Masks and Magic

Masks and Magic

I am reading a book about management, technology and 'technomagic'. It concentrates on the rise of New Public Sector Management, now being replaced by New Public Value Management. Fads or Fashions? This is the world I go back to tomorrow. I am as much a victim as a perpetrator. The thesis centres on an argument that Management has become overly focused on targets, measurements and outcomes. This is at the expense of understanding complex processes in systemic terms. We need to have a much richer understanding of the skilled artisanship that management should be based on; not just a blind trust in iconic and charismatic leaders 'leading us like Lemmings over a gigantic cliff face'

Management is all about design of work practices and the setting up of social relationships. It should be about empowerment, creativity, ethical duty, common good and innovation. Do we see many examples of this these days? Modern day managers have abrogated their responsibilities and have hidden behind KPIs and performance dogma. It is an excuse not to be creative, brave or innovative. The easiest thing in the world is to blindly follow orders, do not question, do not think, do not moralise, and just inflict your power on a tightly controlled hierarchical structure. This now permeates all the way down the food chain, from political elites, to civil service mandarins, to local government - and so on.

Technology is often proselytised as a panacea for new step changes in efficiency, effectiveness and profit. It is not a magic silver bullet however. Yet - time after time, politicians and managers see it as thus. It takes a lot of hard social analysis, even complex ethnographic study, to understand how technology can be utilised effectively for new forms of organisational and work design. It is all about new form and function. It is all about the richness of process and innovating either in terms of service or product.

Ancient civilisations, like those that made this mask, believed in magic. This was immersed in magic rites and rituals. A social construction took place where participants believed in the cure. This was not really rational or logical, but if it went wrong, it was not because of magic, but because the magic was applied incorrectly. The book I am reading argues that technology is the new magic. We also believe in these complex rites, rituals and physical artefacts/symbols. If it does not work, we blame the implementors. Management today believes in this magic. When technology does not work, it is not the design of the technology per se, or the bad design of the managers. It is just seen as a poor implementation. So we just go around in a vicious circle and recreate the same old mistakes, time and time again.

NHS National Programme for IT (V2) - Jeremy Hunt - It's going to be Magic !!