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Mirror, mirror, on the wall (abridged) Lindsay Holmwood

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What is mirroring?

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Two networks

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Organisational

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Technical

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Organisational Technical Mirror

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Two separate research traditions

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1. Management Org design & orgs as complex systems

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1. Management Product design & products as complex systems

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2. Computer science Conway’s law

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"Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations." – Melvin Conway

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“How Do Committees Invent?” Datamation magazine, April, 1968.

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Org design & orgs as complex systems

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The architecture of complexity Simon, 1962

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Organization design: an information processing view Galbraith, 1974

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Product design & products as complex systems

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On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules D.L. Parnas, 1972

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Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms Henderson & Clark, 1990

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Henderson & Clark’s framework for defining innovation Based on Schumpeter, 1942

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“In a complex system, the technical architecture and the division of labor will ‘mirror’ one another in the sense that the network structure of one will correspond to the structure of the other.”

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Hidden structure: Using network methods to map system architecture Baldwin, MacCormack, Rusnak, 2014

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https://youtu.be/_gbitnk95a0

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How do we apply this?

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When you should mirror

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When the environment is stable

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When you are exploiting
 existing opportunities

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When uncertainty is low

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When you should not mirror

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When the 
 environment is unstable

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When you are exploring new opportunities

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When you’re 
 working in 
 open source

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When uncertainty is high

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As uncertainty increases, the amount of information that must be processed by decision makers increases

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The org can respond by increasing the capacity to process information

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Creation of lateral relations: Direct contact Liaison roles Task forces Teams Integrating roles Managerial linking roles Matrix organisation devops

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Henderson & Clark’s framework for defining innovation Based on Schumpeter, 1942 Mirror Don’t
 mirror

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Bibliography • “The mirroring hypothesis: theory, evidence, and exceptions” 
 Colfer, L. and Baldwin, C. (2016) • “Hidden structure: Using network methods to map system architecture” 
 Baldwin, C., MacCormack, A., and Rusnak, J. (2014) • “Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms” 
 Henderson, R. and Clark, K. (1990) • “Organization design: an information processing view” 
 Galbraith, J. (1974) • “On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules” 
 Parnas, D.L. (1972) • “The architecture of complexity” 
 Herbert, S. (1962)

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Stock photos from Other images http://meekrosoft.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/conway.png http://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/JdwAAOSwTf9ZUEaB/s-l225.jpg Fonts Junction from League of Movable Type Fanwood from League of Movable Type