An overview of OST and its Services and Programs - publications

Since the development of OST in the UK during 1950s, there have been literally hundreds of published and unpublished socio-ecological papers written by OST Practitioners and Specialists. OST pioneer, Professor Fred Emery, produced more than 1,000 papers and books alone. See his tribute page below for details.

There have been many OST books written as well. Some are highlighted below.

Published and unpublished OST papers

When the Cure is the Cause: the Turnover and Absenteeism Problems, by Professor Merrelyn Emery and published in the Innovation Journal (2010).

The paper is an evidenced-based condemnation of current HR practices that result in high employee turnover and absenteeism. Merrelyn is particularly critical of Universities that still teach 19^th Century mechanistic Human Relations theory. HRM academics and business schools are still teaching HR / MBA students how design bureaucratic structures where employees are treated as replaceable parts of a machine! Graduates leave University believing the problems of the organisation rest with employees and the only way to fix it is through training – team building, communication, conflict resolution etc.

The paper calls for HRM academics and HR managers to step into the 21^st Century and understand the difference between closed mechanistic thinking and opens systems theory because not only are they creating unnecessary high costs for organisations they are also increasing mental health problems in the workplace.

You can download it at:

http://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-style/emery_absenteeism_6_rev6.pdf

Structure Underlies Other Organizational Determinants of Mental Health: Recent Results Confirm Early Socio-technical Systems Research by Don de Guerre et al and published in the Journal of Systemic Practice and Action Research (2008)

This paper is a part of an ongoing OST research project on preventing mental health problems, particularly in the workplace. Mental health problems are increasing and as this paper clearly shows, organisational structure is a key determinant of mental health and wellbeing.

The Search Conference in the USA Today: Carifying some Confusions by Merrelyn Emery, 1994

This paper highlights the major dimensions of the Search Conference and compares them with other models that share some features but lack the integrity of the Search Conference.

Recent OST books

The books listed here are just a few of many written on the subject of Open Systems Theory and the profound benefits it affords individuals, organisations, institutions, communities and society in general.

The Future of schools: How communities and staff can transform their school districts by Merrelyn Emery, published by Rowman & Littlefield Education (2006)
Searching: the theory and practice of making cultural change by Merrelyn Emery, published by John Benjamins, Amsterdam (1999)
Participative design for participative democracy, by Merrelyn Emery (ed), Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra (1993)

Over the coming weeks we will add more OST publications and book titles that we believe will be of interest to visitors of this website. Please don’t hesitate to CONTACT US if there is a particular OST paper or book that you are looking for. Please note that there may be a small fee for this service, particularly if it relates to Fred Emery's research because a lot of his work is archived at the Australian National Library and is yet to be digitized.

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