The relationships between innovation and human and psychological capital in organizations: A review

The article by Geoff Mulgan (2007) entitled “Ready or not? Taking innovation in the public Sector seriously” points out how it is difficult for public organizations to innovate. It also states that innovation in the public sector is more likely to happen if people with their ideas, skills and competences are taken into due account. Starting from these considerations, the paper provides an overview of the concept of innovation and its relationships with the concepts of human and (positive) psychological capital. Through literature related to business, management and applied and organizational psychology, the article starts by defining closed and open innovation, goes on to showthe role that human and psychological capital can play in organizational innovation and concludes by reviewing the latest list of competences that research has identified as necessary in open innovation teams. This review will be useful to researchers and practitioners in their respective activities, including the public sector.