Michael West

Wieby M. Altink

Two factors have focused the attention of policy-makers, researchers and senior managers upon the importance of innovation. First, the increasingly competitive global organizational environment requires that new and improved products, processes and procedures are constantly developed. Secondly, there is widespread recognition that we must use our limited resources in the most efficient and effective way possible.; This special issue focuses on innovation in organizations, in recognition of the primary strategic value of innovation in a rapidly-changing European and global market-place. Psychological perspectives on innovation are particularly important, since innovation ultimately is about human behaviour.; In this book, contributors discuss the factors which contribute to individual innovation at work - people introducing new and improved role objectives, work processes and strategies. They also examine factors influencing team-level innovation, an important area of research in the drive to understand how employees can become involved, committed and empowered within organizations. The contributors examine factors associated with organizational innovation, an area where there is still much prescription but little empirical evidence. Finally, there is an examination of the socio-cultural factors affecting innovation.; All the contributors adopt a psychological perspective, arguing that it is psychological factors which influence people to develop and introduce new and improved products, processes and procedures in their workplaces. The contributors, who are drawn from a number of European countries, exemplify the axiom that heterogeneity is associated with innovation. The contents ofthis book themselves reflect innovative orientations to understanding innovation in organizations. Of particular significance is that this book includes contributions from both researchers and practitioners and reveals both the overlaps in their conceptions of innovation at work as well as the areas of diagreement and discrepancy.

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