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The researcher examined nine areas of support that can be of assistance to sustaining innovative methodology in four school systems in Upper East Tennessee. Five types of innovation were examined. This study looked at nine supports as well as years of involvement by the practicing educator. The research design was a comparative study with forty hypotheses used to test differences in perceived degree of assistance to commitment. Teachers were surveyed and asked to rate supports for sustained innovation. Teachers also rated actual and ideal involvement. The research questions were tested and statistically analyzed using t-test and analysis of variance. Significant differences were found between demographic groups. Teachers sustaining child-centered instruction rated seven of the nine areas of support significantly higher than peer teachers. The methodology of student assessment had five areas of support rated significantly higher, alternative scheduling had two areas of support rated significantly higher, and the thematic approach had one area. Training/conference/workshops was the only area of support that had a significant difference common to all four of these methodologies. Recommendations for further research were made to augment the study.

Cette thèse est composée de trois essais empiriques issus d’une enquête ethnographique conduite dans une entreprise innovante en Inde, et étudie les processus permettant l'innovation durable. Cette recherche aborde le rôle du jeu dans les processus de travail innovant, ainsi que le rôle de l'identité organisationnelle comme une réponse de l'organisation aux menaces extérieures. Cette thèse montre comment le jeu se déroule dans les organisations, sa nature et son rôle dans les processus de travail créatifs. Les résultats indiquent que le jeu a plusieurs effets sur les tâches et les relations qui affectent les processus collectifs de travail créatif qui soutiennent l'innovation durable. Je montre aussi les transitions entre le travail intense et jeu intense et expose un modèle incluant des conditions initiales, des mécanismes et des signaux qui facilitent les transitions. Ce faisant, cette thèse construit les bases d'une théorie du travail et du jeu. Cette recherche décrit un nouveau genre de jeu dans les organisations, différent de ceux observés et étudiés précédemment. Elle contribue aux théories du jeu et au travail créatif dans l'organisation. Prenant en compte le fait que l'innovation durable dépend aussi de la capacité de l'organisation à faire face aux menaces extérieures, cette recherche montre également comment l'identité organisationnelle joue un rôle crucial dans l'élaboration des méthodes de travail pour faire face aux menaces extérieures. Ainsi, cette étude contribue à la littérature sur la formation de l'identité organisationnelle, et son rôle dans les pratiques organisationnelles, la survie et l'innovation durable / This dissertation consists of three empirical essays based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in an innovation-based firm in India, and investigates the processes enabling sustained innovation. More specifically, it addresses the role of play in innovative work and its processes, as well as the role of organizational identity in organization’s response to external threats. I show how playfulness unfolds in work organizations, its nature, and its role in the creative work processes. Results indicate that play has several task and relationship related effects on group creative work processes on which sustained innovation rests. It also show how people transition between intense work and intense play – and explicate a model of initial conditions, mechanisms and cues for such transitions. By doing so, this study starts to lay the grounds for a theory of work and play, and provides an answer to how innovative work gets accomplished amidst playfulness in organizations. This study describes a new kind of play in work organizations, different to those observed and investigated in previous organizational studies and contributes to theories of play and creative work in organization. Mindful of the fact that sustaining innovation also depends on organization’s ability to cope with external threats, this study also shows how organizational identity play a crucial role in shaping its work practices for responding to external threats, and how threat can even lead to the formation of an organization’s initial identity. Thus, this study also contributes to the literature on organizational identity, and its role in organizational practices, survival, growth and sustained innovation