A dark side of pivoting?

: the affect on employee motivation and commitment

Abstract

Purpose – The thesis “A dark side of pivoting? – The effect on employee motivation and commitment” of Frederick Meiners aims to examine how pivoting, changes to the course of action - as a concept and part of the lean startup methodology influences employees’ motivation and commitment, and as such shining light on the current criticism about pivoting. Methodology/approach – Targeting startups that went through the process of pivoting, this thesis uses an online survey to ask employees and startup’s founders how they evaluate job related aspects of pivoting such as their motivation and commitment totaling in a sample of 50 respondents. Findings – The findings suggest that pivoting has an overall positive effect on motivation. In fact, since pivoting is usually triggered by a negative business situation and offers the possibility to do a turnaround, this increases motivation. However, when startups experience high number of pivots a darker side emerges. High numbers of pivots experienced by employees along with the effect of pivots on salaries and job security however, indicate there possibly is an inherently darks side of pivoting. Originality/value – This thesis contributes to our understanding of the methodology of the lean startup and in particular the under-studied concept of pivoting. The popularity of the lean startup methodology along with the concept of pivoting, and the lack of understanding of its impact on employees’ motivation demonstrate the need for studies addressing this issue.

Date of Award	15 Mar 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Cláudia Isabel de Sousa Costa (Supervisor)