Page 199 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations
P. 199

182                                                        A. Möller


            Good examples for a new ‘language’ are the Sankey diagrams used to visualize
            material and energy flows. In the 1990s software tools were developed to support
            material and energy flow analyses and life cycle assessments. The idea was to pres-
            ent the results in the form of eco-balances (period-oriented input-output balances
            and life cycle inventories in the product-oriented perspective). In fact, the tools are
            able to generate these tables with a large number of entries on the input and output
            side. However, eco-balances are much less popular than expected. It is obviously
            not possible to use the tables as arguments in communication processes. In fact, the
            first environmental reports in the 1990s included detailed eco-balances. Reports
            today present the results in a different way. Surprisingly, an additional visualiza-
            tion instrument to present the results in the form of Sankey diagrams was much
            more successful. Software development for corporate sustainability has to think
            about ‘languages’. How do methods and tools define new languages? And how can
            members of an organization understand these new languages? Methods and instru-
            ments are still being discussed with regard to correctness (data quality, correctness
            of methods, system boundaries etc.). The language-action perspective (LAP) sheds
            light on the question of usability. How can these tools become an important part of
            conversation support systems? And what are the resulting requirements for the
            respective software components? Building such software systems is still an unmet
            challenge (de Moor and Aakhus 2006).
              Finally, it is possible to distinguish two different ways in which computer soft-
            ware can support corporate sustainability communication: firstly as a new medium
            with email, instant messaging, OSNs etc.; and secondly as a support tool for good
            arguments by providing visualization of non-sustainable structures of value  creation.
            The idea behind this tool is that problematic generalized action orientations cannot
            be enhanced or replaced directly by new ones.



            Conclusions


            The most important conclusion from our consideration of images of computer appli-
            cations in organisations is that computers are regarded traditionally as decision sup-
            port systems. Computers should support rational decision-making. Communication
            can be treated as data exchange between decision makers. However, this is accurate
            only for regular ‘business as usual’ decisions. But the reality in organisations is quite
            different; “most, if not all, of a manager’s key decisions tend to be fuzzy problems,
            not well understood by them or the organization, and their personal judgment is
            essential” (Keen and Scott-Morton 1978: 58). This applies in particular to environ-
            mental protection and corporate sustainability, which are not in line with general
            action orientations in Western economies. Corporate sustainability is obviously not a
            problem that can be solved by decision makers with the aid of conventional decision
            support systems. In future, enhanced decision support systems, including compo-
            nents  for  material  flow  analysis,  life  cycle  assessment  and  carbon  footprinting,
            may be able to support organisations that are already sustainable. But today most
   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204