Successful innovation and the alignment of knowledge workers at the executive, management, and technical specialist levels

Abstract

This paper focuses on the critical roles of knowledge workers when a firm pursues a major innovation project. In this context, we consider knowledge workers as those who contribute to a firm's performance at the executive, management, and technical specialist levels. Technical specialists include persons with advanced skills in engineering, analytics, statistics, science, and economics. By analyzing a series of case studies and personal interviews, we demonstrate that alignment (i.e., coordination, integration, and collaboration) among these knowledge workers is critical for the success of an innovation project. The paper concludes with a discussion of the responsibilities of knowledge workers at the executive, management, and technical specialist levels to ensure the necessary alignment occurs for successful innovation.

Expanding the boundaries of the discipline: The 30th‐anniversary issue of Production and Operations Management

“…Si et al (2022) present a systematic overview of portfolio management approaches and research advances in the past decades, explore the root causes of innovation portfolio management challenges, and propose an empirical research agenda. In a similar vein, Gaimon and Carrillo (2022) present case studies to argue that firms must develop ways to capture and share knowledge among knowledge workers, executives, management, and technical specialists. Finally, Fine et al (2022) review the scant OM literature that deals with entrepreneurial operations.…”