Don't Blame the Tools: The adoption and implementation of managerial innovations

By Elizabeth Daniel, Andrew Myers and Keith Dixon

Those managing organisations are often criticised for being ‘faddish’ in their use of new management ideas or innovations, too easily falling into the trap of adopting the latest new idea or concept because it is ‘flavour of the month’. This research-based report presents an in-depth account and analysis of the adoption and implementation of two popular large-scale managerial innovations in four different organisations. It provides case studies of actual adoption and implementation of the balanced scorecard and programme/project management offices. The study explores the reasons for the adoption of the innovations and how these reasons shape implementation success. The report also provides examples of good practice that practising managers use to improve the implementation of new management practices in their own organisations.

• Presents an original research-based study that explores the reasons why organisations adopt new management practices (e.g. balanced scorecard and programme/project management offices)
• Links the reasons for adoption with the success of implementation
• Provides examples of good practice that can improve the implementation of new management practices in organisations

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Release date: May 8, 2009
• ISBN: 9780080963716

Book preview

Don't Blame the Tools:

The Adoption and Implementation of Managerial Innovations

Elizabeth Daniel

Andrew Myers

Keith Dixon

Brief Table of Contents

Copyright

Case study interviewee

Researchers' Contact Details

Acknowledgements

Chapter . Don't Blame the Tools

Table of Contents

Copyright

Case study interviewee

Researchers' Contact Details

Acknowledgements

Chapter . Don't Blame the Tools

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Research Approach

1.2. Findings and Recommendations

2. Introduction

2.1. Managerial Innovations

2.2. Purpose of the Research

2.3. Report Structure

2.4. Intended Audience

3. Adoption and Implementation of Managerial Innovations

3.1. The Life-Cycle of Managerial Innovations

3.2. The Development of Managerial Innovations

3.3. The Adoption and Implementation of Managerial Innovations

3.4. Rationales for the Adoption of Managerial Innovations

3.5. Summary of Literature Review

4. Research Aim and Questions

5. Research Method

5.1. Identifying Cases and Interviewees

6. Summary of Case Studies

6.1. Case 1: Hospital Trust (HT)

6.2. Case 2: County Council (CC)

6.3. Case 3: Retail Bank

6.4. Case 4: Police Force

7. Discussions of the Findings

7.1. Triggers of Innovation Adoption

7.2. Influences on the Adoption Decision

7.3. Link to Sturdy's Adoption Rationales

7.4. Time of Adoption in the Innovation Life-Cycle

7.5. Relative Speed of Implementation

7.6. Good Practice in Embedding Innovations

7.7. Combining the Influences on Adoption Decision, Time of Adoption and Speed of Implementation

7.8. Level of Achievement

7.9. How Long the Innovation Lasted

8. Summary of Findings

9. Conclusions

10. Implications of the Research

10.1. Implications for Practitioners

10.2. Implications for Management Accountants

10.3. Implications for Academics

11. Limitation of the Study and Suggestions for Further Research

Further reading

Copyright

CIMA Publishing is an imprint of Elsevier

Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK

30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA

First edition 2009

Copyright © 2009 Elizabeth Daniel, Andrew Myers and Keith Dixon. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The right of Elizabeth Daniel, Andrew Myers and Keith Dixon to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN–13: 978-1-85617-682-8

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Printed and bound in Great Britain

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Case study interviewee

I think everything has a fi nite lifetime because if you keep things the same for too long, people stop seeing what you are trying to do. The fact that you have shaken things up gives you an opportunity to communicate in a fresh way. It gives you an opportunity to train people in a fresh way, to design your incentive schemes in a new way…. So whilst I wouldn’t recommend chucking everything out every 12 months, I think sticking to the same thing almost as a religion – in my experience – causes things to fall by the wayside

Researchers' Contact Details

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Research Foundation at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for funding the research described in this report. We would also like to thank the managers within the case study organisations who gave their time and shared their experiences of adopting and implementing managerial innovations and the reviewers who provided valuable feedback on an earlier draft of this report.

Chapter Don't Blame the Tools - The Adoption and Implementation of Managerial Innovations

1. Executive Summary

The people governing and managing organisations are often criticised for being ‘faddish’ in their use of new management ideas or innovations. Many have been seen to easily fall into the trap of adopting the latest new idea or concept that is ‘flavour of the month’. It is not always obvious, however, that this new idea will be of value to the organisation. This is particularly the case when many of the new ideas often involve considerable time and capital investment for implementation. Many ideas seem to be just a re-labelling of old ideas that were tried in the past and were often seen to fail to deliver. What is perhaps more troubling is that