EXPLORATORY AND EXPLOITATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT: HOW PRODUCT AND ENGINEERING MANAGERS’ PERCEPTIONS DIFFER: A CASE OF TWO LARGE HIGH-TECH CORPORATIONS

Author(s):  
EUGENE YAMNITSKY ◽  
DEVI JANKOWICZ

Ambidexterity has been a focus for many researchers in the past few decades, and multiple angles of ambidexterity have been studied to understand how to achieve it, its antecedents, and its impact on organisations. While personal ambidexterity has been studied with respect to the tensions the individuals might experience as they juggle exploratory and exploitative innovation projects, little is known about their individual sensemaking prior to their exercise of ambidexterity. This paper aims at narrowing this gap in the literature by offering an insight, based on personal construct theory, as to why managers from product management and engineering management functions in software organisations may not be applying exploratory techniques on exploratory innovation projects. A key finding from this research indicates that managers do not differentiate between types of project in a sufficiently explicit and propositional manner, and as a result, do not choose techniques appropriate to the situation. Instead, they tend to apply exploitative techniques on exploratory innovation projects with slight variations. Recommendations to practitioners to address the issues uncovered are proposed.

1989 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda L. Viney ◽  
Yvonne N. Benjamin ◽  
Carol Preston

Mourning and reminiscence are therapeutic processes common in therapeutic work with the elderly. However, a theoretical explanation of why they are effective has been lacking. Personal construct theory accounts for both in terms of the search of elderly persons for validation of their construct systems. In this article, this explanation of the parallel psychotherapeutic processes is explored, together with relevant information from the literature on mourning and reminiscence. Therapeutic case studies illustrate the characteristics of the two processes and the relationship between them.


1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda L. Viney

Personal construct theory was used to generate some questions about the meanings that different types of threat–loss of life and loss of bodily integrity–hold for people who are severely ill. Content analyses of the responses of ill people and healthy people indicated that ill people expressed more concern with both types of threat than healthy people. Ill people who were suffering from acute rather than chronic illness, who were scheduled for surgery and who were hospitalized rather than being cared for at home expressed more concern about loss of life but not about loss of bodily integrity than other ill people. Each type of threatened loss was found to be associated with a different set of psychological states for people who were ill. Threat of loss of life was associated with indirectly expressed anger and uncertainty but also with the expression of many positive feelings. Threat of loss of bodily integrity was also associated with indirectly expressed anger, but with direct expression of it too, together with hopelessness and helplessness. Patients facing the first threat saw themselves as actively engaged in relationships with others, while those facing the second viewed themselves more often as passive participants. The value of this information about the meanings of threats of loss of life and loss of bodily integrity for the counseling of ill people dealing with these threats was illustrated by two case studies.


1963 ◽  
Vol 109 (462) ◽  
pp. 680-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Bannister

The study to be reported was carried out within the framework of Personal Construct Theory as put forward by Kelly (1955). This theoretical background is summarized and discussed in Bruner (1956) and Bannister (1962).


Author(s):  
M. Gordon Hunter

This chapter presents a conceptual discussion about investigating management issues relating to global business operations. Current global business operations provide an opportunity to conduct Ex Cultura research. This term represents the situation where researchers conduct investigations beyond their own culture. A Grounded Theory approach within a qualitative perspective is proposed so that newly emerging themes may be identified. These themes may not be known before hand because of the Ex Cultura environment. Two methods are suggested; the first method, Personal Construct Theory and the RepGrid technique, documents what the research participant thinks about a particular research question. The other method, Narrative Inquiry and the Long Interview technique, documents what a research participant has done relative to a research question. Both methods document the research participant’s interpretation of their personal experiences. Further, the methods support Ex Cultura research into management issues involved in global business operations.


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