Managing Technology and Innovation in Bureaucratic and Non-bureaucratic Organizations (Thesis Proposal Sample)

Managing Technology and Innovation in Bureaucratic and Non-bureaucratic Organizations
Research proposal for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Management
at the University of Stellenbosch
22 July 2015
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
List of acronyms and abbreviations
1.INTRODUCTION
2.OVERVIEW OR BACKGROUND
3.RESEARCH FOCUS
3.1RESEARCH PROBLEM
3.2RESEARCH QUESTION
3.3RESEARCH AIM
4.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
4.2QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
4.3DATA COLLECTION
4.4DATA ANALYSIS
5.MERIT OF THE RESEARCH AND PROPOSED CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE
6.LITERATURE REVIEW
7.RESEARCH PROTOCOL
8.REFERENCES
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The management of innovation and technology appears to be an inevitable issue within the high end innovative and technological organizations. Innovation can be viewed as thinking differently and out of the box. It is all about coming up with new improvements, concepts, ideas, developments geared towards obtaining organizational strategic advantages (Howells 141). Some innovations are based on breakthroughs or radical while others are based on forms, ideas, process and composition that already exist. Sometimes people refer to innovation as new technology. However, innovation is nothing new, neither does it involve new technology. For instance, the self-service concept popularized by McDonald, was just a different way to run the restaurant as opposed to a technological breakthrough perception (Mumford 123).
When it comes to technology it is a broad concept literature-wise. It can be viewed as the integration of human know-how, knowledge and information about management, equipment, marketing, as well as organization know-how. Within the current technologically advanced and globalized world, organizations with poor technology management or obsolete technology cannot perform well in this highly competitive global economy (Dodgson, Mark, Gann & Salter 93). Organizations that have advanced technology but in a way lack the required capacity and knowledge and proficient technical skills and do have poor technology management are worthless. This is because it is not the technology per se that makes the profits but rather its management (Brockhoff, Klaus, Alok & Jùrgen 46). The paper intends to stimulate the exchange of new initiatives and ideas for the management of technology and innovation in organizations.
This builds a need to study on how technology and innovation can be managed in bureaucratic and non-bureaucratic organization. This paper thus, outlines the importance of undertaking a study on managing technology and innovation in bureaucratic and non-bureaucratic organizations. This research proposal articulate the background or overview of the study, research focus, problem, questions, aim, methodology to be followed, data collection and analysis process, merit and contribution to science, literature review relevant to study and the research protocol.
2.0 OVERVIEW OR BACKGROUND
Today’s dynamic environment demands for a change by all organizations both incrementally and radically. Where there is sustainable development there must have been innovation. It is crucial for any organization to change the services and products it offers including the way it operates (Whittaker & Cole 182). As such an organization has to encourage experimentation, monitor the environment constantly, evaluate its own performance and become committed to improve its performance continuously. Managing innovation involves various aspects and is multifaceted (Martin, Michael & Martin 59). A series of research which links innovation to an organization’s knowledge base highlights the significance of several critical factors that enable knowledge application and acquisition so as to promote innovation. Research has it that implicit knowledge can become managed indirectly through the management of various factors that contribute to the structure, culture, leadership and technology of an organization. In line with this series of research, the promotion of innovation can be achieved via the management of explicit and tacit knowledge embedded in such factors (Cameron, Kim, Dutton & Quinn 79).
Among these factors could be the fact that technology is changing continuously and has thus become a significant contributor to turbulent markets. Furthermore, technology as an asset that is intangible knowledge based increase innovation management potential. The policy of technology reflects on an organization’s innovative attitude including its commitment to the given innovation (Dauda 67). Even though technology can play a significant role in the innovation process of an organization, too much of it can end up stifling innovation through standardization of the existing processes and workflows. An organization’s long-term competitive position seem therefore depended on how organizations can prudently manage their bases of technological assets (Clegg, Stewart, Martin & Harro 132).
Firms tend to differ as their competencies seem to be developed in different technologies. With regard to knowledge endowments asymmetries may provide the basis for heterogeneity in technology (Betz 68). In some other firms may as well differ in ways through which they deploy or exploit the acquired or available technology. In the current world, the management of innovation and technology seems considered to be among the most significant literature issues (Burgelman, Christensen & Wheelwright 71). An organization can use technology and innovation to come up with a competitive advantage via the creation of barriers which deter rivals’ entry. Such advantage could as well be via the introduction of technology processes or novel products that attract fresh customers, or changing the competition rules within the industry. Innovation and technology’s creation, development including application can clearly form the basis for an organization’s success (Pugh 237).
3.0 RESEARCH FOCUS
3.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM
Growth via innovations do not have to take place via break-through innovations. It rather involves ways that are innovative for the integration of developing or existing technologies into solutions that are of high value. Such innovative ways tend to span across the whole chain of value and require integration across external and internal business boundaries. An organization’s technological choices are often clarified by how they are managed. This means the planning which guides the deployment and accumulation of the technological capabilities and resources. However, no two organizations seemed to have the same way of managing their innovations and technology.
Despite the increasing significance of innovation and the advantages portrayed by technological capabilities within the growth trajectory of an organization, surprisingly, little seems to be known how innovation and technology within various firms is managed. Thus, there is need for research to determine how the management of innovation and technology guides the deployment, acquisition and abandonment of various factors so as to promote the two.
3.2 RESEARCH QUESTION
The main research question is;
How does the management of technology and innovation make bureaucratic and non-bureaucratic organizations effective?
Supplementary questions include;
How does this management ensure effectiveness when integrating new technologies and innovation in an organization?
What is the difference between organizations whose technology and innovation have been managed and those that have not?
3.3 RESEARCH AIM
The research aims at finding out how the management of technology and innovation can make bureaucratic and non-bureaucratic organizations effective. Also in its aims is determining how effectiveness is achieved when such new innovations and technologies are introduced in a firm. Moreover, is the aim to find out the difference between organizations whose technology and innovation have been managed and those that lack such management. The literature gives a hint of the significance of various factors of an organization that promote technology and innovation within a firm. These have been incorporated in the conceptual framework along with innovation and technology.
4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology utilized in this research incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods of research. An in-depth survey methodology that is underpinned by ethnographic methods of data collection will be utilized to carry out the research coupled up by a number of group discussions. Outlined in this section is the quantitative research, qualitative research, data collection and data analysis.
4.1 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
This about the exploration of issues, the understanding of phenomena, as well as the answering of questions through analysis and making the unstructured data have some sense. Qualitative research brings about synergy among the respondents as they tend to build up on one another’s ideas and comments. The group discussions and interview process to be done will in a dynamic nature will engage the respondents in a more active way. Research under qualitative methods will give the researcher to make observation, do recordings and make interpretations of non-verbal communications as part of the feedback by respondents. This is quite valuable during discussions or interviews or rather analysis. The opportunity to probe provided by such research method enables one as a researcher to reach beyond levels of initial responses including rationales (Kothari 17).
4.2 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
This kind of methodology involves coming up with a structured way through which one asks respondents for their opinions so as to produce statistics and hard f...