IVS Seminar

Seminar with Philippe Lorino.

"Management tools and organizational learning: an interpretive and pragmaticist analysis. The case of SAP in a large European electricity producer"

Abstract:

The role of instruments in organizational learning is generally analyzed through dualistic representation-based approaches (taylorism or cognitivism), which separate, on one side, instruments as “representations of the world” (Taylor, positivism) or “of the reasoning procedures about the world” (Simon) and, on the other side, acting organizations as “the real world”. We propose to overcome such dualism by building a theoretical frame based upon the theory of activity (Vygotsky, Leontiev) and pragmaticism (Peirce’s theory of interpretation, Dewey’s theory of inquiry). Rather than causal models of situations (Argyris & Schön), we define organizational learning as the “situated interpretation of collective activity” for subsequent collective activity, always mediated by signs (at least by language) (Vygotsky, Leontiev, Clot). Instruments are sensemaking mediators, signs (Peirce, Eco) of socially organized activity. They combine (Rabardel):

• objective artifacts (for instance, technical objects, computer code, mathematical models),

• subjective schemes of utilization (interpretive schemes) which allow to translate artifacts into activity when

  utilizing instruments, and to translate activity into artifacts when

  designing them.

We test the validity and utility of this interpretive frame in an in-depth case study (SAP implementation at Electricité de France - EDF), in which we made some specific observations:

• though EDF clearly standardized SAP mode of utilization, the actual implementation follows very different organizational norms in the different units concerned;

• the architecture of SAP is based upon the notion of “business process” (ex. the procurement process), which requires a high level of cross-functional cooperation, whereas EDF has a strong vertical and functional culture; this cultural and cognitive change was not really anticipated and originated an “abductive shock”;

• more generally, SAP modifies the time and space frames of collective activity; it establishes “action at a distance” potentials (Robson), in ways which are partly unpredictible;

• the process re-engineering associated with SAP requires deep transformations in the competence portfolio of key functions (for instance converting maintenance technicians into small project managers or) and induces critical competence gaps.

We try to apply the interpretive theoretical frame to EDF case. The gradual and joint design of instrument and organization took the form of successive “abductive shocks”. We define an “abductive shock” (Peirce) as a dissonance between existing interpretive schemes and actual situations, entailing changes in interpretive models. An abductive shock triggers a collective inquiry (Dewey) to construct new “plausible stories” (Weick) and to restore understandable and manoeuvrable situations. The successive abductive shocks made “visible” what was invisible (Qattrone & Hopper). They trigger organizational learning (sensemaking) or unlearning (sense collapsing) (Weick). We found both situations at EDF. One key condition for organizational learning to occur is the “subjectivation” of the instrument utilization communities: the instrument SAP delineates

de facto “objective” groups of utilization (cooperations “imposed” by the tool utilization). Those cooperations can appear as pure constraints at the local level, or the collaborative community of utilization can be established in a deliberate way as a debating and interpreting “community of inquiry”. The organized collective user of the instrument then gets a voice and a say and becomes an active subject of organizational design, learning and history. Knowledge issues become arguable.

We conclude that the design and development of the instrument, on one side, and of the organization which makes use of it, on the other side, are intricately integrated. The “abductive shocks” triggered by SAP implementation at EDF lead the actors to identify / construct collective competence gaps. Making these gaps visible can fuel or freeze organizational learning, according to factors we only began to examine and which should be further investigated.

No registration is required. All are welcome.