Source: “ ” Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2001, pp. 3-28. This prepublication version © 2000 by W . Ulrich - All rights reserved. Non-commercial distribution and citation of the prepublication version are permitted on the condition that proper reference is given to the published version © 2001 John W iley & Sons, Ltd. To allow accurate citation, original page breaks are indicated in the text in brackets, whereby [|| N ] means that at this place, page N is beginning in the original version. ISSN 1092-7026
The Quest for Competence in Systemic Research and Practice
Werner Ulrich* University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, Lincoln, UK
How can we develop competence in research and professional practice? This essay tries to answer the question from the perspective of critical systems thinking, that is, through an approach that aims to promote reflective research and practice. The paper originated in discussions on the nature of research, with research students and professionals from different fields –
Keywords professional competence; professionalism; reflective practice; research; systems research; critical systems practice; critical systems thinking; critical systems heuristics
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* Correspondence to: Werner Ulrich, Sichelweg 41, CH-3098 Schliern, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected]. Ulrich / The Quest for Competence
INTRODUCTION
‘ ’ [||4] already feel confident about your professional training and experience but would like to become a more reflective professional, or even a more mature person in general. The quest for competence is a very personal undertaking indeed. As a reader, you should thus not expect this essay to offer you a specific formulation of your fundamental question, that is, the question that might guide you in your personal quest for competence. I cannot formulate this question for you, only at best help you in finding your own central theme. My goal, therefore, is merely to guide you toward a few possible topics for reflection, towards meaningful questions to ask yourself. The paper also offers some considerations as to how you might deal with these topics, but please bear in mind that the purpose is simply to turn your attention to some questions that you might find relevant and not to give you the answers; that is to say, I do not claim that the considerations I offer are the only possible ones or even the only valid ones. I offer them as examples only. Their choice appears relevant to me at this particular moment in my academic and personal journey; even if some of them should prove helpful to you at the specific moment you have reached in your own journey, you will need to pursue your quest for competence in your own unique way. Nobody has a monopoly or a natural advantage in knowing what are the right considerations for you. Everybody is entitled to have differing views on what the quest for competence means. Contrary to academic custom, the game for once is not to be right but only to be true to yourself. As a last preliminary remark, a note concerning style. In the discussions with research students and professionals which inspired this paper, I found that research students often see questions and difficulties that established professionals tend to lose sight of as they become used to research conventions and routine procedures in their fields, and I have therefore chosen to address my readers as 'research students'. But of course the paper aims to reach established researchers and professionals, too. If you consider yourself one of these two, you may wish to read 'research student' as meaning 'student of competence' –
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