Value management and socially acceptable shaping of technology - new requirements to sustainable competitivity and the potential of value management

This article reports of a pilot project to explore the possibilities to bring together the concepts of value management and socially acceptable shaping of technology. The changing world requires socially and ecologically acceptable products and processes to meet competition. Particularly in the field of information technology the acceptability by end-users and the society, and the fulfilment of social requirements increasingly become critical succes factors in the marketing and implementation of new products, processes and services. The appropriate approaches to socially acceptable technology design have much in common with the value analysis procedure: the participative approach across usual departmental and disciplinary bondaries, the orientation at "values", etc. Tasks of the project are to develop a concept which allows to better incorporate, i.e. take account of social requirements in value analysis projects and to test and evaluate it in three pilot-applications. First experience s show that there are difficulties and promises