The Influence of Organisational Defensive Patterns on Innovation Capacity and Learning of Information and Communication Technology: An Empirical Study in Hong Kong Transport Sector

Organisational defensive patterns, including skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork, are considered to be a hindrance to effective learning and innovation capacity building in all organisations. The purpose of this research is to investigate: 1) the perceptions of the influence of organisational defensive patterns on the learning of ICT; 2) the relationships among three mechanisms of organisational defensive patterns; 3) the impact of organisational defensive patterns on innovation capacity building, in operational groups of transport sector. The study was conducted by survey and 304 operational employees completed questionnaires which were designed to measure the influence of the organisational defensive patterns (skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork) on learning ICT and innovative capacity building in their organisations. The findings revealed that: 1) skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork impeded the operational staff to learn ICT from other companies; 2) there were positive relationships among skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork; 3) skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork weakened the innovative capacity building in both transport companies. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)