Article ID: | iaor20003870 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 50 |
Issue: | 11 |
Start Page Number: | 1149 |
End Page Number: | 1157 |
Publication Date: | Nov 1999 |
Journal: | Journal of the Operational Research Society |
Authors: | Ledington P., Ledington J. |
Keywords: | systems, soft systems |
Soft systems methodology is a leading interpretive approach to real-world problem management and the idea of comparison is one of its core concepts. However, it is argued in this paper that the concept of comparison could be usefully enriched and made easier to operationalise since it has received very little attention in the research literature. The paper explores comparison as a problem area and proposes a framework consisting of expectation, desirability and importance as a basis for extending and clarifying the notion of comparison.