Abstract
Understanding why organizations differ in their abilities to obtain, explore and exploit their employees’ ideas and knowledge is important in order to increase the overall innovation capacity of organizations. In this paper, we investigate the impact of management practices concerning employees’ general involvement in innovation work. The study is based on interviews with managers, employees, and union representatives in twenty Norwegian organizations. The results highlight several important factors regarding both management practice and cultural aspects of everyday working life. We emphasize in particular the important role of the middle manager (such as a foreman, section head, or shift boss). The nature of interaction between managers and employees is also significant. For instance, managers’ ability and will to share information and to build trust-based relations across positions and professions, as well as facilitating efficient knowledge exchange between employees, are of particular importance.
