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THE ANATOMY OF THE INNOVATIVE ORGANIZATION: A CASE STUDY OF
ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION WITHIN A MILITARY STRUCTURE
by
Miemie Winn Byrd
_______________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2012
Copyright 2012 Miemie Winn Byrd
Object Description
| Title | The anatomy of the innovative organization: a case study of organizational innovation within a military structure |
| Author | Byrd, Miemie Winn |
| Author email | byrdmiemie@yahoo.com;byrdmiemie@yahoo.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Education |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Education (Leadership) |
| School | Rossier School of Education |
| Date defended/completed | 2012-02-24 |
| Date submitted | 2012-04-25 |
| Date approved | 2012-04-26 |
| Restricted until | 2012-04-26 |
| Date published | 2012-04-26 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Brewer, Dominic J. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Hentschke, Guilbert Azizian, Rouben |
| Abstract | As the U.S. national debt clock surpassed $15 trillion as of January 31, 2012, reducing American’s debt burden is a high priority for the U.S. government (U.S. National Debt Clock, 2012). All agencies--including the Department of Defense (DoD)--within the federal government are looking for ways to operate on leaner budgets. The DoD, under the leadership of Secretary Robert Gates, embarked upon an innovative initiatives to find efficiencies while increasing effectiveness of our national defense and this effort continues under Secretary Leon Panetta. Under such conditions, the DoD institutions and organizations that are able to exhibit their value through concrete and tangible demonstration of accomplishment (despite diminishing resources) will most likely survive, while those that cannot will perish. In this context, an organization’s ability to innovate and harness creativity is becoming critical for its survival in today’s fiscally declining environment within the U.S. government and DoD. ❧ In our study, we set out to understand how a public sector organization can be innovative. What is the anatomy of innovative organizations within the seeming rigid military structure? Some argue that innovation within such entity could conflict with more traditional values of public service such as due process, accountability, central control, and discipline (Borins, 2002). Many observers believe that military organizations have an inherent tendency toward conservatism and preference for certainty instead of risky ventures and innovations (Borghard, 2010). However, existing literature suggests that it is possible to innovate and innovations are occurring within public sector including military organizations. Additionally, Borins’ (2002) study found quantitative evidence that suggests that bottom-up innovations occur more frequently in public sector organizations than most people believe. ❧ We selected the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL), a division of Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), for its innovative establishment of the Forensic Science Academy (FSA) for this action research study. The CIL is considered the largest leading-edge research institution in the field of forensic anthropology, a discipline for human identification based on skeleton remains (Holland, 2011). We applied a theoretical framework derived from studies of innovative public and private sector organizations towards our case study to examine the CIL. Our analysis focused on three internal organizational antecedents that characterize innovative organizations. ❧ Research Questions: 1. Why is the CIL considered as an innovative organization? 2. Does the CIL posses three key internal antecedents of an innovative organization? a. Individual attributes of the members and innovators, b. Role of leaders and leadership attributes, c. Organizational climate (a composite of structure and culture) ❧ This study demonstrates that an organization within a seemingly rigid bureaucratic structure and system--such as the military--can innovate and can be an innovative organization given the ‘right’ set of internal antecedents is present. For leaders of public sector entities, including administrators of K-12 school systems and higher education institutions, with an increased need to create more innovative organizations, this study provides an additional case study and a model for such endeavors. |
| Keyword | innovation; innovative organization; organizational innovation; organizational behavior; military innovation; public sector innovation; military organization innovations |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Byrd, Miemie Winn |
| Physical access | The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given. |
| Repository name | University of Southern California Digital Library |
| Repository address | USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume4/etd-ByrdMiemie-646.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | THE ANATOMY OF THE INNOVATIVE ORGANIZATION: A CASE STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION WITHIN A MILITARY STRUCTURE by Miemie Winn Byrd _______________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May 2012 Copyright 2012 Miemie Winn Byrd |
