Journal of Systems Thinking in Practice
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Mar 2024

The management of solid waste in Lebanon has evolved into a complex issue, marked by its deleterious environmental, economic, and public health ramifications for both civilians and the state exchequer. Despite the longstanding nature of Lebanon's municipal waste predicament, it escalated to catastrophic proportions in 2015 following the closure of Naameh, the nation's largest landfill. The persisting crisis from 2015 endures due to the government's inadequate and poorly conceived solutions, with the potential to rekindle at any juncture. This paper addresses two fundamental concerns. Initially, a comprehensive portrayal of the municipal solid waste scenario in Lebanon is provided, encompassing its diverse facets. Subsequently, the researchers advocate an integrative approach amalgamating centralized and decentralized systems. Pioneering a strategic proposal to address Lebanon's solid waste predicament, the researchers employ a Journey-Making (JM) methodology to discern direct and indirect actors. Subsequently, a game theory approach, facilitated by the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR+) software, is utilized to derive solutions that cater to the satisfaction of all involved parties. The selection of the optimal scenario is contingent upon the available options for the primary stakeholders, factoring in the political, sectarian, economic, and environmental landscape of Lebanon.

This study aims to create a diffusion model for the diffusion of Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology in the mobile payment system in Iran. NFC technology is one of the technological applications that is spreading worldwide daily and being used in various industries. In recent years, the country's banking system has tried implementing it in electronic payments based on cell phones, but it has not yielded results. The study's statistical population is everyone over 18 who can use the banking system. It is an applied and mixed study (quantitative and qualitative) using a system dynamics approach. The results are summarized in four scenarios, with the fourth scenario providing the best results. By implementing this scenario, accompanied by an increase in contact rate, education and culture, and legal infrastructure, the growth of NFC technology among users of mobile phone-based payment systems in the country can be increased to an acceptable level.</span>

Before the coronavirus pandemic, higher education centers and companies paid little attention to e-learning. The outbreak of the pandemic and the development of digital technologies have caused companies to pay much attention to e-learning. Therefore, companies are looking for the effective use of e-learning tools. The current research seeks to provide a framework to improve the effectiveness of the e-learning system in Hyper Famili chain stores. The current research is applied in terms of orientation and has a quantitative nature in terms of methodology. This study used two Fuzzy Delphi and Marcos methods for data analysis. The theoretical population of the research was managers, experts, and consultants in the field of education in Hyper Famili. Sampling was done as a judgment based on the expertise of experts in eLearning. The sample size was equal to 10 people. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data. The questionnaires used in this research were expert and priority questionnaires. In the first stage, 32 factors were obtained through literature review and interviews with eLearning experts. As a next step, these factors were screened by the distribution of expert questionnaires and the fuzzy Delphi method. Ten factors were selected for final prioritization with Marcos. The screened factors were prioritized by distributing priority questionnaires and Marcos. According to the scores, the most important factors have been found. Practical research proposals were developed based on the most prioritized factors. Some practical suggestions of the research were holding a training workshop on the benefits and applications of e-learning for senior managers, considering the appropriate budget for purchasing and preparing the necessary infrastructure in the field of e-learning, preparing strategic and operational documents based on future developments of new technologies in Iran and the world and the use of instructors with electronic teaching skills.</span>

This paper uses the system dynamics approach to model the changes in oil price prospects in the framework of the shared socio-economic pathways (SSP) climate scenarios proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) until 2100. This theoretical structure connects the primary feedback mechanisms: supply, demand, and price. The determining factors of most tremendous significance in the supply sector are the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC production levels. The production targets set by OPEC are indicative of its market management policies and are significantly influenced by the actions of its key members. The oil price indicates a cyclical relationship with the oil supply of significant players. The determination of global oil demand in the demand section is based on various climate scenarios presented in the IPCC report. The fluctuation of Brent oil prices over time can be linked to the disparity between supply and demand. According to the model outcomes, the price of oil will be projected to decline to $20 per barrel by the year 2100 if the sustainability policies outlined in the SSP1 framework are implemented. However, in the alternative scenarios of SSP3, characterized by regional competition, and SSP4, characterized by heightened inequality and competition, oil prices are anticipated to rise to $100 per barrel. In the context of the SSP5 scenario, which posits a path of economic and social development reliant on the consumption of fossil fuels, the price of oil displays a declining pattern after a period of relatively higher prices. The peak oil prices within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios exhibit significant variation based on their Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs).</span>

The increased complexity of contemporary organizations necessitates adapting analysis and decision-making models as cognitive and analytical tools to cope with this complexity. Systemic thinking and its methodologies offer a way to overcome these complications to a desirable degree. Strategies are enacted in the organization when they are operationalized, as the diverse viewpoints of its stakeholders often hinder the practical attainment of the organization's strategic objectives. Hence, the researcher selected soft systems methodology (SSM) as one of the prevalent systems thinking methodologies to address this challenge and to achieve a relative alignment among the stakeholders' interests. Given that intervention in the organization is the primary prerequisite to resolving organizational problems with this methodology, the Iran Statistics Center (ISC) was chosen as a case study. At the onset of the intervention to enhance the processes of implementing the strategies of ISC with SSM, the main steps of operationalizing the strategies were elicited in the planning department, and then from the steps to devise an operational plan to increase employees molivation the motivation of employeesThe operational plan, developed through stakeholder involvement and consideration of diverse perspectives, facilitated the formulation of task strategies with a focus on executability. This approach aimed to bridge the gap between the strategic and operational layers within ISC. Additionally, the development of evaluation indicators enabled the monitoring of strategy execution within ISC. Besides developing a strategic and operational plan, this research also had other outcomes, such as organizational learning by using SSM. Through the education and facilitation of the researcher and the department staff, they became empowered to develop an operational plan for other strategies.

The primary objective of this study is to examine the relationship between social media use and job performance, with a specific focus on exploring the mediating roles of technostress, social capital, and job satisfaction. The study focused on Fars Regional Electric Company employees in Iran. The study relied on a descriptive survey method and collected data through a questionnaire in which the items were measured according to a five-point Likert scale. PLS software has employed structural equation modeling, or SEM, to test the research hypotheses. Results revealed that social media usage led to technostress, although the effects of social media usage on job satisfaction and job performance were not confirmed. However, job satisfaction positively affected the employees’ job performance. Furthermore, social media usage increased the employees’ level of social capital, while social capital left a positive effect on the employees’ job satisfaction and performance. Meanwhile, the effects of technostress on job satisfaction and performance were rejected. Investigating the mediation effects revealed that job satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between social media and job performance and that technostress did not significantly mediate the relationship between social media and job performance. Nevertheless, job satisfaction had a mediation effect on the relationship between social capital and job performance, and social capital had a mediation effect on the relationship between social media usage and job performance. The mediation effect of technostress on the relationship between social media and job performance was rejected.