A PARADIGM CRISIS IN VALUE MANAGEMENT?

S. D. GREEN

Department of Construction Management & Engineering, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 219, Reading, RG6 6AW, UK

Abstract

The paper contends that the discipline of value management is currently undergoing a paradigm crisis. An analogy is made to the wider discipline of operational research, which emerged from a similar paradigm crisis during the early 1980s. It is suggested that the underlying assumptions of traditional value engineering are identical to those of 'hard' operational research. However, whilst this paradigm of optimisation is perfectly valid when faced with well-defined technical problems, it has invariably failed when faced with the soft, social problems which often distinguish the early stages of building design. It is argued that this is especially true for multi-faceted clients. A generic framework for value management is seen to be provided by the concept of group decision support, as developed within the emerging tradition of 'soft' operational research. The optimising paradigm of value engineering therefore represents a special case of value management which can be justified in some circumstances. The distinction between unitary and pluralistic client organisations is seen to be particularly important in ascertaining which approach is appropriate.

Keywords: Value management, value engineering, operational research, group decision support, paradigmatic validity.