Employee-based and incremental innovation in public services

Helsinki January 28 2011 Inno-Wellness project, Lars Fuglsang

Employee-based and incremental

innovation in public services

Innovation well-being of

employees


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.


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.


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)


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.


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.


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.


Organizing innovation and

well-being

• As an ad hoc process

• As a separate function

• As a systematic activity

(Fuglsang, Hansen and Serin 2011)


Forms of public innovation

(Danish tax authorities)

• Expert driven

• Citizen centered

• Citizen involving

• Citizen driven


Innovation tool books

Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority 2010


Innovation tool books

DESINOVA 2009


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).


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.


• 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.



• 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.


Managing innovation (Fuglsang 2010;

Fuglsang and Sørensen 2011)


Linking micro and macro

• The dual organization

• Loose or tight couplings

• Sense of community and core values.


Theorization and problemtization

Lounsbury et al (2007)


”The

fantastic

library of

the

future”


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.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ccsd.net/schools/brown/graphics/librarian.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ccsd.net/schools/brown/library/librarian.html&h=521&w=490&sz=36&tbnid=mkkMZDVqa5bL0M:&tbnh=129&tbnw=121&hl=da&start=24&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlibrarian%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dda%26lr%3D%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN


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.


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.


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


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).


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.


End

Employee-based and incremental innovation in public services

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