engineer or bricoleur ?

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:  jgdvos.devos@ugent.be

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jangdevos

Twitter: @jangdevos 

Blog: jangdevos.wordpress.orgtwiiter: @jangdev

Emerge of the Engineering Model

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)

Emerge of the Engineering Model

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

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

• 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 …

Separation of Creation and Use

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

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

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

• 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)

Complexity

Concept of ‘Bricolage’ (Lévi-Strauss)

Bricolage

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Trinidad Steel drums (pans)

•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

• 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

Oxy-2 Design tinkering

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Open Source Software - communities

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

?