Hackathons: An Effective Communication Tool for Innovation within an Organization?

Organizations need to innovate in order to survive in the current fast-paced and competitive markets. However, next to the external environment, the internal environment of an organization also demands a need for change. To be more precise, organizations are encouraged to foster innovation internally as the human dynamics within an organization are constantly shifting, and the formation of silos and deadening routines need to be prevented. An innovation ‘’tool’’ that is increasingly implemented by organizations for the purpose of managing innovation is the hackathon. More specifically, internal hackathons, involving employees of the organization itself, are implemented for the purpose of fostering innovation within an organization. Internal hackathons, like hackathons in general, are mainly driven by creativity, talent-recruitment, and PR and marketing purposes. Therefore, this research aimed at finding out to what extent these internal hackathons were effective, as a communication tool, for implementation of innovative ideas within the organization. In fulfilling this aim, the role of communication in innovation management and employee commitment and engagement, were taken as variables for determining the intention to implement. The behavioral intention was suitable in predicting actual behavior as explained by the theory of reasoned action. In order to answer the research question, a qualitative approach was taken as ten in-depth interviews were conducted. Three different groups of interview respondents, all in possession of well-grounded experience with internal hackathons, were chosen for the purpose of this research. As for processing the collected data, a qualitative thematic content analysis was conducted. In the end, the results indicated that hackathons have the potential to act as a communication tool for the purpose of innovation, when the role of communication in innovation management and employee commitment and engagement are kept into account. Additionally, organizational structures were revealed to play a prominent role in the implementation of innovation as well. In fact, even when the intention to implement was strongly present it was found that the implementation of innovation could still be challenging due to the size of the organization, interdependencies, and bureaucracy in general.