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The characteristics, processes, attitudes, and behaviours in organizations that have hypothesized to impede innovation have received extensive attention in the literature. If barriers offer sufficient resistance, then innovations are not likely to be adopted or implemented. However, barriers can be a positive feature of the innovation process, since they often force innovators to plan ahead adequately and thus can help insure successful adoption and implementation.
Most of the barriers described next relate to bureaucratic disfunctions. Some will stick to certain stages of the innovation process, while others have significance throughout the process. Although many others could have been included, the ones chosen are fairly representative.
Gundy has organized the barriers into five categories: (1) Structural, (2) Social/Political, (3) Procedural, (4) Resource and (5) individual. Many of the barriers within these categories are interrelated. Consequently, the categories should be considered only rough approximations. As with most research, cause and effect determinations are difficult to make in innovation studies. For example, it is hard to tell if social norms “cause” structural arrangements or if structural arrangements cause social norms.