This study is to discuss the small and medium enterprises¡¦ business model through systems thinking. In the study, we try to find the casual loop diagrams of all art tutorial schools¡¦ business models first. Then we use systems thinking to analyze how the art tutorial school leaders¡¦ business concepts help him to run the art tutorial school so well. And we get two points. Firstly, through casual loop diagrams¡¦ analysis, we found that a constantly growing art tutorial school must prepare enough both high quality and quantity teaching resources. Do not extend before you prepare your teaching capacity, otherwise you¡¦ll lose customers¡¦ trust. Secondly, in daily business running, the leader should tell his employees what his business concepts are and how to fulfill them to overcome the business¡¦s limitation. In this case, the leader thinks one must have these three business concepts: (1) The more you give, the more you¡¦ll get; (2) People should consider others before themselves; (3) With virtue, people can create great artistic creations. Through good business concepts and an integral dynamic cooperation, the business would grow up in a constant way.

A business ideology has very significant influences on a company. A well-thought business ideology can bring great profits and long-term sustainable developments; on the other hand, a flawed business ideology often creates losses for the employees, business itself and even the society. Since the importance of business ideology to a business is undeniable; how then, is the business ideology play a part in the business dynamic influence process and what influences does it have on the actual management process of a company? This paper is proceeded through the method of systems thinking, using XXX Co. as the study case, to discuss how management ideology affects business dynamic influence process. The conclusions found are as follow: 1. By following ¡§people-oriented¡¨ management ideology, managers at higher positions truly care for their employees, and do not lay off any employees arbitrarily, willing for employees to learn, increase interactions with employees by listening attentively to their true thoughts and adjust employee work loads accordingly. In the long run, employee cohesions toward the company strengthen, employee work pressure lessen, project quality elevated and employee leave rate lowered. 2. Under the influences of ¡§people-oriented¡¨ management ideology, in combination with a strict job selection process, a fair and unbiased wage system, and dynamiccriteria such as employee work loads. Thus, the firm can achieve sustainability in business growth without triggering the landmine structure of employee leaves. 3. It is been proven that the influences of business ideology to a company are immense and very broad. At the same time, it made us realize that the ¡§people-oriented¡¨ business ideology has a positive affects and impacts on the growth and business management of a company.

This research attempts to construct the dynamic model of forming process in Subprime Crisis by systemic thinking and find out the solution by using Archetype. We extensively review literature concerning Subprime Mortgage, Credit transaction, System Dynamics, and Finance. Then based on these literature, this research would construct Causal Feedback Loop Diagram to search for Leverage Solution and hopes to resolve the financial problem fundamentally. After reviewing previous literature, most articles only focus on short-term and limited discussion, so this research attempts to put them together by Causal Feedback Loop Diagram. Through analysis, this research find out the concealed Values behind Subprime Crisis, that is the pursuit of capitalism ,in other words, it means decision-makers only care about short-term benefits lack of consideration of the consequence. So the more effective strategy is ¡§to hold Management Flight Simulator Seminar for managers¡¨ and ¡§to increase the opportunity for the general public to get access to system thinking.¡¨ Furthermore, we also discover that ¡§Moral Courage¡¨ cannot be neglected in the recent Subprime Crisis. If we continue to limit our thinking, the financial crisis would never end and would happen again and again. The better way is to strengthen risk control and to hold a value system when facing chain reaction of the Subprime Crisis.

¡§Tea¡¨ in Chinese life occupies a very important position, and tea culture is also part of Chinese culture. Tea drinking habits as the Mainland immigration crossed over to Taiwan, but Taiwan tea really when already, its sprout from the Qing dynasty interim (about 1860s). Because Taiwan¡¦s special geographical environment, so planting out tea a unique flavor to semi-fermented Oolong tea producers to become one of the Government¡¦s emphasis on agricultural products, but also to earn a large number of foreign exchange for Taiwan. After 1982, the Government to repeal the ¡§the management of the Taiwan Province of tea,¡¨ of the rules, While been canceled has begun to import, self-made, sold, the whole of Taiwan tea industry from this point onwards have been great changes. At the international recession, Taiwan tea mores gradually, so Taiwan tea from export sales period to convert into the domestic market period. Later, there are Taiwanese Opera tea technology and products to mainland China and Southeast Asia production in recent years the enlargement, unworthy dealers import mainland inferior Vietnamese tea or Taiwan tea filled tea blended to trafficking in and profiting. In addition, the Government still cannot pesticide inspection standards with international conventions, resulting in substantially reduced. Now, the domestic market is disrupted and fasting the export-throat competition serious plight. Industrial structural change is inherently a dynamic, and for the strategy adopted by the phenomenon may be if fictive only in the short-term, long-term invalid status. This study and utilization of system thinking style of the Taiwan tea industry in the structure of dynamic change, through the causality of repaying the diagram to understand the current Government policy and more tea, tea merchants in the face of the predicament of the impact of action, and deduce the entirety of the tea industry in Taiwan policies rows to a conclusion.

The Sub-prime loan crisis occurred in America caused from low interest, higher home prices, banks¡¦ greedy securitized mortgage and then, in 2007, invest rate rose, and housing prices dropped sharply. The investors got hit and credit market crunched finally. Before the crisis, the risks were ignored. Banks, hedge funds and insurance companies packaged and repackaged the products as RMBS, CDOS to inventors, and they did buy them a lot all over the world. Nobody knows exactly who owns what by how much that will affected sub-prime mortgage loan. Until 2007 the world turned up-side down, interest rate rose higher and higher, the housing market collapsed, and then Credit rating agencies downgraded to about 1,000 MBS (mortgage-backed securities). In the study will find out how sub-prime loan crisis is happened, when it will be over, as well as the relevant accounting and risk events.

This dissertation advances the understanding and teaching of systems thinking by integrating it with the Direction, Alignment, and Commitment model of leadership. Reframing systems thinking through the lens of leadership offers an important innovation and focus to the theory of systems thinking, and to the pedagogy of building the competencies sustainability professionals need. Chapter 1 offers a case study for teaching specific systems thinking competencies that promote leadership for systems change. It uses leadership as a novel way to identify and organize systems thinking competencies that are important for successful multi-stakeholder collaborations. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to assess learning outcomes across four cohorts of graduate students from 2017 to 2020. The study examined a one-month-long assignment, out of a year-long program, that focuses on systems leadership for climate change. Findings demonstrate that higher education programs can successfully build these competencies in sustainability students and professionals. Chapter 2 is a case study which illustrates how systems thinking and leadership practices were applied within Eileen Fisher, Inc. as the company reimagined its approach to sustainability starting in 2012. Eileen Fisher's efforts to promote sustainability provide a known example of leadership for systems change. The purpose of the case study is to determine whether the theory of systems leadership developed in Chapter 1 can explain the systems change that occurred in Eileen Fisher, Inc.; to help readers envision, extend, and apply this theory to their own situations; and, to support a case that can be used in classrooms to teach systems thinking and systems leadership. The case study demonstrates that substantive, systemic, organizational change resulted because of an intentional and specific set of practices put in place to promote systems thinking and sustainability. Chapter 3 explains the attributes and pedagogy of teaching cases, and Chapter 4 offers a teaching case for use by educators and workshop moderators interested in teaching systems thinking and systems leadership. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation advances the understanding and teaching of systems thinking by integrating it with the Direction, Alignment, and Commitment model of leadership. Reframing systems thinking through the lens of leadership offers an important innovation and focus to the theory of systems thinking. Systems thinking is the ability to understand the nature of systems, whether natural or socially constructed, including how various components of systems interact with one another and impact the behavior of the system as a whole. A system is any set of things working together in concert. Systems leadership is the ability of humans to apply systems thinking and leadership competencies while working across boundaries to engage others in the advancement of complex change. One theory that is particularly well suited to the advancement of systems leadership focuses on a continual cycle of achieving Direction, Alignment and Commitment (DAC) among diverse stakeholders. Direction is achieved by defining a shared vision, mission and overarching goals based on a level of agreement among members of a collaborative about both the aim of the collective effort as well as its value. Alignment pertains to how knowledge, strategies and associated tasks within a collaborative endeavor are identified, organized and coordinated, both at the outset and over time as conditions evolve. Commitment is the willingness of collaborators to embrace common goals and dedicate time, energy and resources to advancing associated tasks. In addition to DAC, it is important for stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of systems, issues, strategies, diverse perspectives and the impacts of interventions over time. Chapter 1 offers a case study for teaching specific systems thinking competencies that promote leadership for systems change. It uses leadership as a novel way to identify and organize systems thinking competencies that are important for successful multistakeholder collaborations. Findings demonstrate that higher education programs can successfully build these competencies in sustainability students and professionals. Chapter 2 is a case study which illustrates how systems thinking and leadership practices were applied within Eileen Fisher, Inc. as the company reimagined its approach to sustainability starting in 2012. Eileen Fisher's efforts to promote sustainability provide a known example of leadership for systems change. Chapter 3 explains the attributes and pedagogy of teaching cases, and Chapter 4 offers a teaching case for use by educators and workshop moderators interested in teaching systems thinking and systems leadership.

The problems existent within the built environment are inherently complex due to the interactions between different stakeholders, structures, and systems. The reductionist approach vastly utilized by engineers is not appropriate for dealing with this complexity. Engineers need to be trained to think in systems in order to fully explore the design problem space and therefore identify appropriate design solutions. The study here presented investigates the possibility of the use of concept mapping as an intervention to prime engineering students to think in systems. In the study, 66 engineering students were given two problem framing tasks. Half of the sample received the priming intervention before each task. The control and the intervention group were compared across different metrics. The time spent on the task and length of responses were used as measures of cognitive effort. The number of systems mentioned and the semantic distance between words used in each response were the metrics used for exploration of the design space. Results of the analysis for one of the tasks were significant. The findings suggest that the participants who received the concept mapping priming intervention were able to sustain cognitive effort longer and explore a wider design problem space. / Master of Science / The problems existent within the built environment present interdependencies that need to be identified before suitable solutions can be designed. Engineers need to be able to identify and understand these complex relationships. However, engineers are instead trained and prompted to apply a reductionist approach to problem solving, which isolates parts of a system in order to reduce complexity and facilitate the design process. Concept maps, a graphical tool utilized to display the relationships between concepts and ideas in a hierarchical form, could be used to assist engineers on applying a more holistic approach to problem solving. This research investigates if concept mapping activities can affect engineering students' ability to think in systems and consider all the variables behind a design problem. Participants in the study had to identify and describe everything that could be improved about two different systems familiar to Virginia Tech students. Half of the participants were asked to draw a concept map about each system before each task. All responses were compared between the group that did the concept mapping activity and the group that did not do it. The length in time and words of the responses, the number of systems mentioned, and the originality of the words used by each participant were the metrics utilized to compare the groups. Results suggest that concept mapping can be used as a tool to assist engineering students explore the design problem space more fully.

Grand challenges in engineering are complex and require engineers to be cognizant of different systems associated with each problem. The approach to think about these systems is called systems thinking. Systems thinking provides engineers with a lens to identify relationships between multiple components which helps them develop new ideas about the problem. Concept maps are a tool that enables systems thinking by helping engineers organize ideas and the relationship between ideas, graphically. The research presented in this thesis uses concept maps, as an intervention to help engineering students think in systems and, in turn, shape how they frame their design problem. The aim of the research was to understand the neurocognitive effects of engineering students thinking in systems. The effects of systems thinking on neurocognition is not well understood. Sixty-six engineering students were randomly chosen to either draw concept maps about a design problem or not. They were then asked to develop design problem statements for two design problems. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure changes in oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of students while they developed their design problem statements. A lower average oxy-Hb was observed in the group that was first asked to develop concept maps. The lower activation was observed in their left PFC. The group of students who first developed concept maps also demonstrated lower network connections between brain regions in the prefrontal cortex, which is a proxy for functional coordination. Using concept maps changed activation in students' brains, reducing the average neuro-cognition in the left PFC and reducing the need for functional coordination between brain regions. / Master of Science / Engineering challenges require engineers to think "outside the box". Concept mapping is a tool that encourages out of the box thinking. Concept mapping is the process of representing components of the problem and the relationship between components graphically. How the process of concept mapping changes the way engineers think is not well understood. Exploring various interconnected system components and their relationships may give rise to new ideas and this may be expressed differently in the brain. The research presented in this thesis explores how concept maps change engineering students' brain behavior. Sixty-six students participated in the study. Half of the participants (the intervention group) were required to draw concept maps before developing two engineering problem statements. The other half (the control group) were given the same two tasks to develop engineering problem statements but without being asked to first develop concept maps. A neuroimaging tool, called functional near-infrared spectroscopy, was used to measure change in the engineering students' prefrontal cortex (PFC) when they were developing problem statements. The PFC is generally associated with executive functions like planning, design, and creative thinking. The results indicate that concept mapping significantly changed brain behavior when developing problem statements. It reduced brain activation in the left PFC, a region generally associated with making analytical judgments and goal-directed planning. It also reduced the network complexity in the PFC, which is a proxy for functional connectivity. These results demonstrate how concept mapping can shape brain behavior when designing and lays the groundwork for future studies to explore how other interventions similar to concept mapping can help shape design thinking.

The aim of the research is to identify core conditions that support increased delivery of sustainability in the built environment. The selected methodology is constructive research, which is distinguished by the dual focus on practical industry perspectives and theoretical knowledge. The first research question examines how Target Value Design (TVD), an integrated design management process, can elicit better delivery of sustainability values. This is developed through case study research of an exemplary design team and project. The findings identify a gap in the capability of the team to adopt a whole systems approach in order to make explicit the values of sustainable prosperity and develop a unified vision. This provides the basis for the second research question - how can design teams gain an understanding of the systemic nature of sustainability, and how can this understanding impact the design process? �The research proposes an intervention method that aligns learning models from the disciplines of experiential learning cycles, design thinking, behavior modeling, systems thinking and unified vision. This integrated approach leverages creative design activities to capture the learning potential for individual skills and team building. �While the research acknowledges the limitations from the testing of a single workshop experiment, post-workshop data suggests the intervention framework is sufficiently robust and versatile enough to adapt to individual workshop circumstances. �The key research outcome is the importance of the people in the process of collaborative design, in their ability to envision a future state of sustainable prosperity and articulate explicit actionable values. / Ph. D.

For decades, the World Bank has been criticized for the social and environmental consequences of its practices in implementing projects. In response, many different groups, including NGOs, have demanded greater World Bank accountability. One avenue through which accountability can be achieved is organizational learning. The Operations Evaluations Department (OED) at the World Bank is one organization that can hold the World Bank accountable through learning. Therefore, this study examines the OED as a learning organization. It does this by applying Peter Senge's conceptualization of learning as "systems thinking." The study seeks to answer the question: Has "systems thinking" contributed to organizational learning in the case of the OED? The study finds that the answer to this question is "yes." This finding also has implications for the study of "systems thinking" itself through developing a method to measure "systems thinking" and for accountability at the World Bank through the OED organizational learning. / Master of Arts