Management Control and Creativity

3Balance Between Formal Controls and Informal Practices

In Chapter 2, we highlighted the representation of managing innovation processes like an iceberg. In this metaphor, the emerged part corresponds to a representation of the management of innovation processes. This is the official discourse where management control tools are widely used and where the management of innovation processes rationally takes place by using useful indicators.

The submerged part of the iceberg represents the phenomenon observed in organizations. In this second part, the situation is more complex: the innovation process is iterative and decisions are based on informal practices sometimes contradicting the indicators of the management control tools. This representation leads us to question two aspects:

• In a phenomenon of mimicry, do organizations communicate a homogeneous representation of the innovation processes, a similar behavior, with an important use of formal management control tools?
• When making decisions in the innovation process, do organizations rely more heavily on information practices than formal management control tools?

We will answer both of these questions in this chapter and draw on the study of three organizations: Bricolo, Telco and Fluido¹. In each of these organizations, we study the management of strategic innovations for these organizations.

3.1. A qualitative analysis of the management of innovation processes

3.1.1. Data collected

The three cases we study are presented ...