Innovation is a term of nature meaning a change to something new, a change which may be wise or unwise, prudent or risky. In general terms, innovation is taken as a sign of progress, innovations are regarded as hold and energetic men disposed more to experiment than to caution.
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Normally it has been seen that political and governmental system tends towards emphasis upon stability and continuity, preferring precedent to new departures in policy or method. Normally government decisions are made often seen as opportunities to minimize risk than to accelerate change.
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Despite these barriers to innovation in political and governmental systems, governments in the contemporary world are the objects of heavy demands for change, for innovations both in their policies and in their working.
In the governments where there is commitment to development, there is greater pressure of innovation; having accepted the vocabulary they are some what committed to the practice. Wallace S. Sayrc says, “Administration has a somewhat ambiguous role in the matter of innovation. Its precepts and training emphasize its role as the guardian of continuity, stability, coordination, prudence and precedent”.
These are qualities, which however, desirable otherwise, cut across the grain of innovation, making the bureaucracy more often a vector than a sponsor in innovations.
Yet the bureaucracy, because of its position in the governmental system, has many opportunities to identify the need for change; it has the knowledge and the skill to frame alternative modes of innovation, and it has superior strategic assets in pushing forward any proposal to which it is committed.
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If the administrative system ranks low among the main sources of innovation, then, this fact is a consequence of its code of behaviour, not its lack of opportunity or capacity. The incentive systems of bureaucracies, rarely reward ‘mavericks’ or innovators recognition and advancement tend rather to go to those who conform most meticulously to the code of precedent, caution and coordination.
In 1961 in a Handbook of Public Administration, current concepts and practice with special reference to developing countries, it was observed that trained and competent persons are required to deal with such difficult and highly specialized matters as economic and social fact-finding and analysis.
Financial management, bridge and dam construction, industrial development or the administration of housing and social welfare, of health, education and agriculture. A career service based on merit and fitness lies at the heart of modem public administration.