Workplace Innovation as Institutional Entrepreneurship

Workplace Innovation (WPI) ascribes to the tradition of Sociotechnical Systems (STS) in organisational development. Experiences of promoting STS show that neither economic arguments nor arguments of humanising work are sufficient to get companies to implement WPI activities. This chapter therefore examines the institutional conditions for implementation of WPI practices. It focuses particularly on institutional entrepreneurship exercised when WPI-related activities are implemented. The article is based on six case studies of Danish companies that have introduced WPI activities. It thus indicates that institutional alliances and coalitions are an important part of institutional entrepreneurship that creates change in the direction of WPI. The case studies also indicate that the sustainability of the introduced WPI activities depends on the institutional alliances related to their activity.