Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang Employee-based and incremental innovation in public services Innovation well-being of employees
Aug 20, 2015
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Employee-based and incremental
innovation in public services
Innovation well-being of
employees
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
What is inno-well-being about
• Employees want their job to have meaning
and importance in society.
• They tend to identify with temporary
projects and deep core values of an
organization (Fiol 2001).
• Many also want to have influence on and
control with their job.
• Many actively seek to influence their job.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Inno-well-being after G. Ekvall (1996)
Weak innovation
climate
Strong innovation
climate
Apathy; indifference;
alienation.
Challenge Joy; meaningfulness;
energy.
Passivity, rule-bound,
anxious to stay inside
established boundaries.
Freedom Exchange of information;
taking initiatives; discuss
problems; make
decisions.
”No” is the key word.
Counter-arguments
always present.
Mistakes and failures.
Idea-support Attentiveness towards
ideas; listen to each
other; constructive and
positive atmosphere.
Suspiciousness; fear of
making mistakes; Afraid
of being exploited and
robbed of good ideas.
Trust/openness Open and
straightforward
communication without
fear of reprisal and
ridicule.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Types of public innovation
(Danish tax authorities)
1. Service innovation
2. Administrative innovation
3. Policy innovation
4. Democracy innovation
5. Conceptual innovation?
(Corresponds more or less to Windrum 2008)
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Does innovation happen in the
public sector?• Public sector is characterized by plural values of frugality, rectitude
and resilience (Hood 1991). Does this create indecision (Denis et al 2010)?
• There are “silos” and knowledge boundaries in the public sector.
• It is sometimes believed that public sector institutions innovate less than private companies.
• Nevertheless, research has never been able to prove this (see e.g. Koch et al. 2005; Earl 2002; Earl 2004; National Audit Office 2006a, 2006b).
• For example, in a Canadian study, Louise Earl (2002) finds that in some critical areas of change, Canadian public sector organizations are almost twice as innovative as private firms.
• Koch et al. (2005) find numerous examples of innovations in the public sector. They show that there are specific drivers as well as barriers for innovation in the public sector.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Drivers of public innovation (Koch
and Hauknes 2005)
• Competitive drivers.
• Problem-oriented drivers.
• Non-problem oriented improvement.
• Political push.
• Growth of a culture of review.
• Support mechanisms for innovation .
• Capacity for innovation.
• Technological factors.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Questionnaire about Danish public
innovation, Pedersen et al. (2007)• Response from 759 leaders in Danish public institutions
(kindergartens, schools, after schools, elderly care)
• 64% of these institutions say they have innovated within the past 5 years.
• Institutions drive innovations themselves according to 70 % of the leaders.
• Employees are ”to a high degree” the most important source according to 78 %
• According to 70 % of the leaders innovation leads to increasing quality.
• ’Only’ 15 % say that the institutions are in a better economic situation as a consequence of innovation.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Organizing innovation and
well-being
• As an ad hoc process
• As a separate function
• As a systematic activity
(Fuglsang, Hansen and Serin 2011)
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Forms of public innovation
(Danish tax authorities)
• Expert driven
• Citizen centered
• Citizen involving
• Citizen driven
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Innovation tool books
Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority 2010
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Innovation tool books
DESINOVA 2009
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Characteristics of
the innovation process• Planned changes. From idea to product.
• Experimental, rapid applications
• ”A posteriory recognition of innovation”, ad hoc innovation.
• Systematic (using tools). Integrated with community development and core values of employees.
• After Toivonen, Tuominen and Brax (2007); Gallouj and Weinstein (1997).
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Observed innovation processes (2)
• Top-management initiated abstract interest-creating activity.
“We have some external requirements and expectations which can put focus on a need for development. It can be something that happens in society at the political level and the citizen level.”
• Tool: A development department. Negotiations.
Observed innovation processes (1)
• Management mediated problem-driven formalised
activity
“An example is the development of a new waiting-list
system for people who have been promised a place in a
residential home. The system is meant to ensure that a
rule of 4 weeks guarantee is strictly kept ...The idea for
this new system came from staff and management and
was further developed at staff meetings.”
• Tool: Weekly meetings. Project culture.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Observed innovation processes (3)
• Bricolage as a process of everyday problem-solving based on resources at hand and core working values.
“I had a client who was completely deaf ... She had a lamp which gave out light when one pushed the door bell. Often she sat knitting. You could give her a fright, if you entered the door. Then I stamped my foot in the floor. Then she felt the vibration. Then she was not scared when somebody suddenly stood there.”
• Tool: A culture of bricolage. A mobile phone.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Managing innovation (Fuglsang 2010;
Fuglsang and Sørensen 2011)
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Linking micro and macro
• The dual organization
• Loose or tight couplings
• Sense of community and core values.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Theorization and problemtization
Lounsbury et al (2007)
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
”The
fantastic
library of
the
future”
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Changing the role of the library
From being (partly myth)
• quiet, boring, authoritarian, the librarian difficult to talk to.
To becoming
• lively, open-minded, outreach, the librarian as an
information expert, consultant, a guide.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
The public library theory
• Starting point was the library spirit from the early 20th century. The library as social movement.
• Competition entered into the public sector: Google and other search engines.
• Libraries and librarians felt forced to rethink their role.
• Rethink the ”library spirit” and the key problem of libraries.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Problematization and readiness
• The Danish Bibliographic Centre (DBC) was created in 1993, a private limited company with responsibility for IT.
• The Danish National Library Authority was restructured in 1997. A more top-strategic organization.
• White paper on libraries in the information society was published in 1997
• New Library Act in was passed in 2000: Strong emphasis on electronic materials and Internet.
• Modernisation of the Royal School of Library and Information Science during the 1990s.
• The Danish Union of Librarians was to become “a union of information specialists and cultural intermediaries.”
• Creation of Danbibbase, bibliotek.dk and net-libraries through government and project funding starting from the mid-1990s.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
Theorization: New library strategy
”We have to define very clearly the role of
the library and strategies in relation to the
needs of the knowledge society. The
overall goal with the contribution and
service of the library must be to strengthen
innovation and coherence in society.”
Strategy of the National library Authority
2006
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
The role of the librarian
”… libraries today are much more than an elderly lady
with an amber chain that wears her hair in a knot at the
back sitting behind the counter of the public library ...
(DBCAvisen, ”The DBCnews”, 04 Winter 2005).
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
By way of conclusion: changes in public
innovation (J. Hartley 2005)
• Traditional public administration.– A stable homogeneous environment in which needs are defined by
professionals and innovations are large-scale and universal.
• New public management
• Competitive and atomized in which needs are expressed through the market and innovations concern organizational changes.
• Networked governance or citizen-centred governance (rectitude and innovation):– A continuously changing and diverse organization in which needs are
seen as complex and volatile, and where innovation takes place both at the central and the local level.
– Public managers are explorers rather than clerks and citizens are co-producers rather than clients.
– Inno-well-being: Develop a clearer language and theory about innovation which is integrated with occupational practice.
Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang
End