Incremental innovation in services through continuous improvement

Employees contribute to the process of innovation through engaging in continuous improvement (CI) programmes such as individual suggestion systems or working teams. This article reviews the main features of CI, and examines the results derived from its implementation, what are the most common procedures and what problems arise during operation of these programmes. The empirical analysis shows how a high-tech service of a large public centenarian university faces the challenges of innovation through CI and how its organizational design variables generate a barrier to successful implementation.