"Organizational innovation means the implementation of a new organizational method in the undertaking’s business practices, workplace organization or external relations." (Http://www.innoviscop.com/en/definitions/organisational-innovation).
Organizational innovation is used to encourage individuals to think independently, creatively and take responsibility to increase motivation in the workforce. Organizational innovation also aims to share knowledge and expertise throughout the firm.
Google is an example of a company that implements cultural innovation. “Google has a famous strategy for innovation: Give each engineer one day every week to work on blue-sky, big potential ideas of their own choosing, and only require them to work on their “official” assigned project four days each week.” (http://keithsawyer.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/innovation-at-google/). Engineers at Google are allowed to use the company’s resources to explore their own personal ideas and their potential. This suggests that Google appreciates their employees and believe that their workforce show great potential with innovation. From the employees this could make them feel more motivated, feel valuable and even more engaged in the tasks they do.
Today innovation isn't solely about investing billions of pounds into research and development, businesses are starting to understand that innovation can, and should occur in the workplace too.
But how do you know if you have an innovative work force? Even more, if they aren't innovators, how do you turn them into innovators?
Well firstly, Gallup has identified 3 types of employees within the workforce:
Engaged Employees: employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.
Not Engaged Employees: employees are essentially 'checked out'. They’re sleepwalking through their workday. Putting time, but not energy or passion - into their work.
"In today's competitive environment, sharing information and expertise can be critical in driving both individual and organizational success." (IBM: 2008:4).
Actively Disengaged: employees aren't just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. They undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish.
(Http://gmj.gallup.com/content/24880/gallup-study-engaged-employees-inspire-company.aspx).
In an ideal workplace, all employees would be engaged; 100% committed to their work and the company. However, although this does define the types of employees in a workplace, it does not answer why, or how to rectify this.
In some cases an employee may fluctuate from being an engaged employee to non-engaged due to personal reasons such as stress, family issues or generally feeling unmotivated on that particular day. Employers do need to take into account that this cannot be generalized to their workforce indefinitely; employee engagement is subjective and varies.
But how do companies ensure that the workforce is more consistently engaged in their job?
To develop and maintain a productive and innovative workforce, the workforce must feel engaged and this is possible via motivation.
One method of motivation is by providing extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards are tangible benefits from working with the company, which motivate the employee; an example would be commission, a company car or a bonus.
Intrinsic rewards are psychological and emotional rewards, which motivate the individual and maintain their engagement in the work. Intrinsic rewards could be feeling a sense achievement, feeling valued and receiving appreciation for the work they have done.
These intrinsic and extrinsic rewards contribute to motivation, which in turn helps to maintain employee satisfaction and engagement.
Another method companies use to motivate their employees is the method of empowerment.
“A management practice of sharing information, rewards, and power with employees so that they can take initiative and make decisions to solve problems and improve service and performance.
Empowerment is based on the idea that giving employees skills, resources, authority, opportunity, motivation, as well holding them responsible and accountable for outcomes of their actions, will contribute to their competence and satisfaction.” (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/empowerment.html).
Empowerment gives employees ownership and responsibility of the work they are given, it provides them the opportunity to prove they and feel the benefits of intrinsic rewards.
However some employees do not feel the benefits of empowerment. In some cases employees feel under pressure by being given responsibility, they may feel worried that they will fail, or that they wont receive any recognition for the ‘extra’ work they have been given. Perhaps a way to avoid the negative implications of empowerment would be to consult the employees beforehand.
On the other hand, if an employment does feel the benefits of empowerment this could encourage them to think more outside of the box, to challenge their own perspectives and become more creative – and more importantly innovative.
Furthermore, by actively motivating employees, they may begin to motivate themselves, as they will feel more engaged in their work. Self-motivation is the ability to do what needs to be done, without influence from other people or situations. People with self-motivation can find a reason and strength to complete a task, even when challenging, without giving up or needing another to encourage them. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/self-motivation.html).
Google, as mentioned before their engineers are allowed to have one day a week to use the companies resources to work on their own ideas, this could also be seen as the engineers motivating themselves, to think out of the box and push themselves without any prompt from their employer.
“Innovation can be met with resistance or hostility by employees who are either fearful of change or believe it will be to their detriment.” (Laird. Mclean: 2005:3).
As we can see, innovation is also about introducing change, sometimes change is refuted, as people tend to ‘fear the unknown’.
“Nothing is as upsetting to your people as change. Nothing has greater potential to cause failures, loss of production, or falling quality. Yet nothing is as important to the survival of your organization as change. History is full of examples of organizations that failed to change and that are now extinct. The secret to successfully managing change, from the perspective of the employees, is definition and understanding.” (http://management.about.com/cs/people/a/MngChng092302.htm).
This quote suggests that a company cannot simply implement change and expect positive results and coordination because their will always be some resistance. But the key to reducing the resistance of change is to keep the workforce informed by telling them why, how and provide reassurance.
This reinforces the importance of communication between employees and management, but in order of this to be effective and have a positive impact company’s need to look further into the other aspects of organizational innovation.
"Many companies want to innovate - but not all understand the importance of collaboration to making innovation possible." (IBM: 2008:8).
Collaboration is a cooperative arrangement in which two or more parties (which may or may not have any previous relationship) work jointly towards a common goal. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/collaboration.html).
Collaboration brings people together; it helps with communication in the workplace and brings ideas out from the woodwork from all areas of the firm. For example, bringing Research and Development staff and Manufacturing staff together - Perhaps together they can find an efficient, faster and maybe even a cheaper way to make the product?
It could be considered a risk to bring two parties together; they may disagree or fail to find a solution. But on the other hand, you have allowed them to voice their own opinions, showed interest in their roles, which may lead to more employment satisfaction - And a happy workforce is a productive workforce.
It is also a method of reducing resistance to changes occurring within the company.
Employees are cogs, in a machine, which is the business. Showing interest in your employees drives motivation and creativity. Elton Mayo (1972) accidentally discovered the Hawthorne effect - an increase in worker productivity, produced by the psychological stimulus of being singled out and made to feel important. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/collaboration.html).
Collaboration can help to drive innovation in the workplace, by bringing people together with communication, increasing employee involvement and engagement in decision making processes, employees are being introduced to various perspectives and challenges.
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