Affiliation

University of South Australia, AUS

Biography

Dr Chris Goldspink has fifteen years experience as an internal and external consultant in organisation and management improvement. His background is diverse and includes experience with information technology design and management, education, organisational management and public sector reform. He has experience also in a variety of management roles including in marketing and customer services. He maintains an interest in practical management in both the public and private sectors and teaches and consults in both of these areas. His research interests include the applicability of complex systems theory to social and organisational analysis. As an adjunct to the University of South Australia Chris supervises Doctoral candidates for the International Graduate School of Management and delivers post graduate programs throughout Australia and South East Asia on systems, general management and research subjects. Chris also has significant technological knowledge and experience and maintains an ongoing interest in the use of technology to aid workplace improvement and educational delivery and support as well as for research.

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Articles

Transforming education: Evidential support for a complex systems approach
Volume: 9, Issue 1-2
This paper documents the findings of research into a rare example of successful school-based education reform. The reform commenced within the South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services in 1999 and is ongoing. It drew explicitly on systems thinking in establishing change principles. Subsequent research into “what worked” reinforced the value of following practices consistent with loosely coupled and complex systems theory. This paper compares the approach adopted in South Australia with the more commonly adopted managerialist or so-called new public management approaches and elaborates on the relevance of complexity as a base for planning and implementing reform. The paper demonstrates that complex systems ideas have profound implications for the policy underpinning institutional change and provides evidence of their relevance and value in practice.

Contrasting Linear and Nonlinear Perspectives in Contemporary Social Research
Volume: 2, Issue 2