PhD Defence: Alexander Schmidt

Abstract

Large, established organizations often struggle to innovate when markets change and new, disruptive competitors emerge. While innovation depends strongly on how leaders and employees work together, we still know little about the concrete coordination mechanisms that enable innovation in such organizations.

This PhD dissertation examines how interactions between leaders and employees shape innovation in large traditional firms. It develops a multilevel perspective on how organizations absorb new knowledge and turn it into innovative outcomes. The dissertation consists of three studies.

The first study shows that organizational speed is crucial for adopting new technologies and highlights the role of constructive tensions, open innovation and knowledge standardization. The second study investigates how conflicts between innovation goals and other goals, such as safety or revenue, affect employees’ innovative behavior. It finds that some goal conflicts can actually stimulate innovation if they are well managed and the important role of team-organization alignment in addressing goal conflicts. The third study explores how power relationships between leaders and employees influence innovation, showing how power can both enable and hinder learning and change.

Overall, this research provides insights for both scholars and managers on how large organizations can better organize leadership, coordination, and employee involvement to remain innovative in times of disruption.