw3 #oldsmooc

(this duplicates a post to will789gb.posterous.com which seems a bit slow just now)

This is a start on linking things together for the rest of this week and all of next. The OLDS MOOC continues with a showcase of work so far. The #mtw3 conference is still in the background. Towards the end of the year there will be another Futures Conference at LCC and Cross Media in Islington. My take is that this will fit with the phase of #mtw3 looking at academic publishing. But it is unclear how this could work as face to face. I mention this as relevant for March as online time and place can vary. IPEX 2014 is news already.

Aims relate to my own slides for March 15th, the whole of the day, and the following phase. There is both a face to face event and an online background. I already know a few people who are interested but can't be there.

Checking through the promotion for what is expected-

In Pursuit of Sustainability

What can we learn from Design Science* and Deming++?

On Friday 15^th March, 2013

This base is covered. The opening speakers will compare two approaches to sustainability. Through Skype from Canada Antony Upward will talk about the Strongly Sustainable Business Model and Design Science.

http://slab.ocad.ca/the-strongly-sustainable-business-model-group-ssbmg

Alan Clark will explain the Model of Sustainable Organisation for people in Canada. Probably most people at the CQI in London will know about the Deming basis for this. So the comparison for design science and Deming will come out of the afternoon discussion.

at The Chartered Quality Institute,
2^nd Floor North, Chancery Exchange, 10 Furnival Street, London EC4A 1AB

My own slides are intended to emphasise design science. I think Antony Upward will concentrate on Sustainability but I have borrowed two of his slides so should be consistent.

Two other claims from the publicity

Drawing on the work of Stafford Beer, Buckminster Fuller, S. A. Gregory, Herbert Simon, W. Edwards Deming - and the DemSIG MoSO ... and informed by the challenges and opportunities of economic and environmental change... how can we see and think differently, and become more effective?

So I need to find more about Stafford Beer and S.A. Gregory or else someone else may step forward as a backup on this. I have chosen a systems slide on Soft Systems as it links more with learning. I'm pretty sure other systems ideas will be covered.

Are you concerned with innovation, new products and services,
 change implementation, quality, business, systems, projects?

You are invited to bring a burning question and a bright idea and join us in

A Workshop, approached from a Cooperative, Win-Win perspective:

Not sure  how we plan to meet this claim. It depends who is there on the day. Both design science and Deming can relate to any business issue though the interest will stay on sustainability.

------------------------------------

Other aims of mine, 

1. connect with  #oldsmooc

I started looking at design science with the publication of the book "Teaching as a Design Science" by Diana Laurillard. 

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415803878/

Later I joined the OLDS MOOC so have an outline of how design science is used with learning.

http://www.olds.ac.uk/

the approach could be used with the aims from this blog post. I will add a link into a Cloud or two and the Cloudscape for the dreambazaar.

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2450

2. connect with #mtw3

The keynote from John Burgoyne for Management Theory at Work 3 has a headline about the end of Leadership but I think he is open to forms of "scientific leadership" that relate more to evidence and organisation. We may have got to a point where a face to face event is needed as there is a lot of ambiguity and complexity around design science and management. See a previous post for comments on the recent articles in the British Journal of Management.

http://will789gb.posterous.com/free-issue-of-british-journal-of-management-r

It will take a while to get to a version of this that is reasonably easy to understand and access, but design science could be a basis for shared action in management and learning. By the way, the MOOC may be disruptive enough for academics to share an interest in quality management and change in organisations.

These topics about #mtw3 and #oldsmooc may not get much time on March 15th . The main topic is sustainability and exchange of information between MoSO and the  Strongly Sustainable Business Model may be enough to take in. However long it takes it could be a basis for further exploration of design science. 

Learning design could also contribute to any talk around further work on promoting both sets of content on sustainability.

Maximum 22 places; book now – first come, first served... Apply to:demsig@thecqi.org
Meeting Fees: CQI members £10+VAT – Non-CQI members £20+VAT; “Pay on the Day”