Browsing by Author "Dodd, Lorraine"
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Item Open Access The Boundaries of Flow: when the balance between a person’s challenges and capabilities becomes imbalanced, an empirical investigation of the relationship between subjective experience, capabilities and challenge.(2022-08) Forsyth, Tim; Hilton, Jeremy; Dodd, LorraineThe problematic situation this doctoral research project investigates concerns how the quality of a person’s lived subjective experience is affected by differing degrees of challenge: a product of pressures and demands that overwhelm a person’s knowledge, skills and experience (capability). The cost of stress and the ways stress make people vulnerable to illness is well documented. Therefore, the purpose of this doctoral research project is – to identify the thresholds (points) where the balance between challenges and capability moves to imbalance. This study uses Flow Theory and Complex Systems Theory as the foundation for this research. A literature review of flow theory pertaining to the research problem identified deficiencies in the models, methods and practices. As a result, the project is divided into two sections. The first section developed a new synthesised model of experience using an innovative suite of methods. The insights gained from this model were used to inform the second phase of the research project. The second phase utilises a novel multi-paradigmatic design strategy grounded in a realist philosophy of science. This approach facilitated the development of a quasi-experimental protocol and construct elicitation method to investigate the individual participant's subjective experience of varying degrees of challenge in the sensory and affective domains, respectively. This project contributes to the knowledge gap in two distinct yet complementary ways. Firstly, the research identified a relational link between challenge and subjective experience. Secondly, as experienced by the individual, challenge is incremental and cumulative. Moreover, this doctoral research project realises the overarching research objective by developing a codebook and a new synthesised model of experience. When the model and codebook are combined, they can identify when a person’s challenges and capabilities are aligned and misaligned through the various instances and absences of experiential states. This contribution represents a proof of concept. Future work is required to develop the method's applicability in organisational environments to support and enhance people’s lived experience of work.Item Open Access C-IEDD metacognitive requisite ratings(Cranfield University, 2021-10-06 10:26) Smy, Victoria; Witheridge, Annamaria; Clewley, Natalie; Dodd, LorraineRed/amber/green (RAG) analysis of metacognitive requisites at key decision points throughout a challenging counter-improvised explosive device disposal incident.Item Open Access Chapter 10: cyber security and knowledge management(Routledge, 2021-11-29) Darby, Roger; Dodd, Lorraine; Hilton, JeremyThis chapter discusses fundamental assumptions relating to concepts that are central to Cyber Defence as they need to be understood by organisations for purposes of cyber resilience and security. The ability to understand and anticipate your organisation’s part in an increasingly complex operating environment plays a key role in its continued survival. The chapter argues that the utility of the key asset of knowledge, and the management of this vital resource, plays a major role in the success or failure of this necessary objective. It is axiomatic that knowledge sharing has many comparable benefits for organisations and individuals. The chapter further argues that systemic risk and cyber threats challenge existing paradigms for managing data, information and knowledge and suggests that a more radical approach to gaining and sharing knowledge is a requirement to remaining organisationally agile in the fast-moving, technologically advanced wider defence and security sector. The defence sector now acknowledges data, information and knowledge as strategic assets, therefore it needs to be more organisationally aware and place Knowledge Management at the centre of its strategic management approach to cyber resilience, to be enhanced rather than compromised by powerful IT systems.Item Open Access Choice-making and choose-ables: making decision agents more human and choosy(Springer, 2018-12-14) Dodd, LorraineThis paper discusses concepts that might shape, extend, limit or re-focus an agent’s set of options that can then be thought of as that particular agent’s potential in terms of their ways forward and degrees of freedom. Because there is no unambiguous word that conveys the meaning of this higher order concept of choice-making, the term “choose-able” has been adopted in order to distinguish it from the usual decision concepts known as choice or option. An agent’s choose-ables are defined as the imagined deemed possible ways forward, that the agent has to construct, compose or create before they can choose. The central concept of a choose-able is a very powerful one if only it could be surfaced and made explicit. It is often only possible to make inferences about the nature of choose-ables after observing the actions taken once a choice has been made. Drama theory formally develops this kind of inferencing and provided a foundation for this paper as it explores the relational realms of options. The paper presents a funnelling construct and then draws together Catastrophe theory and Culture theory to offer new ways of analysing the shaping effects of relational contexts on an agent’s choose-ables that then act as a medium through which agents are drawn to make choices and carry out observable actions. The strength of the combination of the theories lies in their descriptive power of subjective, relational concepts that hitherto have tended to remain hidden and tacit.Item Open Access Choose-ables, Sensing and Sense-making: A study of Orders of Choice(2020-01) Dodd, Lorraine; Massie, RuthThere has long been academic study into decision-making to look at different strategies that are used to select a course of action from a set of decision options. The subjects making these decisions, the decision-agents, tend to be objectively rational with selections made based on maximising expected utility or minimising probability of loss. There is, however, a lack of research into how the options for choice are settled upon in the first place. It is this topic of choice-making that is the focus for this research study, which covers the subjective nature of choices being ‘imagined deemed possible’ in the form of ‘choose-ables’ as related to what that subject might be sensing and understanding. Chooseables are a subject’s options for choice, given the nature of their sense of context and their felt conditions. In this respect, choose-ables are subjective and relative respectively. The main proposition is that any subject has an associated range and scope of choose-ables, and that these can be organised according to the nature of the choose-ables open to that subject. The research gap being addressed by this PhD study exists due to the lack of a formal theoretical framework to examine why and how a subject’s options for choice are settled upon by that subject. Therefore, the contribution made by this PhD by Published Works is an order of choice framework that has a two-fold application: first, the explanation of what might shape the nature and scope of a subject’s choose-ables; second, a way of formally appreciating and analysing the implications of those choose-ables for a subject’s sensing and sense-making; hence, potentially for ‘modelling’ the forming of their subjective potential for choice-making and any emergent behaviours. This thesis presents a seven-fold framework for orders of choice, applicable to a range of subjects; from agent-based algorithms and cells through to people, organisations and political institutions. A key assumption is that each subject makes choices according to a principle of discomfort avoidance. Subjective preferences, interests and needs relate to a subject’s scoping of their choose-ables, according to a subject’s sensing and sense-making of their circumstances. Preservation of a subject’s sense of comfort acts as a central concept of subjective ‘settling’, which governs the nature of the choose-ables according to where any subject is in relation to their context. The overarching research question is: From where might a subject’s choose-ables emerge; and how might these choose-ables moderate, or be moderated by, that subject’s sense-making and their focus of attention? The portfolio of seven published works covers the supporting theories and also describes the background experimental work that prompted the development of the linking of the two underlying theories: Catastrophe Theory and Cultural Theory. This thesis formalises the links between these two theories and Shackle’s (1976) work on choose-ables. The orders of choice are aligned and associated with other levels of capability, organisation, and adaptation; then developed into a nested framework based on Catastrophe models with further understanding drawn from other, related, theories about levels of capability and organisation, drawing on relational frameworks in Cultural Theory. The framework contributes to knowledge by providing a formal mathematical basis for a descriptive language that can be applied in order to understand and appreciate where any subject might be in terms of their choose-ables, their sensing and their sense-making, and to help to explain why. A significant conclusion is the centrality of a subject’s concept of value for their choice-making.Item Open Access Eliciting expert knowledge to inform training design(Association for Computing Machinery, 2019-09-10) Clewley, Natalie; Dodd, Lorraine; Smy, Victoria; Witheridge, Annamaria; Louvieris, PanosTo determine the elicitation methodologies best placed to uncover and capture the expert operator’s reflective cognitive judgements in complex and dynamic military operating environments (e.g., explosive ordinance disposal) in order to develop the specification for a reflective eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) agent to support the training of domain novices. Approach: A bounded literature review of the latest developments in expert knowledge elicitation was undertaken to determine the ’art-of-the-possible’ in respects to uncovering an expert’s cognitive judgements in complex and dynamic environments. Candidate methodologies were systematically and critically reviewed in order to identify the most promising methodologies for uncovering expert situational awareness and metacognitive evaluations in pursuit of actionable threat mitigation strategies in high-risk contexts. Research outputs are synthesized into an interview protocol for eliciting and understanding the in-situ actions and decisions of experts in high-risk, complex operating environments. Practical implications: Trainees entering high-risk operating environments can benefit from exposure to expert reflective strategies whilst learning the trade. Typical operator training focuses on technical aspects of threat mitigation but often overlooks reflective self-evaluation. The present study represents an initial step towards determining the feasibility of designing a reflective XAI agent to augment the performance of trainees entering high-risk operations. Outputs of the expert knowledge elicitation protocol documented here shall be used to refine a theoretical framework of expert operator judgement, in order to determine decision support strategies of benefit to domain novices.Item Open Access A framework for systems thinking practice(Cranfield University, 2022-09-15) Clewley, Natalie; Forsyth, Tim; Dodd, Lorraine; Hilton, JeremyThis paper provides a novel model/framework for OR practitioners to approach and engage in complex situations. Developed over many years by the Systems Thinking Practice team at Cranfield University, this framework builds upon and complements previous multi-methodology theory (Jackson, 2019; Mingers & Brocklesby, 1997) and draws from new methodological developments in philosophy of science (Blaikie & Priest, 2017). Reflective Practice lies at the heart of good systems intervention (Churchman, 1979; Dodd, 2018; Hoverstadt, 2022; Jackson, 2019). The proposed framework uses Reflective Practice as the conduit that coheres three interrelated and interdependent domains: the practitioner-academic interface; systems tools and methods; and philosophical perspectives. The intersection of these three domains highlights additional challenge areas that practitioners need to be aware of. At the intersection of Philosophy and Method is a new methodology that links the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ (Checkland, 1999, p. 163). At the intersection of Practitioner and Method, the practitioner must balance the selection of methods in conjunction with their previous experience, skills and preference for individual tools, in such a way as to be mindful of any biases. The intersection between Practitioner and Philosophy is grounded in the lower levels of the Iceberg Model (Hall, 1976) where the practitioner should be mindful of (and potentially surface) any personal beliefs and values that may inhibit the appreciation of other perspectives. Currently, we apply this model/framework in research in Public Health, Defence and Security and Organisational Resilience; also, in teaching a new generation of systems thinking practitioners who will go on to be active members within the OR community. Going forward, our intention is to generate a set of principles to support practitioners engaging with complex situations within OR.Item Open Access Gender dynamics: the role of female engagement in setting the conditions for countering violent extremism(2019-08) Stone, Rosemary; Dodd, Lorraine; Matthews, RonThe purpose of this thesis is to assess the impact of Female Engagement (FE) policies in setting the conditions for Countering Violent Extremism and to establish to what extent the defence and security sector is contributing through operationalising FE in the fight against extremist organisations. It uses the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) Pre-Deployment Training for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) as the main case study. Adopting a 3Cs framework the research analyses FE through the themes of culture, collaboration and communication to answer two core questions that will assist policy makers and international security forces in the implementation of FE in a non-conventional conflict scenario. ‘Do female engagement policies work in setting the conditions for CVE?’ and ‘Can the defence and security sector better facilitate the operationalisation of these policies?’ The research design applied a qualitative methodological approach in which a scoping review created the 3Cs framework that was confirmed by a literature review and tested against primary data acquired from field research to analyse the operationalisation of FE by soldiers from the UPDF during Pre-Deployment Training for Somalia. The study proposes that FE policies can help set the conditions for CVE identifying three key factors which increase the potential for success.; women’s empowerment; female activism; and feminist research In the defence and security sector a policy-operational gap exists that can be mitigated by a better understanding of the three key factors above alongside improved training, clear definitions and Measurement of Effect.Item Open Access Techne and techniques for engaging in a socially complex world(Palgrave Macmillan, 2018-11-09) Dodd, LorraineThis paper addresses the challenge for Operational Research (OR) in extending out from traditional forms of modelling towards a more relational form of modelling. The challenge comes from OR practice becoming more transformative in nature, which puts more emphasis on reflective practice, people and relationships. Staged Appreciation is proposed as an overall guiding framework and selected illustrative techniques are presented for engaging with social complexity; so-called “wicked” problems. Systems Thinking techniques, guided by Staged Appreciation add an insightful new dimension to knowledge sharing for understanding, and for reflecting upon the intricacies involved in socially complex situations. There are analytical advantages of standing apart from complexity. Staged Appreciation complements this analytical standpoint by asking analysts to take a more reflective view of their own working relationships, being more a part of the socially complex problem as well as standing apart from it. Staged Appreciation offers a reflective framework for working with Systems Thinking techniques and together they complement traditional practice. The proposal and suggestions aim to support analysts to adopt a more reflective and relational view of a complex problematic situation in order to see it “as a whole.” The paper draws lessons from holism, reflective practice and subjective analysis.