Disentangling dynamics of the innovation journey : a becoming perspective

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Nair, Anup Karath and Chia, Robert (2018) Disentangling dynamics of the innovation journey : a becoming perspective. In: 34th European Group of Organization Studies Colloquium, 2018-07-05 - 2018-07-07.

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Abstract

The ability to translate creative ideas into innovations that sustain organizational growth is vital for the success and survival of firms (Anderson, et al., 2014; Slater, et al., 2014; Keupp, et al., 2012; Crossan & Apaydin, 2010). Whilst innovation, which we define as "“invention, development, and implementation of new ideas” (Garud, et al., 2013, p. 776) by people within an organisational context, are beneficial for both organizations and societies at large, undertaking concrete effort to transform a creative idea into an innovation in reality is perhaps the most vexing problem facing managers (Van de Ven , 2017; Garud, et al., 2017). Yet, since innovation research has largely focussed on innovation as an output rather than on the process of innovating itself, the dynamics of the messy, non-linear, organizational processes through which innovations are managed in practice, remains under-theorised and hence poorly understood (Fortwengel, et al., 2017; Van de Ven , 2017; Garud, et al., 2013). How do firms organize whilst innovating? Our paper addresses this question by developing and deploying a novel ‘processual’ becoming perspective (Tsoukas & Chia, 2002; Langley, et al., 2013) that allow theorists to pry open the proverbial black box that conceal the organizing and innovating processes as they unfold within organizations. Our real time, ethnographic, field study of two new product development projects as they unfolded within an organization helps illuminate how organising and innovating entwine as they become. We unearth three distinct organizational dynamics which we've called the dynamics of preferential equivocality, the dynamics of temporal scaffolding and the dynamics of relational coherence that constitute innovating-in-practice. Our findings also reveal that these three dynamics are regulated by a mechanism, called ‘tensegrity’ (tensional-integrity). We expand and elaborate on this tensegrity mechanism, which was seen to influence the entwinement and unfolding of organising while innovating. By identifying the dynamic processes and explicating the mechanism through which organising while innovating becomes, our study offers theoretical and practical guidance for managing innovating-inpractice. Overall, since our theoretical and empirical contributions illuminate the unfolding dynamics of the innovation journey, this aligns well with the theme of “Surprise in and around Organizations: Journeys to the Unexpected” of the 34th EGOS Colloquium. Further, by identifying and elaborating these dynamics and the corresponding coordinating mechanism that regulate innovating-in-practice, our paper complements “Sub-theme 34: Organized Creativity: Harnessing Serendipity and Surprise” by demonstrating how serendipity and surprise are harnessed while innovating within organizations.

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