IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v248y2016i1p286-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Insights into the eldercare conundrum through complementary lenses of Boardman's SSM and TOC's Evaporating Cloud

Author

Listed:
  • Sommer, Kim A.
  • Mabin, Victoria J.

Abstract

Whether an elderly parent should move/be moved into an assisted care facility can be a difficult decision for families and one that is increasingly evident as the ‘baby-boomer’ population ages. This paper explores decisions about care for elderly family members and in particular, whether a parent should move (or be moved) into an assisted care facility (ACF). The problematic situation based on personal experience of the authors is explored using two different methods as problem structuring aids, providing critical insights into the dilemma facing many families. Boardman's Soft Systems Methodology (BSSM) was used along with the Evaporating Cloud (EC) from the Theory of Constraints (TOC) methodology. This use of two methods in multimethodological fashion as complementary lenses allowed the elicitation, clarification and elaboration of assumptions underlying the issue of whether the parent should move into an ACF. Multiple avenues for resolving the issue are surfaced, along with several opportunities for further research. The paper contributes to community OR by showing how the different frames can work to address the fraught situation in which families can find themselves, as adult children seek to safeguard their elderly parents by accessing ACF, while also endeavouring to maintain satisfactory family relationships. The paper makes a unique contribution, not just in terms of highlighting the eldercare situation and suggesting ways forward, but also in terms of multimethodological use of BSSM and TOC. Finally, it is significant that the case study originated in the USA, where ‘Soft OR’ methods are rarely applied.

Suggested Citation

  • Sommer, Kim A. & Mabin, Victoria J., 2016. "Insights into the eldercare conundrum through complementary lenses of Boardman's SSM and TOC's Evaporating Cloud," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(1), pages 286-300.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:248:y:2016:i:1:p:286-300
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2015.06.033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221715005470
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.06.033?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. von Winterfeldt, Detlof & Fasolo, Barbara, 2009. "Structuring decision problems: A case study and reflections for practitioners," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(3), pages 857-866, December.
    2. Yushim Kim & Sunny Kim & HeeSoo Kim, 2010. "Transfer from a home and community-based long-term care program to a nursing home: the Ohio experience," International Journal of Public Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(2/3), pages 160-174.
    3. Royston, Geoff, 1998. "Shifting the balance of health care into the 21st century," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(2), pages 267-276, March.
    4. Mingers, John, 2011. "Soft OR comes of age--but not everywhere!," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 729-741, December.
    5. Charles D. Blair & John T. Boardman & Brian J. Sauser, 2007. "Communicating strategic intent with systemigrams: Application to the network‐enabled challenge," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(4), pages 309-322, December.
    6. Mingers, John & Brocklesby, John, 1997. "Multimethodology: Towards a framework for mixing methodologies," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 489-509, October.
    7. Davies, J. & Mabin, V.J. & Balderstone, S.J., 2005. "The theory of constraints: a methodology apart?--a comparison with selected OR/MS methodologies," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 506-524, December.
    8. Brailsford, Sally & Vissers, Jan, 2011. "OR in healthcare: A European perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 212(2), pages 223-234, July.
    9. Mingers, John & Rosenhead, Jonathan, 2004. "Problem structuring methods in action," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(3), pages 530-554, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Killemsetty, Namesh & Johnson, Michael & Patel, Amit, 2022. "Understanding housing preferences of slum dwellers in India: A community-based operations research approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 699-713.
    2. Alexandre de A. Gomes Júnior & Vanessa B. Schramm, 2022. "Problem Structuring Methods: A Review of Advances Over the Last Decade," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 55-88, February.
    3. Midgley, Gerald & Johnson, Michael P. & Chichirau, George, 2018. "What is Community Operational Research?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(3), pages 771-783.
    4. Aubert, Alice H. & Lienert, Judit, 2024. "Operational Research for, with, and by citizens: An overview," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 316(3), pages 800-814.
    5. Ufua, Daniel E. & Papadopoulos, Thanos & Midgley, Gerald, 2018. "Systemic Lean Intervention: Enhancing Lean with Community Operational Research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(3), pages 1134-1148.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Small, Adrian & Wainwright, David, 2018. "Privacy and security of electronic patient records – Tailoring multimethodology to explore the socio-political problems associated with Role Based Access Control systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(1), pages 344-360.
    2. Luoma, Jukka, 2016. "Model-based organizational decision making: A behavioral lens," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(3), pages 816-826.
    3. Durugbo, Christopher M., 2020. "Affordance-based problem structuring for workplace innovation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(2), pages 617-631.
    4. Small, Adrian & Wainwright, David, 2014. "SSM and technology management: Developing multimethodology through practice," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 233(3), pages 660-673.
    5. Pessôa, Leonardo Antonio Monteiro & Lins, Marcos Pereira Estellita & da Silva, Angela Cristina Moreira & Fiszman, Roberto, 2015. "Integrating soft and hard operational research to improve surgical centre management at a university hospital," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 245(3), pages 851-861.
    6. David Lowe & Louise Martingale & Mike Yearworth, 2016. "Guiding interventions in a multi-organisational context: combining the Viable System Model and Hierarchical Process Modelling for use as a Problem Structuring Method," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 67(12), pages 1481-1495, December.
    7. Cardoso-Grilo, Teresa & Monteiro, Marta & Oliveira, Mónica Duarte & Amorim-Lopes, Mário & Barbosa-Póvoa, Ana, 2019. "From problem structuring to optimization: A multi-methodological framework to assist the planning of medical training," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(2), pages 662-683.
    8. Mingers, John, 2015. "Helping business schools engage with real problems: The contribution of critical realism and systems thinking," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(1), pages 316-331.
    9. Midgley, Gerald & Johnson, Michael P. & Chichirau, George, 2018. "What is Community Operational Research?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(3), pages 771-783.
    10. Wang, Yingli & Touboulic, Anne & O'Neill, Martin, 2018. "An exploration of solutions for improving access to affordable fresh food with disadvantaged Welsh communities," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(3), pages 1021-1039.
    11. Hämäläinen, Raimo P. & Luoma, Jukka & Saarinen, Esa, 2013. "On the importance of behavioral operational research: The case of understanding and communicating about dynamic systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(3), pages 623-634.
    12. Smith, Chris M. & Shaw, Duncan, 2019. "The characteristics of problem structuring methods: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(2), pages 403-416.
    13. Trutnevyte, Evelina & Stauffacher, Michael & Scholz, Roland W., 2012. "Linking stakeholder visions with resource allocation scenarios and multi-criteria assessment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 219(3), pages 762-772.
    14. G A Hindle & L A Franco, 2009. "Combining problem structuring methods to conduct applied research: a mixed methods approach to studying fitness-to-drive in the UK," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(12), pages 1637-1648, December.
    15. Scott, Rodney J & Cavana, Robert Y & Cameron, Donald, 2016. "Recent evidence on the effectiveness of group model building," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(3), pages 908-918.
    16. M. Nassereddine & M. A. Ellakkis & A. Azar & M. D. Nayeri, 2021. "Developing a Multi-methodology for Conflict Resolution: Case of Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 301-320, April.
    17. Eden, Colin & Ackermann, Fran, 2018. "Theory into practice, practice to theory: Action research in method development," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(3), pages 1145-1155.
    18. Daniel E. Ufua & Odunayo P. Salau & Joseph A. Dada & Mosunmola O. Adeyeye, 2020. "Application of Systems Approach to Achieving Cleaner and Sustainable Environment: A study of Waste Dumping Issue on Idiroko Road, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 20/007, African Governance and Development Institute..
    19. Carayannis, Elias G. & Grigoroudis, Evangelos & Wurth, Bernd, 2022. "OR for entrepreneurial ecosystems: A problem-oriented review and agenda," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(3), pages 791-808.
    20. Ferretti, V., 2021. "Framing territorial regeneration decisions: Purpose, perspective and scope," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:248:y:2016:i:1:p:286-300. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.