Grace, Place, and Space: Fostering Employee Technological Innovation in the New Normal.
In a forthcoming paper in Internet Research, my team led by Jim Burleson reflects on post-pandemic changes in how we manage the workplace.
The ongoing shift to telework has brought about tremendous opportunities for employees to reimagine their use of technology. Opportunities abound for both discovering new technologies and new uses of existing technologies. However, opportunity alone is not enough to turn ideas into action. This opinion paper identifies grace, place and space as key concepts that can help managers navigate challenges and opportunities for technological innovation posed by telework. We provide a concise review of related research and events that inform our selection of conditions necessary to foster employee technological innovation. We identify three primary conditions necessary to foster employee technological innovation – grace, place, and space. “Grace” refers to employee autonomy, “place” refers to networking, and “space” refers to a reduction of overload. While telework may create opportunities for innovation, it also presents difficulties. Therefore, for each condition, we discuss inherent tensions and advise managers regarding how they can resolve those tensions and bring about innovation with a decentralized workforce. We situate our discussion on facilitating conditions that foster employee technological innovation in today’s current environment, one in which a rapid expansion of telework among employees is creating difficulties for managers. This paper addresses the “new normal” that managers will face for the foreseeable future.
The paper is co-authored by Jim Burleson (Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo) and Bruce E. Greenbaum (Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo).
Recommended Citation: Burleson, J.B., Greenbaum, B., and Thatcher, J.B. (Forthcoming). “Grace, Place, and Space: Fostering Innovation in the New Normal.” Internet Research.