Bourgeon, L. (1989). Temporal Context of Organizational Learning in New Product Development Projects.Technology in Society, 11(3), 175-183.

Format: Peer-reviewed article

Type: Research — Non-experimental

Experience level of reader: Advanced

Annotation: The author discusses the difference between objective and subjective time constraints in new product development. The objective time refers to actual time budgeted to complete the project, while subjective time refers to the team members perceptions of how feasible the objective time budgets are. The main finding is that the longer the objective time for a project the greater the collective learning for all involved. Also, if the team members’ perception of the budgeted time is too short to complete the project, then stress will develop. This stress creates a barrier for collective learning.

Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees)

Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers

Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Organization

This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model

• Create project time restrictions that are realistic, as perceived by team members, to avoid creating stress and unfavorable learning conditions.
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Tip 4.12

• Encourage commitment from functional team members to maintain involvement throughout the new product development project and conditions for collective learning will be favorable.

• Providing a longer time period to complete a new product development project will create more favorable collective learning conditions.
  Analysis of Variance showed a significance value of 0.024 with F value of 5.294
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Tip 4.12

Model: A horizontal management style reduces the time needed to develop new products by giving more decision making power to lower level managers and improving efficiencies of indirect development activities. (Rothwell, 1992)