Management Control and Creativity

2Management Tools of Innovation Processes

In this chapter, we propose an overview of organizations’ management tools and practices to manage innovation processes. Management control is the subject of many paradoxes and contradictions (Bouquin and Fiol 2007), and the management of innovation processes is one of them.

As we saw in the previous chapter, some authors go against the frameworks and controls proposed by management control tools to avoid annihilating all creativity (Chiapello 1997; Gilson et al. 2005; Touchais 2006; Christensen et al. 2008; Jørgensen and Messner 2009; Anderson et al. 2014).

However, we understand that innovation projects, which are strategic for many companies, require management oversight so that managers can see progress, make decisions and invest. The balance between control and creativity proposed by Fernez-Walch and Romon (2013) seems difficult to achieve. We question the real place of management control tools in managing innovation processes.

This work is exploratory. The first part aims to paint a picture of the role of management control tools in managing innovation processes.

2.1. The role of management tools in the management of innovation processes, a reality at two levels

To study the role of management tools in innovation management, we opted for an exploratory study in several companies. Without any preconceived ideas, we visited 11 organizations to study how they manage innovation processes.

2.1.1. Data collection

Data collection and ...