Systems thinking to facilitate “double loop” learning in tourism industry: a COVID-19 response strategy

Abstract

It is evident there is an urgent need for tourism companies to build highly responsive learning systems to adapt to COVID-19 threats and beyond. As such, only learning tourism companies that promote inquiry, challenging current actions, and departing away from adopted assumptions will be able to survive. However, there is paucity of studies exploring effective learning methods in tourism companies to adapt to unpredictable crisis consequences. This study argues that systems thinking approach for service delivery design can operationalize double loop learning in tourism companies of finding alternative service offerings. An exploratory case study was conducted in a leading cruise group company in Vietnam. Results show that systems thinking activated double-loop learning by promoting three different drivers: systematic judges and acts, problem-based task force teams, and service innovation. This paper theorizes systems thinking with double-loop learning as an organizational means to help tourism companies survive during COVID-19 global tragedy, and to transform their service offerings. It also extends current understanding of tourism companies’ organisational learning by incorporating double loop learning with structural design issues based on the lens of organic structures and introduces managers of tourism companies to the significance of organic structures for competitive advantage creation during crisis.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• systems thinking
• double loop learning
• response strategy
• tourism industry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ayham A. M. Jaaron

Dr Ayham A. M. Jaaron is a Senior Lecturer in Business and Management at the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship of De Montfort University, UK. Before this, he was an Associate Professor at the Industrial Engineering Department of An-Najah National University in Palestine 2010–2019. During this time, Ayham served as Head of Industrial Engineering Department for three consecutive years 2011–2014 and served as Director of Quality Assurance Unit of the University 2014–2016. His research is focused on systems thinking design for service operations design, green manufacturing, green logistics and supply chain management, green human resources management, and sustainability management. Dr Jaaron has an established track record and international reputation in sustainable management arena as he published widely in top academic journals and presented at numerous renowned international conferences.

Duong Thuy Pham

Dr Duong Thuy Pham is a Lecturer at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration – Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam. Dr. Duong Thuy Pham has also been recognized as an international scholar who has worked as a consultant/speaker/jury in Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, College of Management, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan since 2019. Her research interests are focused on the areas of hospitality management, leisure and recreation management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), entrepreneurship, mass customized services, operational management and systemsthinking principles applied for service innovations. She has published articles in various academic journals and has also been an author of a book chapter in the Routledge Advances in Event Research Series.

Marielyn Espiridion Cogonon

Ms Marielyn Espiridion Cogonon is a senior student at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration (T UEBA) – Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam. She comes from the Philippines and got the full scholarship from T UEBA in 2019. Supervised by Dr. Duong Thuy Pham, Marielyn research interests are focused on systems-thinking methodologies in service departments and has greatly contributed to the development of literature review of systems-thinking principles in this article.