Employee-driven innovation into practice : managing the tension between organization and innovation

This research empirically examines three cases of employee-driven innovation (EDI) to assess the tension it creates in a large bureaucratic organization and discusses the nature and potential resolution of such tension. We contribute to the literature on the tension between the organization and innovation by mobilizing the concept of practice to offer a fresh perspective on the issue. We propose that EDI is inspired by everyday practice, which comes in the form of a situated, informal type of knowledge individuals widely and casually rely on to perform their daily tasks and professional duties. Driven by the search for improvement, practice not only reproduces existing knowledge but also creates new knowledge at all levels of the organization. Thus, we investigate the link among innovation, specific positions in the organization, and hierarchy. Specifically, how can a large bureaucratic organization integrate a collective, diffuse, flowing-from-practice form of innovation?