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Harvey S, Mueller JS. Staying Alive: Toward a Diverging Consensus Model of Overcoming a Bias Against Novelty in Groups. ORGANIZATION SCIENCE 2021. [DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2020.1384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Organizations that desire creativity often use groups like task forces, decision panels, and selection committees with the primary purpose of evaluating novel ideas. Those groups need to keep at least some novel ideas alive while also assessing the usefulness of ideas. Research suggests, however, that such groups often prefer proven ideas whose usefulness can be easily predicted and reject novel ideas early in the course of discussion. How those groups deal with the tension between novelty and the predictability of idea usefulness in the process of overcoming a bias against novelty is therefore an important question for understanding organizational creativity and innovation. We explore that question with a qualitative study of the discussions of four healthcare policy groups who confronted the tension early in the process of evaluating ideas. Unlike prior work that emphasizes how groups integrate tensions to build consensus around ideas, our study showed that overcoming a bias against novelty involved maintaining tension by fracturing a group’s shared understanding of usefulness and retaining those divergent perspectives alongside moments of consensus. We describe this as a diverging consensus model of overcoming a bias against novelty. Our work contributes to the literature examining how groups can productively engage with tensions and provides a dynamic process for how groups might overcome the bias against novelty and therefore keep some novel ideas alive to fuel organizational creativity and innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Harvey
- School of Management, University College London, London, United Kingdom E14 5AB
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Discovering the Discoveries: What AMD Authors’ Voices Can Tell us. ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT DISCOVERIES 2019. [DOI: 10.5465/amd.2019.0210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Qualitative Discovery: Empirical Exploration at AMD. ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT DISCOVERIES 2018. [DOI: 10.5465/amd.2018.0231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Georgakakis D, Greve P, Ruigrok W. Differences that matter: hiring modes and demographic (dis)similarity in executive selection. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2018.1496126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Dimitrios Georgakakis
- University of St. Gallen, Research Institute for International Management, St. Gallen, Switzerland
| | - Peder Greve
- Henley Business School, University of Reading, Henley-on-Thames, UK
| | - Winfried Ruigrok
- University of St. Gallen, Research Institute for International Management, St. Gallen, Switzerland
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