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Uncovering Design Attitude: Inside the Culture of Designers
Abstract
This paper empirically explores what constitutes design attitude. Previous studies have called on managers to adopt such an attitude in creating products, services and processes that are both profitable and humanly satisfying. However, what a design attitude actually is made of has not been researched. In this study I therefore investigate the nature of this attitude, as displayed by professional designers. Interview data from senior designers and managers from four internationally recognized, design-led organizations ( IDEO, Nissan Design, Philips Design and Wolff Olins) are collected in order to characterize the likely shape of a work-based attitude promoted by designers themselves. The five theoretical categories characterizing design attitude that arise from the data are: 'Consolidating multidimensional meanings', 'Creating, bringing to life', 'Embracing discontinuity and open-endedness', 'Embracing personal and commercial empathy' and 'Engaging polysensorial aesthetics'. Finally, the implications of these findings for organization research are discussed.
... To overcome these current challenges, researchers have put considerable effort into theorizing about them (Liedtka, 2015;Dell'Era, 2020;Klenner et al., 2022). Owing to the accumulation of studies in recent years, its theoretical examination is progressing from several directions: "thinking, attitudes, and mindsets unique to design thinkers" (Boland & Collopy, 2004;Dunne & Martin, 2007;Michlewski, 2008;Liedtka, 2015;Nakata & Hwang, 2020); "processes and actions useful for innovation management" (Verganti, 2017;Klenner et al., 2022;; "capabilities (both individual and organizational)" (Carlgren et al., 2014;Dong et al., 2016;Björklund et al., 2020;Liedtka, 2020;Magistretti et al., 2021); "organizational culture" (Beckman & Barry, 2007;Elsbach & Stigliani, 2018;Carlgren & BenMahmoud-Jouini, 2022). These studies have not developed independently but in relation to each other and form a rich landscape. ...
... Previous studies highlighted the unique mindsets (or attitude) of designers and design thinkers (e.g., Boland & Collopy, 2004;Dunne & Martin, 2007;Michlewski, 2008;Liedtka, 2015; Nakata & Hwang, 2020). ...
... A typical mindset in DT. An individual's disposition to accept failure (e.g., Michlewski, 2008;Carlgren et al., 2016). ...
... To achieve these concrete outcomes, the design practitioner works under an analytical and synthetic cognitive loop (Michlewski 2008), combining systematic and conscious work with affective and less logical associations (Feist 1991). Therefore, analytical thinking is here presented as the structure that help make sense out of the data gathered by synthetic explorative processes, through which these professionals work provisional solutions that tackle immediate problems, constructing temporary platforms that will vary depending on the context (Schön 1983). ...
... Studies present evidence that the design professional has an urge to design, which shows by always acting towards the improvement of existing situations (Binder et al. 2011). This attitude of constant re--configuration towards establishing roles and limits, reveals a spirit that challenges the core concepts related to the scientific approach, embracing flexible processes and uncertainty through a strong drive and motivation towards possible unknown outcomes (Michlewski 2008). ...
... As a result, the design practitioner appears here as an agent of change and awareness, driven by the possibility of making positive impacts (Michlewski 2008). All the before mentioned, demonstrates how these particular mix of design, cognitive processes and attitude, can positively influence organisational design by challenging some fundamental structures of traditional organisational thinking, that could definitely be improved by adopting some of the cognitive and attitudinal features these professionals have. ...
The design mindset, characteristic of the Creative Industry, is being highly valued by organisations interested in creative models that can potentially boost innovation. However, how this mindset works beyond the implementation phase of these models have received scant attention. The goal of the research is to identify the factors in the effectiveness of the design mindset within the Creative Industry. For this purpose, a literature review that links this mindset with the organisational design used by this sector is conducted. In addition, an empirical approach performing a data collection consisting in an in-depth interview and surveys is presented and analysed. Accordingly, the findings of the research will show a set of enablers and barriers that might affect the performance of this mindset. These set of factors prove to be strongly related to key concepts like openness, flexibility and complexity, in relation to the structure, operations, management and creative workforce of an organisation, within the sector of study. The findings of this research aim to provide a set of guidelines to organisations that want to adopt creative models, preparing them better to implement and maintain these models over time.
... Consequently, designers' "creative practice" remains undertheorized in the design thinking literature which is unhelpful in understanding implementation failures caused by cultural clashes. Thus, a deeper understanding of the nature of designers' creative practice and their sensibility in particular requires an alternative theoretical perspective which: (1) Draws on a theory of practice that departs from the theoretical and practical inseparability between practices (what people do), actors (those doing it), and their enactment (how they are doing it) (Jarzabkowski et al., 2016) which would acknowledge the embodied and situated nature of practice; (2) Draws on an understanding of creativity that is derived from designers' cultural context and its associated values and beliefs (Ancelin-Bourguignon et al., 2020;Austin et al., 2018;Michlewski, 2008). In this paper we develop such an alternative theoretical perspective. ...
... We argue that the misinterpretation of designers' creative practice, and the cultural tensions between management and design disciplines stem from the different epistemological and educational traditions in which they are rooted (Barry & Meisiek, 2015;Kolb & Kolb, 2005;Rylander, 2009), and the different "paradigms of comprehension" on which they rely and which inevitably guide modes of conceptualization and theorizing (Nayak et al., 2020). Fundamentally, these different traditions reflect different understandings of "design" (Deserti & Rizzo, 2014;Michlewski, 2008). In the management literature which is dominated by a cognitivist paradigm, design evokes associations with predictability, generalizability, and stability of results based on common procedures and methods. ...
... 6.2.3 | Role of designers: Learn with designers The call to start from practice and engage in experiential learning and improvisation to nurture sensibility points to the important role of professional designers with studio training. Several studies find that the ethos of the studio culture remains with professional designers who continue to enact the artistic values of expressiveness and originality, reflecting an open-ended purpose (Andriopoulos & Lewis, 2010;Boland et al., 2008;Elsbach, 2009;Kornberger et al., 2011;Michlewski, 2008). Training sensibility typically starts with imitation. ...
Design thinking is based on designers’ creative ways of working and is defined as a formal method for creative problem solving aimed at fostering innovation by harnessing “the designer’s sensibility and methods.” The basic premise is that design “thinking” can be extracted and separated from the situated practice of designing in the studio. This approach has given rise to a widely accepted nomenclature for describing design which has improved communication between designers and managers, leading to massive interest in adoption of design thinking in management settings. However, due to a widespread implicit cognitivism in the literature, scholars find it difficult to explain the cultural and experiential qualities of design thinking and it tends to be presented as a fundamentally cognitive, problem-solving activity. We argue that these cognitivist tendencies preclude proper attention to and theorization of designers’ creative practice. We contend that the absence of a theory of practice prevents a deeper understanding of the contribution of design thinking to innovation, loses sight of the sensibility on which it relies, and hampers realization of the promise of design thinking. We develop an alternative theoretical perspective, grounded in a pragmatist theory of practice and the studio culture from which designers’ creative practice developed. This theoretical perspective allows design thinking to be understood as sensemaking, foregrounds imagination and improvisation as its core activities, and explains how sensibility is developed and nurtured. We review the design thinking literature through this pragmatist lens and discuss the implications for theory and practice of conceptualizing design thinking as sensemaking.
... Foundational studies on design thinking (Brown, 2008;Buchanan, 1992;Dorst, 2011Dorst, , 2010Kimbell, 2012;Owen, 2007) Literature searches "Design thinking" AND "Dispositions" (Koh et al., 2015;Michlewski, 2008;Royalty et al., 2019;Vanada, 2013) "Design thinking" AND "Wisdom" (Denning, 2013;Koh et al., 2015) "Design thinking" AND ("Confidence" OR "Motivation") (Jobst et al., 2012) "Design thinking" AND "Know why" ...
... Integrative thinking (holistic view, socialreality view, consolidating multidimensional meanings) (Brown, 2008;Buchanan, 1992;Michlewski, 2008) Ability to look at a situation from a wide variety of perspectives, seeing all of salient aspects, and consolidating and reconciling contradicting objectives. Understanding that problems are wicked, and the subject matter is potentially universal in scope Attentiveness to practice (mindfulness, mindful of process and thinking modes) (Fraser, 2011;Kimbell, 2012;Schweitzer et al., 2016;Vignoli et al., 2023) Awareness of the process of design. ...
Design thinking dispositions are essential for students to understand why design thinking knowledge should be applied to perform specific tasks. However, few studies are focused on teaching design thinking dispositions. This study proposes a conceptual model that supports teaching design thinking dispositions to address this gap. The model was instantiated in an undergraduate course. Students’ reflections about the course were collected to evaluate the model. The use of the model is also demonstrated by considering different teaching scenarios. This study contributes to better teaching and learning design thinking dispositions based on a unique model that helps educators organize their design thinking courses. The study also derives some implications for educators. While teaching design thinking knowledge and skills is essential, developing students’ design thinking dispositions is equally essential.
... Similarly, the teams from the University of East Anglia and the Field Lab, Uganda, with which we collaborated in Uganda, brought decades of experience of conducting research on innovations for building resilience among smallholder farmers, which was useful for contextualizing the work conducted in our case study. Crucial to the success of the transdisciplinary collaborations was an attitude of openness to experimentation and a willingness to engage in an open-ended process of enquiry on the part of all collaborators, which can be seen as keys aspects of a design attitude (Michlewski, 2008). ...
... The methodological complementarity also hinged on having someone with dual expertise on the team who can see both sides of the coin and play a facilitator role, conveying important insights and knowledge to team members who either lacked thematic expertise or were unfamiliar with service design. This role reflects another key aspect of design attitude: the ability to consolidate multidimensional meanings, including reconciling different objectives (Michlewski, 2008). In recent years, service design has been framed as an integrative approach to cross-disciplinary and collaborative service innovation (Yu & Sangiorgi, 2018) and the role of service designers in complex transdisciplinary projects typically understood as facilitative, bringing together multiple perspectives into a new service solution (Sangiorgi et al., 2017). ...
... This need is to marketing needs to be fulfilled as to a business always. Until & unless all variables that roam around a market place, proposition, media & etc, are taken care of with total control without a single variable (in the variable-set system) to be out of accountability, there must be remaining an unfulfilling desire to a marketer who does business & also all participants (stakeholders mostly) circumscribing the business [16,17,18,19] . So, eventually, this study of research interest calls for a total control over all variables getting or to be used in making a proposition to its business. ...
... However, technology acceptance factors might be technology readiness, human readiness, organization support, environment, security and privacy, etc [24] . ✓ To accommodate technology based CAM modelling may not be compatible & compliant to usual marketing or any field system, especially where design 'attitude' governs the mankind [16,18] . Also, future adaptability should be kept in the reckoning to make use of the modelling, by technology [25] . ...
How attitude gets formed in human psychology is basic point of discussion of the paper. For background scenario of it, regarding its description & all, consumer marketing has been taken as the consideration point/field. Consumer behaviour is what on experiencing a proposition of consumer marketing is to be measured by attitude construction. From a proposition (product or service) introduction to a behavioural attitude-this entire process of attitude must go through forming of attitude clusters in the decisive cognition. The paper has described these clusters through methodological 'quantitatively modelling' way which is by approaches like emphasis of attitude variables & their related combination possibility. Entire study is academic & at present, at theoretical level. Also, variables of a marketing programme to persuade a proposition before consumers are discussed on fundamental ways that the interaction happens (as a function or process). The study, in all, would facilitate the study of attitude research into aspects of quantitative estimation & approach. Entire study has ultimately led into determination of field based attitude outcomes (by emphasis-combination analogy); the field could be a market, marketing or any proposition that a prospect experiences his/her attitude level in consumer marketing.
... From a resource-based perspective of strategy, capability building is an inherently strategic initiative to create sustainable competitive advantage (Kurtmollaiev et al., 2018) and usually occurs via training and development. Most organisations focus on approaches that teach design method and tools (Camacho, 2016;Jobst et al., 2012;Liedtka and Ogilvie, 2011) and some also develop mindset and attitudes (Brenner et al., 2016;Howard, 2012;Howard et al., 2015;Martin, 2009;Michlewski, 2008;Schweitzer et al., 2016). While efforts of building design capabilities vary, assessing their success and impact on achieving innovation, let alone strategic outcomes, is difficult, especially in light of prevailing cultures (Michlewski, 2008). ...
... Most organisations focus on approaches that teach design method and tools (Camacho, 2016;Jobst et al., 2012;Liedtka and Ogilvie, 2011) and some also develop mindset and attitudes (Brenner et al., 2016;Howard, 2012;Howard et al., 2015;Martin, 2009;Michlewski, 2008;Schweitzer et al., 2016). While efforts of building design capabilities vary, assessing their success and impact on achieving innovation, let alone strategic outcomes, is difficult, especially in light of prevailing cultures (Michlewski, 2008). Liedtka (2000) argues for a clear link between design capabilities and strategic success, yet, at some point in the evolution of the strategic management literature, the relevance of design got caught up in a perspective called 'the design school' (Mintzberg, 1990). ...
Global environmental and social challenges are forcing organisations to reconsider how to generate value and growth. As customers seek value beyond satisfying personal needs toward societal concerns and capital markets support firms with a social purpose, the meaning of creating sustainable strategic advantage is challenged. Over the last decade, many organisations have adopted design-led approaches to pursue strategic innovation that delivers value to customers and stakeholders. The rise of design has resulted in diverse applications across contexts – managers are now working in more 'designerly ways' to innovate products and services and increasingly develop new strategic directions. Yet, we know little about what defines 'strategic design' as a professional practice or how strategists can effectively leverage it to respond to economic change or even broader consumer and shareholder demands. This study explores the rise of design (thinking) in strategy development and examines the opportunities within strategic management through a strategy-as-practice lens. We reviewed the key literature spanning strategy-as-practice, design thinking and design theory, and strategic design as it relates to strategic management – to establish a theoretical basis for further researching the practices of design as a strategy practice. We believe that the time is right to critically review the placement of design thinking related to creating strategy and establishing strategic design as a strategy practice. Our conceptual framework of ‘strategic design as a practice’ consolidates and aligns design-led approaches with strategic management theory. We also suggest future avenues for research.
... Within the realm of management literature, the prevailing cognitive paradigm places design in the context of predictability, generalisability, and stability of outcomes through the utilisation of established procedures and methodologies (Deserti & Rizzo, 2014;Michlewski, 2008). It is regarded as a practice that is situated and embodied, aligned with pragmatism. ...
The Malaysian design industry follows a market-need-driven approach, where marketing-oriented managers guide designers to address anticipated high-demand markets. However, challenges persist in understanding designers' problem-solving approaches due to implicit practices. This research emphasizes the hindrance caused by insufficient communication and collaboration among managers, designers, and researchers, impeding a comprehensive grasp of innovation processes in the manufacturing sector. The paper advocates a pragmatic examination of designers' experiences, highlighting sensemaking, speculative imagination, and improvisation as crucial design activities. Results show Malaysian industrial designers face consistent challenges with management, impacting the development process. The study contributes to formulating a practical solution for fostering creativity among managers, designers, and stakeholders in the design industry.
... Theoretically, the positive SECI spiral can be connected to Fayard, Stigliani, and Bechky´s (2016) notions about service designers who created their occupational mandate by expanding their role boundaries through holism, empathy and cocreation. Designers have been suggested to have a positive attitude (Michlewski, 2008). Nonaka et al. (2000, pp.28-29) stress creative and positive thoughts, imagination, and the drive to act, as found especially in X`s socialisation efforts with clients and the university staff. ...
... Disposition aids teachers in remaining receptive to new experiences and tolerant of challenging situations, promoting empathetic understanding toward students' needs (Michlewski, 2008;Cross, 2011). Studies have indicated that teachers' views on their disposition toward teaching are significant indicators in technology integration (Koh et al., 2015;Chai and Koh, 2017). ...
... This has a similar effect to observing and empathizing with customers. Empathy involves the willingness to understand and consider customers' needs and interests [57]. Customer empathy forms the basis for developing competitive products [10,[58][59][60]. ...
Observing customers is one of the methods to uncover their needs. By closely observing how customers use products, we can indirectly experience their interactions and gain a deep understanding of their feelings and preferences. Through this process, companies can design new products that have the potential to succeed on the market. However, traditional methods of customer observation are time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this study, we propose a method that leverages the analysis of online customer reviews as a substitute for direct customer observations. By correlating a customer journey map (CJM) with online reviews, this research establishes a verb-centric analysis that produces a CJM based on online review data. Various text analysis techniques were utilized in this process. When applying online retail site review data, our method of customer observation required one week. This proved to be more efficient in comparison with traditional customer observation methods, which typically need at least one month to complete. Additionally, we observed that the customer behavior-based VOC (voice of customer) identified during the CJM mapping process offers broad insights that are distinct from traditional product feature-centric review analyses. This behavior VOC can be effectively utilized for product improvement, new product development, and product marketing. To verify the usefulness of the behavior VOC, we asked product development experts to evaluate the quantitative analysis results of the same reviews. The experts evaluated the CJM as useful for product conceptualization and selecting technology priorities.
... GAI amplifies the creative potential within what we refer to as Design domains encompassing the fields of Architecture, Urban planning, Engineering, Product Design, and others. Outcomes coming from Design fields are inherently tied to creativity and to a design attitude, which is essentially the process of conceiving, planning, and crafting objects, spaces, and systems within their specialized domains, driven by the overarching goal of generating innovative, profitable and satisfying solutions (Michlewski, 2008). GAI introduces a collaborative dynamic where Designers and AI algorithms co-create, pushing the boundaries of innovation (Ruiz et al., 2015). ...
... Here, behavioural designers would benefit from systematically conducting user emphasising activities or co-design (Bate & Robert 2007;Dunne & Martin 2006;Michlewski 2008)where intervention users and facilitators take active part in designing the intervention -to critically consider empathy and ethics issues. Further, insights from such design practices reveal the importance of: (i) exploring the scope for and assessing anticipated and unanticipated effects, and (ii) paying attention to how the intervention affects behaviour across different sub-groups as well as beyond the target group. ...
Behavioural designers adopt practices from both design and behavioural science. Yet methodological discussions are fragmented across these fields. In response, this paper—for the first time—examines and draws together research on decision-making and methodologies applied to behavioural design via a systematic review. We identify three major themes challenging current understanding of behavioural design: Complex behavioural design space, Systemic behavioural design, and Behavioural design empathy and ethics. These themes give rise to a fundamental reconceptualization of the behavioural design process captured in our ‘Behavioural Design IM-PACT process model’. This model integrates a fuzzy front and back end around a co-evolutionary development process. Through this, we explain how design and behavioural science practices can be synthesised to deal with wicked behavioural problems in a complex context where a long intervention afterlife is inevitable. This highlights the way towards more integrative behavioural design with major implications for researchers and practitioners across fields.
... At the same time, the designer increases the clarity of the pattern by relating the components to each other and produces translations suitable for each situation from the interpreted pattern. This¯nding is consistent with the mechanism of consolidating multidimensional meanings intended by Michlewski [2008]. ...
In recent years, there has been growing interest in studying design thinking from a capability perspective, given the need for deep implementation at the organizational mindset level. However, the impact of the cognitivist paradigm on design thinking has led to a narrow conceptualization of it as a problem-solving process, which overlooks some of its essential capacities. As a result, the ability of design thinking to extract the real capabilities of designers has been weakened. To address this shortcoming, this study focused on extracting designerly capabilities from the original resource by engaging with designers themselves. In-depth interviews were conducted, and the results were thematically analyzed. The findings reveal that designerly capabilities are significantly different in depth and scope from those derived from the conventional academic view of design thinking. The study identifies some key features of design thinking as practiced by real designers, as follows: Engaging with multiple layers of a problem, Skipping and releasing ideas, Adjusting iteratively, Recognizing patterns, Translating concepts, Incorporating and extending existing solutions, and Balancing ambiguity and clarity, as well as Envisioning and imagining possibilities, Expanding the scope of inquiry and Facilitating confrontation and feedback. These features can be grouped into four dimensions: (1) reflection, (2) generation, (3) inspiration and (4) engagement, which show the dynamic capability of design thinking. This complements previous research and suggests ways to improve the innovation potential of design thinking in organizations.
... Specifically, design attitude is a composite of distinct abilities (skills, capabilities, aptitudes) that designers apply during designing; the dimensions of these abilities are (1) ambiguity tolerance, (2) engagement with aesthetics, (3) connecting multiple perspectives, (4) creativity, and (5) empathy. Several empirical and mixed-method studies have shown that design attitude is the cognitive orientation designers take when they engage with complex situations (Boland and Collopy, 2004;Michlewski, 2008;Amatullo, 2015;Amatullo, Lyytinen and Tang, 2019). Thus, a design attitude is a mindset that opens spaces of new possibilities for creating alternatives, accelerating outcomes in fluid innovation processes. ...
... The nature of the design process is to be an ongoing iteration to achieve superior results through the insight (Liedtka, 2015;Luchs et al., 2016, p. 324) #5 Diversity -Integrative thinking: Collectively build new creative alternatives to address identified problems in a continuous balanced act which results in abductive thinking. This mode of thinking integrates seemingly disparate and unconnected data points and pieces of information into new thinking, promoting an approach towards workable solutions which is 'assertion-based' rather than 'evidence-based' and especially useful to derive new insights (Michlewski, 2008). This sits squarely between analytical mastery and intuitive originality, a constant trade-off between exploration and exploitation, integrating different perspectives and backgrounds in the project (Martin, 2009a). ...
The Competitive Intelligence (CI) construct must be scientifically
defined, characterised, empirically validated, and accurately measured to
grow in science and business. This study aims at elevating the accuracy
of the empirical validation of the CI construct suggested and confirmed
by Madureira, Popovic, & Castelli1,2 to serve as the scientific foundation
for CI praxis. This construct is selected due to its unmatched recency,
thoroughness, and universality and identified limitations of its empirical
validation. We relied on a multistrand design of fully sequential with
equivalent status qualitative and quantitative mix-methods followed by
the triangulation of the findings and the development of the metainferences.
Validity, reliability, and applicability were tested using
computer-aided text analysis and artificial intelligence methods based on
61 in-depth interviews with CI subject matter experts. Contributions to
knowledge advancement and relevance to practice derive from the
scientific grade empirical construct validation, providing undisputed
levels of content, discriminant, external accuracy, reliability and
triangulation of results. This study highlights three critical implications.
First, the delimitations of the body of knowledge and recognition of the
CI domain serve as the baseline for theory development. Second, the
validated construct guarantees reproducibility, replicability and
generalisability, laying the foundations for establishing a CI science,
practice and education. Third, creating a common language and shared
understanding will drive the much-claimed definitional consensus. This
study thus stands as a foundational pillar in supporting CI praxis in
improving decision-making quality and the performance of organisations.
... The nature of the design process is to be an ongoing iteration to achieve superior results through the insight (Liedtka, 2015;Luchs et al., 2016, p. 324) #5 Diversity -Integrative thinking: Collectively build new creative alternatives to address identified problems in a continuous balanced act which results in abductive thinking. This mode of thinking integrates seemingly disparate and unconnected data points and pieces of information into new thinking, promoting an approach towards workable solutions which is 'assertion-based' rather than 'evidence-based' and especially useful to derive new insights (Michlewski, 2008). This sits squarely between analytical mastery and intuitive originality, a constant trade-off between exploration and exploitation, integrating different perspectives and backgrounds in the project (Martin, 2009a). ...
This research focuses on Competitive Intelligence (CI) as a precursor of sound decisions that improve and sustain the performance of organisations in an exponentially changing world. The absence of an empirically validated scientific definition is a foundational gap that hinders its art, practice and science. So far, the lack of conceptual consensus and delimitation of the body of knowledge inhibited the establishment of a profession, education, and the advancement of the discipline. Thus, the aim of this study is to lay down the foundations of CI science and the developments of its praxis. A mixed-methods approach was used to derive a scientific definition and provide an empirical validation grounded in the expertise of top subject matter experts. A meta-analysis supported the development of a unified, integrative, thorough maturity model, and a set of instruments to guide its implementation and development. Furthermore, the design thinking mindset was identified as appropriate in support of its practice. Overall, the empirically validate scientific definition, the maturity model, the implementation frameworks, and the design thinking mindset are expected to put the CI virtuous cycle in motion catapulting its praxis into a new era. More importantly, they should contribute to improving the performance of professionals, organizations, industries and countries, differentiating CI versus related disciplines, promoting admittance in academe, and mobilising all stakeholders towards the development of its practice, education, and theoretical advancement.
... After the confirmatory factor analysis, the following factors emerged, as shown in (Michlewski 2008), where information might be missing or incomplete, solutions are vague concepts, and specific activities needed to reach an outcome are not known a priori (Schweitzer, Groeger, and Sobel 2016). Designers know that uncertainty and risk-taking are necessary conditions for innovation (Fraser 2007;Ge and Leifer 2020;Wright and Wrigley 2019). ...
Expectations from Higher Education institutions are increasing towards the education of professionals able to face complex societal issues. In this context, traditional thinking is losing ground, and scholars agree on the importance of promoting a Design Thinking (DT) Mindset in educational settings to address wicked problems. However, an explanation of and measurement for the DT mindset still needs to be adequately developed. We developed and validated a scale to measure DT mindset to fill this gap. After a comprehensive literature review, quantitative research was performed on two samples of professionals (N = 151) and students (N = 201). We employed confirmatory factor analysis, which yielded a 31-item scale based on ten dimensions. Overall, this study supports the conceptualization and operationalization of the DT mindset as a second-order factor that reflects uncertainty and risk, empathy, holistic thinking, collaboration and diversity, learning orientation, experimentation, critical questioning, abduction, creative confidence, and impact. Our findings advance knowledge that facilitates new research paths and has practical implications for educational and management fields.
... Brief interpretation Design professionals rely on hunches and presuppositions, not just facts. Rowe, 1987 Play with ambiguity Boland andCollopy, 2004 Liedtka, Martin &Dew, 2007 On-field data gathering Ethnographic research methods are used extensively by designers, also become popular in business Mariampolski, 2006 Empathy with users and stakeholders Brown 2008; Dunne and Martin 2006;Michlewski 2008 The researcher's task is to look for meanings held by participants Dunne, 2011 Data from ethnographic research can be integrated for analysis and synthesis Kumar and Whitney, 2003 Frame opportunities and problems ...
The scientific debate on how and why teach design thinking to non-design students is strongly evolving. However, literature shows a significant gap in defining which are the key elements to train and teach a specific aspect of the design thinking process: how to deal with design-based research. Which kind of pedagogical framework can be adopted to teach design research to non-design students? Which are the main enablers and barriers that students encounter while conducting a design-based research process? An exploratory inquiry on 70 students involved in a design studio placed in a Management Engineering Master Degree has been run to find answers to those questions. Results derived through the use of descriptive statistics show that students encounter a lot of difficulties in abstracting ideas from real situations. On the other side, what acts as an enabler is the possibility to work on a real project that provides the experience of learning by doing in a team.
... In Frame Innovation (2015), Dorst associates risk with the challenge of change and transformation into problems that are open, complex and systemic. Such problems cannot be treated with conventional methods (problem-solution), because they are not amenable to offering satisfactory results Michlewski (2008) contributes to understanding of knowledge that is proper to design by classifying aspects related to attitude that determine the behaviour of designers in organisations. Despite the author researching in a specific context (large organisations), it is possible to argue more generally that in environments that favour innovation, the designer is distinguishable from the other professionals for an ability to explore situations of unique character and act in the face of uncertainty and risk, instead of focusing on reducing uncertainty to solve the problem. ...
... Empathy, curiosity, and optimism (cf. Liedtka, 2020;Michlewski, 2008) as a design mindset might support designers´ identities. As empathizing motivates prosocial behavior (Bloom, 2017) designers might succeed in multi-stakeholder negotiations supporting their identities as facilitators. ...
... Our findings match those observed in earlier studies, which indicate that the use of DT applications is supported by organizational cultures that value collaboration with stakeholders (Michlewski 2008, Stigliani and Ravasi 2012, Chen and Venkatesh 2013. Consistent with Stigliani and Ravasi (2012) and contrary to Chang et al. (2013), this study describes the attempt to implement collaboration and co-creation between different organizational actors, and suggest that the cross-functional collaboration culture is partly a driver for this successful implementation process. ...
In developing countries, banks have been looking out for new ways to improve their performance using digital transformation. This research bases itself on critical methodology, in which, Data Analytic Lifecycle based on the Design Thinking concept (DAL-DT) has been used to support management control systems, and propose ways to optimize employee incentives, capital budgeting, along with workforce planning systems, in the context of a commercial bank in Vietnam. In addition, our study also examines the organizational actors engaged in the application of DT initiatives through the social practice theoretical lens of Bourdieu's, regarding habitus, capitals, and fields. The results reveal that although DAL-DT in principle does provide effective strategic plans along with a cohesive corporate culture that supports the implementation of DT initiatives, there are some constraints for this innovative reform. For instance, the top management of commercial banks in developing nations seem to display lack of willingness and misunderstanding of the concept of DT; add to that the lack of suitable resources coupled with over-expectations.
... Designers and design practices are closely associated with materiality, visuality and aesthetics (Buchanan and Margolin 1995). For example an analysis of product designers by Michlewski (2008) found that their practices embraced 'polysensorial' aesthetics. Designers routinely make and use material objects to undertake research, paying close attention to aesthetics and visuality and opening up meanings (Vaughan 2017). ...
The Future of Government 2030+: A Citizen Centric Perspective on New Government Models project brings citizens to the centre of the scene. The objective of this project is to explore the emerging societal challenges, analyse trends in a rapidly changing digital world and launch an EU-wide debate on the possible future government models. To address this, citizen engagement, foresight and design are combined, with recent literature from the field of digital politics and media as a framework. The main research question of the project is: How will citizens, together with other actors, shape governments, policies and democracy in 2030 and beyond? Throughout the highly participatory process, more than 150 citizens, together with CSO, think tank, business and public sector representatives, as well as 100 design students participated in the creation of future scenarios and concepts. Four scenarios have been created using the 20 stories emerged from citizen workshops. They served as an inspiration for design students to develop 40 FuturGov concepts. Through the FuturGov Engagement Game, the project's ambition is to trigger and launch a debate with citizens, businesses, civil society organizations, policy-makers and civil servants in Europe.
... Abductive reasoning is a kind of mindset that is different from deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning, involving considerable possibilities and challenges. Therefore, it is essential for achieving new insights and cognizance [40] as "designers focus on future solutions where they perceive reality and culture as something pliable-their attitude towards workable solutions" that is "assertionbased rather than evidence-based" [41]. Other innovative methodologies, such as deductive or inductive reasoning, arrive at answers by carefully constructing premises, usually to analyze and defend a project or design decision [42]. ...
... Practitioners and researchers of DT from across a diverse array of fields (including design, health, management, policy, and more) argue it is valuable for designing viable and useful responses to shared social challenges and for fostering skills and mindsets for sustaining such practices (Acklin, 2013;Borja de Mozota, 2011;Costanza-Chock 2020;Drayton, 2019;Forrester, 2018;Junginger, 2014;Kania et al., 2018;Liedtka & Bahr, 2019;Michlewski, 2008;Morelli, et al, 2021;Sanoff, 2007;Vink et al., 2019;Wagoner, 2017). Recent research also suggests that DT can be more successful than expert, techno-scientific approaches to intractable public health challenges (Abookire et al., 2020;Altman et al., 2018;Huang et al., 2018;Jones, 2013;Molloy, 2018;Tsekleves & Cooper, 2017). ...
... In Frame Innovation (2015), Dorst associates risk with the challenge of change and transformation into problems that are open, complex and systemic. Such problems cannot be treated with conventional methods (problem-solution), because they are not amenable to offering satisfactory results Michlewski (2008) contributes to understanding of knowledge that is proper to design by classifying aspects related to attitude that determine the behaviour of designers in organisations. Despite the author researching in a specific context (large organisations), it is possible to argue more generally that in environments that favour innovation, the designer is distinguishable from the other professionals for an ability to explore situations of unique character and act in the face of uncertainty and risk, instead of focusing on reducing uncertainty to solve the problem. ...
The concept 'risk' carries great theoretical potential for a better comprehension of the design process. The purpose of this paper is to identify and think about risk in the design process as it has been treated by authors of the area. In the same way, it tries to investigate how other areas of knowledge approach the theme. The exploratory nature of this research seeks to make explicit risk in design as a symbolic weft woven throughout the process, which stimulates the raising of new questions and expands the possibilities of project choice. Although risk related to design outcomes should generally be minimised, risk understood during the design process as 'taking risks', as opposed to 'playing it safe', is important for projects with goals that involve changing the status quo.
... Expert design is often approached in design management (Acklin, 2013;Borja de Mozota, 2011;Bruce, et al, 1999;Chiva & Alegre, 2009;Jevnaker, 2000;Mortati, et al, 2014) and policy (Maffei, et al, 2014), organisational studies (Boland and Collopy, 2004;Michlewski, 2008), product development and engineering (Baxter, 1998;Pugh, 1991;Ulrich & Eppinger, 1995), service design (Morelli, et al, 2021). Participatory design and co-design capabilities are found in participatory design (Huybrechts, et al, 2018;Sanoff, 2007), co-design (Sanders & Stappers, 2008), service design (Morelli, et al, 2021), social innovation (Murray, et al, 2010), design for policy (Bason, 2014;Julier, 2017;Junginger, 2014;Mortati, et al, 2016) and business fields (Brand, 2017;van der Pjil, et al, 2016). ...
COVID-19 threats have been impacting disadvantaged communities even harder. This paper looks into challenge areas and community responses to those in Brazilian informal settlements during the COVID-19 pandemic. These were identified through online roundtables with community members and representatives of NGOs in five Brazilian informal settlements. Our findings show how community members unconsciously design, deploying community-led (or diffuse) design capabilities to tackle COVID-19 challenges. These capabilities have been critical to coping with the immediate effects of the pandemic in communities. However, they are limited to short-term and reactive strategies. We argue that these natural problem-solving skills can be enhanced through a transition from diffuse to co-design capabilities to further harness community creativity towards better futures; extending community-led design capabilities into challenges and opportunity areas in a more strategic way for communities. This research contributes to filling the gap in design studies on how and to which extent communities unconsciously design.
... Hence, this study relates to a human-centered design thinking approach and will contribute to enhancing its theoretical implication for studying consumers' behavioral intention to adopt ride-sharing services in Bangladesh. The core principle of this design thinking approach focuses on¯nal consumers' willingness to accept a product or service considering their demands and expectations [Michlewski (2008)]. Design theorists suggest that it is critical to think ahead of the boundaries and delve deeply into answering the questions raised by consumers concerning their expectations regarding the service being provided. ...
The study examines the factors impacting the willingness of non-users to use ride-sharing applications from the lens of perceived value and perceived risk. Both perceived value and risk have been proposed and conceptualized as second-order constructs containing their first-order value and risk dimensions. An online questionnaire survey was used to collect the data from 388 respondents in Bangladesh using the convenience sampling method. PLS-SEM was performed, and results revealed that perceived value positively affected non-users’ intention to engage in ride-sharing. Contrarily, consumers’ risk perception was negatively associated with their willingness to adopt ride-sharing applications. Additionally, the impact of consumers’ value perception on consumers’ intention to adopt ride-sharing services was positively moderated by perceived risk. This study leads to a comprehensive understanding of the factors related to perceived value and perceived risk dimensions and provides novel insights to entrepreneurial firms, market specialists and policymakers to reposition the service in the market and foster innovation to make the platforms more readily accessible and reliable through policy reformations. The study adds to the body of literature and enhances theoretical depth by highlighting the multi-dimensional nature of perceived value and risk from the human-centered design thinking approach, which aims to assist two-sided platforms like ride-sharing to understand the factors that influence non-users willingness to engage in ride-sharing services.
... The need to strike the right balance between the artistic and commercial modes is essential, as "attempts to economise creativity and artistic motivation run the risk of damaging these resources" (Eikhof & Haunschild, 2007, p. 524), while not paying sufficient attention to commercial considerations can cause high inefficiency (Cohendet & Simon, 2007). Such tensions play out not only on the organisational level but also on an individual level, as artists are often expected to incorporate business considerations into their creative decisions (DeFillippi, 2009), including empathy towards customer preferences and commercial boundaries (Michlewski, 2008). As part of their professional identity, each creative professional needs to balance their individuality and artistic independence with organisational belonging and commercial demands (DeFillippi, 2009;Gotsi et al., 2010). ...
Organisations across many industries are increasing the use of evidence‐based approaches to decision‐making through adoption of business analytics. Creative processes and decisions are an area of organisational decision‐making which has traditionally been highly intuition‐based, and where professional culture and practices are often very different from the engineering disciplines from which data‐driven decision approaches originate. Through the case study of the analytics‐oriented transformation of creative decisions at Rovio, a leading game development company, this study seeks to understand how organisations can make their creative decision processes more evidence‐based, while retaining the best features of artistic intuition and human creativity. The case study highlights several issues that need to be delicately managed and balanced to effectively combine analytics and human creativity, and offers five principles for such “creative analytics”: (1) build shared analytics values but provide tailored BA support; (2) build hybrid teams; (3) balance commercial and creative goals; (4) encourage creative experimentation and learning; and (5) make data‐inspired, not data‐driven, creative decisions.
The paradigm of design must drastically change to promote sustainable social development that considers not only economic growth but also human well‐being and environmental sustainability. Some scholars argue that the central paradigm of design should focus more on the societal perspective. This article refers to such a socially oriented design approach as design for social innovation (DfSI). Our study identified key insights for designing and promoting a DfSI education programme by investigating and analysing a Japanese pilot case, the Design School at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST‐DS). Based on an analysis of in‐depth interviews that we conducted with the AIST‐DS programme managers and learners, we clarified the effectiveness and challenges of the programme. Furthermore, this article presents relevant design considerations for better planning and promotion of the DfSI education programme. Our case study findings are derived from a deep and detailed analysis, with practical implications for educators and researchers. Simultaneously, from an academic perspective, we hope that these findings will constitute a foothold for accumulating knowledge on DfSI education in the future.
Design science is making a comeback in the discipline of public administration: inspired by the growing popularity of design thinking, various scholars have highlighted the value of design science for the public sector. This theoretical and methodological article aims to contribute to the academic value of design science and focuses on the “double burden” of design science: how can it be applied in such a way that it generates both (relevant) situational interventions and contributes to (robust) generic academic knowledge? We identify which types of generic academic knowledge can be generated through design science in public administration: theoretical knowledge, design exemplars, methodological knowledge, and normative knowledge. We use these four types of generic knowledge to develop a new perspective on design science. We also present guidelines for design research that aim to generate both situational interventions and generic knowledge. These guidelines emphasize the need to be more rigorous and systematic in the process of design research as to ensure the validity and reliability of the contributions to generic knowledge for the discipline of public administration.
Public service is related to everyone’s life and future and directly feeds back on the development of society and the country. How to better shape and develop it is a critical issue for both individuals and groups. As the primary provider, the government plays a vital role in its creation, development, and transformation. In recent years, with the rapid development of human society, this field has been placed in the midst of new challenges. These are the difficulties that government departments urgently need to solve, and the traditional solutions have shown apparent inadequacies. Service design, as a powerful responder, is gradually emerging and playing an important role, influencing a series of dimensions from service innovation to social policies. The application of service design in government public services holds significant social value. However, related research remains in its infancy, needing a systematic theoretical framework. This paper focuses on government public service design and carries out systematic design research on it in order to realize the corresponding social and academic value. This paper established a theoretical framework for government public service design centered on the TB4D model, based on an in-depth study of the relevant literature, nearly 30 representative industry case studies, and three practical projects conducted by the author. The model integrates the TSLC operational mechanism model, the Behavior-Organization-Policy operational content model, the “3 + 1” development mode, and the method reference guide for government public service design based on the Double Diamond design process model. The letters and numbers in the model’s name sequentially represent these four components. Specifically, the TSLC operational mechanism model derives its name from the initials of four parts: trans-dimensional cognitive and thinking mode, systems thinking, learning interactive innovation process, and cultural regeneration and value shaping. The “3 + 1” development model denotes three forms of development centered on internal design capability and the form of joint development focused on external design capabilities. The TB4D model combines both theory and practice, yet to better illustrate its overall performance, this paper reverted to the practical domain. It quantitatively evaluated 20 complete projects, calculating the mean value and 95% confidence intervals to verify the model. The results demonstrate that the model is valid and possesses high industry representativeness, effectiveness, and universality. The organic operation of the model will provide systematic, innovative solutions to address the problems and challenges faced in the public service field, promoting the sustainable development of society. Since research in this area is still at an early stage, the theoretical model proposed here emphasizes its intrinsic principles and universal logic. It aims to provide foundational theoretical support for the development of this field and systematic guidance for relevant practices. As the industry evolves, the model’s content can be further refined and enriched to better reflect contemporary characteristics. Additionally, because this model serves as a foundational framework for the entire field, it can be further expanded to develop sub-models with local characteristics when applied to different regions.
This study evaluates the current knowledge base of research on Design Thinking (DT) by conducting a bibliometric and network analysis of 986 scientific documents gathered from the Scopus database from 1992- 2021. The results reveal, inter alia, publication trends, identify influential documents, productive authors, journals, institutions, countries working and collaborating in the field of DT and the potential future research opportunities. Co-occurrence of Keywords and PageRank analysis was performed and relevant clusters emerging out of this analysis were described. The study maps the existing literature available and examines key research trends and theoretical underpinnings of this emerging discipline. Finally, the study provides detailed recommendations about the topics that need to be probed in detail in future research to advance a better understanding of this field.
The ability to organize is our most valuable social technology and the successful organizational design of an enterprise can increase its efficiency, effectiveness, and ability to adapt. Modern organizations operate in increasingly complex, dynamic, and global environments, which puts a premium on rapid adaptation. Compared to traditional organizations, modern organizations are flatter and more open to their environments. Their processes are more generative and interactive – actors themselves generate and coordinate solutions rather than follow hierarchically devised plans and directives. They also search outside their boundaries for resources wherever they may exist, and co-produce products and services with suppliers, customers, and partners, collaborating – both internally and externally – to learn and become more capable. In this volume, leading voices in the field of organization design demonstrate how a combination of agile processes, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms can power adaptive, sustainable, and healthy organizations.
The focus of the research concerns the use of problem and opportunity framing approaches in design innovation. The work acknowledges the designer as an integral part of the design space and is based on the proposition that our capacity to innovate is dependent on the way we are able to see (perceive) problems and opportunities. The development of our awareness of design situations through flexible but deliberate ways of seeing is investigated and described as a key factor in innovation.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), a large, global organization, provides vital services and advocacy for millions of displaced persons around the world within a complex and unique mandate. To meet increasing demands in creative ways while fostering a culture of intrapreneurship, the organization has set up the Innovation Fellowship Programme, a learning initiative. This article examines how design may be used to foster intrapreneurship within large organizations. Through this single-case study we examine capabilities identified through mixed-methods within the context of an intrapreneurial process. Mapping abilities between individual vs. collective and exploration vs. exploitation dimensions enabled building a design-driven, stepwise intrapreneurial process model based on effectuation principles, recognizing the causation factors at play. Enabling structures and early, deep embeddedness of the design approaches, tools and methods have been found to enable success in developing intrapreneurial capabilities. Recognizing the importance of processes in applying design within organizations, this article maps out identified intrapreneurial capabilities to individual and collective orientations and the continuum between exploration and exploitation. Through a stepwise, design-driven process modelling, the article joins the competing logics and practices of effectuation and exploration of new opportunities with causation and the exploitation of existing resources, building on individual and collective capabilities and ambidexterity. Large, global and complex organizations have multiple challenges in suffusing design practices within their structure, capabilities and processes. While unleashing the potential of individual intrapreneurs is seen as important, the knowledge of how to create conducive structures, enable organizational processes and attend to individual capability build-up remains elusive, warranting attention. The article contributes to understanding how design can enable and enhance intrapreneurship in large global organizations through facilitating structures, developing intrapreneurial capabilities and modelling conducive processes.
Failures in achieving sustainability are being recognised worldwide. Approaches to tackling sustainability challenges often fail to address the roots of these challenges. This paper contributes to a necessary discussion of an emerging necessity, a research agenda that encompasses the transformative strategic role and value of design in (co-)shaping sustainable and equitable futures. It draws attention to drivers of unsustainability and their complex interplay of design, environmental, economic, societal and individual values that govern our modern society. Richard Buchanan’s four orders of design model is reviewed in the process, with a fifth order being suggested to deal with the change of paradigm that sustainability requires. This comprehensive view is critical to tgetting to grips with global challenges (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) since the shift towards sustainability needs to address the root causes of systemic and interrelated problems that cannot be overcome by reactive marketing and technocratic approaches. Implications for design value, education, skills, and ways of designing are pointed out.
A growing number of firms have integrated design in order to foster innovation and growth. Recent literature acknowledges design as a capability leading to differentiation and competitive advantage. However, how such a capability is built within companies with no past experience in design has not been fully addressed. Our objective is to bridge this gap. Indeed, most existing contributions focus on design intervention, that is, using design in projects, rather than design integration, that is, its systematic use and long‐term engagement as an embedded practice in the organization. Based on a longitudinal case study of an insurance company, complemented with an investigation of five other firms from other sectors, we offer a model for building design as a dynamic capability: Triggered by strategic orientations , firms acquire design resources and deploy them in activities such as projects in order to produce tangible results . Capitalizing on what they have learned in these projects, they progressively consolidate this knowledge in an expertise , which is then shared and diffused , thereby renewing the firm's resources. Therefore, our model highlights a reinforcement dimension: In addition to an operational capability (designing, spreading, and managing design), it is also a regenerative capability that consists in building the design expertise, advocating for it, anchoring, and renewing it. We thus have two contributions: (i) We conceptualize design as a dynamic capability enabling the development of new offerings, processes, and strategies that lead to organizations' competitiveness and transformation, and (ii) we propose a model for building such a capability.
This article presents the first part of a study that aims at proposing an evidence-based research and prototyping methodology for strategic design. Analyzing the emergence of Strategic Design, we argue that a historically unprecedented rapprochement between intangible design and social research opens a spectrum of possibility for conducting design and science in a new way. First, we examine the emergence of strategic design and discuss its institutionalization in academic and professional contexts. Second, we summarize the three ways of approaching Strategic Design as (1) Discipline, (2) Practice and (3) Attitude. Third, drawing on the social sciences as inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we define Strategic Design as an evidence-based and social scientifically informed creative practice that aims at proposing a new way to arrange or remake the interaction between devices (D), actors (A), representations (R), and networks (N) in any given organization or problem universe. Preparing a groundwork to develop a research and prototyping methodology for strategic design, the paper ends with a methodological discussion as a segue to Part 2 (available in this issue of She-Ji) that presents DARN as a theoretical toolkit for strategic designers.
This research investigates what user experience (UX) designer’s boundary spanning capabilities enable multiple stakeholders to create knowledge collaboration in identifying better design performances during an innovation process. To address this, it invites the concept of boundary spanner as a theoretical foundation and proposed a research model with six hypotheses. As an empirical evidence, this study conducted a preliminary study, and it concludes three findings. Based on this, the implications, contributions, and future studies are discussed.KeywordsDesigner’s boundary spanning capabilitiesBoundary spannerUX designerKnowledge collaborationDesign innovation process
This study examines the effect of consumers' value and risk perceptions on non-users' willingness to use digital multisided ride-sharing applications. The determinants of perceived value and risk have been analysed as second-order constructs, constituting their first-order value and risk dimensions. Following a quantitative approach, responses were collected from 339 participants using convenience sampling method. PLS-SEM was performed and findings indicated that perceived value and risk had significant effects on non-users' willingness to avail ride-sharing services. This study also highlighted that openness to experience and perceived risk showed a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived value and users' willingness to adopt ride-sharing services. The findings provide robust insights for market experts, entrepreneurs, and policymakers on understanding the key drivers of non-users' adoption of ride-sharing services and how to adopt innovation to make multi-sided platforms reliable and accessible through policy reformations.
Design Thinking (DT) is spreading in business community as a relevant innovation practice to change product and services. The term is more and more used and discussed, so this article-leveraging a literature review of 15 years-aims to find and to show the explicit value generated by the different DT patterns as recognized by literature and-going through a more deepening and complementary literature analysis-it expresses some hidden values associated to the four main patterns of DT. A growing stream of literature in last years-on one hand-deepened the underpinning constructs and the founding principles of DT intended in a first frame as a "Creative Problem Solving" approach-on the other hand-it stretched the application of DT to novel scopes and fields embracing novel principles and practices. Creative problem solving-for instance-is mostly recognized for the value of "ideating", recognizing the variety and the number of different ideas to solve a user problem. On the other hand, the principles embedded in it-as abductive reasoning, "reframing", quick prototyping-seem to recall the same principles of "lean entrepreneurship". Moreover, the emerging need related to digital environments to quickly test and grasping feedbacks from the user induced a new way to apply DT mostly pushing on the execution phase. "Sprint" is a process-oriented to produce insights from mapping and analyzing user behaviours, to take a fast decision about new interactive concepts and rapidly build "Minimum Viable Products" to accumulate learning and iteratively change the outcomes. Even this aspect seems to be connected and strengthen the lean entrepreneurial literature stream. DT, furthermore-leveraging people creativity-needs to continuously engage employees and stakeholders in compelling and motivating ways. Given that everyone assumes a personalized role in contributing to the creative process, an emerging challenge of DT consists to increase the "creative confidence" of individual and teams. At this level, DT seems to be more internally oriented-nurturing the knowledge and human capital of organizations-instead of placing novel solutions on the marketplace.
Finding meaningful problems to address is a critical driver of innovation and entrepreneurship in today's turbulent environment, possibly even more so than problem solving. While the literature has mostly investigated problem finding in terms of discovering hidden user needs or root causes, this paper takes a different approach, namely problem finding as a design act. In particular, the paper introduces key concepts and methods for designing problems worth solving predicated on the practice of reframing, thus creating novel frames to look at a situation from an original perspective and make new sense of it.
The ambiguous nature of the word “design” has caused confusion in understanding as various design-related concepts have emerged and attracted attention. Furthermore, the general understanding of design limited to the narrow definition of “Isyou” in Japan, and the instability of the extended design definition in design research has led to misperceptions and discrepancies in understanding of the concept of “design-driven management”. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to present issues of design-driven management research after providing an overview and organizing design concepts that are used ambiguously in the context of management. This paper reviews the expansion of design concepts in previous literature and positions and organizes ambiguous concepts based on the viewpoint that design is output or process. This approach contributes to understanding of the research scope and performance evaluation of design-driven management by clarifying the definition of the design concept.
Nowadays, organisations recognise the enormous strength of design thinking, as a set of thought processes, to deliver solutions to a plethora of management problems. Design thinking can be applied in many business functions including the organisation’s branding strategies. This chapter discusses the contributions of design thinking to brand management by presenting a conceptual framework which explores the connections of the design thinking process with brand equity and its management. Working together, brand managers and designers need to continuously evaluate the performance of the brand by conducting the brand audit to sustain and improve brand equity. Design thinking can help them successfully pursue the brand audit, through the power and scope of consumer ethnography to achieve empathy. Consumer ethnographic studies can help brand managers and designers identify branding problems and/or opportunities which require their attention. The design thinking process also enables them to develop solutions and determine the most optimum strategies to address these problems and/or to capitalise on these opportunities. It also provides brand managers and designers a human-centred approach to balance brand consistency and brand relevance, and continuously manage and enhance brand equity.
“Market shaping”—the deliberate origination and propagation of valuable new resource linkages—describes how actors seek to steer markets into desirable directions. Yet, the exact nature of new resource linkages and how these emerge and disseminate remains unclear in extant literature. Addressing this gap, this research builds on the understanding that the meaning which market actors ascribe to resources defines their value as well as the potential for and the value of new resource linkages. From this lens, without a shaping of meaning, there is no shaping of markets. To advance market shaping research along these lines, we develop a novel sense-based perspective of sensemaking, sensegiving, and sensebreaking activities in the market shaping process that emphasizes embodiment, continuity, and temporal indivisibility and thus enhances the clarity and depth of market-shaping theory's central concepts. Moreover, drawing on recent organization theory literature, we delineate four generic sensegiving/sensebreaking strategies that market shapers may enact to originate and propagate new resource linkages: inspirational, expansive, authoritative and suppressive sensegiving/sensebreaking. By illuminating the four strategies' roles in this sense-based market shaping process, we provide new insights into how market shaping capabilities may become expressed in practice. We conclude by discussing managerial implications, limitations and future research.
This interdisciplinary article views meaning innovations as socially constructed and reflects on designing in the context of potential harmful consequences within information technology (IT) contexts. In the shift from products towards services, digital platforms and technology designers have gained a mediating and more strategic role while developing multiple connections and interactions between products, touchpoints, users and suppliers. The design manager is involved in organisational strategizing and innovating. Following key principles of design, the context of all those affected by design should be considered. Meaning innovations may emerge when designers facilitate, partially guide and are guided by strategic goals and innovation discourses in organisational settings in conjunction with numerous others. Based on a literature review and reflection on empirical findings, this article suggests paths for designing meaningfulness through an exploration of material lifecycles, digital content, algorithms and data transparency in digital contexts. The concept of meaning innovation is suggested to encourage organisations to reflect on decisions regarding responsibility, sustainability and transparency beyond the mainstream customer focus leading to improved organizational sensemaking and decisions, supported by design.
Organizational cultures, and in particular stories, carry a claim to uniqueness - that an institution is unlike any other. This paper argues that a culture's claim to uniqueness is, paradoxically, expressed through cultural manifestations, such as stories, that are not in fact unique. We present seven types of stories that make a tacit claim to uniqueness. We show that these seven stories occur, in virtually identical form, in a wide variety of organizations. We then suggest why these stories have proliferated while others have not.
The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive view of the case study process from the researcher's perspective, emphasizing methodological considerations. As opposed to other qualitative or quantitative research strategies, such as grounded theory or surveys, there are virtually no specific requirements guiding case research. This is both the strength and the weakness of this approach. It is a strength because it allows tailoring the design and data collection procedures to the research questions. On the other hand, this approach has resulted in many poor case studies, leaving it open to criticism, especially from the quantitative field of research. This article argues that there is a particular need in case studies to be explicit about the methodological choices one makes. This implies discussing the wide range of decisions concerned with design requirements, data collection procedures, data analysis, and validity and reliability. The approach here is to illustrate these decisions through a particular case study of two mergers in the financial industry in Norway.
Organization design in its verb form is explored through a study of the design practices of a major contemporary architect, Frank O. Gehry, and his firm, Gehry Partners, LLP. Through four case studies, we explore how the organization design of his architectural projects is an outcome of Gehry Partners design gestalt. We argue that this design gestalt is a primary source of their organization designing and is composed of an architectural vision, the tight coupling of multiple representation technologies, and a commitment to a collaborative process of design and construction. These elements of design together form a holistic, organizing patterntheir design gestaltthat is evident in all of Gehry Partners projects, both their buildings and their organizational forms. We offer three characteristics of organization designingfocus on form giving, relation to environment, and temporality. We argue that developing a design gestalt and strengthening the capacity for organization designing is crucial for firms in our increasingly knowledge- and experience-based economy.
The academic focus of organization studies has unfortunately drifted over the years from the issues that organizations pose for their members and their societies, and the issues that confront people who seek to improve organizations. However, studies of efforts to design organizations can help us to better understand organizations and may also help us to improve them. The papers in this special issue of Organization Science describe several specific efforts to design organizations, telling why people wanted to make changes and what happened when people sought to make them.
For producers of traditional or high-tech consumer durables seeking to differentiate themselves from their competitors, the role of the product designer is increasingly taking a key role. In fact design and designers can contribute to corporate strategic renewal, and this paper proposes a framework for understanding how this can be achieved. Building on a study of outstanding innovators in product design – names such as Apple, Alessi and Bang & Olufsen – the authors describe design-driven renewal as a four-phase process stimulated and supported by design, combining continuous product innovation with the periodic revision of the strategic course of the company. For each phase, it discusses the specific role of managers and the most common pitfalls that arise from poor management of the process.
Mainstream organizational research is based on science and the humanities. Science helps us to understand organized systems, from an outsider position, as empirical objects. The humanities contribute to understanding, and critically reflecting on, the human experience of actors inside organized practices. This paper argues that, in view of the persistent relevance gap between theory and practice, organization studies should be broadened to include design as one of its primary modes of engaging in research. Design is characterized by its emphasis on solution finding, guided by broader purposes and ideal target systems. Moreover, design develops, and draws on, design propositions that are tested in pragmatic experiments and grounded in organization science. This study first explores the main differences and synergies between science and design, and explores how and why the design discipline has largely moved away from academia to other sites in the economy. The argument then turns to the genealogy of design methodologies in organization and management studies. Subsequently, this paper explores the circular design methodology that serves to illustrate the nature of design research, that is, the pragmatic focus on actionable knowledge as well as the key role of ideal target systems in design processes. Finally, the author proposes a framework for communication and collaboration between the science and design modes, and argues that scholars in organization studies can guide human beings in the process of designing and developing their organizations toward more humane, participative, and productive futures. In this respect, the organization discipline can make a difference.
If the defining goal of modern-day business can be isolated to just one item, it would be the search for competitive advantage. Competition is more intense than ever-technological innovation, consumer expectations, and government deregulation all combine to create more opportunities for new competitors to change the basic rules of the game. At the same time, most of the old reliable sources of competitive advantage are drying up: the strategies employed by GM, IBM, and AT&T to maintain their positions of dominance in the 1960s and 70s are now obsolete. The authors of this book argue that the last remaining source of truly sustainable competitive advantage lies in "organizational capabilities": the unique ways each organization structures its work and motivates its people to achieve clearly articulated strategic objectives. The book argues that managers must understand the concepts and learn the skills involved in designing their organization to exploit their inherent strengths. All the reengineering, restructuring, and downsizing in the world will merely destabilize a company if the change doesn't address the fundamental patterns of performance-and if the change doesn't recognize the unique core competencies of that company. The authors draw upon specific cases to illustrate the design process in practice, and they provide a set of tools for using strategic organization design to gain competitive advantage. They present a design process, explore key decisions managers face, and list the guiding principles for incorporating the design function as a continuing and integral process.
The paper records the increasing international recognition of the importance of teaching of design to managers, and argues that there are three main blocks to further progress. Two of these are the attitudes of designers and managers respectively, the third is a confusion relating to design management as a subject area.The paper discusses the problems of designers, notably their inclination to pre-empt the creative process and their professional inflexibility, and also the problems of managers for whom cultural inhibitions constitute the main barrier to appreciating the importance of design.The multiple meanings of design management are classified under five headings: design office management, educating designers for management, educating managers for design, design project management and design management organisation. The paper then outlines the research task relating to design management organisation currently in hand at the London Business School. It describes a matrix which has been devised as a working tool for the investigation, and suggests the potential practical value of the research programme. It concludes with some special characteristics attributed to design management by a group of senior managers at Philips NV. (Revised version of a paper given to the Danish Design Council Conference on Design Management in Practice, Copenhagen, June 1985.)
This paper describes and critiques organizational culture studies done in industrial settings, some of which were based on anthropological paradigms, including the structural-functional and configurationist holistic paradigms. Most failed to explore multiple "native" views. In this paper, a multicultural model is proposed for large organizations, and problems of "cross-cultural" contact are described. Native-view paradigms from anthropology, especially ethnoscience ethnography, are recommended for exploring multiple perspectives in detail. An illustration from a recent study of "Silicon Valley" technical professionals' "native" views is presented to demonstrate how ethnoscience methods, in particular, can be applied to the task of studying culture.
This paper formulates a new conceptual framework for understanding professional culture in organizational context. Our analysis begins with an attempt to identify the complex interplay between individual sense-making, group beliefs and culture. The process of professionalization and the development of professional cultures is described and the influence of professional belief systems on organizational culture is examined. The inter-relationship between four different types of professional subculture and organizational culture is illustrated in a case-study analysis of an Australian home-care service. The stability of an organization's operating environment is identified as a major factor which facilitates and constrains the propensity for professional subcultures to radically transform or incrementally refine dominant organizational cultures. The paper concludes with a critical reappraisal of the significance of professional subculture as a determinant of an organization's cultural system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Organization Studies (Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG.) is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Design is a potent strategic tool that companies can use to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Yet most companies neglect design as a strategy tool. What they don't realize is that good design can enhance products, environment, communications, and corporate identity.
The organization is but one frame of reference for understanding work behavior. Equally powerful but largely unexplored social forces in the workplace are groups sired by the perception of common task. After developing the concept of an occupational community as a framework for analyzing the phenomenological boundaries of work worlds, the authors show how research on occupational communities can broaden our knowledge of careers, control, conflict, and innovation, topics traditionally approached from an organizational perspective.
The paper describes an empirical enquiry into the nature of academic disciplines. It focuses on the main similarities and differences within and between six academic disciplinesphysics, history, biology, sociology, mechanical engineering and lawand concludes by suggesting a possible way of portraying different research styles.
ABSTRACT Academic management research has a serious utilization problem. In this field mainstream research tends to be description-driven, based on the paradigm of the ‘explanatory sciences’, like physics and sociology, and resulting in what may be called Organization Theory. This article argues that the relevance problem can be mitigated if such research were to be complemented with prescription-driven research, based on the paradigm of the ‘design sciences’, like Medicine and Engineering, and resulting in what may be called Management Theory. The typical research products in Management Theory would be ‘field-tested and grounded technological rules’. The nature of such rules is discussed as well as the research strategies producing them.
This paper presents a structured approach to grounded theory-building. It is aimed at ‘mode 2’ (Gibbons et al., 1994) management researchers, in particular those who analyse recollections of past events, often recorded in interview data, to develop explanations of management action. Two characteristics of mode 2 enquiry - transdisciplinarity and an emphasis on tacit knowledge - make grounded theory potentially attractive to mode 2 researchers. However, the approach offered here differs in two important ways from the much-cited universal grounded theory model originated by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and later proceduralized by Strauss and Corbin (1990). First, it acknowledges that the form of theories of management action which will satisfy the contemporary demands of mode 2 research is different from the form of integrated sociological theory for which the original grounded theory approach was developed. Second, it takes account of differences between the ontological assumptions underlying the use of retrospective data for analysing management action, and those associated with participant observation, the pivotal strategy of grounded theory's symbolic interactionist roots. The result is a simplified, more direct approach which works for the specific purpose of generating useful, consensually valid theory.
This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies-from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
The ability to design is widespread amongst all people, but some people appear to be better designers than others. This paper addresses what we know about this `natural intelligence' of design ability, and the nature of design activity. Quotations and comments from some acknowledged expert designers are used to reinforce general findings about the nature of design activity that have come from recent design research. The role of sketching in design is used to exemplify some of the complexity of designing. In conclusion, comments are made about the value and relevance of research into artificial intelligence (AI) in design. It is suggested that one aim of research in AI in design should be to help inform understanding of the natural intelligence of design ability.
The past two decades have seen a dramatic acceleration in the pace of marketplace change. Companies have abandoned the old hierarchical model, with its clean functional divisions and clear lines of authority, and adopted flatter, less bureaucratic structures. But if most organizations have begun to adapt to the uncertainty of rapid change, most managers have not. They remain locked into the mechanical mind-set of the industrial age--that is, they assume that any management challenge can be translated into a clearly defined problem for which an optimal solution can be found. That approach works in stable markets and even in markets that change in predictable ways. Today's markets, however, are increasingly unstable and unpredictable. Managers can never know precisely what they're trying to achieve or how best to achieve it. They can't even define the problem, much less engineer a solution. The challenges facing the general manager in these circumstances, the authors argue, resemble those typically confronted by design managers. In the unpredictable world of research and design, neither the flow of the development process nor its end point can be defined at the outset. Rather than the traditional analytical approach to management, the design world requires an interpretive one. And that approach is equally well suited to rapidly changing, unpredictable markets. The authors describe how companies such as Levi Strauss & Company and Chiron Corporation have stayed at the top of their industries by adopting just such an interpretive approach to management.
Towards an integrative design discipline' in Creating Breakthrough ideas: The collaboration of anthropologists and designers in the product development industry
- Ken Friedman
- EisenhardtKathleen, M.
Semantics as common ground: Connecting the cultures of analysis and creation', in Creating breakthrough ideas: The collaboration of anthropologists and designers in the product development industry
- Heiko Sacher
Management and design' in Managing as designing
- Richard Buchanan
Managers and designers: Two tribes at war?' in Design management: A handbook of issues and methods
- David Walker