Wellsprings of creation
Subtitle: how perturbation sustains exploration in mature organizations
By: David James Brunner, Bradley R. Staats, Michael L. Tushman, and David M. Upton
Contributors: Staats, Bradley R.; Tushman, Michael; Upton, David M., 1959-; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 09-011; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 09-011.
Publisher: Harvard Business School]
Published: 2008
Place of publication: [Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 35
Description: Organizations struggle to balance simultaneous imperatives to exploit and explore, yet theorists differ as to whether exploitation undermines or enhances exploration. The debate reflects a gap: the missing mechanism by which organizations break free of old routines and discover new ones. We propose that the missing link is perturbation: novel stimuli that disrupt the execution of specialized routines. Perturbation creates opportunities for organizations to invoke exploratory, general-purpose problem-solving routines. In mature organizations, perturbations become increasingly scarce to the point that exploration is stifled and inertia sets in. We suggest that mature organizations can sustain exploration by deliberately inducing perturbations in their own processes. Our theory yields testable hypotheses about the relationships between exploitation, perturbation, and exploration. We provide illustrations from The Toyota Motor Company to show how deliberate perturbation enables efficient exploration in the midst of intense exploitation.
Notes: "July 2008, revised June 2009, September 2010"--Publisher's web site.

"July 26, 2010"--added t.p.

Originally published as: Wellsprings of creation--perturbation and the paradox of the highly disciplined organization.

Includes bibliographical references.