The Role Of Enculturation in Scientific Innovation: A Case Study of Combinatorial Chemistry at Parke-Davis

Abstract

Every scientific organization has a culture that characterizes its particular values and modes of working. To be successful, the types of problems addressed by innovators within the organization must be consonant with corporate culture, as must be the solutions achieved. There are thus two levels of organization that need to be considered concurrently in evaluating an organisation’s potential for innovation. One is the organisational culture that exists at the level of the research laboratory, which is dependent upon interactions of a small group of scientists and their manager. The other is the organisational culture of the corporation as a whole, which is often expressed most clearly in the policies and decisions of upper management, but which may also be observed in the interactions between one laboratory and others within an institution. The culture that exists within an individual laboratory group may or may not fit well within the broader institutional culture. The problems generated and developed by individual laboratories therefore pose critical tests of the overall potential that an organization has for innovation. Individual scientists, or small group of scientists, may generate research problems that may or may not fit the particular problems that need to be addressed by the dominant corporate culture. Those who conform to the culture and address its problems tend to preserve that culture. The way in which an organization handles unexpected problems and the oddballs who generate them, determines the potential for innovation.