Horsthuis, C; Thomson, D S and Fernie, S (2012) The case for slack to promote innovative behaviour in construction firms. In: Smith, S D (ed.) Proceedings of 28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2012, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
The ability and willingness of individuals is a prerequisite to innovation. These traits are not unique to innovation in construction, but are universal among all innovative firms. Innovative behaviours depend on organizational resources and their deployment via managerial action. Organizational slack is forwarded as an enabler of innovation, as it makes a pool of unallocated resources available to connect ability to innovate and willingness to innovate. The authors posit that researchers and practitioners alike have failed to appreciate this enabler of innovative behaviour causing the principles of slack to be improperly overlooked. The case for slack resource allocation as a precursor to innovation is developed and the need to survey the attitudes towards slack organizational management held by construction organizations established. Institutionalism is identified as an analytical framework capable of explaining the interactions within the firm that differentiate between innovative and non-innovative construction organizations. A theoretical model of the role played by slack resource availability in stimulating innovative behaviours is developed for validation by a subsequent fieldwork programme.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | behaviour; innovation; organisational slack; organisational culture; resource management |
| Index terms: | programme, survey, construction firm, slack, organizational management, resource allocation, construction organization, organizational culture, resource management, analytical framework, interaction, validation, practitioner |
| Subjects: | control systems, practitioner, data collection methods, organization, business, data analysis and analytics, resource management, operations research, professional development, behavioral psychology, project controls, sociology |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Project Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Site Management, Organizational Design, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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