Making a Technological Innovation Work: Collaboration to Solve Problems

Abstract

How employees depend and interact with each other can affect their ability to solve problems and implement innovations. Fifty retail store personnel were interviewed on specific difficulties they had to cope with as they used their new laser scanning technology. Results indicate that cooperative goals and interaction contributed to progress, efficiency, and confidence. The study identifies antecedents to cooperative and competitive goals and categorizes and describes cooperative and competitive problem-solving behaviors and their consequences on the organization.