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- Intervention for organizational innovation: a case studyPublication . Cardoso de Sousa, Fernando; Monteiro, Ileana Pardal; Pissarra, JoãoThis article is intended to report an intervention in a SME of the IT sector, aiming at an organizational change process towards a greater proactivity of employees. The presentation of the case includes the diagnosis, intervention, and the beginning of the implementation of innovation projects, based on an adapted model of third generation large-group organizational change methods. In addition to the steps followed, small-world analysis techniques were used, with the intention of determining the existing communication networks; also, a content analysis of collected success stories was made, in order to suggest strong points for a future organizational culture. The results clarified the desirable characteristics of an intervention method with large groups, adapted to Portuguese companies, and effective in organizational innovation project design. The analysis of the success stories helped to determine the strengths of an orientation for the future, while the use of measures of small-world networks allowed us to analyze the existing informal organization. Although this study does not include the completion of the projects, due to difficulties in the company, it can provide a solid basis for application in future interventions.
- The creation of a fast track, large-group intervention method: A case studyPublication . Cardoso de Sousa, Fernando; Pissarra, João; Monteiro, Ileana PardalThis article reports the testing of a fast track, large-group intervention method, designed to initiate a change process of a Portuguese SME in the IT sector, aiming at increasing the proactivity of its employees. Based on previous work, mixing third generation large-group organizational change methods, classical Organizational Development (OD) approaches, and an adapted version of Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) protocol, the presentation of the case includes an extended diagnosis, the preparation and execution of the company meeting, and the beginning of the implementation of innovation projects. The company meeting was designed to last for just four hours, instead of the two to four days of the present methods. The diagnosis, made in close collaboration with management, includes the results of more than 30 interviews conducted with internal and external stakeholders, and a small-world analysis technique to determine the existing communication networks, together with possible clusters and brokers. Furthermore, using a content analysis, success stories were collected in order to clarify the strong points for a future organizational culture. The results support the effectiveness of the selected methodology in establishing innovation projects, involving the entire organization, and clarified desirable characteristics for the improvement of the present intervention method, adapted to Portuguese companies. The analysis of the success stories helped to determine the strengths of a future organizational culture, while the use of measures of smallworld networks allowed to analyze the existing informal organization, and the way knowledge flows out of the necessary tension between clustering and bridging, necessary for creative benefits. Although this study does not include the entire completion of the projects, due to unpredicted company emergencies, it provides a solid basis for application in future interventions, and to initiate another line of investigation, related with the preparation of team leaders as group facilitators.
- Adapting creative problem solving to an organizational context: a study of its effectiveness with a student populationPublication . Cardoso de Sousa, Fernando; Monteiro, Ileana; Walton, Andre; Pissarra, JoãoOwing to company time restrictions and concentration on project development, we began to reduce the duration of creative problem solving (CPS) sessions, and to give more emphasis to the action planning stage. Several changes in our CPS protocol, as well as in its duration, begged the question as to whether these changes were jeopardizing efficacy. To examine this question, six groups of ten university students, working under two different CPS protocols (a five-step method and a four-step method), and three control groups (using no CPS method), were given the same objective and similar conditions. This exploratory experiment compared group performance by change in team commitment, divergent thinking preferences, productivity and the participants' evaluation of the different methods. Results show that the CPS methods were both effective in changing participants' perspectives regarding divergent thinking and team commitment. In the control groups, however, there were no changes as a consequence of the sessions. Results also suggest that the same problem-solving effectiveness can be attained in a shorter time than that traditionally used, and without prior training in CPS. These findings open the door to developing new problem-solving techniques and team work processes, and to more efficient organizational creativity and innovation methodologies.
- Learning from failure: a case study on creative problem solvingPublication . Cardoso de Sousa, Fernando; Monteiro, Ileana Pardal; Walton, Andre; Pissarra, JoãoThis research is aimed at improving the creative problem solving (CPS) facilitation process by case analysis, through which we try to learn even from failure. With the goal of increasing efficiency by reducing session time and also due to theoretical considerations, a four-step model was designed, comprising the stages of objective-finding, problem-definition, action-planning and the action itself. Following these adaptations, our research involved an organisation that enabled us to bring managers and volunteers to work on a project. The organisation is the only private museum in the Algarve region of Portugal; it is involved in regional culture and, despite competent management, faces serious financial difficulties. A team of 22 people was established, representing both immediate and remote geographical communities, cultural organisations, and representatives of innovative projects related to the hospitality industry. From the interventions, and the follow up procedures, we learned that some project failures could have been prevented by a more thorough team facilitation, considering the team size, and a better handling of the client's ownership of the problem. The analyses and conclusions allowed the development of principles that will be applied in future interventions, giving rise to improvements in the facilitation process, bringing in important implications for developing collaboration between organizations. Team composition and the handling of client-team relationships seem to be promising areas for research, given their potential impact on a project's effectiveness, as to its final results for the organization considered
- Intervenção para a inovação organizacional: um estudo de caso.Publication . Cardoso de Sousa, Fernando; Monteiro, Ileana Pardal; Pissarra, JoãoO presente artigo relata uma intervenção numa PME do sector informático, tendo em vista um processo de mudança organizacional no sentido de uma maior proatividade dos colaboradores. A apresentação do caso inclui o diagnóstico, a intervenção propriamente dita e o início da execução dos projetos de inovação, baseando-se num modelo adaptado dos métodos de mudança organizacional de terceira geração, com grupos grandes. Em complemento dos passos seguidos, foram utilizadas técnicas de análise das redes sociais, no sentido de determinar as redes de comunicação existentes, bem como de análise de conteúdo a histórias de sucesso entretanto recolhidas, para definir os pontos fortes de uma futura cultura organizacional. Os resultados obtidos clarificaram as características desejáveis de um método de intervenção com grupos grandes, adaptado ao caso das empresas portuguesas e eficaz no desenho de projetos de inovação organizacional. A análise das histórias de sucesso contribuiu para determinar os pontos fortes de uma orientação futura desejável, enquanto a utilização de medidas relativas às redes sociais permitiu analisar a organização informal existente. Se bem que o presente trabalho não inclua a realização dos projetos, por dificuldades entretanto surgidas na empresa, pensa-se que pode constituir uma base sólida para aplicação em intervenções futuras.