In this paper we offer a theoretical framework for understanding processes of innovation in organisations. This framework is developed by integrating various research perspectives within an envelope of ‘structuration theory’ (Giddens 1984). We focus deliberately on the actions and self-perceived innovations of individual managers, an approach which contrasts both with most of the studies reviewed by King (1990) which favour an organisational level of analysis, and much of the creativity literature, which has emphasised personality traits and the products of creative behaviour (e.g. Barron and Harrington 1981). Ours is an attempt, therefore, to respond to the need defined by West and Farr (1990) for more research into the everyday ways in which people express themselves creatively in the workplace, rather than to the research agenda suggested by Wolfe (1994), which makes almost no reference to personal agency.