Engineering Problem Solving And Sustained Learning: A Mixed Methods Study To Explore The Dynamics Of Engineering Knowledge Creation

ENGINEERING PROBLEM SOLVING AND SUSTAINED LEARNING: A MIXED METHODS STUDY TO EXPLORE THE DYNAMICS OF ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE CREATION by RACHEL RIE ITABASHI-CAMPBELL August 2013 Advisor: Dr. Ratna Babu Chinnam Co-Advisor: Dr. Julia Gluesing Major: Industrial Engineering Degree: Doctor of Philosophy This dissertation research explores processes by which engineering problem solving (EPS) results in sustained organizational learning. Approaching from a constructionist perspective, the study empirically examines the knowledge creation dynamics instigated by product-related problems using a mixed methods research approach. The research has identified the Japanese concept of ba, defined in this study as “shared experiential space,” as a key construct that explains the phenomena of interest. A new framework that the study has developed, which interprets EPS as an epistemic journey to attain system-wide improvements, is highly complementary to the traditional structured routine based approaches to engineering operations and management. Operational sustainability is an important issue for every enterprise’s survival, to which engineering contributes by managing product and customer requirements. Effective product management is made possible by seamless feedback of lessons learned, which are generated by problem solving. While the literature offers ample evidence of the relationship

[1]  H. Kelley,et al.  Attribution theory and research. , 1980, Annual review of psychology.

[2]  M. Linden,et al.  Phenomenal characteristics associated with projecting oneself back into the past and forward into the future: Influence of valence and temporal distance , 2004, Consciousness and Cognition.

[3]  Anita L. Tucker,et al.  Why Hospitals Don't Learn from Failures: Organizational and Psychological Dynamics That Inhibit System Change , 2003 .

[4]  Aarnout Brombacher,et al.  The use of reliability-oriented field feedback information for product design improvement: a case study , 2009, Qual. Reliab. Eng. Int..

[5]  M. Begoña Lloria,et al.  Construction and Validation of Measurement Scales for Enablers of Knowledge Creation , 2005 .

[6]  D. Iacobucci,et al.  A Meditation on Mediation: Evidence that Structural Equations Models Perform Better than Regressions , 2007 .

[7]  I. Nonaka,et al.  SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Unified Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation , 2000 .

[8]  D. Tjosvold,et al.  Team learning from mistakes : the contribution of cooperative goals and problem-solving , 2004 .

[9]  C. Storto,et al.  Knowledge Creation in Small Manufacturing Firms During Product Innovation: An Empirical Analysis of Cause-effect Relationships Among its Determinants , 2000 .

[10]  Kathleen M. Sutcliffe,et al.  Mindfulness and the Quality of Organizational Attention , 2006, Organ. Sci..

[11]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Crossing an Apparent Chasm: Bridging Mindful and Less-Mindful Perspectives on Organizational Learning , 2006, Organ. Sci..

[12]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  Engineering Design Processes: A Comparison of Students and Expert Practitioners , 2007 .

[13]  Roger W. Berger,et al.  Guide to Quality Control , 1982 .

[14]  Roger G. Schroeder,et al.  Six Sigma: Definition and underlying theory , 2008 .

[15]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

[16]  Andreas Eggert,et al.  Value-Based Differentiation in Business Relationships: Gaining and Sustaining Key Supplier Status , 2006 .

[17]  Beth A. Bechky,et al.  When Collections of Creatives Become Creative Collectives: A Field Study of Problem Solving at Work , 2006, Organ. Sci..

[18]  Michel Tenenhaus,et al.  PLS path modeling , 2005, Comput. Stat. Data Anal..

[19]  Desirée Blankenburg Holm,et al.  Exploration and Exploitation , 2015 .

[20]  D. Douglas,et al.  Grounded theories of management: a methodological review , 2003 .

[21]  Gaby Odekerken-Schröder,et al.  Using PLS path modeling for assessing hierarchial construct models: guidelines and impirical illustration , 2009 .

[22]  Gary P. Pisano,et al.  Learning How and Learning What: Effects of Tacit and Codified Knowledge on Performance Improvement Following Technology Adoption , 2003, Decis. Sci..

[23]  Gerald F. Smith.  Determining the Cause of Quality Problems: Lessons from Diagnostic Disciplines , 1998 .

[24]  John C. Narver,et al.  Market Orientation and the Learning Organization , 1995 .

[25]  K. Grint.  Learning to Lead: Can Aristotle Help Us Find the Road to Wisdom? , 2007 .

[26]  M. Baba,et al.  The contexts of knowing: natural history of a globally distributed team , 2004 .

[27]  B. Latour.  Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory , 2005 .

[28]  E. Douglas,et al.  State of Qualitative Research in Engineering Education: Meta‐Analysis of JEE Articles, 2005–2006 , 2008 .

[29]  Sunil Chopra,et al.  Five Decades of Operations Management and the Prospects Ahead , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[30]  Gianmario Verona.  A Resource-Based View of Product Development , 1999 .

[31]  C. Handley.  Quality improvement through root cause analysis. , 2000, Hospital materiel management quarterly.

[32]  E. Schein.  Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning , 1996 .

[33]  A. Edmondson,et al.  Failing to Learn and Learning to Fail (Intelligently): How Great Organizations Put Failure to Work to Innovate and Improve , 2005 .

[34]  Aleda V. Roth,et al.  Safety hazard and time to recall: The role of recall strategy, product defect type, and supply chain player in the U.S. toy industry , 2011 .

[35]  P. Senge.  The fifth discipline : the art and practice of the learning organization/ Peter M. Senge , 1991 .

[36]  Ted Fuller,et al.  Sustaining entrepreneurial business: A complexity perspective on processes that produce emergent practice , 2008 .

[37]  A. Onwuegbuzie,et al.  Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come , 2004 .

[38]  John W. Creswell,et al.  Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research , 2006 .

[39]  R. Hooijberg,et al.  Strategic leadership research: Moving on , 2000 .

[40]  I. Nonaka.  A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation , 1994 .

[41]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[42]  Alfred A. Marcus,et al.  EMBEDDED TIES AND THE ACQUISITION OF COMPETITIVE CAPABILITIES , 2005 .

[43]  Roger G. Schroeder,et al.  Six sigma: A goal-theoretic perspective , 2003 .

[44]  F. Myrick,et al.  Grounded Theory: An Exploration of Process and Procedure , 2006, Qualitative health research.

[45]  Raghu Garud,et al.  The Role of Narratives in Sustaining Organizational Innovation , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[46]  A. Edmondson,et al.  Confronting Failure: Antecedents and Consequences of Shared Beliefs About Failure in Organizational Work Groups , 2001 .

[47]  Peter J. M. Sonnemans,et al.  Quality and Reliability Problems from a Consumer's Perspective: an Increasing Problem Overlooked by Businesses? , 2006, Qual. Reliab. Eng. Int..

[48]  Margaret F Clayton,et al.  AMOS Versus LISREL: One Data Set, Two Analyses , 2008, Nursing research.

[49]  L. Suchman,et al.  Reconstructing Technologies as Social Practice , 1999 .

[50]  Adamantios Diamantopoulos,et al.  The error term in formative measurement models: interpretation and modeling implications , 2006 .

[51]  P. Pronovost,et al.  Effectiveness and efficiency of root cause analysis in medicine. , 2008, JAMA.

[52]  Yaozhong Wu,et al.  Behavioral Operations Management , 2007, Found. Trends Technol. Inf. Oper. Manag..

[53]  John Law,et al.  Notes on the theory of the actor-network: Ordering, strategy, and heterogeneity , 1992 .

[54]  R. Grant,et al.  Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 2022 .

[55]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[56]  J. Liker,et al.  The Toyota Way in Services: The Case of Lean Product Development , 2006 .

[57]  Olivia Freeman,et al.  Talking points personal outcomes approach: practical guide. , 2012 .

[58]  Steven L. Goldman,et al.  Why we need a philosophy of engineering: a work in progress , 2004 .

[59]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[60]  P. Bierly,et al.  Organizational learning, knowledge and wisdom , 2000 .

[61]  Matthew S. Fritz,et al.  Distribution of the product confidence limits for the indirect effect: Program PRODCLIN , 2007, Behavior research methods.

[62]  J. March.  Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning , 1991, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[63]  Wynne W. Chin,et al.  A critical look at partial least squares modeling , 2009 .

[64]  D. Swartz.  Bringing Bourdieu’s master concepts into organizational analysis , 2008 .

[65]  Charlotte Seymour-Smith.  Dictionary of Anthropology , 1987 .

[66]  R. Suddaby.  From the Editors: What Grounded Theory is Not , 2006 .

[67]  Qing Hu,et al.  Assimilation of Enterprise Systems: The Effect of Institutional Pressures and the Mediating Role of Top Management , 2007, MIS Q..

[68]  J. Orr.  Ten Years of Talking About Machines , 2006 .

[69]  A. Kaplan,et al.  A Beginner's Guide to Partial Least Squares Analysis , 2004 .

[70]  Kathleen M. Sutcliffe,et al.  Special Issue: Frontiers of Organization Science, Part 1 of 2: Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking , 2005, Organ. Sci..

[71]  C. Argyris.  Theories of Action that Inhibit Individual Learning. , 1976 .

[72]  Wolff-Michael Roth,et al.  What Good Is Polarizing Research Into Qualitative and Quantitative? , 2006 .

[73]  S. Winter.  Understanding dynamic capabilities , 2003 .

[74]  Philippe Baumard,et al.  Learning from Failures: Why it May Not Happen , 2005 .

[75]  Peter J. Frost,et al.  The Organization Science Jazz Festival : Improvisationas a Metaphor for Organizing , 1998 .

[76]  Philip B. Crosby,et al.  Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain , 1979 .

[77]  Henk W. Volberda,et al.  Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity: How to Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field , 2009 .

[78]  Robin Adams,et al.  Being a professional: Three lenses into design thinking, acting, and being , 2011 .

[79]  G. Huber.  Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures , 1991 .

[80]  K. Eisenhardt.  Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[81]  Daniel Z. Levin,et al.  Organizational Learning and the Transfer of Knowledge: An Investigation of Quality Improvement , 2000 .

[82]  Aristotle,et al.  THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS , 1990 .

[83]  H. Simon.  Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning , 1991 .

[84]  Fiorenzo Franceschini,et al.  A worldwide analysis of ISO 9000 standard diffusion: Considerations and future development , 2006 .

[85]  B. Hedberg.  How Organizations Learn and Unlearn , 1981 .

[86]  Julia Gluesing,et al.  Engineering problem solving and knowledge creation: An epistemological perspective , 2011, First International Technology Management Conference.

[87]  Mary Yoko Brannen,et al.  When Mickey Loses Face: Recontextualization, Semantic Fit, and the Semiotics of Foreignness , 2004 .

[88]  Mary E. Zellmer-Bruhn,et al.  MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION CONTEXT: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEAM LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE , 2006 .

[89]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis : a global perspective , 2010 .

[90]  Elmer E Lewis,et al.  Introduction To Reliability Engineering , 1987 .

[91]  Hans-Georg Gemünden,et al.  Interteam Coordination, Project Commitment, and Teamwork in Multiteam R&D Projects: A Longitudinal Study , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[92]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Understanding and Mitigating Uncertainty in Online Exchange Relationships: A Principal-Agent Perspective , 2007, MIS Q..

[93]  K. Weick.  Improvisation as a Mindset for Organizational Analysis , 1998 .

[94]  Robert E. Wood,et al.  Mediation Testing in Management Research , 2008 .

[95]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[96]  Mahesh S. Raisinghani,et al.  Six Sigma: concepts, tools, and applications , 2005, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[97]  R. Frank Falk,et al.  A Primer for Soft Modeling , 1992 .

[98]  David H. Jonassen,et al.  Everyday Problem Solving in Engineering: Lessons for Engineering Educators , 2006 .

[99]  Chris Harty,et al.  Implementing innovation in construction: contexts, relative boundedness and actor‐network theory , 2008 .

[100]  Taylor Randall,et al.  Does Component Sharing Help or Hurt Reliability? An Empirical Study in the Automotive Industry , 2008, Manag. Sci..

[101]  Mustafa Emirbayer,et al.  Bourdieu and organizational analysis , 2008 .

[102]  William Q. Meeker,et al.  Early Detection of Reliability Problems Using Information From Warranty Databases , 2002, Technometrics.

[103]  Paul Lein,et al.  Weibayes testing: What is the impact if assumed beta is incorrect? , 2009, 2009 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium.

[104]  M. Morris,et al.  Views from Inside and Outside: Integrating Emic and Etic Insights about Culture and Justice Judgment , 1999 .

[105]  I. Nonaka,et al.  Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory: Evolutionary Paths and Future Advances , 2006 .

[106]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[107]  P. Rastogi.  Sustaining enterprise competitiveness - is human capital the answer? , 2000 .

[108]  K. Weick.  ENACTED SENSEMAKING IN CRISIS SITUATIONS[1] , 1988 .

[109]  Wynne W. Chin.  How to Write Up and Report PLS Analyses , 2010 .

[110]  J. Carroll,et al.  Leading organisational learning in health care , 2002, Quality & safety in health care.

[111]  J. Dawes.  Do Data Characteristics Change According to the Number of Scale Points Used? An Experiment Using 5-Point, 7-Point and 10-Point Scales , 2008 .

[112]  Judith A. Kolb.  Leader Behaviors Affecting Team Performance: Similarities and Differences Between Leader/Member Assessments , 1995 .

[113]  M. Begoña Lloria,et al.  Differentiation in knowledge‐creating organizations , 2007 .

[114]  Mark Easterby-Smith,et al.  Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization , 2001 .

[115]  A. Edmondson.  Speaking Up in the Operating Room: How Team Leaders Promote Learning in Interdisciplinary Action Teams , 2003 .

[116]  N. Ndubisi,et al.  Mindfulness, reliability, pre-emptive conflict handling, customer orientation and outcomes in Malaysia's healthcare sector , 2012 .

[117]  K. Weick.  The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster , 1993 .

[118]  L. Cronbach.  Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests , 1951 .

[119]  Ann Majchrzak,et al.  Transcending Knowledge Differences in Cross-Functional Teams , 2012, Organ. Sci..

[120]  A. Strauss,et al.  Grounded theory , 2017 .

[121]  Betty Vandenbosch,et al.  Idea Management: A Systemic View , 2006 .

[122]  Ellen J. Langer,et al.  Minding Matters: The Consequences of Mindlessness–Mindfulness , 1989 .

[123]  John Paul MacDuffie,et al.  The Road to Root Cause: Shop-Floor Problem-Solving at Three Auto Assembly Plants , 1997 .

[124]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[125]  Anil Gaba,et al.  Coda : Creativity and Improvisation in Jazzand Organizations: Implications Fororganizational Learning , 1998 .

[126]  Vincent K. Omachonu,et al.  Principles of Total Quality , 1999 .

[127]  Jeffrey R. Edwards,et al.  The Fallacy of Formative Measurement , 2011 .

[128]  Robert F. DeVellis,et al.  Scale Development: Theory and Applications. , 1992 .

[129]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Concept of “Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation , 1998 .

[130]  James Trevelyan,et al.  Technical Coordination in Engineering Practice , 2007 .

[131]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  Disruptive innovation in health care delivery: a framework for business-model innovation. , 2008, Health affairs.

[132]  M. Hatch.  Exploring the Empty Spaces of Organizing: How Improvisational Jazz Helps Redescribe Organizational Structure , 1999 .

[133]  M. Hoegl,et al.  Knowledge Creation in New Product Development Projects , 2006 .

[134]  Kerstin Liehr-Gobbers,et al.  Evaluation of Structural Equation Models Using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) Approach , 2010 .

[135]  Amy C. Edmondson,et al.  The Local and Variegated Nature of Learning in Organizations: A Group-Level Perspective , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[136]  K. Eisenhardt.  Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review , 1989 .

[137]  Judy E. Scott,et al.  Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: The Role of Learning from Failure , 2000, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[138]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

[139]  T. N. GOH,et al.  A strategic assessment of six sigma , 2002 .

[140]  M. Dodgson.  Organizational Learning: A Review of Some Literatures , 1993 .

[141]  Anita L. Tucker,et al.  When Problem Solving Prevents Organizational Learning , 2002 .

[142]  John R. Anderson.  Problem solving and learning. , 1993 .

[143]  J. Rudolph,et al.  Lessons learned from non-medical industries: root cause analysis as culture change at a chemical plant , 2002, Quality & safety in health care.

[144]  Adamantios Mettas,et al.  Special topics for consideration in a design for reliability process , 2011, 2011 Proceedings - Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium.

[145]  Ronald T. Cenfetelli,et al.  Interpretation of Formative Measurement in Information Systems Research , 2009, MIS Q..

[146]  Robert G. Sargent.  Being a professional , 2000, WSC '00.

[147]  Julia Gluesing,et al.  Mindfulness and product failure management: an engineering epistemology , 2012 .

[148]  Karl E. Weick,et al.  Managing the unexpected: resilient performance in an age of uncertainty, second edition , 2007 .

[149]  I. Nonaka,et al.  Making the Most of Your Company's Knowledge: A Strategic Framework , 2001 .