The Element of Play in Innovation Work: The Case of New Drug Development

Abstract

The innovation literature offers limited social‐psychological explanation for why co‐workers in organizations are dedicated to innovation work. Instead, innovation work is often portrayed in linear and instrumental terms wherein procedures are structured in accordance with pre‐defined project models. In opposition to this view, innovation work is here examined as a specific form of play. The French social thinker Roger Caillois' analysis of forms of playing in human culture is introduced as a perspective on innovation work little explored to date. The empirical part of the paper reports a study of the work of laboratory scientists in new drug development activities in a major multinational pharmaceutical company. In the analysis, innovation work is examined as a highly specialized and idiosyncratic form of playing wherein the scientists are practising their skills while simultaneously being exposed to serendipity and other residual factors (e.g., luck, chance) outside their full control. The paper concludes that broadening the theoretical and conceptual perspective on innovation may enrich the innovation literature.