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Incompetence Traps, Learner Types, Dialectical Techniques, and Ambidextrous Organizations

2019; Academy of Management; Volume: 2019; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5465/ambpp.2019.14735abstract

2376-7197

Dmitry Khanin, Adelina Gnanlet,

Management and Organizational Studies

We define cognitive biases as insensitivities to some aspect of experience and manifestations of incompetence traps that arise when exploration suppresses exploitation; when exploitation suppresses exploration or when both activities are underdeveloped or fail to synergize. We propose that teams and organizations can disentangle incompetence traps by fusing devil’s advocacy (DA) and dialectical inquiry (DI). We further contend that certain learner types – Experiencers, Contemplators, Thinkers and Doers – should act as DAs pointing out faulty perceptions, reflections, conceptions and/or actions. Meanwhile, the rest of the team should act as DIs, both critiquing DAs and collaborating with them, to synergize advanced perceptions, reflections, conceptions or actions. Overall, we urge teams and organizations to synergize exploitation (i.e., continuous capabilities upgrading) and exploration (i.e., new capabilities creation).