Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T06:32:59.652Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Making sense of innovation: A future perfect approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Lars Fuglsang  and
Jan Mattsson
Lars Fuglsang
Affiliation:
Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Jan Mattsson
Affiliation:
Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The idea of this paper is to develop a sensemaking tool that can help managers to generate a more asserted approach to innovation. A tool can be defined as something which is needed to perform an action – like innovation. We see innovation as ‘an improvisational dynamics of “moving to” the future’ (Pye, 2005) and use the concept of future perfect thinking (Weick, 1979, 1995), which has been lately debated in studies of project management (Pitsis, Clegg, Marosszeky, & Rura-Polley, 2003; Winch & Kreiner, 2009), to develop a tool that can reduce the perceived uncertainty of innovation. The key in future perfect thinking is to treat the future as something that has already happened in the past and thereby reducing the perceived open-endedness of the future. We suggest, more particularly, that verbal reflections on future challenges by relevant employees can help state the future as something that has a deeper, more stable and more practical meaning. The sensemaking tool is illustrated in a recent case of software development.

Keywords

innovationsensemakingfuture perfect thinkingmanagement of innovationverbalization
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , July 2011 , pp. 448 - 458
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Corvellec, H., & Risberg, A. (2007). Sensegiving as mise-en-sens – The case of wind power development. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 23(3), 306–326.Google Scholar
Egwall, M. (2002). The futile dream of the perfect goal. In Sahlin-Andersson, K. & Söderholm, A. (Eds.), Beyond project management. New perspectives on the temporary–permanent dilemma (pp. 261–277). Stockholm: Liber.Google Scholar
Enberg, C., Lindkvist, L., & Tell, F. (2006). Exploring the dynamics of knowledge integration. Acting and interacting in project teams. Management Learning, 37(2), 143–165.Google Scholar
Gioia, D. A., & Chittipeddi, K. (1991). Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation. Strategic Management Journal, 12(6), 433–448.Google Scholar
Gioia, D. A., Corley, K. G., & Fabbri, T. (2002). Revising the past (while thinking in the future perfect tense). Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15(6), 622–634.Google Scholar
Hill, R. C., & Levenhagen, M. (1995). Metaphors and mental models: Sensemaking and sensegiving in innovative and entrepreneurial activities. Journal of Management, 21(6), 1057–1074.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Koch, P., Cunningham, P., Schwabsky, N., & Hauknes, J. (2005). Innovation in the public sector. Summary and policy recommendations. Publin Report No. D24. Oslo: NIFU STEP.Google Scholar
Kreiner, K. (1995). In search of relevance: project management in drifting environments. Scandinavian Journal of Management 11(4), 335–346.Google Scholar
Kreiner, K., & Tryggestad, K. (2002). The co-production of chip and society: Unpacking packaged knowledge. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 18, 421–449.Google Scholar
Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24(4), 691–710.Google Scholar
Langley, A. (2007). Process thinking in strategic organization. Strategic Organization, 5(3), 271–282.Google Scholar
Latour, B. (2002). Morality and technology. The end of the means. Theory, Culture & Society, 19(5/6), 247–260.Google Scholar
Mattsson, J., & Helmersson, H. (2001). Demonstrating Pertex: A new method for improving text interpretation. Field Methods, 13(2), 115–136.Google Scholar
Pitsis, T. S., Clegg, S. R., Marosszeky, M., & Rura-Polley, T. (2003). Constructing the Olympic dream: A future perfect strategy of project management. Organization Science, 14(5), 574–590.Google Scholar
Pye, A. (2005). Leadership and organizing: Sensemaking in action. Leadership, 1(1), 31–50.Google Scholar
Rouleau, L. (2005). Micro-practices of strategic sensemaking and sensegiving: How middle managers interpret and sell change every day? Journal of Management Studies, 42(7), 1413–1441.Google Scholar
Samra-Fredericks, D. (2003). Strategizing as lived experience and strategists' everyday efforts to shape strategic direction. Journal of Management Studies, 40(1), 141–174.Google Scholar
Schütz, A. (1967). The phenomenology of the social world. London: Heinemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Toivonen, M., Touminen, T., & Brax, S. (2007). Innovation process interlinked with the process of service delivery: A management challenge in KIBS. Économies et Sociétés, 8(3), 355–384.Google Scholar
Weick, K. E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. Topics in social psychology. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations, Foundations for organizational science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Weick, K. E. (2002). The aesthetic of imperfection in orchestras and organizations. In Kamoche, K. N., Cunha, M. P., & Cunha, J. V. (Eds.), Organizational improvisation (pp. 96–137). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M. & Obstfeld, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sense-making. Organization Science, 16(4), 409–421.Google Scholar
Whyte, J., Ewenstein, B., Hales, M., & Tidd, J. (2008). Visualizing knowledge in project-based work. Long Range Planning, 41, 74–92.Google Scholar
Winch, G., & Kreiner, K. (2009). Future perfect strategising on major projects. Paper read at the 2009 European Academy of Management Conference on Renaissance and Renewal in Management Studies, 11–14 05 2009, Liverpool.Google Scholar
Yaneva, A. (2005). Scaling up and down: Extraction trials in architectural design. Social Studies of Science, 35(6), 867–894.Google Scholar