Ways That Leadership Uses to Influence the Innovative Behavior of Employees - Essay Example

Organizational behavior By Introduction Many organizations have improved their abilities to carryout innovations. Leadership in this organization has developed excellent programs and strategies to enable and improve innovative skills in their employees. For attainment of these innovative goals, organization leadership plays an important role in the programs. Leadership influence on innovation There are different ways that leadership uses to influence the innovative behavior of employees. Innovative role modeling is a factor that is done through leadership and mainly influences the workers in an organization to be innovative. In this aspect, when leadership set an example in coming up with innovation, the employees will be influenced to be innovative just as their leaders (Schermerhorn, Osborn and Hunt, 2000). The employees may think that when the leaders are innovative and they are not, they may be able to lose their jobs. They try very hard to meet the innovative standards that the leaders of the organization have. When leadership provides a vision of the role and preferred types of innovation, the employees are influenced to be innovative. The employees will be influenced to work towards achieving the set objectives that are set by the leaders so that they can be seen as part of the organization. The types of innovation when brought out by the leaders will aim at stimulating the creation that can be made and application of the new ideas. The type also makes it simple as all the employees will work towards achieving the same objective in innovation. Intellectual stimulation is also a factor that leadership is able to use in influencing the innovative characteristic of the employees. In intellectual thinking, the leadership aims in a constant process to challenge the creative thinking in the employees. When creative thinking of the employees is challenged, the employees will be able to think wider. Wide thinking will make them come up with new ideas and concepts. This will stimulate innovation in an organization. In the process of challenge, an employee may feel to know little and would not want to be challenged the next time. This will also stimulate the innovation factor of the employees. Knowledge diffusion is a factor that can be used by leadership in ensuring that employees in an organization are innovative and creative (Schermerhorn, Osborn and Hunt, 2000). In knowledge diffusion, the leadership always tests the ideas through transparent communication. Testing of ideas will require each employee to come up with an idea that is unique and has not existed or improve on the existing ideas. In this context, each employee is expected by the leadership to be innovative so that new ideas are generated in the organization. Consultation with other people before initiatives are made on changes that affect workers makes them to be innovative. Before changes are made by the leadership on factors that affect them, the workers may try to come up with own decisions and factors that can enable them to solve the situation. In the process of looking for solutions, the workers are able to come up with new ideas to enable them solve the situations. The process leads to innovation of employees. Leadership will encourage employees to self-look for solutions to a given problem. The new ideas are innovations before the leadership brings solutions obtained from consultation. Delegation of duties by leaders to employees also stimulates innovation of employees. When delegating duties the leadership is able to do the delegation with sufficient autonomy. The worker in which a given task is delegated will be required to find ways to carry out the duty. Sufficient autonomy in the delegation will influence innovation of employees since one has to carry out the activity that is delegated. Support for innovation in an organization is an important aspect that leadership can use in influencing innovation in employees. In the practice, employees are helped and encouraged by the leadership. The support can be in terms of provision of resources that are needed in innovation activities. Support can also be through giving employees ideas that they are expected to develop. Encouragement of employees make them feel to carry out necessary activities and feel part of the organization. This makes them concentrate on innovation than any another factor in the organization. Rewards on those employees that are much innovative influence the others to carry out the same innovative activities. Giving feedback by leaders in an organization influences innovation among employees. Feedback that is needed in the organization is those to employees and customers about new products and concepts that are in the market. The concepts that are new in the market will influence employees to come up with adjustments so that they are able to compete well the new products and concepts in the market. Recognition of innovation that is made by employees in the market influences them to carry out more innovation in the market. When leaders show appreciation for innovative actions, more employees are influenced to carry out innovations (Schermerhorn, Osborn and Hunt, 2000). Recognition of efforts that employees make can be done through rewards or other mechanisms that make the employees glad for the effort that they put in the innovation sector. Appreciation can be through financial or material rewards. Provision of resources needed in innovation influences employees to get involved in innovation activities. Resources that leadership needs to provide include time and money as these are important in implementing new ideas. Implementation of new ideas by employees will need money to buy or to acquire resources that they need. Time will make the employees concentrate in innovation activities that they undertake. Monitoring is an important aspect in an organization. in monitoring, the leadership will make sure that activities are carried out the way they should be done. Monitoring of innovative activities should be done with minimal pressure as the employees need time to concentrate on the concepts. Monitoring on these activities should only be to make sure that the resources that are given by the leadership are well utilized. Task assignment is a feature that can also lead to innovation in employees. Task assignment by leadership will involve giving challenging tasks to employees that are innovative. Motivation and job satisfaction Job satisfaction of employees and motivation by leadership to work efficiently is important for organizations to attain and sustain themselves when there is need of then organization to remain competitive and produce goods that are of value. Motivation of workers makes them happy. The happiness makes them enthusiast and show increased performance in production and performance. On the other hand, employees that are not happy in the jobs that they do are associated to low productivity in an organization and are seen to be frequently absent for work. This needs for an organization leadership to carry out research in the organization to determine the relationship that exists between satisfaction of front line employees and motivation. The organization and the plan of work can have an important effect on front line employees of the organization. Attention is essential to be given to the quality of life of those that work in an organization. Managers need to know that a positive work life can result to an increase in employees’ performance. Those that work in an organization are mainly concerned with the motivation that they receive in the working environment and the rewards from the work they carry out. Motivation keeps them happy and feels that they are recognized in the organization. This makes them feel part of the organization and struggle to achieve the goals that are put in the organization. Task and duties that are carried out in an organization are associated with jobs and this is essential in determining the job satisfaction and level of motivation by the personnel. This makes managers have the responsibility to achieve co-operation between the employees and also direct them to work towards attaining the goals that were set in the organization. Achievement of job satisfaction and motivation of front line employees lies as the responsibility of both the managers and the employees themselves. The employees are responsible for supplying all the tools that are needed by the employees in carrying out their duties. The satisfaction when achieved requires the employers to reward and compensate well the employees. The employees in turn will be satisfied with the motivation that they are given and will work efficiently. Low satisfaction of job leads to low morale in employees. Low morale will in turn lead to less work by the employees and focus more on the negative sides of the work that they do. When all this occur in an organization, there will be low self-esteem in workers and a general malaise that will find ways in social life of the employee. This depression could also have a massive influence on the personal relationships of the workers and their family life. In many cases, unhappy workers are thought to have marital problems and health problems that result from stress that they undergo (Schermerhorn, Osborn and Hunt, 2000). Stresses workers are not abvle to well perfom the required tasks in organizations. To reduce low morale among employees and attain job satisfaction there is the need for managers to focus on the attitudes shown by their workers as this may show the satisfaction in an employee. There are several aspects that motivate workers to perform well their duties. The elements include skill variety, task significance and job feedback. The elements are thought to lead to positive outcomes in an organization through different states. The states include experienced responsibility and the knowledge that the workers have on the results. There are aids when an organization allows for influence by the employees. Allowing the employees to have a say in the organization motivates them to increase the excellence of the activities that they involve in. Organizations with mechanisms that influence employee have higher financial return from their employee possessions, and great performance systems that improve the financial status of the firm.  Motivation that occurs in employees enables the development of an environment favorable to carry out activities of the organization. When a favorable is provided to the employees, the productivity of the organization is able to improve. Conclusion There are different ways that leadership uses to influence the innovative behavior of employees. Innovation takes organizations to greater levels and is much needed in an organization. Leaders should be able to employ different mechanism to encourage innovation. For attainment of these innovative goals, organization leadership plays an important role in the programs. Low satisfaction of job leads to low morale in employees. Low morale will in turn lead to less work by the employees and focus more on the negative sides of the work that they do. When all this occur in an organization, there will be low self-esteem in workers and a general malaise that will find ways in social life of the employee. Reference Schermerhorn, J., Osborn, R. and Hunt, J. (2000). Organizational behavior. New York: Wiley. Read More