Innovation in the Public Sector: Managing the Tension between Protection and Encapsulation

Increasingly, public sector executives are using ad hoc groups and processes- what we term 'parallel processes'- as a vehicle for innovation. The central question is, however, when parallel processes are developmental and when they are bypasses that avoid critical issues. This paper reviews some potential weaknesses in the use of such groups by examining several cases that show how they can impede the actual implementation of the innovation. We propose a transitional perspective that regards parallel process as scaffolding,'