Huff: Management is a relatively young profession
and a young field of study. For some time, there has
been an interest in "design" as a primary descriptor
of management practice. Herbert Simon described
management as a "design science" in The Sciences of
the Artificial, first published in 1969 and reissued in a
third edition in 1996, yet the specifics of design have
not been clear to me, especially as the basis for
action.
My interest in design was recently piqued by David
Tranfield, professor of management at Cranfield
School of Management, who then introduced me to the
work of Joan (pronounced "Johan" for those of you
not familiar with names from the Netherlands) van
Aken, professor of organization and management at
Eindhoven University of Technology. van Aken’s work
was very interesting, but I wasn’t initially convinced
that management conceived as design could incorporate
two metaphors for management that I have been
more inclined to use: an "artful" blend of resources and
action and the "capacity to respond to surprise."
The following conversation with David and Joan
provided a convincing positive answer. We discuss
the definition of design, its importance, the art of
design, its capacity to deal with surprise, inevitable
limitations, how theory is involved, and a vision of
the future. I hope that readers will find the basic idea
as significant as I do
