Birkinshaw, Julian M. and Mol, Michael J.. (2006) How management innovation happens. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol.47 (No.4). pp. 81-88. ISSN 1532-9194

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Abstract

Management innovation — that is, the implementation of new management practices, processes and structures that represent a significant departure from current norms — has over time dramatically transformed the way many functions and activities work in organizations. Many of the practices, processes and structures that we see in modern business organizations were developed during the last 150 years by the creative efforts of management innovators. Those innovators have included well-known names like Alfred P. Sloan and Frederick Taylor, as well as numerous other unheralded individuals and small groups of people who all sought to improve the internal workings of organizations by trying something new.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Organizational change
Journal or Publication Title:	MIT Sloan Management Review
Publisher:	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ISSN:	1532-9194
Date:	1 July 2006
Volume:	Vol.47
Number:	No.4
Page Range:	pp. 81-88
Institution:	University of Warwick
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
References:	1. J. Folaron, “The Evolution of Six Sigma,” Six Sigma Forum Magazine, August 2003, 38-44. 2. J. Micklethwait and A. Wooldridge, “The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea” (New York: Random House, 2003). 3. This point was first made by economist Joseph Schumpeter. See J. Schumpeter, “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy” (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1947). 4. R. Stata, “Organizational Learning — the Key to Management Innovation,” Sloan Management Review 30, no. 3 (spring 1989): 63-74. 5. For one recent exception, see G. Hamel, “The Why, What and How of Management Innovation,” Harvard Business Review 84 (February 2006): 72-83. 6. A.D. Chandler, “Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise” (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1962). 7. R.M. Kanter, “The Change Masters” (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984). 8. These attributes of knowledge assets were first identified by Sidney Winter. See S. Winter, “Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets,” in “The Competitive Challenge: Strategies for Industrial Innovation and Renewal,” ed. D.J. Teece (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger, 1987), 159-184. 9. R.S. Huckman and E.P. Strick, “GlaxoSmithKline: Reorganizing Drug Discovery (A),” Harvard Business School case no. 9-605-074 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2005). 10. J. Birkinshaw and M. Crossan, “Wellington Insurance (A),” Richard Ivey School of Business case no. 9A93M001 (London, Ontario: Ivey Publishing, 1993). 11. This story is recounted in detail on Schneiderman’s Web site, www.schneiderman.com. 12. See www.schneiderman.com/Concepts/The_First_Balanced_ Scorecard/How_the_Scorecard_Became_Balanced.htm 13. L. Edvinsson and M.S. Malone, “Intellectual Capital: Realizing Your Company’s True Value by Finding Its Hidden Brainpower” (New York: Harper Business, 1997). 14. For a detailed critique and references to other studies of Oticon, see N.J. Foss, “Selective Intervention and Internal Hybrids: Interpreting and Learning from the Rise and Decline of the Oticon Spaghetti Organization,” Organization Science 14, no. 3 (2003): 331-349. 15. Kaplan describes both processes in detail in a 1998 article. See R. Kaplan, “Innovation Action Research: Creating New Management Theory and Practice,” Journal of Management Accounting Research 10 (1998): 89-118. 16. See C.W. Adams, P. Gupta and C.E. Wilson Jr., “Six Sigma Deployment” (Burlington, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003). 17. For the GSK story, see Huckman, “GlaxoSmithKline.” For the Topeka story, see D.A. Whitsett and L. Yorks, “Looking Back at Topeka: General Foods and the Quality-of-Work-Life Experiment,” California Management Review 25, no. 4 (1983): 93-109. 18. G. Hamel and L. Valikangas, “The Quest for Resilience,” Harvard Business Review 81 (September 2003): 52-63.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/4481

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