Organizational Innovation and Organizational Change - Essay Example

Essay; Change and Innovation Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Essay; Change and Innovation Introduction The concepts of innovation and change have often been interchangeably used in different organizations around the globe. Nonetheless, it is imperative to be cognizant of the fact that there is an inherent difference between them. According to Okpara (2007, p. 1) innovation can be defined as adding something new to a process or product that is already in existence. In this regard, innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas. On the other hand, change can be perceived as the act of letting go of the old products or processes and making profound steps towards acquiring something new or the end result, where the journey in between the old and the new is transitional (Ledez, 2008, p. 112). This paper will focus on the innovation and change processes in a manufacturing company where I was working as an assistant supervisor. This is aimed at identifying some things that changed in this firm and categorizing them either under innovation or change. Comparison of innovation and change Despite the fact that innovation has been perceived to be analogous to change, there is heightened understanding among the management structures of diverse organizations as well as in the realms of academia that innovation is a structures process and practice that is precedent to change in an organization. Firstly, innovation is perceived as a conscious enhancement or improvement of the current products, services, administrative practices or technologyin a certain company aimed at meeting the present needs in the market (Hage, 1999, p. 599). On the other hand, change is the eventual entrenchment of the product or services in the market aimed at attaining of a favorable niche amid dynamics like increased competition or global technological changes. Secondly, innovation is often associated with positive outcomes in the company, for instance, the production of more suitable products or services which will result in sustained competitive advantage in the market. On the other hand, change is usually twofold, based on who is being affected by the particular change, but mostly associated with negative impacts. This fact is supported by Ledez (2008, p. 11) who cited that change usually has a variety of appalling insinuations in the organization, for instance, downsizing, layoffs, pay cuts and relocation. Thus, many people associate change with the generation of stress and tension in the workplace and the employees as they make efforts to deal and adapt to the emerging processes. Thirdly, innovation often becomes entrenched in the culture of the organization and informs the everyday practice in the organization. Thus, the employees in the organization embrace innovation as being central towards the enhancement of the old products or services from the company towards more desirable and advanced ones in the course of everyday undertakings of the company. On the other hand, change is the end result on the organizational culture whereby the employees abandon the tendency towards minimal creativity and in turn embrace an organizational culture with a more profound focus on creativity as a response to the competition in the market. In addition, the eventual attainment and maintaining of sustainable competitive advantage in the market by the company can be perceived as a positive and end result change for the company. Lastly, as a result of the high rate of dynamism in the current market, the specific way in which a certain company is handling its business will inevitable be confronted by immense challenges and it will be obliged to change, or go out of business. On the other hand, innovation is usually perceived as being a conscious and strategic undertaking of the company towards attaining a desired end result. Thus, the company may choose to either embrace innovation or not. Innovation and change; Organizational examples It is an apparent fact that technological dynamics play a central role in influencing the performance of organizations in the market, mostly with the advent of globalization and market liberalization in the contemporary world. Against this background, the company where I was the assistant supervisor undertook profound efforts to upgrade the features of the existing products as a response to the heightened competition in the market. This called for extensive creativity through consultation between the management and the employees aimed at coming up with a phone model that had high internet connectivity speed, longer battery life as well as high memory capacity to suit the consumer demands in the market. Eventually, this culminated in the production of a new model that encompassed all the above specifications and at the same time maintained the price sensitivity of the consumers. This can thus be perceived as an innovative venture where new features were added to a product that was already in existent aimed at meeting the consumers’ demands as well as being a conscious step towards sustained competitive advantage in the market. It is worth noting that this entailed extensive creativity to suit all these feature in the upgraded phone model from the old model. However, the gradual shift from the old product to the new one entailed change whereby the old one was slowly phased out and replaced with the new one in the market. This entailed halting the production of the old phone model and directing more resources, both financial and human towards the production of the new model as well as promoting it in the market. Eventually, the old model replaced by the new model in the market. This marked a successful transitional process in ushering in the new model and letting go of the old one. In relation to the above, there was a need to embrace new promotional approaches in the highly differentiated market aimed at increasing the popularity of the new phone model in the international market. In this regard, the advertisement channels had to be re-defined and the outlets for the product re-modeled. This called for innovation of more applicable promotional styles and deliberations on the most ideal advertisement channels. Eventually, more attractive, durable and cultural specific packaging styles were developed which captured the dynamics in the market and replaced the prior packaging style which primarily targeted the local market. In addition, there was consensus among the marketing stakeholders on the increased use of the internet with the aim of increasing the popularity of the new phone model. Thus, this marked a gradual shift from the print media being the primary advertisement channel towards more technology-sensitive methods. The robust advertisement strategies exemplified by heightened internet use in websites and user-generated content like YouTube and blogsreplaced magazines and newspapers as the primary method of advertisement. This is an example of a change in the company. Another driver of innovation in the company was the need to diversify the product outlets to different categories of consumers, mostly with the advent of the new phone model. This was coupled with the increased technological preference among the consumers. Thus, online stores for the company’s products was developed which is concurrent with the increased internet use in the market. This is based on the fact that the overall internet use has heightened around the globe, which will eventually increase the number of shoppers online. This fact is supported by Garrison (2003, p. 2) who cited a recent report which revealed that 34% of the overall households in the world have a web connection which translates to approximately above 1/3 and this trend is heightening every day. On a more imperative dimension, an even larger percentage of businesses are now online. Thus, the establishment of the online stores to supplement the physical outlets in different countries can be perceived as a robust innovation by the company in the efforts to command a larger market share in the international market. In addition, this innovative venture was aimed at capturing the needs of contemporary shoppers who prefer online shopping which is endowed with more convenience where they can shop at the comfort of their homes. Thus, the establishment of the online store can be perceived as a profound innovation undertaken by the company. Towards elevating the commitment as well as the motivation of the human resource, the company also undertook drastic changes on the remuneration scales of the employees at the company. As a result, the employees were entitled to more benefits like increased medical and housing allowances and the increase of the overall wages. Moreover, more programs like capacity building retreats were instigated. This was effective in changing the job attitude of the employees towards increased motivation and commitment which epitomized a positive attitude change in the company. Lastly, the company has recently engaged in the acquisition of a new firm which is an internet service provider and one of the biggest telecommunication carrier in the country and proud of providing voice, data and entertainment services endowed with high quality. This was aimed at expanding the portfolio of the acquiring company to not only elevate the profit margin but also to meet the mobile internet needs of the consumers. This meant diverse changes in the company both negative and positive. These are epitomized by relocation of employees, change of the management structure as well as entrenchment of some employees. This is an example of change in the organization. Conclusion It is apparent from the above discourse that there are some inherent differences between innovation and change in an organization whereby innovation is usually associated with improving a product or service that is already in existence to meet the consumer demands while change is the end results of these enhancements and its marked by eventual successful abandoning of old products, services or practices to embrace the new ones. References Hage, J.T., 1999, ‘Organizational Innovation and Organizational Change’, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 25, pp. 597-622. Garrison, D., 2003. Internet Marketing and Other Techniques for taking advantage of the World Wide Web. http://www.moworkshops.org/marketing/Internet%20Marketing.pdf (Accessed Sept 09, 2012). Ledez, R.E., 2008, ‘Change Management: Getting a tuned uporganization’, Business Intelligence Journal, pp. 11-119. Okpara, F.O., 2007, ‘The value of Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship’, Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 1-14. Read More