prof. dr. Jan Devos - professor UGent Engineer or bricoleur

1. 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.org
twiiter: @jangdev

2. Emerge of the Engineering Model

3. 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)

4. Emerge of the Engineering Model

5. Successes of the Engineering Model
Good logistics alone can't win a war.
Bad logistics alone can lose it.
—General Brehon B. Somervell
Commanding General
Army Services Forces, 1942

6. Successes of the Engineering Model

7. Ideal type of an Engineer…
Businesses
Governments
… and
Education

8. The illusion of modeling …
Ever seen a pure geometric figure in nature?

9. 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

10. Separation of Creation and Use

11. Ideal type of an Engineer…
Engineer
A 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

12. Foundations for the Engineer
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 ?

13. Collapse of an Engineering Model

14. Research on IS failures
Resistance against change
1983
Power, 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)

15. Organizational Change
Nov. 2010

16. Organizational Change

17. 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)

18. PLC and the ‘Political’ PLC
Inception
PLC Wild enthusiasm
Design & Dev.
“P”PLC
Search for the guilty

19. Complexity
“(Computer-based) Information
Systems defeat their own purpose
because they create complexity.”
(Weick 1985)

20. Bricolage
Concept of ‘Bricolage’ (Lévi-Strauss)
Trinidad Steel drums (pans)
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21. Bricolage
• 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
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22. 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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23. Bricolage
From the seminal work of Lévi-Strauss, three constructs
can 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).
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24. Bricoleur vs Engineer
Bricoleur 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 Knowledge about structural characteristic entities
functional fixedness bias
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

25. Bricolage
• 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)
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26. Oxy-1 Value bricolage strategically
IT Alignment
+
CEO Commitment
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27. Oxy-2 Design tinkering
Open Source Software - communities
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28. Oxy-3 Establish systematic serendipity
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29. Oxy-4 Thrive on gradual breakthroughs
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30. Oxy-5 Unskilled Learning
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31. Oxy-6 Strive for failure
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32. Oxy-7 Achieve collaborative inimitability
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33. Conclusion
• 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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