Academy for Design Innovation Management Conference 2019
Abstract
Recent studies of ‘design thinking’ for management have criticized the current focus on
principles and tools of design thinking, for creating an over-simplified view of a complex
process. As a response, this paper sets out to study the empirical details of ‘doing
designing’ in order to explore what ‘managing as designing’ involves in practice. Adopting
a practice-based theoretical orientation, the paper presents findings from the design
meetings of three residential refurbishment projects in the UK. The findings suggest that
the management of design practices was accomplished through everyday interactions
during which the nature and level of uncertainty of various issues were established, and
the corresponding adaptive and innovative courses of actions were developed. Based on
these insights, it is concluded that ‘managing as designing’ is primarily about facilitation of
everyday organizational interactions, and leadership for the reconciliation of various
concerns of multiple stakeholders