A participative research strategy for propagating soft methodologies in value management practice

The emerging methodologies of 'soft operational research' have been developed for the purposes of structuring multi-perspective problems characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity and conflict. A participative research project is reported that sought to propagate the three most established 'soft' methodologies within UK value management practice. The adopted research strategy consisted of four key stages. Following an initial literature review, an insight into existing value management was gained by twelve semi-structured interviews with leading practitioners. This was followed by a series of six participative research seminars which used simulated case studies to evaluate the potential application of the three methodologies within the context of value management. A final series of interviews then determined the extent to which the three methodologies subsequently had been adopted in practice. The results are encouraging in that already the research has had an influence on UK value management practice. However, doubts remain as to whether the practitioners have assimilated the methodologies fully, or simply have adopted individual techniques in the absence of any theoretical understanding.