Exploring the learning and adaptive processes required to manage disruptive technology from a normative re-educative organisation development lens

Abstract

In this thesis, the human collaboration required to manage disruptive technologies has been investigated. Radical innovation of this type is described as a revolutionary change in technology (Utterback, 1994; Flor, Cooper, & Oltra, 2017) and a process of creating new products and services that disrupt large organisations (Zheng, Hui, Ting, & Cao, 2017). Within the context of disruptive technologies also exist the concepts of ‘disruptive change’, the process of managing disruption (Bower & Christensen, 1996) and the more complex idea of ‘disruptive innovation’, the process of creating a new business model (Christensen, Raynor, & McDonald, 2015; Ramdorai & Herstatt, 2015). Both, ‘disruptive change’ and ‘disruptive innovation’, are discussed for clarity, however they do not form central component of the research undertaken. Disruptive technology was used in this research to understand the radical end of innovation, from the Organisation Development (OD) perspective of human collaboration and engagement required to turn concept into reality. The existing research on disruptive technology is influenced by the process and resource based model (Christensen, Raynor, & Verlinden, 2001b; Lund & Puijk, 2012), and the OD aspects of collaboration, cooperation and engagement are under-researched creating a gap in the literature. Normative re-educative OD theory was selected as the most human-focused OD approach to provide a lens to understand the human participation, collaboration, cooperation and engagement required to achieve disruptive technology as a product/service outcome (Argyris, 1995; French, Bell, & Zawacki, 2005; Stewart & Gapp, 2018). Within normative re-educative OD, different theories explain how people learn at both the group and individual level through the application of; action learning, systems thinking, continual improvement, and the Gapp-Fisher Model (GFM) (Argyris, 1995; French et al., 2005; Gapp & Fisher, 2007; Stewart & Gapp, 2018). Normative re-educative OD theories produced a deeper understanding of the collaboration required to manage disruptive technology. A qualitative interpretive methodology (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011) was used to gain a sense of the disruptive technology process through the primary research question: ‘How in OD terms is the role of people understood in managing disruptive technology?’. This fits directly into hermeneutic phenomenology in which a sense of the phenomenon is achieved by finding the essence in the process under investigation (van Manen, 2016). As there is no specific method to conduct hermeneutic phenomenology (Gadamer, Weinsheimer, & Marshall, 2004), a case study was used as a framework to bound the study. For this qualitative investigation, semi-structured interviews and observations were used for data collection (Stake, 2005; Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Yin, 2017). On completion of the data collection process, the hermeneutic cycle allowed the researcher to be immersed into participants’ reality from which deeper understanding and meaning was gained (Sloan & Bowe, 2014). Normative re-educative OD demonstrated the importance of diversity and collaboration required to manage disruptive technology from concept to outcome. The findings highlighted the importance of human dynamics in the disruptive technology process. A positive purpose brings together a team of passionate people. Diversity explains how participants gain richer understanding of the problem. Building relationships creates an environment of openness, trust and collaboration where these ideas can be exchanged to create dissonance (Dick, 2019). Structure and consideration highlighted how understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the people promotes growth by focusing on their strengths. A long term vision creates an environment of obsolescence, which creates continuous growth and development. Perseverance helps endure challenging times and learning from mistakes that increases creativity and innovation. Finally, an environment of participative decision making channels the efforts of every person in the team towards the attainment of the business. Businesses developing disruptive technologies experience many challenges requiring human interventions and group based critical thinking as well as technological intervention. Diversity and complex tensions create dissonance, which Argyris (1995) sees as a source for creating new ideas essential in the innovation process. Normative re-educative OD demonstrated: (i) how learning, which generates values and beliefs within the organisation context, is central to the success of disruptive technology. (ii) Interpersonal and intergroup collaboration creates learning environments to manage disruptive technology. (iii) This research has identified human values, beliefs and habits and the learning environment which nurtured the attainment within small successful disruptive technology-based businesses. These findings add a deeper understanding of the role of normative re-educative OD in developing and managing effective disruptive technology businesses, therefore, providing new insights to understand the disruptive technology process. Innovators can use these strategies to manage the process of creating disruptive technology by focusing on developing the environment required for the continual learning and development of technologies.