Toward Development of a Substantive Theory of Public Sector Organizational Innovation

Using a grounded theory method, this paper outlines the process followed and progress to date in developing concepts, their properties and theories of public sector organization (PSO) innovation. I have developed the concepts of PSO innovation, innovation patterns, capacity for fitness, fitness, and survival. While the use of evolutionary concepts like fitness and survival seems intuitively helpful to understanding change in PSOs, the relationships being described are complex: complex adaptive systems like patterns are also needed. I created and adopted concepts, properties and definitions; their current state of development is reviewed here, in order to capture the insights created. The learning processes employed to arrive at the concepts are also identified. I hope that the reader will develop a better understanding of the concepts and their relationships by understanding the processes and experiences that led to them.