During a discussion last night, a friend of mine sparked of a thought when he wondered if the VPEC-T dimensions, or something like them, are used by conflict negotiators working on such challenges as the Middle East peace talks. This got me thinking about the fundamental need to understand and then resolve or live-with Value Systems differences in any Information System. This seems obvious and intuitive when we think about a ‘Peace Talks’ Information System but less so when we’re planning to deploy an ERP package to support a business Information System.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not trying to make a comparison between the two, rather, it feels like this cartoonish comparison might trigger an interesting discussion – any thoughts?
I remember Edwards Demings dictum that every system has a purpose when I was trained during the 80s in his ideas.
I don’t see how you can decouple value from purpose. There if an information system is a component of any system then it “must” support the values of the system if it is to generate value…
There is something to be said for the ability to drive value from said system (originally designed with a certain purpose in mind). But what about businesses who then seek to use the system for multi-uses and therefore seek to gain multi-values (which may contradict each other). Sometimes this is implemented iteratively with many different drivers and focus points pushing the system forward.
When the system is implemented, it may need to integrate with many value systems across the organisation. Is this where policies comes into play?
On another line of thought, an information sytem encompasses more than just technology and as we encounter such intangible human emotions towards gaining this value, can we sell off-the-shelf value systems?
For me this is about understanding the differences in Values (Value Systems) between participants in the Information System and determining a degree of precedence based on the higher order goals (e.g. the needed business outcome). I think the underlying issue here is that there are often many Value Systems across a web of many Information Systems - only parts of which are being automated or supported by IT (e.g. An ERP package), And often the Policies (e.g.Rules) for interaction are undefined, contradictory or otherwise unhelpful.
Aren’t religions examples of off-the-shelf Value Systems? …