Papers by Dorthe Thorning Mejlhede
This article describes a model for establishing national design
research and upgrading art-based ... more This article describes a model for establishing national design
research and upgrading art-based design education programs
at the university level. It aims to provide an overview of the development and achievements of design research in Denmark against a particular political, organizational, academic, and professional background during a ten-year period. Having served as the director of the Danish Centre of Design Research (DCDR) from 2007 to 2012,1 I try, as objectively as possible, to review the background for the political decision to establish the Centre, its actual establishment, the research evaluation in 2010, and the closing of the Centre in 2012.
PhD by Dorthe Thorning Mejlhede
For quite a few years now, innovation has been high on the private and political agenda, both loc... more For quite a few years now, innovation has been high on the private and political agenda, both locally and internationally, due to increased global competition. Discussions of the concept often include the phenomenon of disruption, which is perceived as threatening, and which calls for us to create and embrace the new. In extension of that, the management concept of ‘design thinking’ is sometimes proposed as a way for managers to deal with this challenge. However, research into the intersection of the managerial aspects of innovation, design and organization remains scarce, and available literature on the topic predominantly consists of popular how-to books. Based on a case study, this project aims to contribute to research on innovation management and design management, which includes design thinking in the management discourse. It pursues this goal by exploring the concept of design thinking as a means of developing the innovative organization from a position within the Scandinavian critical reflexive processual approach to organization and management studies. The study explores organizing practices within the anonymous case organization, FintechOrg, initially taking an inductive approach as a way of laying the foundation for a possible subsequent deductive introduction of design thinking methods into a managerial setting at FintechOrg.
Theoretically, the dissertation sets out by reviewing literature focusing on metatheoretical debates within organization and management studies and then goes on to review the managerial aspects of innovation, which includes, for instance, the concepts of innovation and disruption. The managerial aspects of design are reviewed too. However, since some researchers claim that the concept of design thinking both reduces design practice, which is seen as its source (Amacker, 2017; Hjelm, 2005; Kimbell, 2011), and, as a concept in the management discourse, is paradigmatically inconsistent (Johansson-Sköldberg & Woodilla J., Cetinkaya, 2013; Johansson & Woodilla, 2008b, 2011), the dissertation invites additional literature into the theoretical conversation on design and management, including the organizational scholar Karl Weick’s contribution to managing as designing (2004a, 2004b). The theoretical perspectives of the dissertation conclude with a discussion that leads to the formulation of a new multi-diverse theoretical framework, based in part on Weick’s work, which has the capacity to connect research fields across ontologies.
Based on the new framework I analyse the empirical material that has been generated through ethnographically inspired fieldwork and the processual approach to organization (Steyaert, 2012), which includes conducting experiments with the executives of the case organization. The new theoretical framework further paves the way for my analysis of the empirical material, which results in an understanding of the case organization’s organizing practices regarding innovation and in the formulation of a new theoretical concept: artful change agency, which is proposed as an alternative to design thinking in the management discourse. Artful change agency should be understood as an umbrella concept covering three particular elements in the collective innovation endeavour: the capacity to drop tools (Weick, 1996, 2007) as a means to deconstruct the familiar, the capacity to build ‘handrails’ to cues in the periphery and an understanding of handrail-building as being constituted by six different stages of constructing our human environment based on small cues in the periphery (Weick, 2004b). The dissertation additionally contributes to the research literature on the new and growing body of sensemaking and innovation and to research on process theory.
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Papers by Dorthe Thorning Mejlhede
research and upgrading art-based design education programs
at the university level. It aims to provide an overview of the development and achievements of design research in Denmark against a particular political, organizational, academic, and professional background during a ten-year period. Having served as the director of the Danish Centre of Design Research (DCDR) from 2007 to 2012,1 I try, as objectively as possible, to review the background for the political decision to establish the Centre, its actual establishment, the research evaluation in 2010, and the closing of the Centre in 2012.
PhD by Dorthe Thorning Mejlhede
Theoretically, the dissertation sets out by reviewing literature focusing on metatheoretical debates within organization and management studies and then goes on to review the managerial aspects of innovation, which includes, for instance, the concepts of innovation and disruption. The managerial aspects of design are reviewed too. However, since some researchers claim that the concept of design thinking both reduces design practice, which is seen as its source (Amacker, 2017; Hjelm, 2005; Kimbell, 2011), and, as a concept in the management discourse, is paradigmatically inconsistent (Johansson-Sköldberg & Woodilla J., Cetinkaya, 2013; Johansson & Woodilla, 2008b, 2011), the dissertation invites additional literature into the theoretical conversation on design and management, including the organizational scholar Karl Weick’s contribution to managing as designing (2004a, 2004b). The theoretical perspectives of the dissertation conclude with a discussion that leads to the formulation of a new multi-diverse theoretical framework, based in part on Weick’s work, which has the capacity to connect research fields across ontologies.
Based on the new framework I analyse the empirical material that has been generated through ethnographically inspired fieldwork and the processual approach to organization (Steyaert, 2012), which includes conducting experiments with the executives of the case organization. The new theoretical framework further paves the way for my analysis of the empirical material, which results in an understanding of the case organization’s organizing practices regarding innovation and in the formulation of a new theoretical concept: artful change agency, which is proposed as an alternative to design thinking in the management discourse. Artful change agency should be understood as an umbrella concept covering three particular elements in the collective innovation endeavour: the capacity to drop tools (Weick, 1996, 2007) as a means to deconstruct the familiar, the capacity to build ‘handrails’ to cues in the periphery and an understanding of handrail-building as being constituted by six different stages of constructing our human environment based on small cues in the periphery (Weick, 2004b). The dissertation additionally contributes to the research literature on the new and growing body of sensemaking and innovation and to research on process theory.
research and upgrading art-based design education programs
at the university level. It aims to provide an overview of the development and achievements of design research in Denmark against a particular political, organizational, academic, and professional background during a ten-year period. Having served as the director of the Danish Centre of Design Research (DCDR) from 2007 to 2012,1 I try, as objectively as possible, to review the background for the political decision to establish the Centre, its actual establishment, the research evaluation in 2010, and the closing of the Centre in 2012.
Theoretically, the dissertation sets out by reviewing literature focusing on metatheoretical debates within organization and management studies and then goes on to review the managerial aspects of innovation, which includes, for instance, the concepts of innovation and disruption. The managerial aspects of design are reviewed too. However, since some researchers claim that the concept of design thinking both reduces design practice, which is seen as its source (Amacker, 2017; Hjelm, 2005; Kimbell, 2011), and, as a concept in the management discourse, is paradigmatically inconsistent (Johansson-Sköldberg & Woodilla J., Cetinkaya, 2013; Johansson & Woodilla, 2008b, 2011), the dissertation invites additional literature into the theoretical conversation on design and management, including the organizational scholar Karl Weick’s contribution to managing as designing (2004a, 2004b). The theoretical perspectives of the dissertation conclude with a discussion that leads to the formulation of a new multi-diverse theoretical framework, based in part on Weick’s work, which has the capacity to connect research fields across ontologies.
Based on the new framework I analyse the empirical material that has been generated through ethnographically inspired fieldwork and the processual approach to organization (Steyaert, 2012), which includes conducting experiments with the executives of the case organization. The new theoretical framework further paves the way for my analysis of the empirical material, which results in an understanding of the case organization’s organizing practices regarding innovation and in the formulation of a new theoretical concept: artful change agency, which is proposed as an alternative to design thinking in the management discourse. Artful change agency should be understood as an umbrella concept covering three particular elements in the collective innovation endeavour: the capacity to drop tools (Weick, 1996, 2007) as a means to deconstruct the familiar, the capacity to build ‘handrails’ to cues in the periphery and an understanding of handrail-building as being constituted by six different stages of constructing our human environment based on small cues in the periphery (Weick, 2004b). The dissertation additionally contributes to the research literature on the new and growing body of sensemaking and innovation and to research on process theory.