Making innovation work locally: The role of creativity

In large organizational systems, new ideas are often understood to be developed into large scale innovations following a classical view of innovation and diffusion processes comprising a series of discrete and rational steps (Dopson, 2005). However, previous studies have shown that when innovations are embedded in practice (May, 2013), they follow different pathways in their translation into local contexts and established local practices (Nicolini, 2010a), impacting the development of the innovation itself (e.g., Engesmo and Tjora, 2006; Mørk et al., 2006; Jensen and Aanestad, 2007). As a consequence, scholars have stressed the importance of involving end users in the innovation process (Oudshoorn and Pinch, 2003) to align it better with the needs of local users and to make it flexible, enabling adaptation to local use. In this chapter innovation refers to the interrelated set of practices that are changed, or in more radical endeavors, replace the old practices. The ‘core’ of an innovation may be recognized as tangible (product, technology, etc.) or non tangible (service, business model, organizing process, etc.). In practice, however, the introduction of new ideas to workplaces always involves both social and material elements in the process of changing, replacing, and relating several interrelated practices. In line with Chapter 12 of this volume, ‘Creativity that works: implementing discovery’ by Arne Carlsen and Liisa Välikangas, we believe that creativity and working with new ideas are ongoing processes that should not be seen as limited to the initial phases of innovation processes. In this chapter, we explore the local and creative work of mutually adapting innovation and related work practices during the introduction of electronic exchange of patient information among healthcare professionals. We argue that creativity is a condition for the introduction of innovations, particularly in achieving the local adaptations necessary to ensure the actual use of the innovations in practice.