If you are a fan of the movie Office Space (and who isn't?), then the "Cover Sheet" reference is almost legend. This sub-plot to the story portrays a funny but all-too-real example of the dysfunctions of bureaucracy: the displacement of goals (Merton, 1957). A rule or process orginally implemented to provide instrumental value now becomes merely followed to provide terminal value.
Without knowing the entire back story, let's assume the cover sheet originally had instrumental value. It could have been for identification or routing purposes; or perhaps for some other practical reason. The movie shows the overwhelming need to use the cover sheet, but the players really don't know why. In fact the viewer gets the impression the cover sheet is an end in itself that has no practical value. Indeed, by now the cover sheet has ceased to have the instrumental value intended. The measure of success is the mere presence of the cover sheet, not whether the cover sheet fulfilled its original purpose.
So, let's look at a real world example. A present-day organization has implemented a training program. The instrumental value is bring awareness to security: secure information systems and prevent unauthorized access. In an environment growing in cyber-attacks, this is critical to business continuity. At first, the metrics collected on this effort focused on the number of employees trained. This is a relative measure of the instrumental value since we will assume the more employees trained means more awareness and thus more security. This is arguable. Over time, the organization has stressed completing training "early," that is before the required annual deadline. The organization has lost the instrumental value and has focused on the terminal value: a competition and rewards system has been put in place to foster early training. Click through the Powerpoints and check the box....success. Just give me the numbers.
I'm not sure whether the senior leadership who is stressing this effort actually knows, or can know, the actual effectiveness of the training. Success is measured in only in the completion of training....and early. Have incidents decreased? Are employees more aware? What of those numbers? Here, the displacement of goals has led to the dysfunction of bureaucracy. The employees are aware of the training, but they may not be aware of security.
We can have a good discussion about the instrumental value versus terminal value of Organizational and Process Maturity. Sounds like a good topic for a future Channel entry as it relates to IT Service Management.
Did you put the cover sheet on the security training metrics report?
FG
Merton, R.K., (1957). Social theory and social structure. New York Free Press. Simon & Schuster.
No comments:
Post a Comment