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Hartley, Jean
(2008).
URL: http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2008/innov...
Abstract
Jean Hartley examines the Beacon Scheme, which is an English central-government program to recognize, reward, and disseminate excellence and innovation in local government and other local public services by sharing knowledge about good or promising practices by local authorities and their partners. Hartley's chapter is based on extensive research on the Beacon Scheme conducted at the University of Warwick. The research project examines award applications, learning from the innovations and the nature and extent of improvement. The research has looked at all 388 local governments in England to determine which apply for the scheme and why, thus providing an example of innovation research that looks at an entire population, rather than just the innovative organizations within that population. Hartley outlines a model of knowledge transfer that has similarities to Behn's discussion and then applies it to knowledge transfer in the program. A key result is that local governments found "open days" held by Beacon award winners to be the most effective means of dissemination and the most likely to lead to the transfer of tacit knowledge. The chapter concludes with a report on what local governments learned at Beacon Scheme events, changes they implemented as a result, and their assessments of the success of such changes, thereby providing evidence not only on the diffusion of innovation but also on the extent to which the innovations affected performance.
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About
- Item ORO ID
- 36975
- Item Type
- Book Section
- ISBN
- 0-8157-1377-0, 978-0-8157-1377-7
- Keywords
- political planning; organisational change
- Academic Unit or School
-
Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) > Business > Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise
Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) > Business
Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) - Research Group
- Innovation, Knowledge & Development research centre (IKD)
- Copyright Holders
- © 2008 Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard University
- Depositing User
- Beryl Ridgway