Technology innovation, human resources and dysfunctional integration

Purpose - To provide an in‐depth empirical account demonstrating the danger of letting the innovative human resources of the business development function “slide” further out of orbit and thus becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the organisation can be further reinforced by a lack of serious attention at upper echelon managerial levels Design/methodology/approach - This case study is based upon a participative action research methodology (for an overview of this methodology). Findings - The practical innovation analysed in this study seems to have been both a success and a failure. The innovative and creative human resource within the Business Development Department did in fact rock the boat, but they were not so successful in finding a home and owner for the innovation. Research limitations/implications - One of the important findings of this in‐depth study is that there seems to be a lack of trust and mutual understanding about the value of different managerial functions in a company. Practical implications - With regard to the internal dimension, managers of R&D and/or BDD functions also need to realize that they play several key roles, ranging from securing the updating and further development of the human resources to handling the constraints of time and budget. Originality/value - This article clearly demonstrates the danger in letting critical and innovative human resources become more and more isolated from the rest of the organisation with the inescapable result that the human resources in question felt being trapped by their own passion in a position as self‐righteous missionaries.