A methodological framework for critical analysis of management innovations

To detect management innovations requires investigation methods. These have not been discussed yet. Therefore, these methods should be used to determine the innovative nature of a management object (a practice, posture, structure, process, etc.). Our article aims to propose a methodological approach for characterizing the nature of a management innovation. In other words, we try to answer the question: what methods should be followed for the detection and the characterization of management innovations?Our work is an exploratory study. It is based on the study of a French insurance group with a cooperative status. This group practices a so-called "management without objectives" for decades. Is this type of management practice a management innovation? By trying to answer to this question, we have built a methodological framework that we present in this paper.Our paper will be structured as follow. First, a literature overview leads us to identify existing methods for qualifying management innovation. Then, our case study will be presented. We especially focus on the origin and characteristics of "management without objectives". At last, we derive from our case study a series of elementary methods of instruction and a way to articulate them together.