Explaining the I.T. Productivity Paradox
- Example of an Dooyeweerdian Analysis

To: Leslie Willcocks, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, U.K.
19 September 2001

Dear Leslie,

Many thanks for your thought-provoking talk on Five Paradoxes at ECITE yesterday. I understand your five paradoxes to be:

1. High investment in I.T. But low benefits.
2. Introduction of I.T. is a high-risk, hidden-cost process. But thorough risk analysis is rare.
3. 'Strategic IT' organizations see I.T. as a strategically important part of the organization while 'Agnostic IT' organizations do not. Yet it is the latter that undertake the more detailed evaluations of I.T.
4. There is a correlation between quality of I.T. evaluation and enhancement in I.T. performance. Yet I.T. evaluation techniques rarely improve.
5. Over the period 1998-2001, the greater the spend on I.T. the worse I.T. evaluation became.

(Please correct me if I have misunderstood them.)

I asked you whether you had considered the relationship between the paradoxes. Pondering this question myself, I drew a diagram to see how they all fitted into the whole picture and, though that was useful, I found other ideas more productive still. They emerged from a philosophical framework that I sometimes apply to issues of I.T. usage, success and failure. I explain what emerged briefly here in the hope they might be useful to you or you will find them in any way interesting.

The first is on the nature of paradox and antinomy, which is an issue this philosophy takes to be important. The philosophical framework holds that there are a number of distinct aspects in which we function - such as biological, social, economic, juridical, and about a dozen others. It suggests that paradox occurs when we are trying to analyse a situation from within the wrong aspect. Paradox 1 is expressed in words and concepts of the economic aspect, as are paradoxes 3 and 5. Paradox 2 is expressed in words and concepts of the analytic aspect of distinction-making. Paradox 4 is expressed in words and concepts belonging mainly to the formative aspect of technique and formation.

The important thing here is not what the aspects are, but that an issue of aspect X cannot be explained meaningfully in terms of aspect Y. This stems from the fundamental irreducibility of the aspects.

The second thing was that, if this were so, I should seek the 'correct' aspects in terms of which the paradoxes might be resolved. It turns out there is one candidate aspect that seems able to explain them all.

The final aspect that this philosophy discusses, and perhaps the most powerful, is what is called the pistic (from the Greek word 'pistis' meaning faith). The kernel of the pistic aspect is vision, faith and commitment. The pistic aspect covers our vision of who we are what things around us are, who or what God is, faith and faithfulness, our deep commitments in life, and certain religious aspects of life. This philosopher's proposal is that, among other things:

• The pistic aspect has deep effects on all the rest of our lives, even our science and rationality.
• Each aspect has laws; the pistic has laws concerning faith, vision, commitment. Functioning in line with such laws results in 'good' or 'success' while functioning against such laws results in 'harm' or 'failure' (whether the repercussions be direct or indirect).

It seems to me that each of your paradoxes may perhaps be explained by reference to the pistic aspect. What the Dutch economist Gouzewaard has called idolatry is part of this pistic aspect, a negative functioning therein, an unhealthy and counter-productive commitment, faith, vision. Features of idolatry include:

1. The idol assumes such an importance that it pervades the whole of life.
2. Other things are often irrationally sacrificed to the idol, or on its behalf.
3. People are willing to endure suffering for the sake of the idol.
4. Strenuous efforts are made to protect the idol.
5. The idol cannot be questioned; analytical scrutiny of the idol is deemed heresy.
6. The idol blinds its worshipers.
7. The idol often delivers the opposite of what it promises.
8. Idolatry is a community, more than personal, commitment, and, increasingly permeates the life and world view of the community. It is closely tied in with fashion and hype.

This can explain the paradoxes in terms of an idolatrous commitment to, and faith in, and vision of, I.T. as follows:

Paradox	Aspect in which Paradox Occurs	Explanation by pistic aspect
1. High investment in I.T. But low benefits.	Economic aspect - We would expect that investment would be cut, rather than maintained at a high level, if return on investment were low.	(b) Other things are often irrationally sacrificed to the idol, or on its behalf. (c) People are willing to endure suffering for the sake of the idol.
2. Introduction of I.T. is a high-risk, hidden-cost process. But thorough risk analysis is rare.	Analytical aspect. We would expect that where there is uncertainty and unclarity related to an important business process, then analysis would be more thorough.	(e) The idol cannot be questioned; analytical scrutiny of the idol is deemed heresy. (c) People are willing to endure suffering for the sake of the idol.
3. 'Strategic IT' organizations see I.T. as a strategically important part of the organization while 'Agnostic IT' organizations do not. Yet it is the latter that undertake the more detailed evaluations of I.T.	Economic aspect - We would expect that what is considered an important resource would be given the greater analysis and evaluation.	(a) The idol assumes such an importance that it pervades the whole of life. (e) The idol cannot be questioned; analytical scrutiny of the idol is deemed heresy.
4. There is a correlation between quality of I.T. evaluation and enhancement in I.T. performance. Yet I.T. evaluation techniques rarely improve.	Formative aspect - We would expect that if we wished to enhance performance in one factor X and it was clear that factor Y is linked to X and factor Y is under our control, then we would enhance factor Y.	(f) The idol blinds its worshipers. (e) The idol cannot be questioned; analytical scrutiny of the idol is deemed heresy.
5. Over the period 1998-2001, the greater the spend on I.T. the worse I.T. evaluation became.	Economic aspect - We would expect that factors positively linked to spend would increase as spending increased.	(h) Idolatry is a community, more than personal, commitment, and, increasingly permeates the life and world view of the community. It is closely tied in with fashion and hype. (b) Other things are often irrationally sacrificed to the idol, or on its behalf. (c) People are willing to endure suffering for the sake of the idol.

I trust these observations might be of interest to you, and would value your comments.

Andrew Basden, 19 September 2001.

Last updated: 19 September 2001 created. 19 June 2008 u-net link removed.