Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between innovation and system complexity, and suggest improvements for an organization to handle innovation and complexity better.
Method: The analysis was based on theoretical models about organizational structure, development models and knowledge management. The models were selected to highlight theoretical extremes rather than practical usefulness to avoid practical obstacles in the theoretic evaluations. The work progressed as a strategy development flow based on a model including four phases; analysis, objectives and recommendations, options and Implementation.
Result & Conclusions: To significantly improve how complexity and innovation are managed it isn’t sufficient to focus on improvements in one part, such as processes. Organizational goals, external environment, organizational structure, development model, knowledge management and internal culture have to be considered and balanced to achieve significant improvements. For the organization studied it was clear that there was a difference in the official description of the organization and how it worked in practice.
Suggestions for future research: Metrics are important to measure value and improvement. Balanced metrics describing how well an organization is adapted to its goals and environment is an area for future work. The effect of Model-Based design on organizational structure is another interesting topic for further research.
Contribution of the study: The recommendations and objectives developed in this study can be used to improve an organization with respect to both internal and external environment.
Source: University of Gävle
Author: Aarenstrup, Roger