The importance of system thinking in creating effective relationships within organizations
The idea of system thinking has been incorporated as one of the major interdisciplinary approach that helps to create establishment and inter relationship between different elements within a systematic organization. The main purpose of incorporating system thinking approaches is to establish effective relationship among different components of organizational structure that is not present within the traditional analytical thinking approach. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the system thinking, it is possible to generate the unique feature within an organization that is aimed to improve the levels of management system. In the given context, it can be said that the system thinking approach can be used in the given purpose to deal with the issues related to mismanagement and overexploitation of the environmental resources. The system thinking will be used for development of the rapid approaches and solution development of the environmental issues.
The principles of sustainability can be enhanced with the use and application of the system thinking. The current study will aim to discuss the viability of the system thinking approaches for applying the principles of sustainability. The issue of household food wastes will be discussed in the given essay that is one of the major causes of environmental degradation.
According to Eilam and Reisfeld (2017), one of the main purposes of system thinking is to establish interrelationship between different social activities that seems to have result in the environmental degradation activities. The wastes that are generated from the household food, account for nearly 40% of all environmental wastes in the Australian society. On average nearly 20% of all foods purchased by the Australian are wasted (Foodwise 2018). The food waste has significant impact over the act of society. The smell of rotten food generates greenhouse gas, mostly methane, which seems to have 25 times higher impact over the carbon dioxide. In the given context it is important to mention the effective food management plan needs to be incorporated in order to deal with the issue of food wastage. Sustainable development plan is essential in order to understand a complex system of social development. In order to incorporate the idea of system thinking in food management plan is important to understand the impact of food wastage to the environment and Society. The approach to food waste management is often associated with addressing individual issues within the society that are directly associated with challenges in household food management. Holistic approach of systematic analysis is used in order to understand the root cause of food wastage. The interaction system elements within can be a major challenges for the proper implementation of the food waste management (Schmidt 2016).
Using system thinking in sustainability principles and household food waste management
The loss of food that are caused due to complex system of human food chain is believed to have major impact on the natural resources of the planet and thereby can be a challenge for the sustainable developmental path. Schott and Cánovas (2015), have highlighted about the fact that food can be lost at all stages of the system of value chain. The systemic approach thinking process is therefore essential to understand and highlight on the exact source of food loss. For example, during the time of production, the food loss occurs due to lack of nutrition that has the risk of causing crops related disorders. Other forms of loss can also occur during the transport and storage of the food.
It has been found that food wastage is highly common in industrial areas, where preservatives are used in order to increase the duration of food storage. Nevertheless, the excessive use of food preservative can degrade the quality and increase the risk of wastage in shorter period. Hence, food waste is an integrated part of every household system industrial areas. In spite of effective distribution system it is not possible to minimize the household wastages. It is therefore essential to incorporate sustainable practice in the food system management, which can help to minimize the wastage with effective advanced planning and use of essential materials that can be helpful in food preservation.
The components of system thinking is essential in the given context which will help to incorporate the factor associated with Industrial and economic growth. As artificial ways are getting popular for preserving and manufacturing food, there is an increase in pressure of the natural resources, which are mostly used in packaging and storage system (Schott et al. 2016). The component of global warming is also essential to consider, which is highly associated with food wastage. As mentioned earlier the rotten gas that is generated from the food waste is one of the main sources of greenhouse effects. The system thinking elements will therefore help to establish the direct link between the household activities that are responsible for increasing the level of carbon footprint of the environment. The rotten food wastes can also have a direct impact on the outside surroundings and local ecosystem of flora and fauna.
The complex system of food management plan can easily be understood by common people, as they will be able to minimize the effect of food wastage by advanced planning system. It is important to note that every subsystem within the food management plan is highly interlinked with each other, which can have a direct or indirect impact of on the biological activity of human life.
The impact of food wastage on the environment and society
As mentioned by Hebrok and Boks (2017), one of the major highlighting notions about the system thinking is the ability to integrate scientific components with the sustainability factors. In most of the cases, the sustainability principles of environmental conservation are directly linked with the idea of scientific progression. The complex dynamic system within system thinking can help in the process of data collection that is crucial and primary part of the food waste management plan. The components of the management plan can differ according to the needs of the society. For example, the people in the urban areas are more dependent upon packaged food that can have more negative consequences compared to that of the food that are consumed by the people in the rural regions. It is also important to note that with the fast rate of industrial growth people are depending more on the packaged food products.
Maintaining higher levels of transparency is one of the major challenges with the complex food management system. The system thinking will help to get the idea about the quantity of food that is consumed by the ever-rising population. For effective planning, it is important to predict the increased rate of future food production. This can help to maintain higher levels of transparency with the household food waste management plan.
The government policies need to be effective in order to understand the importance of household food management plan. The food systems are essential to understand the Complex nature of social ecological system that need to be incorporated within the policy making system. The main aim of the policy is to raise the level of awareness among general public which will help to minimize the food wastage. The sustainable principle along with that of system thinking process will provide essential guidelines to the government bodies in implementing important policies related to household food wastage systems (Hebrok and Boks 2017).
The concept of Public Health needs to be popularized has more number of people are suffering from obesity and diabetes, which are directly related to the food habit of daily life. The main aim of Sustainable food development is not only to minimize food wastage; it also focuses upon providing healthy and nutrient food to the public.
According toPapargyropoulou et al. (2014), sustainability is considered to be one of the major property of system thinking, which can be incorporated in agricultural and food manufacturing practices. With the popularity of organic farming and lesser use of chemical pesticide, it is possible to improve the up on the quality of the food products that are used in the process of increasing the lifespan activities of food. Is the modern society is dependent upon complex food system, it is essential to predict the Rapid changes that can occur and disrupt the overall ecological balance of human food cycle.
The need for a sustainable development plan for effective food waste management
Biggs et al. (2015), have mentioned about social ecological framework that can help to define the complex interactive nature between the human and nature. The dynamic link between the food cycle can provide essential reciprocal feedback mechanism.
The major drawback that is associated with system thinking is due to the fact that the complex interactive mechanism cannot be applicable in every aspect of sustainable development. For example in case of household food waste management, the component of system thinking cannot be applicable for every group of population as there is huge differs in their lifestyle and food habits. Hence, it can be said that the approach of system thinking is highly link to the fundamental approach of problem solving. This means that the components implemented with systemic thinking with food processing cannot be equally beneficial to every section of the society. For example with popularization of organic farming technique, the farmers will face loss as they will not be able to increase the production for better income level. Nevertheless from the flow of information that is associated with system thinking, it is possible to gain wider knowledge about each section of the society and the impact of the same after implementing proper household food waste management plan.
Another major drawback of Sustainable principles is due to less practical applicability of the same. As the food production process are being hindered, there is risk of economic loss for both agricultural and food processing industry. However, the component of system thinking encourages incorporating the element of economic progress and sustainable development plan, which can attempt to protect the interest of maximum section within the society.
The quality of system thinking approach is highly dependent upon the level of information that is collected as a part of household food waste management planning. In order to ensure proper quality of Data Collection, the component of index system is used. The index system can vary depending upon the level of information that is required for better understanding of each subject. The reliability of data collected that is collected in the context of food waste management needs to be evaluated before implementing the final plan (A Jalil et al. 2016). Different forms of values and reflective practice are incorporated within system thinking in order to make optimized use of all information.
Effective follow-up measurement need to be incorporated in order to understand the flow of information that is associated with quantitative and qualitative assessment of human food cycle. The effective approach of system thinking can help to incorporate rapid changes that occur in the flow of information.
Incorporating system thinking to minimize household food wastage
The concluding note it can be said that system thinking approach is highly efficient in the context of the modern society for incorporating essential information from different level within an organization in sustainable development plan. Household food waste is one of the major environmental issues, which is causing high level of disruption in the level of carbon footprint emitted by human activity. With effective system thinking approach it is possible to collect sufficient and quality information related to the human food cycle that can help to establish interrelationship between the different components. It will also be possible to provide proper recommendations to the general public for raising day awareness level about use of proper food preservation techniques.
With the Rapid rise of population in the global society it is crucial to understand the importance of Sustainable measure in food consumption and preservation. This can help to minimize the level of food wastage that are being caused due to misuse of harmful chemical preservatives. Efficient planning in system thinking can help to predict the future changes that can occur within the society. It will therefore be possible to take proper intervention measures to reduce the harmful effect of household food wastes. This includes incorporation of organic farming and less use of chemical preservatives.
References
A Jalil, E.E., Grant, D.B., Nicholson, J.D. and Deutz, P., 2016. Reverse logistics in household recycling and waste systems: a symbiosis perspective. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 21(2), pp.245-258.
Biggs, E.M., Bruce, E., Boruff, B., Duncan, J.M., Horsley, J., Pauli, N., McNeill, K., Neef, A., Van Ogtrop, F., Curnow, J. and Haworth, B., 2015. Sustainable development and the water–energy–food nexus: A perspective on livelihoods. Environmental Science & Policy, 54, pp.389-397.
Eilam, B. and Reisfeld, D., 2017. A Curriculum Unit for Promoting Complex System Thinking: The Case of Combined System Dynamics and Agent Based Models for Population Growth. Journal of Advances in Education Research, 2(2).
Foodwise. (2018). Household Food Waste. [online] Available at: https://www.foodwise.com.au/foodwaste/household-food-waste-landing-page/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2018].
Hebrok, M. and Boks, C., 2017. Household food waste: Drivers and potential intervention points for design–An extensive review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 151, pp.380-392.
Papargyropoulou, E., Lozano, R., Steinberger, J.K., Wright, N. and bin Ujang, Z., 2014. The food waste hierarchy as a framework for the management of food surplus and food waste. Journal of Cleaner Production, 76, pp.106-115.
Schmidt, K., 2016. Explaining and promoting household food waste-prevention by an environmental psychological based intervention study. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 111, pp.53-66.
Schott, A.B.S. and Cánovas, A., 2015. Current practice, challenges and potential methodological improvements in environmental evaluations of food waste prevention–A discussion paper. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 101, pp.132-142.
Schott, A.B.S., Wenzel, H. and la Cour Jansen, J., 2016. Identification of decisive factors for greenhouse gas emissions in comparative life cycle assessments of food waste management–an analytical review. Journal of cleaner production, 119, pp.13-24
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
