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Hanieh Mohammadi, a doctoral student at 91Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ in the Strategy and Organization area will be presenting her thesis defense entitled:

How Dynamics Between Organizations and Teams Shape Innovation

Tuesday, March 10, 2026: 1:00 p.m.
(The defense will be conducted in hybrid mode)

Student Committee Co-chairs: Professor Henry Mintzberg and Professor Paola Perez-Alemanh

Abstract

Existing research illuminates a great deal about which team compositions, processes, and leadership styles foster innovation. Many organizations implement these best practices effectively, investing in teams, setting clear goals, and securing leadership support. They establish agile routines, systems, and structures to encourage collaboration and creativity. Yet even with these elements in place, organizations may still experience periods when innovation slows. Perhaps the problem lies in looking beyond the internal dynamics of teams or the formal design of organizations toward the space where they intersect—where the daily interactions between teams and their parent organizations shape how innovation unfolds. How these interactions evolve may influence whether new ideas gain traction, adapt, and endure—or quietly fade before they take form. This raises a central question: how does the interplay between teams and the organization influence the emergence and endurance of innovation, particularly its unintentional forms?

To answer this question, this dissertation draws on two ethnographies with separate analyses. Both settings provide clear visibility into how team-organization interactions shape innovation. One setting moved from a pattern of frequent spontaneous innovation to a fully planned one, while the other experienced the reverse—shifting from no innovation to a mix of intentional and serendipitous advances. Study 1 is an 18-month ethnography of a mid-size tech firm (~50 employees) whose temporary, cross-occupational teams (5–6 people, drawn from a stable pool) shifted to remote and then hybrid (in-person/remote) work. Previously, innovation emerged both from day-to-day improvisations and from planned initiatives; after the shift to hybrid work, these efforts were channelled into a tightly scheduled two-week sprint cycle that structured when new ideas could be developed. Study 2 is a three-year ethnography of an innovative policy project spanning five organizations and three professions, with rotating 5–6-person teams drawn from a ~40-person pool. After two failed pushes (each ~8–9 months), a third attempt succeeded: the work moved from no innovation to a mixture of intentional and small, serendipitous innovations that carried the project forward and prevented breakdown.

Based on this comparison, I develop the concept of structural serendipity: a system’s capacity to convert unexpected cues encountered during work into outcomes that emerge and take hold because formal mechanisms and adaptive flexibility co-exist in productive tension. It captures how organizations can remain both disciplined and responsive—able to exploit formal structures while adapting in real time to emergent opportunities. Structural serendipity is visible when (a) decisions are made at the appropriate level and time; (b) identities and roles are temporarily reframed to surface otherwise silenced expertise; and (c) structures and routines are selectively activated, bent, or bypassed to keep momentum without losing credibility of the actions.

I reframe serendipity as a structural and relational capacity—something that can be cultivated through the way organizational and team boundaries are managed, rather than occurring by chance. The findings reveal that innovation depends less on having the right conditions in place and more on how formal and informal structures interact in real time to create flexibility without disorder. Together, these insights reposition serendipity as a governable property of organizing, offering a new lens on how organizations can remain adaptive while preserving legitimacy. Conclusions are drawn for each of the studies as well as together. Study 1 theorizes coordination as coupled with recognition and shows how transitioning to hybrid work reshapes recognition—and, by extension, coordination. Study 2 elaborates on the mechanisms for overcoming rigid power structures in multi-organizational settings to facilitate coordination.

Please note: Thesis Defences are only open to members of the 91Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ community (Students, Professors and Staff) and not the general public.