Participatory OR Approaches for Sustainable Decision Making and Systems Development

Dear Colleagues,

We live in a complex, interconnected, and ever-changing social, political, and economic environment, more so with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Operating in such complex systems, decision makers at any level, (individuals, businesses, governments, and/or societies) are called to make decisions which can impact on different parts of the system. Yet, the impact of these decisions is either not clear in advance or it can even prove to have unintended consequences. In response, decision makers need to adopt systemic or holistic approaches that integrate different sources of knowledge, data, and stakeholder perspectives in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of complex problems and inform the development of sustainable solutions.

Operations research (OR) is an applied discipline that focuses on developing interventions that aim to improve complex systems and processes (https://www.theorsociety.com; https://www.informs.org). To successfully achieve these aims, a number of OR approaches mobilise stakeholder knolwedge and perspectives through active engagement in the problem-solving process (Kotiadis and Tako 2018, Tako and Kotiadis 2015, Franco and Montebiller 2010; Midgley, Johnson et al 2018). The issues faced are collaboratively explored and analysed towards identifying feasible and desirable solutions. Yet, there are several methodological knowledge gaps that limit the full potential of participatory OR approaches, such as lack of reporting standards (Wang, Liu and Mingers 2015; Gregory et al 2020, Ackerman and Eden 2011) and lack of empirical evidence regarding the success of participatory OR interventions.

This Special Issue focuses on participatory OR approaches that are used to support decision making in the area of sustainable development at any level, community, organisational, economical, or societal. It aims to present original research articles showcasing innovative collaborative modelling techniques and approaches leading to new sustainable system improvements and management policies that ultimately lead to improved system performance. Improved performance can take many forms and may focus on more than one objective, including—though not exclusively—improved efficiency, productivity, competitiveness, social good, and profitability.

Theoretical and empirical participatory OR applications are welcome. Articles illustrating case studies with applications of collaborative OR approaches to real world problems are particularly welcome. A variety of OR approaches are sought, including but not limited to problem structuring methods, multicriteria decision analysis, systems thinking, community OR, systems dynamics, simulation, forecasting, optimisation, and scheduling. Topical interevention areas for consideration include but are not limited to supply chain management, logistics, healthcare and infectious disease, education, production and manufacturing, resource management, environment, COVID-19, food, energy, water, digital twin, lean management, and related areas.

References

Ackermann F., C. Eden (2011), Strategic management of stakeholders: Theory and practice, Long range planning, 44 (3) pp. 179-196.

Franco L., G. Montibeller (2010) Facilitated modelling in operational research, European Journal of Operational Research, 205 (2010), pp. 489-500

Gregory, Atkins, Midgley Hodgson (2020) Stakeholder identification and engagement in problem structuring interventions, European Journal of Operational Research, (283: 1), 321-340, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.10.044.

Kotiadis, K and Tako, AA (2018) Facilitated post-model coding in discrete event simulation (DES): A case study in healthcare, European Journal of Operational Research, 266(3), pp.1120-1133,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.10.047.

Midgley G., M.P. Johnson, G. Chichirau What is community operational research? European Journal of Operational Research, 268 (3) (2018), pp. 771-783.

Tako, A and Kotiadis, K (2015) PartiSim: a multi-methodology framework to support facilitated simulation modelling in healthcare, European Journal of Operational Research, 244(2), pp.555-564, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.01.046.

Wang, Liu, and Mingers (2015) A systemic method for organisational stakeholder identification and analysis using soft systems methodology (SSM), European Journal of Operational Research, 246 (2), pp. 562-574

Dr. Antuela Anthi Tako
Dr. Sondoss Elsawah
Guest Editors

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• sustainable stakeholder engagement
• systems thinking
• problem structuring methods
• participative/facilitated modelling
• sustainable supply chains and production systems
• sustainable use of resources
• participative system dynamics/ group model building
• decision making under uncertainty
• collaborative simulation
• emerging technologies (e.g. digital twin and AI)