Organizational Innovation: Current Research and Evolving Concepts

The capacity of formal organizations to engage in successful innovation has become a topic of increasing interest among organizational scholars and administrators. During the 1960s, organizational scholars began to develop the basic ideas, concepts, and models which would be needed for a theoretical framework for organizational innovation (2) (15) (37) (41). Late in this period, scholars also conducted a small but impressive set of empirical studies designed to identify the organizational and environmental attributes most associated with innovation (1) (6) (8) (10) (23) (31) (40). Among professional administrators, a large number of innovative organizational structures and processes, e.g., from matrix models to PPBS, were developed and put into practice. Perhaps even more indicative of the interest among professional administrators is the recognition of innovation as an important organizational activity which should be encouraged, e.g., the International City Management Association's practice of formally recognizing outstanding innovators in management. Overall, the interest seems real and much of the work impressive. Despite this, there remains much to be accomplished. For example, there continues to be a lack of conceptual clarity, e.g., what do we really mean by organizational innovation; there is a need for additional research on the most appropriate organizational climates for innovation; and there is a need for creative thought and experimentation relating to specific strategies for innovation. Moreover, the field of public administration, despite important contributions by Victor A. Thompson, James Q. Wilson, and a few others, has lagged behind other disciplines and fields, e.g., economics, business administration, and sociology, in the scope of its theoretical and research activities. The purpose of this article is to continue and, hopefully, to accelerate this effort for public administration. Specifically we propose to discuss five questions which seem fundamental to the study of innovative phenomena in formal organizations and from which core concepts might be evolved. These are: