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SystemsResearchandBehavioralScience Syst. Res.18,181 1̂96 (2001)

& ResearchPaper

Multi-Modal Investigation of a Business Process and Information System Redesign: A Post-Implementation Case Study

Darek M. Eriksson*

Adera Sweden AB, Stockholm, Sweden

Multi-modal systems thinking (MST) has emerged in recent years as an alternative scienti®c paradigm to the more established ones, founded on positivistic, hermeneutic and critical bases, respectively. Among others, MST offers a system researcher and practitioner the multi-modal theory as an analysis and design tool. An attempt to use this is presented in this article. More speci®cally, a situation where an implementation of a new business process, supported by a new computerized information system, has taken place causing some unpredicted and unwanted consequences is presented. This case is analysed with the help of multi-modal theory, leading to an identi®cation of system design shortcomings. This exercise shows that the employed theory is a powerful tool for construction of multi-perspective models; it provides plausible intelligibility for why unexpected consequences emerged. Further, its use generated some heuristics for future systems modelling, analysis and design. The study also shows that the theory is ambiguous in its application; this in turn calls for its further development and operationalization. Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords business process modelling; multi-perspective studies; multi-modal systems thinking

INTRODUCTION

`What's emerging from the pattern of my own life is the belief that the crisis is being caused by the inadequacy of existing forms of thought to cope with the situation. It can't be solved by rational means because the rationality itself is the source of the problem.' (Robert M. Pirsig, 1981 p. 149)

This article presents a study where an imple- mentation of a new business process model

supported by a new computerized information system has taken place causing some unpre- dicted and unwanted consequences. This case is investigated with the multi-modal theory of a recent school of thought called multi-modal systems thinking (MST). Re¯ections upon the employment of these theories provide some heuristics for further development and use of this particular kind of systems thinking. The following gives an introduction to the topic.

The information systems community as well as systems thinking and management science com- munities, along with several others, have oper- ated in a kind of internal intellectual con¯ict, having two seemingly opposing meta-theoretical

Received 20 September 1999 Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 14 November 2000

* Correspondence to: Darek M. Eriksson, Adera Sweden AB, Stureplan 4a, 3rd ¯. SE-114 35 Stockholm, Sweden

positions. One was the positivistic foundation, as inherited from the natural sciences, while the second was the hermeneutic foundation, as inherited from the social sciences ± for this discussion see, for example, Checkland (1981) or Ivari et al. (1998). In the recent search for new and alternative theoretical and meta-theoretical foundations, in order to solve this tension, the so- called Frankfurt School of social studies, and particularly the work of its younger representa- tive J. Habermas (1984a, 1984b, 1987) on critical theory, has received signi®cant momentum. In the information systems community see, for instance, Lyytinen (1986), Ngwenyama (1987), Hirschheim and Klein (1989), Lyytinen (1992), Klein and Hirschheim (1993), Kendall and Avison (1993), Hirschheim and Klein (1994). Examples of this in¯uence in the systems thinking community are Ulrich (1983, 1987), Flood and Jackson (1991a, 1991b), Flood and Romm (1996a, 1996b).

Among others, critical theory offers a broader notion of rationality, not limiting itself to the goal-oriented or technical rationality, as the positivistic foundation tends to do, nor focusing on the communicative rationality as the herme- neutic foundation does. Because of its Kantian foundation, Habermasian works account for three kinds of rationality or inquiry: the empiri- cal±analytical sciences that focus on instrumental reason and provide nomological causal knowl- edge that aims at prediction and control of nature; the historic±hermeneutic sciences that provide the practical understanding of other human beings; and the critically oriented sciences, such as psychoanalysis and critical social theory, that provide emancipatory interest in freedom and overcoming unconscious com- pulsion. Unlike previous positions, the critical foundation offers a complementary notion of rationality where an attempt to bridge the gulf between the positivistic and the hermeneutic positions is made with the critical orientation.

Seemingly independent of each other, Ivanov (1996) in his critique of Hirschheim et al. (1996) attempt to map the information systems devel- opment approaches and Strijbos' (1995) evalua- tion of several systems thinking schools, but then also Eriksson's (1998) investigation of various

systems thinking positions, have all criticized the Habermasian foundation. As Strijbos (1995, p. 374) put it: `Science as an instrument of control is subjected to criticism by `critical systems think- ing' but this critical thinking remains subject itself to an autonomous rationality.' What makes the three critics more unique, however, is that they all, in their own way, propose an alternative foundation to the Habermasian, namely the so- called multi-modal systems thinking, which is founded on H. Dooyeweerd's (1894±1977) Cos- monomic philosophy and social theory. Even though it has ®rmly established theoretical and meta-theoretical foundations it lacks a wide experience of application, limited just to a handful of empirical studies (see, for example, Bergvall-KaÊ reborn and Grahn, 1996a, 1996b; Mirijamdotter, 1998; Bergvall-KaÊ reborn, 2000). In order to contribute to a remedy of this limitation, this article presents a study where an implementation of a new business process model supported by a new computerized infor- mation system has taken place causing some unpredicted and unwanted consequences. The investigation employs multi-modal theory, which is a part of MST. This employment gives rise to some re¯ections upon the use of this theory in terms of the method that emerged out of this employment and issues for further studies.

MULTI-MODAL SYSTEMS THINKING

Multi-modal theory and MST are here presented in context and in relation to more established alternative scienti®c paradigms in systems design.

MST in the Context of Three Established System Thinking Paradigms

MST emerged at the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s as an alternative scienti®c paradigm to systems design in general (see, for instance, de Raadt, 1989, 1991). Besides propos- ing a framework to systems design and manage- ment in general it also provides a particular approach to information systems (de Raadt,

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182 Darek M. Eriksson

1991; Win®eld et al., 1995). MST arose very much from the dissatisfaction of, and as an alternative to, the two well-established scienti®c paradigms, the positivistic founded and the hermeneutic founded, and the third currently establishing itself, the critical founded.

The main accusation towards the positivistic founded approaches for systems design deliv- ered by the hermeneutic position was concerning the nature of reality and knowledge, the nature of human beings and also the scienti®c metho- dology of inquiry. The positivist's position assumes that there is an independent reality of human thought and that an objective knowledge of that reality may be acquired. It also assumes that human beings and its actions are determi- nistic and a product of the external world while the nomothetic methodology aspires for descrip- tion, explanation and prediction of the world in terms of deterministic and stochastic behaviour. The hermeneutic position considers the positivist notions as a misconception that leads to a reduced knowledge of the studied phenomena. Its position is that reality is a product of individual consciousness, a product of one's own mind or of individual cognition, and that knowledge is subjective, based on experience, insight and essentially of a personal nature. The hermeneutic position also assumes that humans are voluntaristic or teleological, have a creative role and free will and create their environment. Its ideographic methodology's main concern is to understand the way an individual creates, modi®es and interprets the world (for more discussion about this topic see, for example, Checkland, 1981; Flood and Jackson, 1991a; Flood & Carson, 1993). While sharing the hermeneutic critique towards the positivistic founded approaches, the critical founded approaches accused the hermeneutic position, among others, of isolating itself from the positi- vistic position instead of being complementary, for not being self-critical and as a consequence for its relativistic tendency, and for being normative ± and thus ethically ± ignorant and therefore regulative rather than emancipatory (see, for example, Flood and Jackson, 1991a; Flood and Romm, 1996a). MST, on the other hand, criticizes the critical founded position for

accepting and promoting the intellectual supre- macy of rationality. Strijbos (1995, p. 374) articulates the argument in the following way: `Basic to this critique is the insight that rationality may not be separated from reality as it is given and from the insight that rationality as human reason is embedded within a supra-subjective and supra-arbitrary normative order of reality. This normative order preceded reason and every discussion of rationality, and it is therefore of fundamental importance for determining the status of reason and of science.' Eriksson (1998) presents a critique with similar consequences. Elaborating the Dooyeweerdian theory of ground motives that necessarily founds all theories, he concludes that the Kantian and thus also Habermasian founded approaches have an inherent and unresolved theoretical con¯ict that makes its normative guidance blind and reduced to intellectual reasoning and argumentation.

Various Dialects of MST: Position Allocation

The development of MST has mainly taken place in the context of the Centre for Tech- nology and Social Systems.

1 It is possible to distinguish several sub-developments within this school of thought. One is a combination of Dooyeweerdian theory with cybernetics (Ashby, 1960; Beer 1979, 1981) and general systems theory (von Bertalanffy, 1968; Boulding 1956), among others, as pursued by D. de Raadt and V. de Raadt (see, for example, de Raadt 1991, 1998, 2000). A second is the combination of Dooyeweerdian theory with Soft Systems Meth- odology (Checkland and Scholes, 1990) as exer- cised by B. Bergvall-KaÊ reborn, A. Grahn, and A. Mirijamdotter (Bergvall-KaÊ reborn and Grahn, 1996a, 1996b; Mirijamdotter, 1998; Bergvall- KaÊ reborn, 2000). Another attempt is the combination of Dooyeweerdian theories with

1 The Centre for Technology and Social Systems was of®cially founded in 1997 as a network organization by the Department of Informatics and Systems Science at LuleaÊ University of Technology in Sweden, Institute of Information Technology at Salford University in the UK, and the Philosophy Faculty at Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. More recently, the School of Modelling Sciences at Potchefstroom University in South Africa has joined this collabora- tion.

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Multi-Modal Investigation of a Business Process 183

various information technology domains, parti- cularly expert systems and multimedia, as done by Win®eld et al. (1995). Still another attempt is the combination of Dooyeweerdian approach with operational research in general, as per- formed by Strijbos (1995, 1999a, 1999b); this approach was recently relabelled as `Disclosive systems thinking' (Strijbos, 2000). Even though all these attempts share the same Dooyeweer- dian foundation and are very much intercon- nected, there are some differences in their approaches and interpretations, and also in the type of combinations they attempt with other non-Dooyeweerdian theories. Such diversity cannot be seen other than healthy when a new scienti®c school is establishing itself, as was the case with the early Frankfurt School and its critical theory (Burill, 1987, p. 8). In the present study, an attempt is made to use Dooyeweerdian theories together with some basic business process modelling techniques.

A Brief Map of Dooyeweerdian Theories

Herman Dooyeweerd (1894±1977) was a Dutch lawyer and philosopher. His philosophy was, among others, a reaction against the ± at the time ± dominating neo-Kantian trend in con- tinental thought, hence the title of his monu- mental work, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought (Dooyeweerd, 1955±58).

The result of his work may be organized into ®ve distinct, yet interrelated, domains of thought: the theory of religious ground motives, the modal theory, the theory of time, the entity theory or theory of individual structures, and the social theory. The present investigation uses the modal theory as a tool of investigation.2

Modal Theory

Modal theory emerged out of Dooyeweerd's comprehensive studies of theoretical thought and its relation to human reality. Dooyeweerd

maintained that our thought is based upon and bound to our experience and that this experience exhibited a number of distinct modalities (or levels, or aspects, or dimensions, or spheres) of organization or laws. Hence, a modality emerges out of human interaction with reality (which includes both perceptions and conceptions), and it is a particular type of knowledge that has its own unique and distinct characteristics. Dooye- weerd proposed 15 modalities, in the following order: arithmetic, spatial, kinematic, physical, biotic, sensitive or psychic, logical, historical, lingual, social, economic, aesthetic, juridical, ethical and pistic; see Table 1 for an overview of these modalities. It is important to note, however, that the intention of Dooyeweerd was never to construct a fully comprehensive and exclusive map of human experiences; it is a proposition and he welcomed motivated sugges- tions for modi®cations, which has been exercised for example by de Raadt (1998). Further, the distinction of the modal continuum into discrete modalities is made for diagnostic reasons; in practice they never appear isolated but rather in an inseparable nestle.

The element that distinguishes one modality from another is its respective nucleus or kernel, which makes each modality meaningful, unique and irreducible to another one; it provides a hub toward which entire modal order is aimed (see

2We have previously employed the theory of religious ground motives as a tool for investigation (Eriksson, 1998).

Table 1. The modalities and their related nuclei

Modality Nucleus

Credal Faith Ethical Love Juridical Justice Aesthetic Harmony Economic Frugality Social Social intercourse Informatory Symbolic representation Historic Formative power Analytic Distinction Psychic Feeling Biotic Vitality Physical Energy Kinetic Motion Spatial Continuous extension Numerical Discrete quantity

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Table 1). Further on, there exists a quantum leap between modalities; they are not isolated but rather intertwined strongly. Thus a modality is founded upon the preceding modalities and therefore the given order of modalities is not accidental. This allows a certain degree of homo- morphism between modalities ± the degree depends on the distance between modalities in relation. This homomorphism makes it possible to transduce knowledge between modalities. For example, social scientists often express aspects of social behaviour (operating in the social modality) in terms of quantitative measures (operating in the numeric modality). Eventual mathematical manipulation of the representations and consequently derived conclusions rest upon the laws of the numeric modality and not on the basis of social modality. Therefore while mathe- matically valid they do not have to be valid in the social sphere (de Raadt, 1998).

THE INVESTIGATED SYSTEM

Organizational Background

The business organization of this investigation was a vegetable, fruit and ¯ower sales depart- ment at a wholesale dealer that belonged to one of the largest food distribution companies in Sweden. This particular wholesale dealer was located in a medium-sized city in the south of northern Sweden. The food distribution com- pany had for some years investigated signi®cant ®nancial recourses in the development of a new nationwide information system (IS). The motive for that development was both to create new kinds of business processes, which were not really possible to actualize without information technology support, and to coordinate and make the existing business processes more ef®cient, mainly by automating the existing manual routines. The present case study investigated one particular redesign of a sales process. In the next three sections the sales process prior to its redesign is described, followed by a description of the redesigned process and then by an account to the identi®ed consequences of the implemen- tation of this redesign.

Sales Process Prior to its Redesign

Figure 1 shows a business model that illustrates the investigated sales process prior to its rede- sign. The wholesale dealer stored goods that were ordered by a large number of local food-selling stores in the area. These local stores sold the goods to the local public. The vegetable, fruit and ¯ower sales department had six salesmen, who handled selling of the goods to the local stores.

The following was a typical ordering scenario. Most frequently a salesman from the wholesale dealer rang a buyer at a local food-selling store. Sometimes a buyer rang a salesman. Then a dialogue took place concerning what the content of the order should be. The content of this dialogue showed up a certain complexity and will be discussed further in the analysis section. This dialogue led the buyer to make a decision about the content of his order. The salesman that received this order entered it into the order IS, which sent to the stock department a request for a delivery of this order. There the order was prepared for its delivery and then delivered to the local food-selling store that ordered it.

Redesigned Sales Process

Figure 2 shows a business model of the sales process after its redesign. In this process a buyer from a local food-selling store made a decision about the content of an order and then placed the order through an IS terminal. This order was transferred directly through the new order IS to the stock department of the wholesale dealer. When the stock department received the order they prepared it and delivered the goods to the local food-selling store that had placed that order.

Motivation for the Sales Process Redesign

The motivation for the sales process redesign was mainly to increase ef®ciency: more speci®cally, a reduction of operational costs of the wholesale dealer by elimination of the costs of six salesmen positions, and also an anticipated increase of ordering access, speed and accuracy that poten- tially would lead to an increase of ordering

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Multi-Modal Investigation of a Business Process 185

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Multi-Modal Investigation of a Business Process 187

volume. All this aimed to increase the pro®t- ability of the wholesale dealer. The cost of the process redesign and of the new IS, together with their implementation, were not consi- dered directly here but ®nanced by a central national budget of the whole food distribution company.

Juxtaposition of the Two Versions of the Sales Process

The difference between the two versions of the investigated sales process can be described in typical business process re-engineering terms. Hence, in the sales process prior to its redesign the number of involved actors that performed activities in this process were six: a buyer, a salesman, the stock department, the goods deliverer, an order IS and a stock. The number of activities that were required to complete this process was 12, while the number of hand-overs between different actors was eight. In the redesigned sales process the number of involved actors was ®ve: a buyer, the stock department, the deliverer, an order IS and a stock. The dialogue between a buyer and a salesman that preceded a buyer's decision about an order's content, was eliminated. The number of hand- overs between different actors was reduced from eight to ®ve. Further, the required time to place an order decreased signi®cantly. Finally, the running costs of the new sales process implied a signi®cant decrease, mainly by elimination of the costs of hiring six salesmen and the costs associated with their operations. Table 2 sum- marizes this juxtaposition between the two versions of the sales process.

Some Unanticipated Consequences of the Sales Process Redesign

Our investigation observed the immediate con- sequences that the above-described process rede- sign implied. As anticipated, the salesmen abolishment reduced the operative running costs of the wholesale dealer. However, the process redesign led also to some non-anticipated and unwanted consequences. The ordering beha- viour of buyers of the local food-selling stores changed. The total amount of goods that they ordered per time unit decreased signi®cantly; this led to a reduction of the total turnover volume, which in turn led to a signi®cant pro®t reduction for the wholesale dealer. Hence, in abstracted numbers for illustration reasons of the actual case, the pro®t reduction was 45 money units per time unit while the reduced costs for the abolished salesmen was 30 money units per time unit. This gave a de®cit of 15 money units per time unit. Thus, the main point here is that the pro®t reduction became larger in terms of money units than the previous costs of the abolished salesmen. This suggests that the main motive for the redesign ± i.e. to increase the overall pro®tability by exchanging the buyer± salesman±IS network into a buyer±IS network ± failed.

3 In the following section an analysis of the investigated situation with the help of modal theory is performed.

Table 2. Juxtaposition between the sales process prior to and after its redesign

Comparison criteria Sales process status

Prior to its redesign After its redesigned

Number of involved actors required to complete the process 6 5 Number of involved activities required to complete the process 12 6 Number of hand-overs between actors 8 5 Salesman±buyer dialogue Included Excluded Required time to complete the process Standard Reduced signi®cantly

3The assumption that it was the sales process redesign that caused the decrease in pro®t may always be challenged. For example, there could have been other parallel ongoing activities that impacted the sales behaviour, such as new competition on the market. These have not been taken into consideration in this investigation. Further, this particular study was limited in its time scope of investigation. It is thus possible to speculate that after some time the sales behaviour would reach the previous sales level. This point was also beyond the scope of this investigation.

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188 Darek M. Eriksson

ANALYSIS OF THE INVESTIGATED SYSTEM

The central question of this system analysis is: Why did the sales process redesign lead to a changed ordering behaviour of the buyers? In order to tackle this issue we need to set a focus for the analysis. One of the main differences between the two above-described versions of the sales process is that in the process prior to its redesign there was a relation between two actors, or entities, which became eliminated when the process became redesigned. This is the relation between a buyer and a salesman. Another difference between the involved actors is that in the process prior to its redesign there was a relation between salesman and order IS, while in the redesigned process this relation was exchanged to a relation between a buyer and the order IS. This particular analysis assumes that the relation between the buyer actor and the salesman actor provides insight into the stated question of investigation.

Further Description of the Buyer±Salesman Relation

A buyer ordered normally from the same sales- man over a period of some years. This resulted in a certain relationship between these two that also led to an emergence of certain norms in this relation ± a subculture. A typical content and

structure of the ordering dialogue that a buyer and a salesman carried out through the tele- phone is illustrated in Figure 3.

Further, most buyers used to visit their sales- man at the sales department with varying frequency, some of them as often as once a week. One of the main aims of that visit for a buyer was to inquire about the present situation and the plans for the near future about type of goods that were available and what would be delivered to the wholesale dealer. The buyers used also to inspect the goods stored in the stock department themselves in order to assess the quality of these. All this information was very useful for the buyers' planning. These visits were also used to deliver complaints when such a need arose.

Analysis of the Buyer±Salesman Relation

Identi®cation of Modal Norms in the Sales Process Prior to its Redesign This modal analysis starts with a description of the modal norms of the investigated actor relation prior to the process redesign.

The Social Modality. A typical buyer±salesman ordering dialogue that was carried out by telephone consisted of two main parts (see Figure 3). The ®rst part of the conversation actualized a personal relation between the two

ACTOR STATEMENT Buyer: Hello John! How are you? Salesman: Hello Peter! Thank you, I am just ®ne. Buyer: How are your wife and the kids? Salesman: Not bad at all! Although Tom has been sick for a week. Salesman: How is Diana? Buyer: She is just ®ne but rather busy with her new job.

Salesman: What would you like to have today? Buyer: I would like to order 20 boxes of oranges and 40 boxes of bananas. Salesman: Peter! I have been down to the store. The oranges are ®ne but

the bananas are and so-so. I would recommend that you order only 10 boxes of bananas. The apples are very nice, however, and I can give you a special price. Why not order 30 boxes of apples?

Figure 3. A typical content and structure of the ordering dialogue that a buyer and a salesman carried out by telephone. Part I of the illustrated dialogue represents actualization of a personal relation while Part II actualizes a professional relation

PART I

PART II

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Multi-Modal Investigation of a Business Process 189

actors where the norm required asking about each other's private situation and that of their families. Our investigation showed that this information was important for a salesman since it gave him a description of `the mental state of a buyer and his mode of being' (quotation from an interview), which helped him to set the mode, or strategy, for the sales dialogue.

The second part of the dialogue actualized a professional relation between the buyer and the salesman. The norm here was that the buyer started this dialogue by informing the salesman about his needs. The salesman then re¯ected upon its content and gave a response. This response could typically be either a full agreement with the buyer, a proposition to change the quantity to be ordered of the mentioned goods and/or a suggestion to order other goods that were not mentioned by the buyer in his ®rst order state- ment. This was typically followed by a discussion where the salesman gave information about the reason behind his offer. Eventually, the discussion led to a consensus where the two reached an agreement about the content of the order.

Historic Modality. The relation between a parti- cular buyer and salesman, including the emerged norms, was to a certain degree formed or determined by their pervious mutual experi- ence of meeting each other and their conversa- tions, which in some cases could be sharing their private and professional problems and success.

Spatial Modality. Typically there was a varying spatial distance between a salesman sitting in an of®ce at the wholesale dealer and a buyer being at a local food-selling store. This distance affected the kind of social intercourse that a salesman and a buyer had. Typically the buyer± salesman relationships that were characterized by a longer spatial distance implied that the buyer visited his salesman less often than those buyers that had a shorter distance to travel to their salesman. Further, the distance between a salesman and the wholesale dealer implied that a salesman could not easily see the goods himself that he ordered but had to be informed by his salesman. Moreover, the distance made them interact mostly by telephone, which also set

conditions on the kind of interaction that was possible to perform.

Informatory Modality. The salesman did inform the buyer about goods that were available, and their qualities and quantities. This information was typically conveyed by telephone, or through face-to-face discussion when the buyers visited their salesman and the wholesale dealer.

Kinematic Modality. The buyers had to move from their respective local food-selling stores to the wholesale dealer in order to visit their salesman to inspect the goods in storage, among others. This norm of movement and its frequency was very much determined by the spatial distance between a buyer and his salesman.

Psychic Modality. Three norms have been identi- ®ed in the psychic modality. First, people typically need social intercourse with other people in order to reach a state of mental well- being. This is especially the case for the so-called extrovert personalities that salesmen and buyers typically are. Second is the selling behaviour motivation of a salesman. In this particular case, a salesman's salary was partly based upon the amount of money that he managed to sell for. This motivated salesmen to work in a way that they sold as much as they could, which the wholesale dealer pro®ted from. Finally, a buyer's motivation was grounded in the dialogue with and offer provided by the salesman.

Economic Modality. Economic modality may be considered here as the qualifying one, i.e. the one that motivates the very existence of the inter- actor relation. This is because this relation was about trading, and without this it would not be actualized. Each salesman had a de®ned goal for his selling volume in terms of amount of money per time unit. Their salaries were partly based on the volume that they could sell. Further, if a salesman managed to sell more than the set goal, he received an additional bonus.

Ethical and Credal Modalities. A salesman would never provide misleading or untrue information about, for example, the quality of the ordered

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190 Darek M. Eriksson

goods. This ethical relation was in turn based upon a professional trust in each other that was a norm that belongs to the credal modality.

Identi®cation of Inter-Modal Norm Relations in the Sales Process Prior to its Redesign The following inter-modal relations were identi- ®ed. Table 3 provides an overview of this identi®cation.

The personal and professional norms of social modality gave rise to, and were supported by, the professional norm of ethical modality. More speci®cally, a salesman's advice or proposition to a buyer, about the content of an order, was considered to be correct and not misleading.

The norm not to misguide a buyer, in the ethical modality, was supported by the estab- lished trust being a norm of the credal modality.

The professional and personal norms actual in the social relation between a buyer and a sales- man, in the social modality, were partly formed by the mutual past experience of their relation; this is a norm of the historic modality.

The psychic norm of mental well-being, of the psychic modality, was supported by the social intercourse norms established in the social modality.

The economic norm of maximizing selling of the goods, in the economic modality, was sup- ported by the motivational norm of the psychic modality, which in turn was triggered by the salary norm present in the economic modality.

The spatial distance, a norm of the spatial modality, conditioned the norms for social intercourse present in the social modality. The same spatial distance norm also determined the physical movement norm of the buyers, who moved in order to visit their buyer and the wholesale dealer, which was a kinematic norm.

The informatory norms were conditioned par- tly by the spatial norms. Typical information exchanges were conducted mainly by telephone, and only occasionally by face-to-face commu- nication.

Identi®cation of Consequences of Sales Process Rede- sign on the Established Modal Norms In this section the leading questions are: (a) which established norms and inter-modal norm

relations in the sales process prior to its redesign were impacted by the process redesign, and (b) what consequences did the modal norm and inter-modal norm relations change result in?

All the previously identi®ed modal norms that constituted the buyer±salesman relation, except for the kinematic and the spatial, became modi®ed or exterminated when the buyer was excluded from the new sales process. Thus the trust norm in the credal modality as was established between a buyer and a salesman became exterminated. The same happened to the ethical, economic, social, historic and psychic modal norms. The kinematic norm of buyers' movement to the wholesale dealer remained intact as was the spatial norm of distance between a buyer and the wholesale dealer, where the buyer used to sit.

Starting with the credal norm, the trust that governed the buyer±salesman relation disap- peared. The buyer had to trust in his or her new IS. The relation between two humans is fundamentally different from that between a human and a machine. Among others, machines cannot be assigned the property of responsibility. Given that a buyer may have a different type of trust in his IS, the trust norm takes time to build up. We ®nd it likely to conclude that the extermination of the trust norm, within the credal modality, did impact buyers' buying behaviour so that they became more careful and were motivated to order less than pre- viously.

Moving to the ethical norm, it is resonable to draw a very similar conclusion. The extermina- tion of the ethical norm, that only correct and not misleading information should be provided to the buyer, affected the buyers' behaviour to act more carefully and hence order less amount of goods.

The economic modality's norm of the buyer± salesman relation was that a salesman's salary was based upon the amount he was able to sell for. The extermination of this norm imp- lied that the motivation (within the psychic modality) for selling more disappeared. We conclude that this affected the buyers' buying behaviour in a way that they ordered less amount of goods.

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Table 3. The result of modal norm analysis and the identi®cation of inter-modal relations of the sales process prior to its redesign

Modality Norms Relations

Credal A buyer's trust in a salesman convey of truth information.

Ethical A salesman would not provide untrue information, for example, about the quality of the ordered goods

Juridical A legal order contract was established in the buyer±salesman order dialogue

Aesthetic No relevant norms were found

Economic A salesman's salary was based on the volume of money he could sell for. When selling more than the de®ned goals the salesman received a special bonus

Social Private role: to ask about each other's private situation and their families Professional role: the buyer informed the salesman about his needs. The salesman agreed or proposed modi®cation of quantity of the required goods and/or suggested ordering other goods

Informatory The information was conveyed mainly by telephone, and occasionally through face-to-face dialogue

Historic A buyer±salesman relation was formed by several years of interaction, which could include sharing their private and professional problems and successes

Analytic No relevant norms were found

Psychic People need social intercourse with other people in order to reach a mental state of well-being, especially relevant for extrovert personalities, which buyers and salesmen tend to be

Each salesman was motivated to sell as much as he could yet following the established norms between the salesman and a buyer

Biotic No relevant norms were found

Physical No relevant norms were found

Kinematic The buyers did move physically in order to visit their buyer and the wholesale dealer

Spatial Spatial distance between a buyer and a salesman led to the following: * shorter distance implied more frequent buyer visits of

salesman, longer distance implied less frequent buyer visits of salesman;

* a buyer could not see himself the quality of goods that he ordered but had to be informed by his salesman;

* most of the buyer±salesman social intercourse had to be performed by telephone, which in turn set conditions on the type and content of dialogue they performed

Numerical No relevant norms were found

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Considering the social modality, both the identi®ed private role and professional role norms became exterminated. This must be seen as the crucial extermination, because without buyer±salesman social intercourse all but two other modal norms were unable to be maintained. Since those norms governed and conditioned the selling process, a reasonable conclusion is that the disappearance of the social norms impacted the buyers' buying behaviour negatively in respect to the amount of ordered goods.

The norms of the historic modality condi- tioned the buyer±salesman relation. The discon- tinuation of these implied that they could no longer condition the buying behaviour of the buyers. Indeed the buyers had no history with the new IS.

The extermination of the established psychic norms implied that there was no motivational property, between a buyer and the IS, that drove and promoted the selling process. Considering the psychic norm of social interaction, it is reasonable to consider that its satisfaction was ful®lled by interaction with other people. Table 4 illustrates the modal norm extermination as discussed above.

The main question of this analysis is: why did the sales process re±design lead to a changed ordering behaviour of the buyers? The following answer may be derived from the analysis carried out above.

The reason why the sales process redesign led to a changed ordering behaviour of the buyers was that there was no buyer±salesman social interaction that could give rise to personal and professional social norms, which would establish a trust norm that would found the ethical norms, which would promote a positive buying behaviour. There were no more economic norms that would found psychic norms of motivation for the salesmen, which, in turn, would promote buyers' behaviour positively. The disconti- nuation of the historic norm implied that the new buyer IS relation was not historically formed or conditioned, which in this case implied that there were no established norms in the modalities, which impacted the buyers' buying behaviour negatively.

REFLECTIONS AND DISCUSSION OF THE EMPLOYED THEORY

Re¯ection upon the activities that were per- formed in this study generates a description of

Table 4. The result of modal norm analysis of the sales process after its redesign. Rows in italics represent the modal norms that became exterminated by the redesign

Modality Norms

Credal Exterminated Ethical Exterminated Juridical Exterminated Aesthetic No relevant norms were found Economic Exterminated Social Exterminated Informatory Exterminated Historic Exterminated Analytic No relevant norms were found Psychic Exterminated Biotic No relevant norms were found Physical No relevant norms were found Kinematic The buyers did move physically in order to visit the

wholesale dealer Spatial Spatial distance between a buyer and the wholesale

dealer led to the following: * shorter distance implied more frequent buyer visits * longer distance implied less frequent buyer visits

Numerical No relevant norms were found.

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the actual procedure or method that emerged during the investigation. This method had the following main activities:

(1) Initial appreciation of the situation, where the investigators became acquainted with the domain of investigation and its circum- stances.

(2) General description of the situation, including business process model construction of the two situations within the case, identi®cation of motivation for the business process rede- sign, and identi®cation of the consequences of the business process redesign.

(3) Further analysis included: (a) precision of the main question of inves-

tigation; (b) establishment of focus or boundaries of

further investigation; this focus was done by identi®cation of structural changes in actor or entity relations;

(d) multi-modal modelling: identi®cation of modal norms within the focused domain in the pre redesign situation;

(e) multi-modal modelling: identi®cation of inter-modal relationships within the identi®ed modal norms;

(f) multi-modal modelling: identi®cation of modal norm modi®cations due to process redesign;

(g) derivation of answer to the main ques- tion of investigation from the identi®ed modal norm modi®cations.

In this method description certain issues may be observed. One is that the combination of business process modelling with multi-modal modelling was a possible and seemingly fruitful exercise in order to create a well-focused yet multi-perspective description of the situation of investigation.

Second is the problem of focusing or boun- dary setting for further elaboration. The problem is of knowing where to set the boundary for further investigation and the risk that the answer to the main question of investigation

may be outside the de®ned boundary. This is, however, a general system analysis problem, whose solution is not provided by multi-modal modelling.4

Third is that the norm identi®cation varied in focusing on the very relation of the two actors or entities present in the focused domain on the one hand, and on an actor as such on the other hand, yet the latter was within the focused relation. This variance of focus was not analytically motivated and must be further studied.

Fourth is that the modalities provide a general a priori frame or spectacles that guide the normative inquiry by directing what type of norms one should attempt to identify. It does not say anything about how these norms should be identi®ed, and thus it may lead to a disregard of relevant modal norm descriptions. A solution to this issue can be employment of relevant theories that qualify each modality. Hence, for example, the psychic modality needs psycho- logical theories, while the aesthetic modality needs aesthetic theory. This leads us to the next issue.

Fifth, identi®cation of modal norms and their interrelations requires an encyclopaedic knowl- edge of very diverse types of disciplines. It seems to be a challenging task for a small group of system investigators to possess such knowledge. This in turn may lead to multimodal analysis becoming naive, super®cial and thus generating a trivial result.

Sixth, identi®cation of inter-modal norm rela- tions was performed mainly on intuitive bases rather than guided systematically by a theory. This questions the reproducibility and useful- ness of such an analysis and is an issue that requires further investigation.

Finally, the case study shows that multi-modal modelling has relevance for system design in general. This is because it focuses on the following questions of system design. What kind of normative change will a proposed system design likely lead to? And then, what consequences will the normative changes lead to?

4The issue of boundary setting has been elaborated extensively by Ulrich (1983) in his critical systems heuristics.

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194 Darek M. Eriksson

CONCLUSIONS

MST is a recent approach to systems design and management in general. It distinguishes itself from the more elaborated schools of thought, i.e. the so-called hard systems thinking, soft systems thinking and critical systems thinking by assum- ing different meta-theoretical positions in regard to reality, knowledge, human nature and parti- cularly the motivational or existential ground motives. Even though MST has extensively elaborated theoretical foundations, there are few documented applications within the domain of systems thinking or management. This text has presented an application of the multi-modal theory, which is part of MST, in an analysis of a business process re-engineering case. This ana- lysis has provided a multi-perspective descrip- tion of the inquired situation and also provided an intelligible understanding of that situation. The employment of multi-modal theory has generated a prototype of a generic method that may be used in future system analyses. This employment has also identi®ed several short- comings and issues for further studies. The conclusion is therefore that MST provides poten- tially a powerful theoretical foundation for analysis and design of systems. However, this theory needs more research for its operationali- zation so that it may become an actual tool that supports systems analysis and design.

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