Hyperloop transportation technologies: practices for open organizing across VUCA contexts

Abstract

Open organizations are structures in which members of the public engage in work for the organization. Examples include open-source software, Amnesty International, Wikipedia, and Lego communities. Much research focuses on structural design characteristics of open organizations, such as pre-specified task divisions and integration teams. These practices require the organization to a priori structure in response to its mission. Increasingly, however, open organizations like CrowdDoing and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) require public involvement across volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous (VUCA) contexts. These open organizations must respond to changing political, competitive, and socio-economic events. Structural clarity is more difficult, and contributors may participate in the creative development of new technologies, new policies, and new sources of funding. Working from practices supporting participant engagement in more stable environments, we qualitatively observe HyperloopTT to understand internal practices for open organizing in more VUCA contexts. We observe four practices allowing for the flexibility, versatility, and accommodations needed for open organizing in such settings. The HyperloopTT practices allow more porosity and self-determination—not simply in how people divide and integrate tasks, but also in the exploration and experimentation of the work itself. More than task workers, we see a new class of open organizing participants: creative work designers.