INFORMATION AND THE MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION

Abstract

Recently a new university degree, the B.Ed., was made available to selected students in English colleges of education. In one Area Training Organization members of the Institute of Education, through whom most of the resulting negotiations were conducted, found that the decisions they favoured could be more readily achieved if they obtained and manipulated the maximum possible control over the information which was passing through the system. Possession of information was important because it conferred status and security, gave influence in decision making and created a painful sense of uncertainty among those who were excluded from it. Thus, innovation was successfully accomplished in part by the deliberate exercise of control over one crucial systemic resource. At the same time, purposeful interaction between members of the system at lower hierarchical levels also enabled further information to be generated and exchanged. Eventually, therefore, the power bestowed by possession of information came to be more evenly spread among participants. At every stage, the capacity to decode and store information was found to be just as influential as the right to receive and transmit it.