Informal slack in organisations: a qualitative analysis of innovative organisations.

McDonald, Seonaidh

Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between organisational slack and innovation from a new perspective. Moving away from the traditional quantitative research approaches, semi-structured interviews and an activity theory framework are used to operationalize a qualitative view of how slack affects the innovation process. This reveals various kinds of formal and informal slack which are considered important by people involved with innovation in a variety of different organisations. In contrast with existing literatures emphasis on money as the purest form of slack, the data presented here suggest that time and other kinds of informal slack have important roles to play in the innovation process.

Citation

MCDONALD, S., 2012. Informal slack in organisations: a qualitative analysis of innovative organisations. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management: Annual Review [online], 12, pp. 71-83. Available from: http://ijmar.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.286/prod.8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 31, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Dec 31, 2012
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2012
• Deposit Date: Jun 30, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 30, 2015
• Journal: International journal of knowledge, culture and change management: annual review
• Print ISSN: 1447-9524
• Electronic ISSN: 1447-9575
• Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Pages: 71-83
• Keywords: Innovation; Slack; Activity theory
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1225
• Publisher URL: http://ijmar.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.286/prod.8