Innovation is a complex area of research and practice. It is about change, uncertainty, discontinuity and the implementation of new ways of working. Innovations can redefine the way we do business, for example moving away from face-to-face interactions to ones using information technology, or can lead to organisations working with new groups of users. Innovation can send organisations and sectors on new trajectories and open new routes on the innovation journey. It can also be about incremental change as organisations continuously improve their service quality over time. Innovation raises questions about the role of people and organisations, the ways in which some organisations adopt innovations while others do not, the nature of these innovative organisations and the ways in which organisations manage the innovation process from idea through to a new routine and way of working.

It is now imperative that public services organisations understand if they are either lead innovators or laggards. Consequently they need to be clear about the organisational characteristics which will increase the likelihood of them innovating and to understand how innovation is managed. There are a range of pressures requiring them to innovate: the modernisation agenda for public services, the changing environment, the changing expectations of users and so on. The issue of innovation is explored below – we define innovation and highlight some of the key areas of innovation knowledge that we have drawn upon. We present the management of innovation as a journey of discovery and uncertainty (Van de Ven et al, 1989, 1999). Having done this we move on to the important question of innovation classification and measurement and present a two-stage classification system. Clear classification of innovation is necessary for managers to understand the organisational needs and requirements that different innovations may pose. Initially we turn to the definition of innovation.

Defining innovation

The introduction to this book noted the increased use of the term ‘innovation’ in public management, social policy and the housing association sector in particular. This section briefly reviews the extensive organisational studies literature on innovation. Innovation is one of the most widely researched phenomena in the social sciences and now has a vast literature.