Sustainability is the growing capacity of the biological process that provides an ability to endure and maintain productivity as well as diversity for a long-term development. However, the major principle for the method of sustainability is the pathway to move towards sustainable development that has several interconnected dimensional factors such as economics, ecology and social culture as well politics. In this context, there have been several different challenges that have hindered the reality in the quest for obtaining developmental sustainability. To conduct this study based on system thinking Ice berg model will be used to understand the problem in the ecosystem and its impact on the individual. Using each of the level in the iceberg model the essay will elaborate the events that has taken place, the growing pattern of problem, the underlying stereotypical pattern and the mental models associated with the events.
Therefore, these type of growing problem has been implied by the scholar as wicked challenges as this problem cannot be fully defined and have no ultimate solution as the shareholder’s interest are optimal. These wicked issues are generally complicated in nature and inconsistent state of change. Therefore, by trying to mitigate one particular issue, there arise major other issues, thereby making it more problematic to seek an optimal solution.
Wicked problems are, therefore, a set of unique problems that considered to be the symptoms of other challenges. In order to develop a sustainable solution for the challenges, there is a major need for the individuals to change from the conventional way of thinking and enhance the mental model of thought. That is where systems thinking can be implemented in the model that will help in developing a necessary solution to address sustainability challenges.
However, the wicked problem that will be addressed in this study is related to Australia’s ageing workforce. In this context, it has been found that In Australia there are one in four people who are older than 55 and the number is estimated to increases in the new few years. The most notable problem in this context is the emergence of technology that required skilled up to date employees.
On the contrary, aged employees constantly face challenges due to social bias and stereotypes. In this context, different experiences amongst aged workforce and among young generation employees may give rise to increased interpersonal conflicts in the workplace. Therefore, for mitigating and understand the in-depth issue of this wicked problem system thinking is necessary.
On the contrary, systems thinking’s signifies the interdisciplinary model that is used for visualising the various patterns of change other than just static snapshots. However, the process of systems thinking is an old traditional concept that is referred to as the innovative way of thinking for understanding and managing the existing complex problem both internationally as well as locally. In fact, it is the process for the establishing planners to conceptualise and take actions towards the sequential incorporation of social environmental and economic dimensions of sustainable development.
This specific approach helps to foster the provision for ascending towards management complicacies that are relative to other procedures. It also helps in observing the entire picture and in understanding the wider context while helping in simultaneous communication in different levels.
Therefore, the purpose of the study lies in the fact that none of the wicked problems exists in isolation, rather they are a part of the vast systems of interlinked channels and therefore, system thinking is necessary for formulating a solution to address such critical issues. This is mostly because one individual cannot comprehend the behaviour of the process by evaluating only few facts but rather the whole scenario.
In this context, the major objective of the essay is to analyse the role of system thinking in international and local sustainability issues related to Australian aged workforce and thus focus will be drawn to this wicked problems. I support the statement that, “systems thinking is critical in developing a solution to suitability issues. This is because the approach brings out a systematic way to address the challenges. More specifically a system thinker strives to see beyond the microscopic facts of the problems in order to mitigate the issue.
Australia’s population is getting older, by putting downward force on the economic growth and participation of workforce labour, specifically hindering the proportion of adults holding the jobs and those who are looking for work (Abson et al. 2017). It is the increasing chronic diseases, increasing rate of dementia and sufficient affordable housing options along with limited opportunities for walking, and other forms of physical actions.
Apart from this increased social isolation amongst the aged are creating problem this aged workforce to deal with work. In fact, considering the environmental system it has been observed that the labour force participation by people aged with 55 and older than that has increased (Bocken 2015). This system is helping in moving towards the offset of economic influence of the ageing population in Australia.
However, the older working population participating in work has been estimated to increase further in the coming years due to a gradual rise in the age of retirement from the age of 65 years to 67 in the year 2023 (Epstein 2018). Therefore, in case of Australian business, the ageing workforce are there new wicked challenges although employers are increasing the occasion for hiring older workers and trying to sustain them on the job for a longer period of time.
From the economic perspective it has been found that enhanced health, increased opportunities for employment in the employment sector, and favourable tax policies in Australia and flexible working system have helped to drive the workforce to take part with a rate of increase in older workforce participation from 47% in the early 2000 and currently it is 67%. On the contrary, Gaziulusoy (2015), argues that the lingering impact of the international financial crisis on superannuation savings has driven the older aged employments to work longer than they have decided.
Again, Kroon et al. (2016) stated that older Australian work within a two-tier economy, therefore, they are more likely to hold management jobs more than the employees who are aged in between 25-54 years. Moreover, they are also disproportionately working in clerical or driver job profiles. In this context, it has been found that economies around the world are facing, the burden of an ageing population, that are influencing both the Australia and other developed economies that have partially prepared offset for the older workers to remain in the labour force.
According to the statement of Wright (2015), Australians who have few numbers of children are often at an older age and are estimated to live longer. In this context, almost 27% of the Australian population is 55 or older that higher from 24% in the 2006 and 20% in the year 1196. The average age in Australian is presently 37 with an increase from past years. At the same time Gkiontsi and Karanika-Murray (2016), stated that the shared population in between 25 – 55 years have provided the greatest economic production that has fallen to its lowest level since the yearly year. Changes in the social trends have a strong impact on the growth, income as well as productivity.
Over the period of the past 15 years, demographics have not been good enough. Since the past decade, the per capita gross domestic product has a grown drastically 1.2% annually in comparison to the average growth of 2.0%. However, Prgomet et al. (2017) argued that there are there are several reasons for the slowdown of growth in the economy, that are associated with international financial crisis and another major problem is Australia’s ageing workforce.
According to the perspective of system thinking, most of the Australian policy related to APS deal with complex problems. There are several examples of wicked problems of policy such as the climatic change that is highly complicated policy issue involving multiple factors and high levels of conflicts about the problem and the way to manage it. In this context, the motivation and behaviour of the individual employers are the crucial part of the solution as it is involved with all the levels of the government and rage of a non-governmental organisation.
In contrast to this, Mahon and Millar (2014) indigenous disadvantages amongst the Australian ageing workforce, is the most ongoing intractable issue. However, it is clear that the motivation and attitude of the individuals and communities are present at the heart of the successful initiatives. The requirements for coordination and an overreaching method amongst the services and programs are assisted by the different levels of government as well as NGO.
However, according to McCabe et al. (2017), international research shows that attitudes are based on stereotypes made against aged workers that they are less motivated, difficult to train and are inaugurate to work with and they are also not adaptable towards change. Taylor et al. (2016) contradicted this statement by stating that like many other different stereotypes this is inaccurate. In fact, the definition of signifies older workforce is yet to be clarified. However, it has been found from sources that aged workers often believe this stereotypes in themselves thereby compounding towards a negative impact while participation in the workplace.
The bias of this issues is present in the selection and recruitment process that resulting in challenges to entry for the older people. In this context, Australian right commission has reported that more than one-quarter of Australians who are aged more than 50 often faces some sort of age-related discrimination. Xiang et al. (2016) reported that it is due to this that four out of 10 organisation has admitted that they will not employ people who are aged above 65. In addition to this, the automation of technology is increasingly changing the process of working. Therefore, employers need to reframe their way of system thinking about the role within the company.
It can be therefore said that just a homogenous initiative for promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace does not solve all the problem. Organisational this needs to evolve their systems if they want to retain aged workforces in the productive employment process. On the contrary, Allen (2018) stated that poor health of the ageing workforce may lead them towards retirement that becomes the only options for them. Apart from this, there are social influences for these ageing workforce where families are increasingly dependent on their grandparents for providing them care.
To address this wicked problems through systems thinking, organisational and policymakers need to adopt sustainable safety program, for delivering everlasting health changes within the health status of the aged workforce. Sustainability has been highly neglected in the case of health promotion amongst aged workforces. In this context, there are numbers of the necessary implication of this ecological approach towards sustainability of aged workforce.
In the case of stereotypes about the aged workers, their behaviour and working ability it is needed for the organisational managers to apply a multiple layer approach for breaking down the stereotypes. In this regards, there are several another awareness training that is necessary for the management of the organisation to enable them to recognise and challenge the stereotypical biased activities within the workplace (Economist, 2018).
Apart from this Gahan and Healy (2018) stated that quality communication between the different generations of workers may help to reduce the negative perception and reduce the intention of the older workforce to quit work. Evidence, in this context, suggests that aged generation of workers have the capability to share practical experience and expertise skills whereas the younger generation of employees has the capability to impart skills along with new training methods (Nichols et al. 2015). Based on this the older generation of workforce needs to be motivated to share their values by reducing tensions.
Conclusion
On the basis of the above discussion, it can be said that system thinking is extremely useful in dealing with sustainability challenges related to ageing workforce, the traditional problem method used for dealing with the aged workforce may not provide effective outcomes as this problem is rapidly growing in Australia. Organisations and policymakers can, in fact, see the releasing aged workers as the way to manage workforce conflicts.
However, this method needs to be carefully considered by ensuring all the significant cost as well as advantages considering the long-term as well as short-term sustainability. In this context, it is necessary for the organisation to retain aged workforce, who possess high work associated skills and have the ability to manage the issues by themselves. The notion that older employees are more costly is not always supported by evidence. Along with it employers needs to be prepared to reconfigure work to allow gradual release of employees, thereby maintaining th toe workers involved within the workforce for a long terms sustainability and by avoiding early retirement.
This would allow the organisation with a more flexible practising system related to increasing job control and part-time work for the aged workforce along with the reconfiguration of job contents to improve individual skills. The organisation needs to as well avoid making assumptions about the physical capability of the older workforce rather organisation needs to provide appropriate opportunities for highlighting the professional knowledge and expertise of the older workers to inspire the young workers.
Therefore, it can be said that there are three major difficulties that are necessary for bringing sustainability to solve the wicked problem. This first in this consist of distant consequences of short-term practices in both time and in space where the local wellbeing is usually contradicted resulting to future threats.
The second is the local micro factors at sustainability that run into the difficult problem when tried. The third major problem is the growing dilemma. It is evident from the essay that challenges to sustainability are underlying the cultural and social stereotypes and the developed physical setting that needs to be solved with the use of systems thinking within the society.
Reference
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Allen, L. 2018. Australia needs a population policy, and it shouldn’t focus only on numbers. [Online] Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/1364683/australia-needs-a-population-policy-and-it-shouldnt-focus-only-on-numbers/ [Accessed 21 Aug. 2018].
Bocken, N.M., Short, S.W., Rana, P. and Evans, S., 2014. A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of cleaner production, 65, pp.42-56.
Economist, U. 2018. Is expensive housing offsetting an ageing population? – MacroBusiness. [Online] Macrobusiness.com.au. Available at: https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/02/expensive-housing-offsetting-ageing-population/ [Accessed 20 Aug. 2018].
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