Open(ing up) for the future

practising open strategy and open innovation to cope with uncertainty

Maximilian Heimstädt

Georg Reischauer

pp. 113-131

in: Hannes Kramer, Matthias Wenzel (eds), How organizations manage the future, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

A common assumption in management studies is that organizations try to reduce the uncertainty of the future by accurate prediction and planning. This assumption is increasingly challenged by the much broader research on temporal and especially future-oriented practices. We build upon this line of research and argue that organizational practices of openness present paradigmatic examples of future-oriented practices. Using the two most prominent bundles of organizational practices of openness, open innovation (which includes crowdsourcing and corporate incubating) and open strategy (which includes transparent and inclusive strategizing), we demonstrate how opening up for the future helps organizations to develop new and uncertainty-reducing links between present and future. We close with a discussion on the limits of openness as a practice to address uncertainty.