engineer or bricoleur ?
DESCRIPTION
Presentation of CONFENIS 2012TRANSCRIPT
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Engineers or Bricoleurs?
CONTACT
dr.ir. Jan Devos, MBA
ELIT Lab, Howest, UGent
Graaf Karel De Goedelaan 5
BE-8500 KORTRIJK – BELGIUM
T: +32 56 24 12 72
F: +32 56 24 12 24
e-mail: [email protected]
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jangdevos
Twitter: @jangdevos
Blog: jangdevos.wordpress.orgtwiiter: @jangdev
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Emerge of the Engineering Model
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Emerge of the Engineering Model
Until 19th century only 'military‘ engineers.
Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Simon Stevin
James Watt (1736-1819) first ‘civil' engineer
(K.U.Leuven, http://eng.kuleuven.be/algemeen/geschiedenis)
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Emerge of the Engineering Model
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Successes of the Engineering Model
Good logistics alone can't win a war. Bad logistics alone can lose it.
—General Brehon B. SomervellCommanding GeneralArmy Services Forces, 1942
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Successes of the Engineering Model
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Ideal type of an Engineer…
BusinessesGovernments… andEducation
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Ever seen a pure geometric figure in nature?
The illusion of modeling …
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… is that we tend to forget that the real world has vague and murky contours… (Ciborra, 2002)
E. Husserl (Phenomenology) and Galileo Galilei• Galileo introduces geometry as a sort of generalization
• Everyday reality is real, outcomes of abstractions and models are ideal
• Lack of ‘spiritual’ dimension in technological advancement
• Problems are solved by reduction
The illusion of modeling …
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Separation of Creation and Use
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Ideal type of an Engineer…
EngineerA priori hierarchical order: top down approach
Reduction/decomposition (analysis – synthesis – model)
Openness, transcending boundaries
Linear time – Cartesians
Distant knowledge, representation
Knowledge about structural characteristic entities
Specialization
Search for the adequate, project-oriented means
Projects and designs
Respect of prior specifications: exact design requirements
Evaluation through expected level of performance and quality
Separation of creation and use
Outcomes respond to field norms
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Natural Sciences (positivistic perspective)
Control Theory (Coase, 1937, Eisenhardt, 1989)
Alignment of interests
Agency Theory (Jensen & Meckling, 1976)
Contracts (Incomplete Contract Theory)Moral Hazard / Adverse Selection
Mistrust in human behavior (Ghoshal, 2005)
Amoral theories ?
Foundations for the Engineer
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Collapse of an Engineering Model
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Research on IS failures
Resistance against change
1983Power, Politics and MIS implementation (Markus)
20 years later:- 2003, "Computers can land people on Mars, why can't
they get them to work in a hospital?" - Implementation of an Electronic Patient Record System in a UK Hospital (Jones)
- 2004, Informating the Clan: Controlling Physicians' Costs and Outcomes (Kohli & Kettinger)
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Organizational Change
Nov. 2010
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Organizational Change
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Alternative approaches to PM
• PM does not guaranteed success nor eliminates failures
• Management of meaning iso management of control ?
• Critical perspective on projects: focus on values (technology is not neutral), ethics and morality equally important than efficiency & effectiveness ?
• Trust vs Control ? (Devos, 2009)
• “Political” PLC
2003, The chimpanzees’ tea party: a new metaphor for project manager (Drummond & Hodgson) 2006, New Possibilities for Project Management Theory A Critical Engagement (Cicmil & Hodgson)
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PLC and the ‘Political’ PLC
Inception
Conception
Requi
rem
ents
Design & Dev.
Implem
entatio
n
Term
inat
ion
PLC Wild enthusiasm
Disillusionmen
t
Tota
l con
fusion
Search for the guilty
Punishment of
the innocent
Prom
otio
n of
non
-
particip
ants
“P”PLC
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“(Computer-based) Information Systems defeat their own purpose because they create complexity.”
(Weick 1985)
Complexity
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Concept of ‘Bricolage’ (Lévi-Strauss)
Bricolage
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Trinidad Steel drums (pans)
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•Bricolage - French anthropologist Lévi-Strauss, ‘La pensée sauvage’ (1962)
• “doing things with whatever is at hand”
•Bricolage relates with (Duymedjian & Rüling, 2010)• organizational resilience• improvisation• sense making• entrepreneurship • utilization of technical systems and artefacts
• the bricoleur versus the engineer
Bricolage
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Bricolage and HRO
Organizing for High Reliability: Processes of Collective Mindfulness (Weick, 1999)
• Preoccupation with failure (“Failure is not an option”)
• Reluctance to simplify interpretation (beware of ‘frameworks’, ‘models’, ‘mindsets’, …)
• Sensitivity to operations (“situational awareness”)
• Commitment to resilience (“continuous management of fluctuations”)
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From the seminal work of Lévi-Strauss, three constructscan be inferred to characterize bricolage:
1) 1) repertoire or the material and immaterial resources that are collected independently of any particular project or utilization,
2) 2) dialogue or the activity of assembling objects and
3) 3) outcome, which’s refers both to the process and its results (Duymedjian and Ruling 2010).
Bricolage
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Bricoleur vs EngineerBricoleur Engineer
Everything matters A priori hierarchical order
Complex, interconnected system Reduction/decomposition
Closed universe Openness, transcending boundaries
Cyclical time Linear time
Intimate knowledge, familiarity Distant knowledge, representation
Knowledge about relationships implying a low functional fixedness bias
Knowledge about structural characteristic entities
Versatility implying resilience Specialization
Collection through unplanned encounters Search for the adequate, project-oriented means
Unclear outcomes Projects and designs
Dialogue with elements in stock (resources) Respect of prior specifications
Assemblage, substitution, …’it’s working’ Evaluation through expected level of performance and quality
Creation and use cannot be dissociated Separation of creation and use
Outcomes look unlike anything else Outcomes respond to field norms
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• Is Bricolage a theory?
•Seven oxymoron’s as propositions (Ciborra, 2002)
•Value bricolage strategically (VBS)•Design tinkering (DT)•Establish systematic serendipity (ESS)•Thrive on gradual breakthroughs (TGB)•Unskilled Learning (UL) •Strive for failure (SFF)•Achieve collaborative inimitability (ACI)
(Devos et al. 2012)
Bricolage
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Oxy-1 Value bricolage strategically
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IT Alignment
+
CEO Commitment
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Oxy-2 Design tinkering
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Open Source Software - communities
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Oxy-3 Establish systematic serendipity
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Oxy-4 Thrive on gradual breakthroughs
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Oxy-5 Unskilled Learning
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Oxy-6 Strive for failure
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Oxy-7 Achieve collaborative inimitability
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Conclusion
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• Both models are valid and useful• A mixed form is even better• Bricolage is already there in SMEs…and maybe also in
LO
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?