Innovation and organizational culture
The importance of innovative thinking is stressed in much of your Required Resources this week. So, one
would naturally assume that innovative thinking is highly prized, compensated accordingly, and even
demanded of successful people in many fields. Indeed, a traditional business approach is to incentivize
innovative thinking. It is odd, though, that many organizations that seek innovators and innovation seem
to conversely have an organizational culture that stifles creativity. You are strongly encouraged here,
though, to think creatively as you write this paper.
Respond to the following
questions:
� How can innovative thinkers overcome the organization�s innovation-stifling culture?
� How can innovative projects in portfolio management be important to organizations?
� How can innovative thinking skills positively or negatively influence project management?
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� What leadership skills are necessary for project managers to manage innovative projects?
o What steps can you take to improve your skills in managing innovative projects?
The organizational and innovative culture has a direct and a strong link according to
recent researches. Innovation is the development of a new idea and, therefore, it’s processing. It
is the application of new ideas to get new solutions to problems. In organizations innovation can
be defined as the changes in production to effective, quality, and more efficient products. A
proper organizational culture is the one that enables organizations to translate innovation to
cultures that ensure quality performances and improvements. The corporate culture should also
be able to provide resources to the staff and room for the innovation process and hence
improving the company’s performance. Every employee should have a duty to innovate besides
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the assigned job tasks in an organization. It is because innovation is the primary function in
entrepreneurship (Mckeown, 2014).
Change by the employees in an individual organization helps to make the organization
remain relevant in the ever competitive market. Workers in an organization can assist the
organization retain its competitive advantage. The making of new ideas by the employees in an
organization can help put the organization in a good frame that prevents the organization from
stifling innovation (Barry, 2013). The employees who think critically over the internal
organizational environment are always in the look to identify new ideas that helps the
organization remain relevant in the market. These ideas can help in improving the efficiency of
and the production measures and hence delivering quality products (Newton, 2011).
Organizations which have their strategies and plans that are after innovation always find
themselves in the map of competitiveness. Innovative projects through trial and error makes
organizations devise ways in which they can improve their production and hence quality
products. Managers who promote innovation within their organizations are always in the urge to
change their ways of production to realize quality products and hence remaining relevant in the
market (Mckeown, 2014).
Innovation in project management can be both negative and positive and thus can bring
up positive or negative influences in project evaluation. Innovation is mostly positive and leads
to positive results in project evaluation according to the many researchers recently. It leads to the
changing of ways of production and project evaluation and thus realizing a quality and efficient
way of production. However, sometimes the new methods of production resulting from
innovation may not be encouraging to the project evaluation process. These new methods may
sometimes lead to the altering of an organizational culture and thus not easy to change the
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culture an organization. Change within an organization may not be easy to change and if
necessary, it will take a lot of time and resources to change a way of project evaluation (Barry,
2013).
Project managers need to be effective leaders to ensure that innovation in an organization
is done effectively and that it leads to encouraging results. Managers that are a motivation to the
organization’s employees always find their organization adapting to the innovative ways easily.
Leaders who are also strong decision makers are always successful in the innovation
implementation. It is because innovation process involves a lot of changes within an organization
and without proper decision making the innovation process may spoil (Newton, 2011).
Upon completion, there are several steps that can be taken to ensure that the leadership
and the managing skills in the innovation process is positive. Evaluation of projects that involves
innovation require leaders that are wise in their actions and hence proper decision makers.
Efficient training in leadership is the key step that ensures proper innovation is successfully
adapted.
References.
Mckeown, M. (2014). The innovation book: How to manage ideas and execution for outstanding
results.
Daft, R. L., Murphy, J., & Willmott, H. (2010). Organization theory and design. Andover:
South-Western Cengage Learning.
Newton, R. (2011). The management book. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Anthony, S. D. (2012). The little black book of innovation: How it works, how to do it.
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Barry, B. (2013). Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism. Oxford:
Wiley.
