Mindful infrastructure as an enabler of innovation resilience behaviour in innovation teams

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the principles of high reliability organisations (HROs), present in safety and crisis teams, as applied to innovation teams. Safety and crisis teams cannot fail, as failure leads to disaster and casualties. Innovation teams cannot fail either, as this harms the organisations’ competitiveness and effectiveness. Do HRO principles, rooted in mindful infrastructure, enable innovation resilience behaviour (IRB)? Design/methodology/approach A study of 18 innovation projects performed by project teams was carried out. A survey by team members/leaders of these teams was completed; team members/leaders of other projects were added to achieve a larger sample. Mindful infrastructure consists of team psychological safety, team learning, complexity leadership and team voice. The analyses assessed the teams’ mindful infrastructures as a causal condition enabling IRB. Findings Applying qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), the findings indicate that mindful infrastructure enables team IRB, which is a set of team behaviours indicating their resilience when encountering critical incidents. Teams apply different “paths” to IRB. Research limitations/implications The exploratory study’s generalizability is limited. The findings nonetheless indicate the usefulness of non-linear techniques for understanding different roads to successful innovation processes. Practical implications HRO principles are applicable by non-HROs. These require investments in organisational learning. Originality/value HRO studies fail to account for the antecedents of HRO principles. This study groups these antecedents of team behaviour into a mindful infrastructure. QCA has not been applied within the domain of HROs before and only scarcely within the domain of innovation teams.

Leadership and Resilience: Where the Literature Stands

“…There is much less empirical research into the interaction of leadership and resilience at the team and organizational levels. There is some support for the claim that leadership enables team level resilience (Oeij et al, 2016). However, studies range widely as to which specific leadership behaviors impact team level resilience.…”

“…Team resilience is the least developed level of resilience research (Raetze et al, 2019). Oeij et al (2016) used a short version of the Five Audits of Resilient Performance measure to evaluate team resilience among 18 innovation teams. They found that “resilience appears most often when team voice, team learning, and all four leadership styles (compete, create, control, and collaborate) are present” (Oeij et al, 2016, p. 344).…”

“…Oeij et al (2016) used a short version of the Five Audits of Resilient Performance measure to evaluate team resilience among 18 innovation teams. They found that “resilience appears most often when team voice, team learning, and all four leadership styles (compete, create, control, and collaborate) are present” (Oeij et al, 2016, p. 344). The finding contrasts with Rodríguez‐Sánchez and Vera Perea's (2015) finding that transformational leadership is one of the four factors that build team resilience.…”

Mindful infrastructure as antecedent of innovation resilience behaviour of project teams

“…Therefore, the observation remains relevant that the bivariate association of all mindful infrastructure variables with team IRB is present in the data set. The stipulated analyses are carried out applying qualitative comparative analysis and findings are reported elsewhere (Oeij et al, 2016a).…”

Marketing Capability, Business Model Innovation Quality and Smes Growth Performance.

“…All of these activities need to be managed effectively and efficiently through Innovation Management. (Oeij, Dhondt, & Gaspersz, 2016) suggests that Innovation management is a management discipline related to managing innovation in processes, products and services, organizations, to customers and markets. Innovation management can be used to develop innovation processes, products and services, organizations, and markets and customers.…”