This dissertation focuses on individual and collective idea work targeting innovation outside the formal organizational structures within a large, multinational company that is perceived as risk-averse by its members. Chapter 1 explores the emergence of a safe space and how joint interaction of creative employees and managers established rules of playfulness that subsequently facilitate continuous creative interaction between those hierarchical roles in their attempt to turn a novel idea into a viable business venture. In chapter 2, I explore how creative employees mobilize needed resources from other organizational members to develop their ventures projects outside routine work. I identify two equifinal intrapreneurial resource mobilization paths that show distinct patterns of sequencing interactions with different social actors to access and transform their resources timely over the course of venture building. In the final chapter 3, I examine ongoing collective feedback meetings - that are feedback interactions with members of the collective - and the influence of that feedback on creatives’ idea work. I show how the collective advances their understanding of the focal idea through emergent collective attention, co-constructing arguments, and collective appraisal to provide focused guidance on the development needs of the focal idea.
Creating outside the lines? Idea work targeting innovation outside formalized corporate structures: experimentation, networking and feedback
Scholz, N. (Author). 1 Apr 2024
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy