Abstract
Innovation occurs not only in the scope of a company’s research and development efforts, but also within executing departments such as production. Impulses and ideas concerning changes and improvements to products, production methods and processes frequently result through direct interaction with work objects and equipment. Innovation work involves making a wide range of decisions when it comes to the further course of action when selecting and implementing new ideas. These decisions mainly occur during the active work process in executing departments. They are characterized by artistic attitude, an experienced-based approach and playful definition of the respective situation. The task of managing the informal is to enable and support decisions during the active work process.
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Notes
- 1.
For her support in the process of the empirical investigation I would like to thank Martina Hedwig.
- 2.
- 3.
That is, they might be both incremental with respect to the resulting difference and radical with respect to the question of novelty. Introducing a new technology for the manufacture of electrical contacts does not revolutionize the automobile by a long shot, but represents an incremental innovation in this context. However, such a new technology might revolutionize the inner workings of electrical windows and therefore represent a radical new development in this respect. The novelty of a change is defined accordingly in this study: Whatever is novel in its respective context is novel and therefore must be tapped as a new method.
- 4.
Porschen (2008a, p. 180 et seq.) provides an indication that communities of practice are of considerable importance when it comes to known forms of work cooperation and knowledge exchange. “Companies not only require firmly established communities of practice whose members meet over longer periods of time and regularly. Rather, communities of practice, which are formed in direct response to problems and therefore on a situational basis, are also required in order to solve an acute and imminent problem.”
- 5.
Methods for collecting, evaluating and distinguishing employee ideas for formally controlled knowledge exchange beyond the confines of departments and hierarchies (such as by means of special meeting forms) and the further training of employees (cf. Kristiansen and Bloch-Poulsen 2010; Teglborg-Lefèvre 2010; LO 2008) are in the foreground.
- 6.
Annegret Bolte managed investigations on this research field at the beginning of the research project. At this point, we would like to express our thanks for her support during the entire project.
- 7.
semi-standardized qualitative interviews (individual and group interviews) with employees from a variety of different company departments, locations and hierarchical levels were performed in the company investigated. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and evaluated according to the specifications of structured content analysis. The interviews were conducted in three waves over a period of 1 year. Findings were accompanied by surveys of the establishment and workstations.
- 8.
At the time of the investigation, the company was undergoing a prolonged period of significant transition affecting the strategic alignment, the organizational structures of the entire company, organization and further technological development of production. In addition to continuing with its core area of business as a system customer, the company also intends to develop its own products to an increasing degree in the future. The company produces sun protection products. This case study refers to the development and serial production e.g. of blinds in accordance with individual customer needs.
- 9.
For improved readability, masculine pronouns will be used in this text. Of course, these pronouns regularly include female persons.
- 10.
This is in clear contrast to the instrument of the company suggestion scheme. This instrument for collecting employee ideas from all departments is not effective in a long-term perspective, not only in this company, but also in many other companies. Employee interest in participation often slumps and then quickly declines for a variety of reasons (such as excessive implementation time, lack of recognition for ideas implemented, lack of feedback and vague selection criteria).
- 11.
If so, this occurs together with the attempt to bring order to an alleged “chaos”.
- 12.
The current debate regarding “employee driven innovation” considers in part the group of unskilled and semi-skilled employees, however, hardly any difference is made between employee groups from individual company departments. The group of employees in production attracted particular attention at the end of the 90s under the heading of “empowerment” (cf. Ahanotu 1998). In 1997, Jürgens and Lippert addressed the special topic of the role of production workers in innovation processes. Later on research of this area appears to have declined.
- 13.
A lack of awareness for the relevance of production aspects for innovations is apparent according to Jürgens and Lippert (1997, p. 82) in that less value is placed on “manufacturing experience as an element of company socialization and qualification in Germany than in the USA. In the German companies we investigated, the current practice of educating engineers in production and the wish to do so was much less extensive in comparison to the US companies.”
- 14.
For example, Bolte and Porschen (2007) provide indications of previous integration of the production department in initial planning stages in a study on accelerating production start-up times.
- 15.
See Gärtner for an extensive overview (2007, p. 119 et seq.).
- 16.
According to Reppesgaard (2002), the frequency of meetings is comparatively high in German companies. Rausch has compiled a series of international studies indicating the frequency of meetings in modern companies. Most of these studies also address the phenomenon that the majority of meetings held take too long in the opinion of the participants and do not produce enough tangible results (Rausch 2008, p. 5 et seq.).
- 17.
Differentiation as well as the theoretical and practical relationship between “decision-making” and “acting” cannot be explored at this point. See Neumer 2012 for details.
- 18.
The citations provided in this text originate from empirical findings of the case study. Sentence construction and grammar have been revised in part for improved readability without changing the sense of the statements.
- 19.
- 20.
Anyone who has ever played a game is also familiar with the reverse situation. If participants take the game personally and feel attacked then the game suddenly ceases to be a game.
- 21.
An entirely different situational definition would be, for example, assessment as a stressful “fire brigade drill”, which contains few playful elements.
- 22.
Please consider the fact that complex contexts may also make a cost-benefit analysis extremely difficult and quite probably impossible.
- 23.
For example, if the authority cannot be quickly contacted, if the bases for decision-making are questioned or if a stream of detailed questions requiring clarification follows before a manager is prepared to approve a decision, not to mention if strategic aspects of power play a role.
- 24.
For example, as standardized data cannot be readily applied to different and/or diffuse questions requiring a decision and as large quantities of data are more prone to complicating the decision-making process than helping it.
- 25.
As stated elsewhere, we analyzed various problem setups associated with contradictory work requirements, which were a result of the aforementioned overall organizational deficiencies (see Bolte et al. 2008, p. 85 et seqq.). Employees are, for example, caught in a difficult situation if they are responsible for controlling, maintaining and even optimizing their work processes, but only have vague or no formal decision-making competencies. If this contradiction exists in the context of pressing deadlines, employees are forced to make decisions, which they are not officially authorized to make as non-action would jeopardize their workflows. As a result, they must expect negative sanctions whether they decide on their own authority or not. A culture of zero-error tolerance potentiates the associated risk of negative sanctions and promotes fear of making decisions.
- 26.
Böhle and Bolte (2002) as well as Bolte and Porschen (2006) conducted comprehensive studies on the course, functionality and design models for informal cooperation and communication. For functionality of informal cooperation methods, also see e.g. Kumbruck (1998, 1999), Suchman (1987), who developed the term “situated cooperation”, and Moldaschl (1991).
- 27.
As part of a previous design project funded by the BMBF [German Federal Ministry of Education and Research], a visiting program was established between two locations in the company investigated (cf. Bolte 2008). Employees from different hierarchical levels from processing departments and production collaborated at the partnered location for a prolonged period of time, thereby gaining extensive insight into specific workflows. This improved cooperation and coordination between the two locations over the long term.
- 28.
Based on the assumption of knowledge theory that more knowledge not only results in new certainties, but also uncertainties, Weick points out that applying established knowledge to new situations may have critical consequences and states: “In a fluid world, wise people know that they don’t fully understand what is happening right now, because they have never seen precisely this event before” (1993, p. 641).
- 29.
Integration of management in active work processes, the involvement of employees in active change processes and other company spheres of activity for creating and shaping a reflexive, experience-based culture of trust are currently being researched in the project “Vertrauen in flexiblen Unternehmen – reflexiv, erfahrungsbasiert, dynamisch: Neue Verfahren zur Bewältigung der Risiken des Wandels” funded by the BMBF (Verred). Initial findings emphasize the relevance of spheres of activity and provide evidence of practical models for integrating management and the employee participation. More information on the status of research is available on the project website (www.verred.de).
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Neumer, J. (2012). Management of the Informal by Decisions Within the Work Process. In: Böhle, F., Bürgermeister, M., Porschen, S. (eds) Innovation Management by Promoting the Informal. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28015-3_7
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