Lecture 2:Diversity

Jarmo Sarkkinen

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Diversity= Variety = a collection made of different

elements, kinds or individuals1) Superficial diversity

based on differences in age, gender, ethnicity, nationality

2) Deep-level diversitybased on differences in knowledge and values

• Diversity is a reality constructed by individuals and groups from a broad spectrum of demographic and philosophical differences

• Today, increasing amounts of interaction between individuals reduce the importance of superficial diversity and increase the importance of deep-level diversity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity)

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Viewpoint• For a person, a viewpoint is ”a particular

representation of an object” (Bucciarelli 2002)• Due to their own life histories, different participants,

”with different competencies, skills, responsibilities and interests, inhabit different object-worlds”

• People see objects of change differently• Viewpoints constrain and define a level of abstraction

for the representation of objects of change• From filtering to switching between levels of

abstraction• Static versus dynamic notion of viewpoints

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More on viewpoint

• Discipline-specific viewpoints are constructed according to discipline-specific knowledge (”constraints” specific to a discipline) and they are shared by members of the discipline

• Meanings associated with the constraints within each discipline may vary to some extent

• Integrated viewpoints are representations constructed through the ’argumentation’ process within the team, and shared across disciplines

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Voices of design

• Words and sentences have boundaries determined by speaking individuals

• Each word or sentence is based on a voice constraining and defining speaking (and writing)

• Each voice provides one view of the speaker’s perspective, conceptual horizon and intention

• Dictionary meaning vs. situational meaning• Practically speaking, voices of design ”express the

workplace context, the actions of participants, and the influences from the institutions involved”

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Three voices of design(Timpka & Sjöberg 1996)

• Voice of participatory design is focused on process matters, and the product (or IS) is secondary

• Voice of practice addresses the product (or IS) in the practice context, and the process in the design team is of secondary interest

• Voice of engineering is focused on the product itself, and the related (participatory) process is of lesser importance

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Change management

• ’Management for productivity’ (e.g. Schermerhorn 1989), including dealing with resistance

• What is resistance?• Typically resistance is seen as ”undesirable”• Resistance needs to be ”overcome”• Resistance can also be useful resource of

change• The aim can be to ”utilize”, not ”overcome”

resistance

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Resistance

• Change resistance• Resistance is one of the most ubiquitous

organizational phenomena (Schein 1988)• Resistance maintains existing state of

organizational affairs in the face of pressure to alter this status quo (Zaltman & Duncan 1977)

• Why would resistance be a bad thing?• That is, it is argued, because it ”introduces

unanticipated delays, costs and instabilities into the process of a strategic change” (Ansoff 1988)

=> The mismanagement of resistance

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Good conflict?(Trimmer et al. 2000)

• Resistance conflict?• (Conflict ) resistance ( conflict)?• E.g. opposing preferences as source of

behaviour (Pruitt 1998)• Two types of conflict:

relationship / task conflict• The aim is to ”utilize”, not ”overcome” task

conflict

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Dealing with resistance in a positive manner

”Specifically, [management] can use the nature of the resistance as an indicator of the cause of resistance. It will be most helpful as a symptom if [management] diagnoses the causes for it when it occurs rather than inhibiting it at once”

[Bartlett & Kayser 1972, p.407]

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Why?

”Resistance is what keeps us from attaching ourselves to every boneheaded idea that comes along”

[Maurer 1996]

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How?

”Employees must be given the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the change project and they must be given the opportunity to provide feedback”

[Waddell & Sohal 1998]

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Factors of resistance

• Factors typically seen as causing resistance to change include:- force of habit- fear of unknown- loss of control- loss of face- loss of competency- need for security- poor timing,- lack of support- lack of confidence- lingering anger- anything else...?

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What if...?

• What if people are simply stuck to their own situational viewpoints, and their voices?

• If force of habit is one of the fundamental explanations of resistance, resistance may appear as a diversity of viewpoints and voices

• How should these diverse viewpoints and voices be handled?

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Diversity management

• To emphasize one core, ’top-down’ management viewpoint (and the voice in its background) is not necessarily the best possible way of managing change confronted

• What may result from this type of one-dimensional thinking are troubles in new organizational work practices to be supported by new technologies and IS

• To take multiple viewpoints and voices into account is one of the better ways of managing change

• It is a matter of dealing with diversity, a matter of diversity management (DM)

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The assumption

• The assumption is that people have (and they should have) more choices available in their daily working lifes for managing organizational and societal affairs, and this means resolving dilemmas related to these choices is a common business which is especially true in design teams inherently confronted with a turbulent change

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Why DM?

• Bringing about more reflexivity and more intelligent and responsible ways of acting, for example in encounters of design

• Knowledge claims should be resolved in the light of their implications for a social cycle of action-reflection-action by assessing whether they will have negative or positive consequences for social life

• ”Castles made of sand, slip into the sea, eventually” (Flood & Romm 1996, p.57)

• Diversity of criteria by which to judge choices being made

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Design management of organizations and processes

(Flood & Romm 1996)

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Management of decision debate and a variety of viewpoints

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Might-right management

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Enhancing the process of choice

• Every stakeholder in encounters of design need to have the reflexive capacity to learn from different models introduced, by opening up to their lessons and how to use, with increased understanding, ”methodologies” based on the models