Informational Governance and micro-macro links
Gert Jan Hofstede, INF group
The message
1.Informational governance is data management in context
● That means people management
● It inherits from group behaviour...
● ...which is strongly culture-driven
2. Informational governance involves self-organization
● That can be ‘grown’ using agent-based modelling (ABM)
● cf. the WU IP/OP theme Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)
Part 1. Information governance and transparency:
bringing micro-macro links to life
 “Information governance, or IG, is the set of multi-
disciplinary structures, policies, procedures, processes and
controls implemented to manage information at an enterprise
level, supporting an organization's immediate and future
regulatory, legal, risk, environmental and operational
requirements” (Wikipedia, 2014)
 “Transparency of a netchain is the extent to which all the
netchain’s stakeholders have a shared understanding of, and
access to, the product-related information that they request,
without loss, noise, delay and distortion” (Hofstede, 2003)
G.J. Hofstede (2003) Transparency in Netchains. In:
Information Technology for a better Agri-Food
Sector, Environment and Rural Living. Debrecen
University, Debrecen, Hungary
Old problem...
G.J. Hofstede et al (2004) Hide or confide, the dilemma of transparency.
Reed Business Information.
Future state (Meat Information on Provenance in FIspace)
Services: discovery / search / smartphone apps
tracking
EPCIS
Repository
FMS
EPCIS
EPCIS
EPCIS
Repository
Repository
Repository
ERP
ERP
ERP
tracing
labelling
breeding fattening
at farm
slaughtering deboning
cutting packaging
at abattoir /at food processer
c.o. sjaak.wolfert@wur.nl
Wholesale /
Retail
Transparency and micro-macro links
Confide!
Good for
all ...
Hide!
Good
for me
...
Food chain: Micro-macro links
 A chain of products is really a network of people
Transparency:
• History
• Operations
• Strategy
Models of organisation
weak
Denmark
Sweden
Singapore
Great Britain
United States
Norway
Switzerland Ge
Uncertainty
avoidance
Austria
Israel
strong
small
China
India
Nederland
Kenya
Nigeria
Pakistan
Germany
Switzerland Fr
Luxembourg Italy Czeck Rep.
Venezuela
Brazil
Panama
Colombia
Argentina
Mexico Romania
Costa Rica
France
Russia
Japan
Wallonie
Vlaanderen
Poland
Uruguay
Power distance
large
-8-
Take home 1: solid ground
 Informational governance:
= Information management+
= ‘How to organize informing’
n.b. differs systematically across cultures:
Who: might vs right,
How: rules vs reality
Part 2, from micro to macro:
CAS, self-organisation, emergence
 Our social reality:
“We do not intend the
consequences of our
actions”
Cristiano Castelfranchi, 2013
 Individual intention
 System consequence
10
Understanding Emergence is among INF aims
Social Simulation
● Non-linearity, emergence (= self-organization)
● Operationalizing social scientific theory
● Can be used on informational governance
Modelling social reality
NIAS-Lorentz Theme Group
 Sep 2013 – Jan 2014 (www.nias.nl)
 Lorentz workshop January 2014
(www.lorentzcenter.nl)
 Case: glass ceiling for girls
 Method: agent-based models of playground
 Conclusion: emergence > nurture > nature
Methodological aside
Begin study
Select method
Complex?
yes
Adaptive?
yes
ABM (agents
perceive others
/ environment
Run
model,
sensitivity
analysis
Validate
agents
Validate
system
behaviour
Development
psychology
studies
Draw
conclusions ,
publish
End study
Example: Playground model 2014
(resulting from NIAS fellowship)
 RQ: What causes gender status differences?
 ‘Nature’: Girls’ vs boys’
● Beauty
● Kindness
● fighting power
 ‘Nurture’:
● (Dyad: Rough and tumble)
● Category: Sex-difference-on-conferral
● All: Culture (‘masculinity’: group condones fighting)
 Emergence?
Interface
Effect of nature (kindness, power); & culture
Process:
Gender
status
gap




20.000 runs

(or table
output)

SPSS
Behav space
.cvs
Excel
transpose
Emergent effects: group and culture
Take home 2: potential for CAS methods
 Generic social science can be used in ABM
● To simulate realistic motives
 Experimental findings can be used for specifics
● Gender difference studies
● Informational governance
 We are just getting started...
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