There is little evidence that the ability of today’s organizations to accurately understand the world and predict the future has increased one iota. Massive spending on these [information] systems has not prevented corporations from wandering off the beaten strategic path, or being ambushed by new competitors and changing markets, and I would argue that the reason for this is a natural tension between the pursuits of reliability and validity.
Reliability seeks to produce consistent, predictable outcomes by utilizing a system that is restricted to the use of objective data. To produce the highest reliability possible, a system must stick to quantitative, objective data and use of the data that does not involve judgment, because blending subjectivity and judgment leads to inconsistency. Validity, on the other hand, seeks to produce outcomes that meet the desired objective, even if the system employed can’t produce a consistent, predictable outcome. Proponents of ERP, CRM,TQM and KMS would all argue that their systems advance not only the cause of reliability, but of validity. In reality, however, past a certain point, the pursuit of more reliability actually reduces validity, and vice versa.
Author: Roger L. Martin
Source: Rotman Magazine
Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior
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