Organisational Culture Role for Successful Innovation Project - Case Study Example

Evaluate Project Table of Contents Part A 3 Part B 6 Introduction 6 Organisational Culture 7 Organisational Climate 9 Operating Routines 11 Conclusion 12 References 13 Bibliography 14 Part A Innovation has been the key to the development of human and society for ages. The definition of the term ‘innovation’ has varied widely with different subjects in different periods of time. Basically, the term refers to ‘doing something new’. Again many have argued innovation to be developing upon an already existing thing. The CBI Innovation and Trends Survey have defined innovation process as the combination of activities that include design, research, development of the process, investigation of the market, restructuring of organisation, training and development of employees and other measures (CBI, n.d.). The innovation process can take many forms like incremental, radical or disruptive. The incremental innovation involves development of an existing product through research and development. The radical innovations are those that come to the industry all of a sudden. The innovation process that is followed in this case involves the very first method i.e. the incremental process of innovation. The innovation of electrical replaceable toothbrush with refillable toothpaste is a product – process innovation (Mohun, n.d.). As it happens in the incremental process of innovation that a product already exists in the market and the organisation or the group strives to develop the product further so that additional features can be added to it to benefit its users. Similarly, in the process of innovation of the product, the two different products of toothpaste and tooth brush are combined into one. Also, the product is made electrical and the toothbrush when used up can be replaced with a newer version. There is another additional feature like that of the provision of refillable toothpaste. Once the paste is finished, the customer can purchase it extra and put it into the product. The idea is generated from the basic need of the tooth brush. Every person of this world needs to have and use a tooth brush. The very feature associated with the product is that in most of the cases, the tooth brush and the tooth paste do not come together. Therefore, the people have to buy the two essential products differently. The lateral thinking on the issue led to the thought that if a toothbrush is made replaceable with the additional feature of refillable tooth paste, the customers can get a combined product with two utilities. Also, he can easily refill the paste from an external source, once finished, and do not have to carry another product always. This product would particularly help the travelers and frequent movers. Therefore, it can be said the ideas were generated keeping in mind the daily requirements of the people and also aiming towards the development of the already existing product. The processes used for the purpose of this spectacular innovation have been the group cohesiveness, mutual respect and brain storming. All the members of the group have tried their best to come up with various features that are going to add value to this amazing creation. The sessions of the brainstorming helped the group members to develop various developed attributes of the product like that of refilling or the feature of electrical charge. The leader of the group always led from the front and provided with due opportunities to all the members to contribute towards the group project and also he acknowledged the other members contributions. The climate of the group has been very conducive to research and development and towards successful innovation process. All the members of the group had research bent of minds and the entire group contributed towards the design and development of the product. Personally, I feel the innovation process of the electrical replaceable toothbrush with refillable toothpaste to be really effective. The designing of the innovated product has the best of the technologies involved of the industry and the customers and users are really expected to be benefitted by the product. The product can really hit the market and take the world by wonders, if it is marketed in an efficient way. The product has successful designing methodologies and also it has totally unexplored market which makes me feel that the success of the product is just a matter of time. Part B Introduction The external environment of the business and finance is under constant change. There has been massive improvement in the fields of information technology which has directly influenced the communication process. The effects of globalization have made the world a smaller place to live in. To cope with all these changing environments, innovation of the newer products is the most effective and efficient tool. Innovation also refers to the development of the existing products and addition of extra features to those. In order to have successful innovation process, the companies and the business houses must ensure that there prevails conducive environment for such a highly technical and stressing process. The most important pre requisite for the process of innovation is the commitment of the top level of management. The top level management should really encourage the research and development of the newer proposed products. Organisational Culture Organisational culture is the basic framework (of values and assumptions) that is followed within an organisation. Aiman – Smith viewed organisational culture as the way the new joinee of the organisation is guided to perceive, feel, think and behave in the organisation. Organisational culture also comprises the essential feature of expectations of other’s behavior (Aiman – Smith, 2004). Edgar Schein differed with the definition of Aiman – Smith. Schein held the view that organisational culture should be simultaneously judged with problems, external adaptability and internal integration. He believes that the culture of the organisation is developed over a period of time as the human capital of the organisation learns the methods of successfully dealing with the problems of adaptation of change in certain external factors or that of requirement of any of the internal integration (Schein, 1999). Many of the research fellows upon the discipline of organisational culture and its relation with the innovation emphasises upon the two factors namely internal focus versus external focus and that of the stability and control versus flexibility and discretion. The factors can be analysed as follows: Internally focused with flexibility and discretion – The organisation that offers this kind of environment, shares the objectives and targets in a strong way. Employees of such organisation feel more emotionally attached and often experiences informal structure. Denison thought this kind of environment helps to have involvement of all of the employees. Therefore, such organisation often depends upon the zeal and the interest of the team members for the purpose newer innovations. Internally focused with stability and control– The organisations that are focused internally and also have stability and control as the virtues, are most consistent, viewed Denison. Such organisations often depend upon the policies and processes and formal structures to make things done. In such organisations, it has been observed that there are dedicated processes and departments for the purpose of newer innovations. Externally focused with flexibility and discretion – The organisations that are found focused to the external environment and maintain certain degree of flexibility and discretion, are observed as the adaptable organisations by Denison. In such organisations, the experts feel the innovation can thrive the best as they are focused to the external environment and they have flexibility as their base. But over enthusiasm also many a times lead to failure of innovations in such type of environment. Externally focused with stability and control – The organisations that have stability and control as the main pillars and are focused toward the external environment, the experts feel are more concerned with the productivity and results along with the consistency as their bottom line. According to Denison, these organisations are clear about their customer needs and more inclined towards the market. Therefore, innovation might be successful in such organisations as they are concerned about the changing needs of the target group of customers. (Denison, 1990). In the case of the group that has been working on the electronic tooth brush project, one can identify it as the group that has been externally focused and also that had considerable flexibility and discretion so that it could prepare and propose such an out of the box product. Organisational Climate Along with the organisational culture, organisational climate also hold a seemingly important role for the purpose of innovation within the institution. The basic difference in between the organisational culture and the organisational climate is that the organisational culture is created over a period of time and there are contributions of all the employees and team members to build up the organisational culture. But that is not the case for organisation climate. Rather, organisational climate is basically dependent upon the team leader of the project or the assignment or the chief executive officer of the company. The recent studies and surveys have made the fact clear that the people at the helm often influence the organisational climate and especially in case of innovations. It has been observed that if the CEOs or the leaders are more reflexive, they tend to be more prone towards the innovation oriented climate. In simple words, if the organisation is non – traditional in various policies and processes, there are greater opportunities of change and so greater support for innovation. The study observes that the organisational climate for the purpose of innovation is directly related with the leader concerned as those persons who take time to reflect are more befitting to draw specific plans based upon such reflections and also they undertake adequate actions to implement such plans in favour of innovation (Kazama, Et. Al., 2002). For the successful implementation of the innovation processes, the organisational climate should support the various technical and psychological processes like problem solving, decision making, and continuous learning along with motivation and communication. These factors are directly concerned with the quality and innovation along with the job satisfaction of the employees. The important features of the organisational climate that decides the degree and the success of innovation include the following: Challenge and Involvement - The team members should enjoy the challenge of innovation and also should be involved with the project. In the process of innovation of the electrical replaceable toothbrush with the replaceable toothpaste, the group really got involved with the assignment and enjoyed the challenge. Freedom - The researchers should have enough freedom to decide about the product e.g. the refilling of the tooth paste in this case. The features of the product should not entirely be fixed by the top management. Trust – There was high level of mutual trust among the team members of the group that worked upon the electrical replaceable toothbrush with refillable toothpaste. Risk - The team was always ready to initiate risks to look upon the newer effects of newer innovations. Conflict and debate - Conflict and debate (brainstorming) among the team members is also extremely necessary for the purpose of successful completion of the innovation project. The same happened in the group assigned for the innovation. Operating Routines Apart from the organisational culture and the organisational climate, operating routines also have an important role to play in the process of innovation. The group that has been assigned with the work of innovation should follow proper work schedules as decided by them or the management so that all the efforts are channelised properly towards the direction of successful implementation of the innovation. Almost every operating job should be properly guided within the routines. In the case of electronic replaceable tooth brush with refillable tooth brush, the group divided all his operation aspects and jobs in to routine and it was carried forward smoothly. Conclusion The organisational culture and the organisational climate are the two basic pillars for any successful innovation project. The organisational culture sets the whole ambience of the group that has been assigned to work upon the innovation of the product. Also, the organisational climate is equally important. In the case of the electrical replaceable toothbrush with refillable toothpaste, the environment (in terms of organisational culture and climate) among the team was very befitting for such high level of research and design. The group was sufficiently flexible and was always focused towards the development of the external environment. Also, the group maintained very high degree of organisational climate that helped tremendously to the success of the venture. References Aiman – Smith. (2004). Organisational Culture. Short summary: What Do We Know about Organisational Culture. Retrieved online on 08 December, 2009 from http://www4.ncsu.edu/~hp/LAS_overview.pdf CBI (No Date). Innovation Process. Innovation and Trends Survey. Denison, D. (1990). Corporate culture and organisational effectiveness. New York: Wiley. Kazama, S., Foster, J. & Hebl, M., (2002). Impacting Climate for Innovation: Can CEOs Make a Difference? Rice University. Retrieved online on 08 December, 2009 from http://rcoes.rice.edu/docs/Kazama&others2002.pdf Mohun, R. (No Date). Innovation and Design Management. Oxford Brookes University [Pdf]. Schein, E. (1999). The corporate culture survival guide. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Bibliography Glisson, C., (No Date). Organisational Climate and Culture. University of Texas at Arlington. Retrieved online on 08 December, 2009 from http://www2.uta.edu/ssw/lwatson/documents/courses/6314/6314%20Organisational%20Climate.ppt Hatch, M. J., (1993). Dynamics in Organisational Culture. University of Virginia. Retrieved online on 08 December, 2009 from http://gates.comm.virginia.edu/Mirror/faculty_research/Research/Papers/Hatch_Dynamics_Organisational_Culture.pdf National-Louis University, No Date. Organisational Climate Assessment. McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership. Retrieved online on 08 December, 2009 from http://cecl.nl.edu/evaluation/oca.htm Webster, C. & Sundaram, D. S., No Date. Exploring the Relationships among Organisational Culture, Customer Satisfaction, and Performance. Brigham Young University. Retrieved online on 08 December, 2009 from http://marketing.byu.edu/htmlpages/ccrs/proceedings99/webster.htm Read More