Managing innovation through social architecture, learning and competencies : a new conceptual approach

Innovative narratives are represented, at times almost prescribed, in the management literature. While the key to developing competencies is fundamentally linked to many innovative practices and processes, the fundamentals of innovation cannot be separated from values, from learning, from knowledge dissemination, or from leaders with change agent skills. Innovation appears to be underpinned by cultural values. Links have been found between knowledge processes and innovation outcomes, with knowledge workers playing key roles with methods that help fashion the learning that underlies innovative outcomes. Thus learning, knowledge and innovation are particularly well integrated. New ideas seldom surface in highly controlled and mechanistic environments and new leaders are required to maximise the potential of innovative processes. Useful innovation from managed knowledge development processes may not be certain, much less learning behaviours required to transform and cultivate innovation. As a vital ingredient of competitiveness and a key determinant of productivity, more analytical discourse is required of the actual innovation process. This paper explores these ideas, covering new ground in matching context to process, to learning and to knowledge.