The Reification of an Incorrect and Inappropriate Spreadsheet Model
This addresses the problem of information credibility in organizational decision-making, but it is incremental as it builds on existing concepts of reification in spreadsheets.
The paper examines how spreadsheet models can become reified, gaining undeserved properties like correctness and authority, through a case study of an incorrect and inappropriate model in a small non-profit organization, but does not provide concrete numerical results.
Once information is loaded into a spreadsheet, it acquires properties that it may not deserve. These properties include believability, correctness, appropriateness, concreteness, integrity, tangibility, objectivity and authority. The information becomes reified. We describe a case study through which we were able to observe at close hand the reification of a demonstrably incorrect and inappropriate spreadsheet model within a small non profit organisation.