Innovation is an essential growth lever for organizations. Like any strategic element, it must be managed to ensure the right decision is made at the right time. When we talk about management, we naturally also consider management control. However, using management tools can be a danger to developing creativity an essential element of innovation.
This book examines the interdependencies between management control and creativity. By comparing two organizational contexts, we highlight the vital role of organizations as generators of creativity. We also underline the acceptance of an imbalance between the elements in tension, which can lead to the questioning and fostering of innovation; and the role of senior management as mediators between organizations and local actors.
Foreword ix
Preface xv
Introduction xvii
Chapter 1 Managing Innovation Processes, a Tension Between Control and Creativity 1
1.1 Innovation 1
1.1.1 The different types of innovation 3
1.1.2 Innovation, a process in several stages 6
1.2 Management tools for innovation? 11
1.2.1 Management tools 11
1.2.2 The relationship between management control and the innovation process 18
Chapter 2 Management Tools of Innovation Processes 25
2.1 The role of management tools in the management of innovation processes, a reality at two levels 26
2.1.1 Data collection 26
2.1.2 Results obtained 29
2.1.3 A two-level reality 35
2.2 A quantitative analysis of the use of formal tools and informal practices 37
2.2.1 Data collected 37
2.2.2 Results obtained 39
2.2.3 A balance to be found between management control and creativity 43
Chapter 3 Balance Between Formal Controls and Informal Practices 47
3.1 A qualitative analysis of the management of innovation processes 48
3.1.1 Data collected 48
3.1.2 Results obtained 52
3.2 Management under construction 62
3.2.1 Managing with full awareness 62
3.2.2 A puzzle of principles and tools 66
3.2.3 An unfinished instrumentation 69
Chapter 4 Management Control in a Specific Environment, the Case of the Social and Solidarity Economy 73
4.1 The context of social economy organizations and their management 74
4.1.1 The context of social and solidarity economy organizations 74
4.1.2 The place of management control tools in the social and solidarity economy 76
4.1.3 Management between control and creativity 80
4.2 Organizational innovation as a key to resolving tensions 85
4.2.1 The influence of the measurement 85
4.2.2 The case of Apprentis dAuteuil: the role of the organization in the construction of a new management tool 86
4.3 A new way of managing? 102
4.3.1 Management by values 103
4.3.2 The case of the Protestant Sonnenhof Foundation 104
4.3.3 Room for innovation 110
Conclusion 115
References 127
Index 147
