Digital Decision Making als Entscheidung, nicht zu entscheiden

Abstract

ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag diskutiert das Spannungsfeld zwischen digitaler Strukturbildung und personengebundener Entscheidungsproduktion in Organisationen mithilfe organisations- und entscheidungstheoretischer Annahmen. Digitalisierung greift aufgrund ihrer spezifischen Form tief in die Arbeitsabläufe von Organisationen ein, aktualisiert dabei aber deren traditionelle Form: Während algorithmusbasierte Prozesse organisationaler Strukturautomation Entscheidungsspielräume einschränken, wird Personenorientierung immer wichtiger. Das digitale Projekt, Organisationsstrukturen rational und störunanfällig zu machen, führt zur Etablierung einer rechenbasierten Eigenlogik, die das organisationale Kontinuum zwischen Aufgaben- und Personenorientierung in beide Richtungen ausweitet. Durch digitale Strukturautomation werden personengebundene Eigenschaften zum entscheidenden Faktor bei der Fruchtbarmachung von Spielräumen, die nun extra organisiert werden.

Organized Futures. On the Ambiguity of the Digital Absorption of Uncertainty

“…Structural guidelines and organizational expectations are general guidelines that need to be respecified in the organizational day-to-day operations. Unless one assumes a technical relation, there is a moment of uncertainty in the difference between specification and respecification (Wendt and Manhart 2020). The practice of the organization is constituted in the field of tension between person-independent processes of structure formation and person-bound characteristics and competencies that are inseparably linked to the individuals involved.…”

“…The ongoing digitalization implies that the part of algorithmbased computing processes is increasing in organizations. Algorithm-based software solutions such as digital documentation applications, standard business software, or digital case management systems extend the course of form use, file regularity, and list formality, which have always been applied as forms of data-based control in organizations on the planning side (Wendt and Manhart 2020). While the use of files, lists and forms already preforms the available options for action, this also applies to software solutions that represent a new i.e., digital, form of structuring processes (Kelkar 2018).…”

“…The linkages of numbers are mathematically regulated and so the claim to conceptualize the organization as an interconnection of technical relations (Ezzamel et al, 1990) in planning terms can be realized in the form of a calculating machine. The classic data affinity of the organization is thus supported by new tools (Wendt and Manhart 2020). This is extremely functional for ensuring organizational processes.…”

“…Organizations cannot be reduced to an exclusive form of connectivity. This is because while linkages of numbers are not contingent, this is precisely not the case for communication and decision making (Wendt and Manhart 2020). When computing is done, no decision is made (Provost and Fawcett 2013).…”

“…Complexity generated by educational practices of context management therefore points to the topicality of classical educational theory, which early on addressed the issue of dealing with unpredictability. Not acknowledging the unpredictability of individuals and the dynamics of social interaction, educational problems would be part of machine theory, which addresses the frictionless and person-independent processing of information (Wendt and Manhart 2020). The classical concept of Bildung in particular is based on productive confrontation with the unintentional contingencies of the environment and addresses a reflexive form of self-organization (Manhart 2003;Manhart 2018).…”