Technologies play a
crucial role in this
people have reflexive understanding of the rules. To engage in the
“design” of an organization means
to address and reflect on these
rules, whereas designing a technological artifact is done according to
laws that correspond to the natural
sciences. Because normative rules
are reflexively understood and
produced by people, any “design” of
the rules necessarily involves the
people they affect. Thus, no one can
design an organization for someone
else. The only thing that someone
can do for another is to design
representations and constraints
such as formal roles, staffing, processes, and hierarchical structures.
Designing an organization therefore
involves other activities, such as
supporting members of the organization in reflecting and bringing
attention to the normative rules of
their own organization.
Despite this important distinc-
tion, these two applications of
design have much in common.
There appears to be a basic way of
framing the important elements of
what it means to design. Scholars
have named this design thinking
and design attitude. Nigel Cross
also used the phrase “designerly
ways of knowing.”
First of all, design embodies a
distinct epistemology. Schön con-
trasted it with the dominant epis-
temology of technical rationality,
which emphasizes rational problem
solving based on theory and sci-
ence [ 1]. On the other hand, actual
professional practices in general
and design practices in particular
embody reflection-in-action. This
means designers face each unique
situation and, at the same time, see
it as something familiar. Through
this, they frame the situation and
test successive frames by taking
actions experimentally and reframe
the situation based on what they
learn. To many in management,
this kind of practice appears unsta-
ble and subjective.
learning, although, as
we’ve emphasized,
technologies are only
a means, not an end.
We therefore need to
broaden the role
of technology.
Technology can be a
tool for learning
design thinking and
facilitating cultural
change.
in abstract. In each instance of
detailed parts (e.g., technical features, roles, communication, work
processes, language, documents),
strategies become salient, emerging
over time, often in ways that are
not intended, ultimately impacting
interpersonal behavior.
Fourth, design involves power
relations. Buchanan claimed that
design is rhetorical, as “the art of
conceiving and planning products,”
which are “vehicles of argument
and persuasion about the desirable
qualities of private and public life”
[ 4]. We have experienced the process of design in an organization as
a political process. One group tries
March + April 2011