Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Business (Research)

Department

ACCOUNTING & INFORMATION SYSTEMS

First Advisor

Dr Fred Creedon

Second Advisor

Dr Breda Kenny

Abstract

The motivation for this research was driven by the growing interest in design thinking. The increasing use of design thinking can be observed through large organisations such as Google and IBM adopting the discipline. Recognized as a driver for innovation, organisations are turning to design thinking education and training as an approach for increasing organisation innovation capabilities. Organisations are often dependent on analytical solutions to solve such problems, which leads to organisations having trouble implementing innovative tools and techniques (Christensen and Overdorf, 2000). Research has emerged that highlights the potential for design thinking as a mediatory between analytical problem solving and exploration of new knowledge to trigger innovation (Martin, 2010). This study highlights the paucity of literature that explores how to design an effective internal design thinking training programme. There is little evidence of design thinking education and training academic literature beyond the context of formal education. Educators have been integrating design thinking tools and techniques to enhance a students’ creativity and ability to innovate (Schiele and Chen, 2018). There is a growing body of literature that explores effective design thinking training initiatives in formal education. There is potential to apply design thinking training knowledge developed in formal education to the context of private organisations. This study focuses on determining what characterizes a successful design thinking training programme in industry. The study is split into two phases, the first phase includes a systematic literature review of design thinking training and education literature to identify key design principles necessary in a design thinking training programme. The result of the first phase is the development of a framework for training design thinking. The second phase includes an evaluation of the framework developed in the first phase. The framework was evaluated through a workshop with industry design thinking training practitioners who will assess the framework from an industry perspective. The result of this study is a framework that consists of 4 themes and associated design principles that are necessary in order to develop and implement an impactful design thinking training programme within industry.

Access Level

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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