Risks and Barriers to Innovation

Innovation in the public sector is inherently risky. The promise of a new way of providing services inevitably carries the risk of failure. Specific barriers and risks include resource constraints, political uncertainty, reversals of policy, cultural resistance, and a risk-averse organisational context. There may be a lack of trust between the community and the public organisation, alongside public mistrust of local consultation exercises where the outcome is perceived as predetermined. Members of the organisation, buffeted by changes of external policy direction, may resist notions of innovative change and yearn instead for stability. There are also questions about levels and availability of skills within the organisation. Using examples from Australia and Norway, it appears that managers may lack an understanding of what constitutes innovation and suffer from poor communication within the organisation. Factors such as gender differences may impact innovation, and research suggests that while women are equally likely to generate innovative ideas, their ideas are less likely to be implemented. Barriers to innovation in the public organisation may be challenged by an acceptance that risk is inevitably present and that trust within the organisation is more conducive to innovation than an obsession with “strong” management of the process.