Administrativa innovationer i organisationer

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework for the study ofadoption of new methods, techniques and ideas concerning organizing andcontrol of activities in organizations.A short review is made of the main stream in research on innovations. It isargued that the main shortcoming is the tendency to treat all innovations asstable entities which remain the same in the process of diffusion. Hence,research generally focuses on the question of adoption or rejection inorganizational settings. A different frame of reference is proposed; in short,focusing the transformation of innovations when they change location in timeand space.The central theme is to explore how “open” or “closed” innovations are. Thisquestion has two aspects: the longitudinal and the context. Over timeinnovations can develop a more closed character as a result of discursive andpractical action, i.e. equipment, instructions, established claims, motivations,explanations of causality. That development is “given” when the innovation isbrought to a new context. The crucial things, though, are the discursive andpractical capacities different groups of actors in the focal context have inrelation to the more or less elaborated version of the innovation. Further, itis also argued that adoption of new methods, techniques and ideas concerningorganizing and control of activities, can be be analyzed in those terms