Engineer or Bricoleur ?

Engineers or Bricoleurs?

CONTACT

dr.ir. Jan Devos, MBAELIT LabHowest

Graaf Karel De Goedelaan 5BE-8500 KORTRIJK - BELGIUM

T: +32 56 24 12 72F: +32 56 24 12 24

e-mail: jan.devos@howest.bee-mail:  jgdvos.devos@ugent.be

linkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jangdevos Blog: jangdevos.wordpress.org

twiiter: @jangdevos

Emerge of the Engineering Model

Emerge of the Engineering Model

Emerge of the Engineering Model

Tot 19de eeuw waren er uitsluitend 'militaire' ingenieurs.De ingenieursuitvindingen zoals (heer)wegen, bruggen, forten, havens, kanonnen, enz. hadden een strategische bestemming.

Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci en de Vlaamse Simon Stevin waren beroemde 'militaire' ingenieurs.

James Watt (1736-1819): de eerste 'burgerlijk' ingenieur.

Zijn stoommachine luidde de eerste industriële revolutie in. Die ging gepaard met een groeiende behoefte aan hooggeschoolde technici.

(K.U.Leuven, http://eng.kuleuven.be/algemeen/geschiedenis)

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

Successes of the Engineering Model

Successes of the Engineering Model

Ideal type of an Engineer…

BusinessesGovernments… andEducation

Ever seen a pure geometric figure in nature?

The illusion of modeling …

… 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 • The gap between scientific objectivity and the everyday life

world (everyday reality is real, outcomes of abstractions and models are ideal)

• Lack of ‘spiritual’ dimension in technological advancement• Problems are solved by reduction

• (practical) Relevance versus (academic) Rigor ?

The illusion of modeling …

Separation of Creation and Use

• The MacDonaldization• Of Society

…is the process by which the principles of the fast-

food restaurant are coming to dominate more and

more sectors of American society as well as of the

rest of the world. (Ritzer, 1993:1)

Amoral theories ?

MacDonaldization of society

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•Efficiency

•Calculability

•Predictability

•Increased Control

•Replacement of Human by Non-human Technology

MacDonaldization of society

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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

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

Collapse of an Engineering Model

Collapse of an Engineering Model

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)

Organizational Change

Nov. 2010

Organizational Change

Alternative approaches to PM

• PM does not guaranteed success nor eliminates failures

• PM too much focused on ‘how-to-do’

• 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)

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

“(Computer-based) Information Systems defeat their own purpose because they create complexity.”

(Weick 1985)

Organizational Change

Emergent Collectives

Emergent Collectives

Ant Colony

Scalability

Value for everyone

The Ant Colony

The Ant Colony

Limited Durability

No central control

The Ant Colony

The Ant Colony

High Degree of Informality

The user defines the contentanywhere&any time

The Ant Colony

Control is in the protocol of the collective

The Ant Colony

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• Wikipedia• Sharing of pictures van foto’s (Flickr),

music (iTunes)film (YouTube)

• Anytime – Anywhere WIFI• Open Source Software communities• Edushock• TED• ……………………………

Behavior and outcome of an EC is hard to predict

Examples

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Charlie bit my finger – again!

An EC is hard to predict…

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Charlie movie

Digitalization of society

Broadband access

Why do EC’s occur ?

2011 The Arab Spring and Twitter

Most compelling example of EC

Arpanet (70s)A story of ‘bricolage’, improvisation, and

serendipity

Build to allow scientists to share computer resources at

a distance

Not about e-mail, personal communications, …

Not really a very large success….

Most compelling example of EC

Arpanet becomes the Internet (90s) and now….

• 2 billion Internet users in the world

• 2 billion more waiting to get online

• Policy makers: UN-UGF, ICANN, ISOC, supra-national governments

• Movement from IPv4 to IPv6

350 trillion trillion DNS numbers available

•Social Motivation: People want to contribute to something bigger than themselves

•Personal Motivation: e.g. ‘self-advertising’, blogging

•The Homo Ludens•Globalizing World • Increasing Uncertainty•Growing Abundance• Increasing Complexity

The ‘social fabric’ is no more virtual

Why do EC’s occur ?

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The Flatteners …•Collapse of the Berlin Wall• Internet (Netscape)•Workflow Software ▫Uploading, Sharing, Down

loading •Outsourcing•Off-shoring• ‘Steriods’ iPhone, PDA,

iPad, … (BYOD) •…

Why do EC’s occur ?

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2005

Again Central Control ?

The Walled Gardens

•Computer models of the human mind

•Explaining attention and the lack of it

•Subjective Time

•Simulations (role-based): e.g. Second Life

•Focus on learning and improvising

•Design Science Research?

Predicting EC’s

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The age-related decline in human information-processing rate is party responsible for the “quick passage of time’’

Life’s duration (and longevity) can be measured by: Chronological age Total amount of Information one has processed

Human longevity can be increased by increasing chronological age and by increasing the information-processing rate

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Subjective Time (Gruber et al. 2000)

HRO concept

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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Push vs Pull model van Hagel & Seely Brown

How can we bring the resources together to do something?

Engineering model: analyse → synthese → model

Education is organized in an Engineering Model

Standard curriculaCodified Information

Pre-determined (linear) sequence of experience

Facilitating ECs

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Pull model van Hagel & Seely Brown

- Opportuniteiten zien als gevolg van onzekerheid- Mensen samenbrengen om een antwoord te geven op

gebeurtenissen die niet beantwoord worden- Steunen op een steeds groter wordende groep van hoog

gespecialiseerde, maar verspreide middelen- Geen dictaat van te nemen acties - Netwerking aanmoedigen als een manier om middelen samen

te brengen - Helpen te leren en te innoveren bij de participanten om de

bekwaamheden te verhogen, om volgens hun behoeftes

Vinden → Verbinden → Innoveren → Reflecteren

Facilitating ECs

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Engineering Model is dominating in almost everythingbusiness, governments, education, but…

Most interesting innovations come from outside thetraditional educational institutes

Examples- Demand for certification can not be fulfilled by traditional

educational institutes- University of Phoenix - Cisco’s e-learning platform - Learning through apprenticeship (Open Source Software)

Facilitating ECs

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Facilitating ECs

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Push PullAnticiperen op de vraag De vraag is onzeker

Top down ontwerp Emergent ontwerp

Centrale controle Decentraal initiatief

Procedureel Modulair

Sterke koppelingen Losse koppelingen

Participatie gelimiteerd Participatie open

Beperkt aantal participanten Veel (diverse) participanten

Focus op efficiëntie Focus op innovatie

Beperkt aantal grote inspanningen

Snelle stapgewijze innovaties

Externe beloningen domineren Intrinsieke beloningen domineren

Facilitating ECs

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Creativiteitslagen (nieuwe middelen scheppen)

Netwerken van creativiteit

Procesnetwerken (Nike, Cisco)

Aggregatienetwerken (Ebay, Netflix, Amazon, …)

Faciliteitslagen (bestaande middelen meer beschikbaar maken)

Technologie (Wiki’s, web services)

Sociale netwerken (Facebook, Twitter, …)

Infrastructuurlagen (verbindingen leggen)

Service netwerken (email)

Logistiek en communicatienetwerken (bv. internet)

Tech

nis

ch f

ocu

s

Cre

ati

eve f

ocu

s

Concept of ‘Bricolage’ (Lévi-Strauss)

Bricolage

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Trinidad Steel drums (pans)

•Bricolage - French anthropologist Lévi-Strauss,

• ‘La pensée sauvage’ (1962) (Vrij vertaalt: het wilde denken)

•“doe iets met wat je liggen hebt”

•Bricolage is related to (Duymedjian & Rüling, 2010)• organizational resilience • improvisation• sense making (management of sense making) • enterpreneurship • use of technical artefacts

Bricolage

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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

• 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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Oxy-2 Design tinkering

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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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Best tweets of 2012

Example

•Create a Twitteraccount ▫voorbeeld: @jangdevos

•Announce it to all your fellow students of the group

•Follow each other

•Send at least 20 tweets during the semester about course topics.

Assignment

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Best tweets of 2012

?

•blogs.hbr.org/bigshift/•www.johnhagel.com/index.shtml (From Push

to Pull- Emerging Models For Mobilizing Resources)

•www-cdr.stanford.edu/~petrie/ •www.emergent-collectives.be•www.cosmicplay.net (K. Pohn)

•… and the full Web-of-Science !

References