3.2 Designing Strategic Change: Approaches, Methods, and Theories of Strategic Design in Business Organizations

Corresponding Chairs

G. Mauricio Mejía, Arizona State University, USA

Violeta Clemente, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal

Co-Chairs

Beatrice D'Ippolito, University of York, UK

Jeanne Liedtka, University of Virginia, USA

Aroop Ratan Guha, Royal Danish Academy, Denmark

Abstract

This theme track is a space to discuss design practices in business organizations. We cluster these practices in the concept of strategic design, which includes design management, design strategy, business design, and design innovation. Other design practitioners working on roles such as product design, service design, and user experience design may also work on strategic decisions. Further, practitioners not formally trained in design also incorporate design approaches such as design thinking and human-centered design for strategy work. Designers’ roles and designing have expanded in different directions from working on customer experiences to designing the organizations themselves. Design is central to strategic change in business organizations. In DRS Edinburgh, we aim to expand the discussion on how design and designing provide value for strategic change. Designing change in this context takes different forms from designing for individual behaviors to designing for organizational change. While there is growing relevant work on design for discrete transactional end-user behaviors such as consumer purchasing, user interactions, or patient scheduling, we are also interested in other forms of behavior, including behavior in service co-production, employee behavior, behavior of design teams, and strategic design management and leadership behavior. So, strategic design practitioners consider end users (i.e., consumers, users, patients) and other stakeholders relevant in design and service processes in business organizations (i.e., employees, service providers, managers, designers). This theme track is supported by the SIG Designing Change.

Keywords

Strategic design, Design management, Service design, Design thinking, Organizational change

References

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