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Tom Babineau :: Blog :: Swanson & Ramiller/Innovating Mindfully with IT

November 10, 2006

Swanson and friend (I am feeling a bit non-PC today) give us this week a exploratory paper that is very theoretical and conceptual. The authors seem to be well-meaning, but this material seems to be in the ether for me. I am very skeptical of their evidence, or could I be mindlessly critical, jumping on a bandwagon?

I do think Swanson is onto something; it seems that this will make a good stepping stone into other research endeavors, particularly in org behavior or IT in the DSS realm. This paper seems to point to mindless decision-making as group think or lack of internal innovation. I agree with much of what they imply. I believe that the authors could have had more qualitative and/or empirical material to help support their theory and models.

I did find their analysis of innovation to be interesting. I am not sure that they have a comprehensive model for the interplay between innovation and the organization, but it is an interesting concept. I would be curios to see if other fiends have developed similar or conflicting models compared to Swanson et al's. I would assume that mangement and org behavior researchers have taken a swag at how innovation is integrated and accepted within the organization. This is a very important topic though and I would be interested in looking for a further expansion of this research. It even has the potential to be useful in my 360 paper.

Posted by Tom Babineau


Comments

  1. Agree. Organizational behavior or religion research would be the next logical stepping stone.  People tend to act and behave with much more religious values when they get older. 

    Nam PhamNam Pham on Friday, 10 November 2006, 10:51 Pacific Standard Time # |

  2. I wonder if it is the nature of exploratory research to not have much empirical or qualitative evidence.  At least the authors qualified their paper as "preliminary" theory development, which implies that probably had a lot more to say but could not fit it all in the page length they were given.  Good thing for us, because we probably would have been more lost and tired from the extra reading.  However, all in all, I think I got their gist and actually appreciated that it does take a lot of work to develop new theories.

    Karen LumKaren Lum on Friday, 10 November 2006, 13:44 Pacific Standard Time # |

  3. I think the Swanson team did a good job of explaining the concept of mindfulness and mindlessness, but not innovation.  Is it an I T artifact or a management philosopy?  Are these software products that serve a large organization or are they styles or templates for home-grown software?  Different definitions imply different ways of being mindful and innovative.  I think that at least a couple of real-world examles would have been very helpful.

    Avra ElbingerAvra Elbinger on Monday, 13 November 2006, 17:58 Pacific Standard Time # |

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