Analysis on Critical Thinking and Innovation within Organizations - Coursework Example

Analysis on Critical Thinking and Innovation within Organizations Name Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name Date Innovation is the ability to determine and create new services and products as well as delivering them to the market (Anderson, 2011). Innovation is of paramount to organizations since it enables competitive advantage. It is also a central source of value creation to organizations. According to past studies, the senior executives of organization cited a number of functions that are behind a company’s performance success (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). These functions include strategic planning, purchasing, sales, customer support, finance as well as operations (Galasso, and Simcoe, 2011). Furthermore, innovation is fundamentally a high cross functional action which when it succeeds develops a productive tension among the competing goals of product value, time to market, development cost, as well as the quality of the product and services. A company’s performance success is determined by how well these functions are integrated towards developing products and services. Critical thinking on the other hand is the ability to think rationally and clearly. It entails the ability to be involved in an independent as well as reflective thinking (Anderson, 2011). The aim of this is be able to solve effectively, to comprehend logical connections between ideas, detect mistakes in reasoning, examine assumptions, accomplish actions as well as identify the relevance of ideas (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). In addition, critical thinking can also refer to the political and social practice of an involving democracy, the willingness to visualize or be open to consider alternative options, the enthusiasm to integrate the revised options to our thinking and acting as well as the willingness to enhance criticality in others (Hamby, 2007).This paper seeks to analyze critical thinking and innovation within organizations, how they have evolved for the last thirty years, and discussing how and why the process of encouraging and nurturing innovation may develop in the coming years/decades. Over the last 30 years, the main demands and concerns of managers have always compelled research into organizational innovation (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). Consequently, fundamental normative theories have been developed giving strategies for improving the innovations of firms. However despite extensive research and extent of experimental research, a consistent body of theory still remains indefinable (Galasso and Simcoe, 2011). Many representations of innovation at the organizations have attempted to advance the research consistency but still the innovation remains a puzzle and does not give a clear picture. During this period, organizations experienced operational challenges (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). The traditional supremacy of the Western industries face the challenge of value added imports and high quality (Anderson, 2011). Early innovations penetrated to the society quite slowly. Full acceptance and penetration of innovation began in the nineteenth century. Initially these organizations were dominant to respond but however, innovation spread from individual to group and later to organizations empowering them to respond. Evidently most organizations spent most of the 1990’s reengineering and outsourcing for productivity, rationalizing their core business as well as layering to improve performance. This saw a competitive advantage that resulted to customer responsiveness, quality, speed as well as efficiency to these organizations. Consequently these led to the challenge of the need to venture into new activities often to continuously enjoy solid success in many organizations. Hence the sphere of organization has grown to incorporate innovation capability. In the contemporary day, innovation has been acquired by organizations and it represents a competitive advantage which is supported by efficiency, speed and quality (Galasso and Simcoe, 2011). Moreover, most firms today use systems of innovation to improve their products and add value to their customers. Further the innovation new stream leverages are applied in many organizations today to manage various units and in return they have been able to balance the tensions arising as a result of stability as well as change (Anderson, 2011). Critical thinking traces its roots around 2500 years ago in pragmatic constructivism and analytic philosophy. It was meant to provide the response to the demand for the type of thinking required in the contemporary workforce (Faunce, Bai, and Nguyen, 2010). It is apparent that back then creative and critical thinking was not so popular in the management of organizations (Natale and Frederick, 2006). According to studies organizations only applied critical thinking which is the ability to make judgment or an assessment based on the analysis of a proposition in their management without the creative thinking which requires one analyze the parts as well as the relationships, then put them together in a new as well as original way (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). Gradually, like innovation, the incorporation of these two concepts spread from an individual to a group and later to the organization as a whole (Natale and Frederick, 2006). Today most organizations use critical and creative thinking in their management. Organizations have been able to generate new ideas and analyze and evaluate them at the same time to improve their operations (Hamby, 2007). By applying both the creative and critical thinking in their operations, organizations have been able to solve their old problems, introduce new ideas, change their organizational arrangement as well as improve their products and services (Anderson, 2011). According to studies creativity enhances innovation and innovation is of paramount in the development and creation of new business ideas, processes as well as products. Critical thinking is very vital in all levels of business because it establishes as well as maintains a competitive advantage. The linear and logic way of thinking remain important in organizations but not sufficient enough to help organizations keep the pace in the competitive global economy. Critical thinking and innovation however have enabled organizations conceptualize and view concepts in a bigger picture (Zhou et al., 2008). Supported by efficiency, strong mainstream capabilities, flexibility as well as speed, critical thinking and innovation have enabled most firms to maintain in the ever changing global economy by efficiently bringing new products to the market at a cost lower than its competitors. Further critical thinking and innovation has encouraged adaption of new technology in most organizations. Introduction of new technology has improved the rate of product production due to the creation of new dynamic production forms (Dasgupta et al., 2011). Most organizations have also shifted to specialized production and as a result they have been able to attain network connections. In addition technology has lowered the communication and transportation costs within most organization and in return this has intensified competition and determination of the economic sites available for marketing the products and services produced (Anderson, 2011). Furthermore, technology has eased the storage of information in many organizations, the branding and packaging of the produced goods (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). This is an advantage to the organization since by ensuring a continuous flow of their production at the market secures a stand for them in the global market as well as ensuring sufficient produce for their esteemed customers (Faunce et al. 2010). Moreover, critical thinking and innovation has led to increased cost savings due to the use of the most efficient forms of operation and as a result the prices of goods and products have significantly reduced (Anderson, 2011). Consequently, these organizations have attained an expansion of their market since the lower prices attract a significant number of customers (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). Further the organization has the advantage of producing more and benefit from increased sales. This way the organization grows significantly to even enter new markets as well as be in a position to increase their share in the existing market (Faunce et al. 2010). Critical thinking is also responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction. It seeks to understand customers’ needs a well as analyze the possible alternatives to ensure customers are catered for effectively. A customer is able to realize this through listening to the customers to know what the customers need and then apply new ideas and new forms of production to produce the goods that the customers need. By so doing, the organizations are able to remain competitive to its rival competitors as well as retain a huge number of customers which is of paramount to the organization especially where they want to venture in new markets (Heyne, 2010: Faunce et al 2010). Moreover these have helped organizations withstand the tensions that are as a result of the changing economy market. An example of a company that has successfully achieved it dream from critical thinking and innovation is the Nokia Company, one of the very first companies to venture into mobile phone handsets (Anderson, 2011). Since the year 1992 to date, Nokia has exponentially grown to become the acknowledged market leader of cell phone handsets and its high quality as well as various products in a number of countries across the universe (Anderson, 2011). One of the major factors that have seen Nokia succeeded and maintains their competitiveness over their rivals such as the Apple Company is their ability to hold on vital insights into the path dependency of state innovation systems as well as related policies in education and the supply base of business entrepreneurs as well as the partners within the innovation ecosystem. According to studies, the success of Nokia started with the notion of the Nordic to establish a shared Standard Mobile Telephony (Anderson, 2011). This provided Nokia with a huge market than any other company yin the world (Anderson, 2011). This provided the right platform for the infant industry. Nokia took the advantage of this opportunity and instead of sitting back and relying on importation of products from the western markets which employed technology in their production, the company undertook an extensive study of its customers which entailed their specifications, the needs they would want catered for and the design that most appropriately served them right. In addition it embarked on a system of generating new forms of production (Anderson, 2011). Further, they ensured a close interaction with their customers to ensure they produce products according to the customer’s insight. This saw the company expanding significantly. It is evident that after this achievement, the European Union blessed the company with the notion to create a shared standard mobile telephony (Anderson, 2011). Nokia was the better placed company to enjoy this advantage since it was the largest company producing cell phone handsets. Due to Nokia’s aggressiveness in the global market, they were able to challenge other companies dealing with cell phone handsets for instance the Motorola Company (Anderson, 2011). Nokia’s management fused the right strategies and frameworks to enhance customer and economic value (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). These strategies included, employing new ideas in production and using the most resent technologies (Anderson, 2011). In addition the company clearly understood that creating a user friendly as well as unique model was far much vital than only being over engineered. As a result the Nokia Company was able to introduce into the market uniquely designed mobiles that were appealing to different age groups as well as customer segments as compared to its competitors. Over the years, the Nokia Company has maintained their competitive advantage in global market because they have been able to mobilize change within the organization. The company ensures that the new tools are entrenched in the way they perform their work (Anderson, 2011). To achieve this company puts so much effort to socialize, integrate as well as communicate any new changes into the organization. In addition, Nokia has been holding workshops to enhance the understanding of new changes for instance technological changes to its frontline employees (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). With all these aspects, Nokia customers are able to enjoy light phones as compared to the heavy early days since the company is able to apply critical thinking and innovation into its operations. Further, the company aims at maintaining their competitive advantage by continuing to venture in critical thinking and innovation (Anderson, 2011). The process of encouraging and nurturing innovation may develop in the coming years/decades by most organizations welcoming critical thinking (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). Through observing how other companies employ new ideas in resolving their problems as well as in production of new products that enable them remain undisputed in the global market (Anderson, 2011). In addition, the process of innovation can be attained through entrepreneur education whereby individuals are trained on organizational skills as well as their psychological development enhanced (Zhou et al., 2008). This way the people are able to venture into business with the aim of being the best and they end up being critical and innovative in the running of their businesses (Heyne, Boettke, and Prychitko, 2010). Further, this could be attained by organizations using the bottom up approach to decision making other than the common top bottom approach. According to studies, this approach ensures that every employee is actively involved in decision making involving improving the company’s products or problem solving (Anderson, 2011). This as a result makes the every employee feel appreciated and it encourages creative and critical thinking as every employee want to be the best in performing his or her duties (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). Further this will nurture the culture of being critical and innovative. The reasons as to why innovation and critical thinking should be nurtured and encouraged are so as to ensure that all the organizations are able to withstand the tensions that arise as a result of the global economy (Dasgupta, Gupta and Sahay, 2011). In addition the organizations are able to adapt to technological changes to ensure they increase the speed of operation as well as their sales to ensure sufficient production to its customers. Further with innovation and critical thinking, the global market grows significantly with the products in it being customer specific and their costs are lower since innovation contributes to the reduction of costs in transportation, communication as well as that of production of the various organizations (Hamby, 2007: Heyne, 2010: and Faunce et al. 2010). In conclusion, critical thinking and innovation is an important aspect that all organizations should employ at all levels of their operations. This essay has discussed growth and development of critical thinking for the last thirty years pointing out how it has consistently evolved and adopted by many organizations to solve their old problems, introduce new ideas, change their organizational arrangement as well as improve their products and services. In addition, the essay has discussed its benefits which include the ability to conceptualize and view concepts in a bigger picture to efficiently bringing new products to the market at a cost lower than its competitors, encouraged adaption of new technology in most organizations to ensure a continuous flow of their production at the market to secure a stand for them in the global market as well as ensuring sufficient produce for their esteemed customers as well as to ensure customer satisfaction by seeking to understand the customers’ needs a well as analyze the possible alternatives to ensure customers are catered for effectively. Furthermore the essay discusses the success of Nokia Company that credits its success to critical thinking and innovation. It shows how this company carried out an extensive research on its customers in order to produce products based on the insight of their customers. Finally the essay shows how the process of encouraging and nurturing innovation may develop in the coming years/decades. It highlights such techniques as using the bottom up approach to decision making other than the common top bottom approach in decision making involving improving the company’s products, organization arrangement as well as problem solving, adapting and employing new ideas from other organization that are attributed to success and through entrepreneur education whereby individuals are trained on organizational skills as well as their psychological development enhanced in order to be able to improve their innovation capability. The reasons of these have been attributed to the benefits of critical thinking and innovation mentioned earlier. References Anderson, J. B. 2011. Nokia’s Rise and (Relative) fall. What Lessons for European Innovation Policy? 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