Direct influence
Reporting of
measurements
and other data
Consultancy and
methodology
improvements
Pressure on the group
or individual
© Roger M Tagg 2009 revised 2010
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
This diagram is something I drew for a conference presentation in 2008. The paper was titled "Is there a Role for Philosophy in Group Work?" Another author in 2007 had proposed that there was, and had advocated Heidegger's philosophy (which I paraphrase as "we don't primarily look at the world as observers, most of the time we are just IN the world, and we don't consciously think about what we are doing"). Examples are driving a car, or riding a bicycle. We only reflect on things when things don't go as expected, or we need to change something. It sounds a bit like "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (see Reading List).
In my paper I tried to apply FROLIO thinking to the group work situation, together with ideas from the research group I was working with on IT support for creative work in groups.
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| Key: Direct influence |
Reporting of measurements and other data |
Consultancy and methodology improvements |
Pressure on the group or individual |
Let's start with the customer (lower right). He does a deal with the supplier's negotiator for some products or services. This requirement is included in the total demand for the supplier to provide (cloud at the bottom). One copy goes to the manager who has the job of providing the service or product through a group of workers (or robots). There may also be a planner who works out the best way for the supplier to meet all the demands on it. A plan is agreed and given to the work group.
However that is not the only influence on the group's work. Administrators (e.g. Human Resources, Occupational Health and Safety) impose controls and procedures on the work group. The manager may hustle the group directly. The group's work culture may make a big difference (e.g. they may be intrinsically motivated to cooperate and do a good job on time, or they may feel imposed on and react negatively). Society's behaviour norms (e.g. the need to indulge in a bit of gossip) may have an effect, either directly or through individual motivation, which may be affected by the individual's home and after-work situation. Home life, in turn is affected by what family members read, hear or watch on TV and other media. Finally the external environment may make a difference, e.g. weather, lighting, air conditioning).
The group's work gives rise to a result (cream coloured cloud on right). The asterisk indicates that the result can be measured in some way, including quantity, quality, timeliness - and should include evaluation of any side effects. If there is a bad outcome (e.g. bad quality, lateness, bad side effects), the media may make a story of it, which feeds back to individual motivation. Hopefully though, the customer gets an acceptable result.
The results are analysed by the "bean counters" (e.g. accountants, statisticians), who feed back summaries of the results to the managers, the stakeholders, the administrators and the negotiator (the latter because they need to understand the company's bargaining stance).
The wheels of the supplier company's processes may be oiled by consultants (commercial or academic), who may have a range of improvements to suggest to the work group, the manager, the planner, the administrators and the negotiator. But what these advisors put forward may be tainted by the academic or consultancy market culture (blue cloud, bottom left) which encourages "publication mania" among practitioners, in order to either earn academic house points or to sell one's methodology as distinctive from the general herd.
Hardly any of the "influence arrows" are exclusively a matter of formal, structured data. All involve a degree of person-to-person influence and compromises between the role doing the influencing and the other role they are trying to influence. In other words, anyone can say "stuff you" if they feel poorly treated.
Index to more of these diatribes
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 2nd February 2010
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .