“Observation of those cases where market-leading organizations have successfully responded to a disruptive threat have shown the effectiveness of setting up autonomous units,” say the study’s authors. “This prevents the host organization’s current business model, culture, processes, systems and decision-making from blocking the actions and resources needed to successfully handle a disruptive innovation.”
For example, the study’s authors say there are three key reasons why handling disruptive innovations autonomously from traditional institutional policies is effective:
- The pricing of non-autonomous courses (like IDIBL’s) fails to take account of the reduced cost of wholly online delivery, unlike the Ultraversity experience, and thus diminishes the offer.
- The traditional productivity model (i.e. contact hours and timetabled sessions) does not fit with online, asynchronous facilitative teaching approaches.
- Teaching staff’s conservatism regarding pedagogical beliefs and values. “The beliefs that exams are the most reliable form of assessment and that quality for undergraduate courses is best assured through delivery of good subject content, are challenged by the work-focused model’s requirement for learning facilitators assuring quality through a rigorous process,” states the study.
“…disruptive innovations, when proposed internally, will almost always be rejected by an incumbent organization,” concludes the study. Instead, institutions should set up “an independent organization, or an autonomous subunit, which can then develop without the cultural rejection and resource battles it would otherwise face.”
For more information on the case studies, results, and policy implications regarding higher education’s implementation of disruptive innovations, read “Handling disruptive innovations in HE: Lessons from two contrasting case studies.”
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