managing as designing Prof. Jurgen Faust

how to start?

Various possibilities:

- historical - fundamental (philosophical) - personal - searching/constructing for design discourse in management and visa versa

historical:

- initiated by Boland and Collopy (2004) - published by Stanford Press - follow up conferences in Designing with a ‘Positive Lens’ and Positive Design, Convergence Managing as Designing

http://convergence.case.edu/

Fundamentally

discourse:

- intention was to stimulate change in management practice and education (H. Simon) - inspired by the work of Frank Gehry (P.B. Lewis Building)

Aspects of discourse

Managing as Designing

- Both disciplines are problem solving - Management is a design discipline - But problem solving is different in both fields

problem solving in management Four paradigms in management history: - paternalistic/political paradigm - accountability/authority paradigm - workflow paradigm - decision paradigm

Huber and McDaniel, 1986, The decision-Making Paradigm of Organizational Design, in Management Science, V. 32, No. 5

paternalistic/political paradigm - tribal leaders allocating tribal resources, blood ties and political allegiances ...origin of management, but still in place, SME, family driven enterprises, entire countries are managed in such ways

Huber and McDaniel, 1986, The decision-Making Paradigm of Organizational Design, in Management Science, V. 32, No. 5

accountability/authority paradigm - the base of Roman Empire, central to classical organizations, central to Max Weber’s thinking about bureaucracies ...when designing organizations, it is important to specify who is accountable for fulfilling which responsibilities and to allocate resources so that they can fulfill these responsibilities

Huber and McDaniel, 1986, The decision-Making Paradigm of Organizational Design, in Management Science, V. 32, No. 5

workflow paradigm - The workflow paradigm is triggered by the industrial revolution, where organizational structures and processes are designed around the flow of work

Huber and McDaniel, 1986, The decision-Making Paradigm of Organizational Design, in Management Science, V. 32, No. 5

Decision paradigm

- decisions are driven by making rational choices among alternatives using tools like: economic analysis, risk management, multiple criteria decision making, simulation and the time value of money. - therefore the focus is on analysis instead of creating alternatives to existing solutions. - a decision attitude assumes that the alternatives are already at hand

Boland and Collopy, 2004, in Managing as Designing, Stanford press

designing

is different...

- designers are not primarily concerned in making decisions - designers are concerned to find the possible best solution

Boland and Collopy, 2004, in Managing as Designing, Stanford press

- designers are always in the midst of something - thrown into a situation (Geworfenheit from Heidegger) - without the opportunity of acting and function as a detached observer

Karl Weick, ,Rethinking Organizational Design’, in Managing as Designing, ed. Boland and Collopy, Stanford press, 2004, 36

designing limitations

- extremely difficult decisions - ambiguous and conflicting information - shifting goals - time pressure - dynamic conditions - complex operational team structures - poor communication - every course of action carries significant risk

Karl Weick, ,Rethinking Organizational Design’, in Managing as Designing, ed. Boland and Collopy,

thrownness

is a useful vocabulary for design

- accepts a different set of background assumptions a limited amount of options, unreflective submission, occasional interruptions, unquestioned answers, readymade categories for expression and interpretation and disjunction between understanding and explanation - design is only incremental

Karl Weick, ,Rethinking Organizational Design’, in Managing as Designing, ed. Boland and Collopy,

designing

...gains meaning from thrownness - situation can’t be determined - design enlarges the set of options - reduce blind spots - facilitate brief reflection - reduce the disruptiveness of interruptions - encourage trial and error with safety - refine primitive categories - tighten the coupling between existence and interpretation

Good design

is reflection in action

, In a good process of design, this conversation with the situation is reflective. In answer to the situation’s back-talk, the designer reflects-in-action on the construction of the problem, the strategies of action, or the model of the phenomena, which have been implicit in his moves.’

Donald Schoen, The reflective Practitioner, How Professional think in Action, Perseus Books, 1982, p.

design thinking

in Organizations

- is based on interaction design (Buchanon, 2004) - how people relate to other people - how products mediate these relationships

Richard Buchanon, Management and Design: Interaction Pathways in Organizational Life, in Managing as Designing, ed. R. Boland and F. Collopy, Stanford Press, 2004, p. 54-64

interaction design process various steps: - vision - strategic planning - preparing and planning a strategic brief for interaction design - generating ideas for design and selecting valuable solutions - planning and prototyping for the ultimate design

Richard Buchanon, Management and Design: Interaction Pathways in Organizational Life, in Managing as Designing, ed. R. Boland and F. Collopy, Stanford Press, 2004, p. 54-64

difference

between management and design - designers visualize in order to make complexity accessible for the team - collaborative and participatory designing - rapid and frequent prototyping - user research and user testing - task based scenario building - in general --- designing looks for horizontal distribution of responsibilities

design thinking

in implicit in management and organizational theory

Buchanon sees as well the domination of the analytical tools in the 20th century dominating management:

- scientific management - management of human relations - management through structural analysis

Guillen, M, Models of Management: Work, authority, and organization in a comparative perspective,

Managing as designing

the key issue

The analytical tools have dominated in management and there is a clear lack of synthetic skills in new programs of human-centered action. That is a clear underdeveloped area of management as designing.

change

in system understanding

... the change in system understanding: we are no longer focusing on material systems, on systems of things, we are focusing on human systems, the integration of information, physical artifacts, and interactions in environment of living, working, playing and learning.

(Buchanon, 2001, Design Research and the New Learning, in Design Issues 200117, No. 4, 3-23 )

the order of design

by R. Buchanon

1st order: design of symbols and signs 2nd order: things and artifacts 3rd order: design of experiences and interactions 4th order: systems and environments

decision paradigm

Deciding

choice-intelligence-design etc.

managing as designing process

Designing

designing

thank you

Prof. Jurgen Faust

Slides of lecture to be found at slideshare.