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Organizations know innovation matters. But creating a culture that consistently supports it is much harder.

Leaders may invest in new technologies, increase research and development spending, or introduce an innovation strategy. But those efforts don't necessarily address the organizational conditions that shape how employees think and behave.

Part of the challenge is that innovation cultures can feel difficult to define, measure and manage.

So, rather than simply asking employees to be more innovative, can organizations identify and intentionally manage the context that supports innovation?

Edwards School of Business professor C. Brooke Dobni and his co-authors explored this question through the ETHOS project with six U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories.

The researchers surveyed 2,328 employees and measured 12 drivers of innovation culture across four areas: leadership, resources, knowledge management and processes. They then examined the relationship between innovation culture scores and organizational performance measures, including inventions, licenses, partnerships and publications.

Across the six Labs, innovation culture scores ranged from 60 to 71 out of 100. The highest-scoring Lab had up to three times the output across four common innovation-related KPIs compared with the lowest-scoring Lab.

The researchers caution that the study shows correlation, not causation. However, the study illustrates how innovation culture can be measured and compared alongside organizational performance.

The comparison revealed several differences:

At the higher-scoring Lab, innovation goals were clearly communicated and supported by leadership. Middle managers helped connect senior leadership with frontline employees, and employees had greater autonomy and tolerance for risk. Employees also understood how their own behaviours contributed to innovation.

At the lower-scoring Lab, the innovation plan was more informal and misaligned; many employees were unaware of the organization's innovation goals, and risk aversion was more common.

Across the Labs, the researchers also identified shared barriers, including bureaucracy, limited time and funding for innovation, and risk-averse cultures.

For the researchers, these findings reinforce an important idea: innovation strategy alone is not enough. The organizational environment also needs to support the behaviours required for innovation.

The researchers outline a four-step plan for building and aligning innovation culture:

1. Define and communicate innovation objectives: Be clear about what innovation is expected to achieve and connect those objectives to meaningful performance measures.
2. Identify the employee behaviours needed: Consider the behaviours required to support those objectives, including curiosity, experimentation, autonomy and appropriate risk-taking.
3. Examine the organizational context: Look at key factors within the broader innovation context, including processes, leadership, resources, knowledge sharing, creativity and performance management, and whether they support the behaviours the organization needs.
4. Measure and realign: Continue measuring innovation drivers and adjusting organizational conditions where needed.

The researchers' approach isn't about changing everything. It is about identifying where the organization's objectives, employee behaviours and organizational context may be out of alignment. The findings also suggest that strengthening innovation culture isn't necessarily about adding more resources or incentives. The goal is to identify which conditions are constraining innovation and focus attention on where it may have the greatest impact.

Innovation culture can be measured, not just talked about.

The research points to a practical question for leaders: Are the conditions inside our organization aligned with the innovation we are trying to achieve?

Rather than relying on broad calls to “be more innovative,” the ETHOS project offers a way to examine where innovation objectives, employee behaviours and the organizational environment may be out of alignment and where attention may be needed.