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  • 2007
  • Chapter
  • Business Process Transformation

Process Management, Technological Innovation, and Organizational Adaptation

By: Mary Benner and M. Tushman
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

The promise of process management practices is that as organizations focus on variance reduction and increased process control, they will drive both speed and organizational efficiency. However, this promise also accentuates the dark side of process management. These practices will increasingly favor exploitative innovations at the expense of exploratory innovations. This inertia works to impede major change and transforms core competencies to core rigidities. Managers must exercise caution against considerable institutional pressures pushing process management activities. They need to adopt a more nuanced approach to creating organizations that can celebrate both variance reduction in the service of exploitation and variance creation in the service of exploration. This can be achieved by adopting an ambidextrous organizational design.

Keywords

Competency and Skills; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Management Practices and Processes; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design

Citation

Benner, Mary, and M. Tushman. "Process Management, Technological Innovation, and Organizational Adaptation." Chap. 15 in Business Process Transformation, edited by Varun Grover and M. Lynne Markus, 317–326. Advances in Management Information Systems. Irvine, CA: M.E. Sharpe, 2007.

About The Author

Michael L. Tushman

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Reimagining Enel: Enabling Sustainable Progress By: Michael L. Tushman and Kerry Herman
  • Corporate Explorer: How Corporations Beat Startups at the Innovation Game By: Andrew Binns, Charles A. O'Reilly III and Michael Tushman
  • Leading Disruption in a Legacy Business: A Compelling Growth Ambition Is a Critical Enabler for New Ventures By: Andy Binns, Michael Tushman and Charles O'Reilly
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