System thinking is one of the major breakthroughs in the recent time of global complexities. This is due to the reason that in the case of understand complexities, it is important to determine the whole or entire scenario rather than just concentrating on a particular sector or area. System thinking helps in identifying different factors from holistic approach and from different perspectives (Abson et al. 2017). Thus, it enables the involved stakeholders to evaluate the situation from more diverse perspectives and identify the deeper factors. In the current complex issues and challenges mainly for the business organizations, system thinking helps in identifying the root cause reasons for the issues and change the entire process or approach in overcoming a certain issue. This is also the reason of increasing popularity of concept of system thinking in the current time (Loorbach and Wijsman 2013).
One of the major issues in the current Australian business scenario is achieving the energy security in the manufacturing sector. This is gaining importance due to the shortage of non-renewable sources of energy and uncontrolled way of exploiting resources. In addition, shortage of energy will lead to reduction in average efficiency of the manufacturing sector (Ang, Choong and Ng 2015). However, it should also be noted that increasing the sources of energy will mitigate the issues in the short term only and in order to have long term sustainability, system thinking will be beneficial. In this case, interconnectedness will be the most ideal concept to be used due to the reason that it will help to identify the interdependencies of the major elements in achieving the energy security.
This essay will critically analyze the different contradictory opinions given by the authors regarding the effectiveness of system thinking in developing solutions in regarding energy security in the Australian manufacturing. In addition, the critical analysis will also include the identification of the limitations and shortcomings of the chose articles.
Why is sustainability issue important?
Sustainability development is the key to the stable growth of a nation’s economy. It not only helps in developing the current economy but at the same time, it also lead to the development and growth of the future. This means that the development must take place without effecting the environment in negative ways and the development in the current should not compromise with the requirements of the future generations (Boellstorff 2015). It stresses the role of the environment as the capital which, if exhausted, could not be replaced. It needs the preservation of the human capital, the natural capital and the physical capital. The problems of sustainability is rapidly increasing day by day and the challenge of solving them is great.
The three pillars of sustainability are a very strong tool and they define the entire problem of sustainability. It consists of several environmental pillars namely- the social, the environmental and the economic pillars. The social sustainability is the potential of the society or the social system in order to persistently achieve a social well-being. Achieving this makes sure that the social well-being of a nation, a community and an organisation could be maintained for long term. Secondly, the environmental sustainability refers to the individuals are living within the means of natural resources. Hence, in order to live in the true environmental sustainability, one must make sure that he is consuming his natural resources at a sustainable rate (Burman, Batchelor and Brown 2017). There are some resources that are in abundant quantity than the rest others and hence, we need to consider the material scarcity, the destruct the environment from extracting the materials and if the resource could be kept within the Circular Economy principles. Thirdly, the economic sustainability need that a nation use its resources effectively and responsibly so that it could operate in a sustainable way in order to constantly produce an operational profit.
Achieving energy security for the Australian manufacturing sector is difficult due to their inclination towards conventional and traditional sources of resources. It is reported that coal is the primary and widely used source of energy in the Australian manufacturing sector followed by the petroleum products. Nuclear power also being used but in smaller percentage compared to other two (Mansson, Johansson and Nilsson 2014). Thus, the major issues in achieving the security of energy are lack of infrastructure for alternate sources of energy and lack of determination of the root causes. Thus, it is important for the involved stakeholders to initiate system thinking concept in the process of identifying the larger picture. However, there are number of views identified for and against the use of system thinking in developing solutions for this issue.
The challenges of sustainability are also known to be the adaptive challenges as the already established procedures and protocols could not be applied to such situations. There is absence of unified process and approach for dealing with the most unwanted and wicked challenges of sustainability. The system thinking could be utilized in altering the previous mental models in order to deal with the issues of sustainability as it contains technologies, various set of skills and procedures. Endsley (2017) in this context have stated that these mental models that use system thinking approach involve certain process and steps and they are-
The approach of traditional thinking focus on what is being studied. Today, the world is undergoing a lots of changes due to globalization and industrialization. In this globalized world, it needs to face many complexities and also need to get ready for the upcoming complexities of the near future (Becker et al., 2016). However, the traditional thinking approaches that are being used for solving this issues is not providing effective results and the problem is further growing with a rapid pace. There are many individuals who have started addressing the unsustainable practices and institution in which their lives are been immersed.
In this modern society, there is a significant shift from the computational thinking to this approach. The computational thinking involves the utilization of the algorithms and the programming in order to find out the solution for every complex issues (Korkmaz, Cakir and Ozden 2017). However, there is one limitation of using computational thinking and it is that the professionals of computer try to sort out every problems by making use of the algorithms. There are several problems which cannot be understood just by the help of algorithms. For such complex problem, the system thinking approach is of great use.
How system thinking helps in addressing the issue of energy security in the Australian Manufacturing
According to Xu, Marinova and Guo (2015), the concepts and the process that are provided by the approach of system thinking helps more in order to understand the nature of human being. The prevailing mental models could be challenged by means of system thinking approach. It is a very comprehensive cognitive reorientation. The entire aspect of understanding and knowledge of an individual could be altered by means of it.
System thinking could help in visualising and exploring the behaviours and the structure of the factors and the factor relations related to the energy security (Tejeda and Ferreira 2014). There are several factors in relation to more than one of the pillars of sustainability, having the social, environmental and the economic impacts or the combination of all these. The complex relationship could be captured easily with the help of system dynamics modelling. It is to note that the system dynamics modelling refers to the system thinking modelling approach that could be used in order to identify as well as to explore the factors and the factor relationships in relation to the energy security in Australia. Furthermore, developing a casual model would be developed. It is a qualitative model that is used in the part of system dynamics (Cajaiba-Santana 2014). The casual model validation is the underway. This process makes sure that the factors as well as the factor relationships that is represented in the casual model is a reasonable representations of the entire system. This would serve as a basis for the growth and development of the energy security system dynamics simulator.
Furthermore, according to Kruglanski et al. (2018) there are a total of three parts of the approach of system thinking and they are- purpose or objective, the elements and the functions. In the very first part, i.e., the system test, the purpose for which this approach has been used is described. In the second part, the different elements of system thinking is been described. Finally, in the third and final most part, the inter-relationship in between the different elements of system thinking is described. We can say that the informational and the computer technology have resulted in or led to transformational change to the sustainable society. It is to note that the challenges of sustainability are required to be solved in different ways. The approach of system thinking is very helpful in finding out the relationship in between the behaviours of the human beings, the technology and the impacts of environment.
System thinking is very useful in dealing with the issues related to sustainability as because of the fact that this looks and considers the things from macroscopic way rather than just seeing a shorter external picture. Today, system thinking is used by multiple practitioners and academicians. It is also to note that the approach of system thinking has been developed by Professor Jay Forrester in the year 1956 (Mangan, Lalwani and Lalwani 2016). The system thinking is been characterized by the holistic approach that it possess to the phenomena and the entities. Rather than breaking down of the entities into parts and approaching them as accumulation of the differently definable and existing parts, this strategy focus on the interrelationship in between the parts, their objectives and their function. In this manner, system thinking is always contrasted with the reductionist approach which would further understand the different entities by means of focusing on the independent elements’ properties. As per Boellstroff (2015), since the year of 1940, the human beings have transformed and moved into system age from the industrial age. He has identified that he consider this to be an expansionism. It is to note that expansionism refers to the idea that the individuals, the objects, the experiences and the events are the parts of larger wholes. Furthermore, Arnold and Wade (2015) in this context have argued that the approach of system thinking refers to the conceptual framework, the tool and the body of knowledge which had been developed over the last forty years in order to make every patters clearer as well as to help the human beings in understanding how to change them in effective manner. Francis and Bekera (2014), were very influenced by the management qualities that Boellstroff, Arnold and Wade possess. They too have accepted the concept that they have outlined about system thinking and how to deal with the system in efficient way. As per him, considering the while rather that seeing only some of the parts are the primary prerequisites of effectiveness.
There are number of benefits being stated by different authors that can be gained from using system thinking in developing solutions for sustainability issues. This is due to reason that with the help of the system thinking concept, the core sustainability issues can be identified. The authors have also stated that initiation of the system thinking will help in the understanding of basic factors for any issues. In the case of resolving the issue of achieving the energy security in the Australian manufacturing sector, initiation of system thinking will help in considering the prior factors rather than just initiating new strategies (Williams et al., 2017). According to the authors, initiation of the system thinking can also help the Australian manufacturing sectors to understand the entire ecosystem of introducing the new alternate sources of energy. However, on the other hand, in case of simple thinking, the understanding will be limited and will only get in to initiating new energy sources.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that system thinking is one of the most effective concepts that can be initiated in resolving the sustainability. In this essay, different views of the authors regarding the relevancy and effectiveness of system thinking in achieving energy security in the Australian manufacturing sector. It is identified that number of authors have given positive opinion about the use of system thinking in achieving energy security while some of the authors have given negative views. Thus, it can be concluded that system thinking can be considered as one of the effective mediums of developing solutions for sustainability issues but not the only one strategy.
References:
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