September 15^th. Dr. Ayham Jaaron, Head of the Industrial Engineering Department at An-Najah University, co-authored a book entitled “Systems Thinking from Heresy to Practice” with Professor Chris Backhouse in the United Kingdom.

The two authors explored the experience of the systems mentioned in a number of the private and public service institutions. The book sheds light on the basic differences between the traditional means for the management and design of systems in the industrial and service institutions that are based on the “Systems of Thinking and the Systems Thinking” principle.

The two authors also explained a collection of case studies in the book which show how systems are designed inside institutions based on the systems of thinking and the positive impact of such method o n the employee’s level of performance and commitment.

Dr. Jaaron’s authorship effort was concentrated in Chapter Eight of the book. This chapter presents a detailed explanation and illustration of the processes that add value to the user leading to increase the system’s productivity.  This chapter explains how management thinking shift has been observed recently in public services to adopt manufacturing improvements in an attempt to economical and operational challenges.

It also investigates the utilization of systems thinking in public service operations for potential added value. The authors also mention a case study that was conducted in a city council in the UK using in-depth interviews with key individuals in addition to observations and document evaluation. The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire was administered among frontline employees and the results showed that systems thinking could create significant added value to the business and to the working place.

Additionally, a strong relationship was demonstrated between the systems thinking implementation and the affective commitment of the employees.

Dr. Abdel Raheem Abu Safa, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at An-Najah, said the Faculty’s staff co-authors annually a large number of books that are published in English including international periodicals. He also valued Dr. Jaaron’s efforts in authoring the book and mentioned that such participation contributes to the reinforcement of An-Najah’s status as a contributor to scientific research worldwide.