Title: Developing an organisation culture to facilitate radical innovation

Authors: Patrick McLaughlin, John Bessant, Palie Smart

Addresses: Cerulean, Rockingham Drive, Linford Wood East, Milton Keynes MK14 6LY, UK. ' Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK. ' School of Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK

Abstract: This research adopts an experimental, |probe and learn|, approach to innovation management and organisational development in a medium sized mature engineering company. It deploys a grounded participative methodology, within a |live| new product development team to surface nine antecedents of a radical innovation culture. These emerging themes were triangulated using the established Organization Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) and the KEYS Creative Climate Assessment Tool. The aggregated data is discussed in terms of the different aspects of organisational culture and the distinct continuous and discontinuous cultural archetype forms. Finally 16 actionable management interventions were identified to promote radicalness. These were reviewed in the context of previous empirical case research and in dialogue within a UK Government Department of Trade and Industry forum to promote discontinuous innovation. The outcomes divulge a plan for change to assist the company|s transition, through purposeful experimentation, between cultural archetypes and embed a radical innovation culture.

Keywords: radical innovation; innovation culture; management interventions; ambidexterity; NPD teams; organisation culture; new product development; innovation management; engineering companies; discontinuous innovation; UK; United Kingdom.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2008.021041

International Journal of Technology Management, 2008 Vol.44 No.3/4, pp.298 - 323

Published online: 31 Oct 2008 *

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