IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v12y2001i5p612-631.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reimagining the Differentiation and Integration of Work for Sustained Product Innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Deborah Dougherty

    (Associate Professor, Rutgers University, Faculty of Management, Department of Organization Management, 111 Washington St., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1820)

Abstract

This study describes the image of organizing that underlies a complex organization's ability to incorporate streams of innovation with continuing operations. I argue that a mechanistic organization archetype prevents people from seeing in their minds' eyes—from imagining—how to do the work of innovation organizationwide, but that theorists have failed to articulate an alternative to this archetype in its own terms. The study focuses on two elements of organizing: the differentiation and the integration of work. I build grounded theory for an alternate, innovative archetype of organizing by exploring the shared image of work differentiation and integration in twelve firms that vary in innovative ability. I find a fundamentally different image in innovative organizations that is centered on hands-on practice: People understand value creation as a long-term working relationship with customers, in which they apply the firm's skills to anticipate and solve customer problems. This practice is differentiated into distinct problems in value creation, each of which embodies the integral flow of work like a lateral slice, but which situates those problems in their own contexts. People understand themselves to be organized in an autonomous community of practice that takes charge of one of the problems. The communities of practice are integrated by standards for action: vivid, simple representations of value that frame work and that are reenacted in practice.The analysis details this different image of organizing by describing four autonomous communities of practice and contrasting them with the image of organizing found in noninnovative firms. The paper illustrates how this new image straightforwardly organizes and controls innovative work, and how the noninnovative image of differentiation and integration makes this work unimaginable. I conclude that innovation can be incorporated with continuing operations, provided that managers and theorists reimagine the differentiation and integration of work. I offer preliminary ideas for doing so, and suggest some next steps in this research stream.

Suggested Citation

  • Deborah Dougherty, 2001. "Reimagining the Differentiation and Integration of Work for Sustained Product Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(5), pages 612-631, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:12:y:2001:i:5:p:612-631
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.12.5.612.10096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.12.5.612.10096
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.12.5.612.10096?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marcie J. Tyre & Eric von Hippel, 1997. "The Situated Nature of Adaptive Learning in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 71-83, February.
    2. Deborah Dougherty, 1992. "Interpretive Barriers to Successful Product Innovation in Large Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 179-202, May.
    3. John S. Carroll, 1998. "Organizational Learning Activities in High‐hazard Industries: The Logics Underlying Self‐Analysis," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(6), pages 699-717, November.
    4. Bruce Kogut & Udo Zander, 1996. "What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(5), pages 502-518, October.
    5. Abbie Griffin & John R. Hauser, 1993. "The Voice of the Customer," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27.
    6. David J. Teece & Gary Pisano & Amy Shuen, 1997. "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 509-533, August.
    7. Lotte Bailyn, 1977. "Research as a cognitive process: Implications for data analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 97-117, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Neda Barqawi & Lars Mathiassen & Kamran Syed & Saloni Firasta Vastani, 2016. "Balancing Coordination And Autonomy During Post-Acquisition Within A High-Tech Firm," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(03), pages 1-32, April.
    2. Anil K. Gupta & Paul E. Tesluk & M. Susan Taylor, 2007. "Innovation At and Across Multiple Levels of Analysis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 885-897, December.
    3. Emmanuelle Vaast & Geoff Walsham, 2009. "Trans-Situated Learning: Supporting a Network of Practice with an Information Infrastructure," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 547-564, December.
    4. Tammy L. Madsen & Michael J. Leiblein, 2015. "What Factors Affect the Persistence of an Innovation Advantage?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(8), pages 1097-1127, December.
    5. Ortiz García Navas, Beatriz & Donate Manzanares, Mario Javier & Guadamillas Gómez, Fátima, 2019. "Social capital as a theoretical approach in Strategic Management," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    6. Krohmer, Harley & Homburg, Christian & Workman, John P., 2002. "Should marketing be cross-functional? Conceptual development and international empirical evidence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 451-465, June.
    7. Laurence Capron & Will Mitchell, 2009. "Selection Capability: How Capability Gaps and Internal Social Frictions Affect Internal and External Strategic Renewal," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 294-312, April.
    8. Pedota, Mattia & Cicala, Francesco & Basti, Alessio, 2024. "A Wild Mind with a Disciplined Eye: Unleashing Human-GenAI Creativity Through Simulated Entity Elicitation," OSF Preprints 3bn95, Center for Open Science.
    9. Frank T. Rothaermel & Maria Tereza Alexandre, 2009. "Ambidexterity in Technology Sourcing: The Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 759-780, August.
    10. Der-Fang Hung, 2015. "Sustained Competitive Advantage and Organizational Inertia: The Cost Perspective of Knowledge Management," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(4), pages 769-789, December.
    11. Li, Shenxue & Clark, Timothy & Sillince, John, 2018. "Constructing a strategy on the creation of core competencies for African companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 204-213.
    12. Alain Asquin & R. Moore, 2003. "Trajectories, Strategic Formulas and Contingencies : pathways to entrepreneurial success," Post-Print halshs-00688892, HAL.
    13. Mehmet Ali Köseoglu & John A. Parnell & Melissa Yan Yee Yick, 2021. "Identifying influential studies and maturity level in intellectual structure of fields: evidence from strategic management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1271-1309, February.
    14. Venugopal Ramachandran, 2011. "Strategic corporate social responsibility: a ‘dynamic capabilities’ perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(5), pages 285-293, September.
    15. Shantanu Dutta & Om Narasimhan & Surendra Rajiv, 1999. "Success in High-Technology Markets: Is Marketing Capability Critical?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 547-568.
    16. Camisón, César & Forés, Beatriz, 2011. "Knowledge creation and absorptive capacity: The effect of intra-district shared competences," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 66-86, March.
    17. David Benson & Rosemarie H. Ziedonis, 2009. "Corporate Venture Capital as a Window on New Technologies: Implications for the Performance of Corporate Investors When Acquiring Startups," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 329-351, April.
    18. Schweisfurth, Tim G. & Raasch, Christina, 2015. "Embedded lead users—The benefits of employing users for corporate innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 168-180.
    19. Margit Osterloh & Bruno S. Frey, "undated". "Shareholders Should Welcome Employees as Directors," CREMA Working Paper Series 2005-02, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    20. Alain Asquin & Emmanuelle Reynaud & Marion Polgé, 2001. "Entrepreneurship: what are the typical capabilities to create competitive resources? A discussion from case studies," Post-Print hal-00379862, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:12:y:2001:i:5:p:612-631. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.