Innovativeness and creativity in bureaucratic organizations.pdfVIP

Innovativeness and creativity in bureaucratic organizations: Evidence from the pharmaceutical and the automotive industry Alexander Styhre Sofia Börjesson Dept. of Project Management Fenix Research Program Chalmers University of Technology Vera Sandbergs Allé 8 SE-412 96, Göteborg, Sweden Phone: +46 31 772 44 28 Fax: +46 31 20 91 40 e-mail: Alexander.Styhre@fenix.chalmers.se Submitted to OLKC 2006 Conference at the University of Warwick, Coventry on 20th - 22nd March 2006. 1 Innovativeness and creativity in bureaucratic organizations: Evidence from the pharmaceutical and the automotive industry Abstract The management literature is presenting a most critical view of the bureaucratic organization form as what is essentially incapable of responding to external changes and providing meaningful work assignment for its co-workers. This negative image of bureaucracy is largely taken for granted and are only occasionally supported by empirical evidence. This paper presents a study of how co-workers in two major companies, one Swedish company, Volvo Car Corporation, and one Swedish-British company, AstraZeneca, conceive of their possibilities to conduct innovative and creative work. As opposed to the critical view of bureaucracy, the interlocutors did not regard the functional and hierarchical organization as an impediment. Instead, the influence of new managerial practices, in many cases of American origin, were pinpointed as potent