From Implementation Towards Change Management: A Plea for a Multi-stakeholder View on Innovation Implementation Comment on “What Managers Find Important for Implementation of Innovations in the Healthcare Sector – Practice Through Six Management Perspectives”

Abstract

In their 2021 paper, Palm and Persson Fischier focus on the enabling factors that can facilitate innovation implementation, specifically the step of moving from idea generation to implementation in a healthcare context. The authors address the lack of concretisation of theoretical perspectives related to the implementation of innovations and hence propose to work holistically with six management perspectives. Our commentary provides new interdisciplinary angles to the six perspectives, from management and organisation literature to theory of change management. This provides future innovation managers with different viewpoints and inspires creative thinking and reflection. Our commentary also critiques the emphasis on the enablers and hence a constructionist-based approach to change management. We plea that a focus on the ‘good, bad, and ugly’—or rather all moods of change—is warranted in order to support holistic and successful change.

Keywords: Change Management, Innovation, Implementation, Organisational Change, Healthcare Organisation, Theoretical Management Perspectives