Designing Organizations for Dynamic Capabilities. (August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Felin, Teppo; Powell, Thomas C.
• Is Part Of: California management review. Volume 58:Number 4(2016)
• Page Start: 78
• Page End: 96
• Publication Date: 2016-08
• Subjects: Strategic Management -- Organizational Design -- Innovation -- Dynamic Capabilities -- Sensing -- Seizing -- Crowds; Industrial management -- Periodicals; Industrial management; Management; Bedrijfseconomie; Periodicals; 658.005
• DOI: 10.1525/cmr.2016.58.4.78
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-1256

Abstract

How can organizations put dynamic capabilities into practice? This article focuses on the power of organizational design, showing how managers can harness new organizational forms to build a capacity for sensing, shaping and seizing opportunities. Fast-moving environments favor open organization and self-organizing processes that quickly convert individual capabilities into actionable collective intellect. However, such self-organizing processes require managers to design and execute them. Using Valve Corporation as a case example, this article shows how new design principles—such as polyarchy, social proofs, and new forms of open organization—allow organizations to build dynamic capabilities for sustained innovation in dynamic environments.