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Paradigm Change and Leveraged Learning During the Rover–Honda Collaboration
Author(s) -
Fairhead James
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8691.00094
Subject(s) - sensemaking , leverage (statistics) , product (mathematics) , new product development , identity (music) , marketing , computer science , business , psychology , knowledge management , artificial intelligence , aesthetics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics
Stories from the Rover/Honda collaboration suggest that after a period of intense puzzlement, many Rover engineers eventually ‘made sense’ of the unfamiliar ways of their Japanese counterparts and (somewhat against the predictions of theory) changed their world‐views quite fundamentally and painlessly as a result, only latterly facilitated by senior management. This is suggestive of the powerful sensemaking and learning leverage that may be derived from story‐telling processes naturally functioning at operating level, especially when they make knowledge available of alternative ‘paradigmatic’ assumptions about organising and identity. The paper draws from a wider ten‐year programme of inductive case‐based research into product innovation, organisational learning and change.