Reviewing Innovation Management - Coursework Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Innovation management Introduction Innovation is the most preferred way that most organizations use to remain at the top of a competitive environment. When a product or service gets to the market, its presence always catalyzes its improvement or development of a new version. These two factors are both considered as innovation. In most cases, such developments often require moderation n to ensure that the any improvement in a product or service only leads to positive returns. One key factor that drives the success and sustainability of themost organization is innovation(Schilling). Organizations always strive to ensure that they have a competent and as well as a competent technology that makes it stand out from the rest.These two factors are very essential whenever an organization intends to manage innovation.Innovation within an organization can be informed of production processes, machine and equipment, time management strategies, sales or marketing strategies and management strategies. As far as innovation management is concerned, an organization needs to have access and control of technical knowledge as well as administrative knowledge. As far as organizations encourage innovation, they also have a certain degree of fear in case theinnovation fails to create the projected impact.Organizations would often shy away from innovation that has not been tested and proven elsewhere. At the same time, such innovations may turn out to have agreater impact on the organization.It has also been established that the concept and definition of innovation may vary depending on the field applied. However, to ensure that innovation remains relevant to the specificfield as well as goalsof an organization, it is important for innovation management to be considered. Reviewing Innovation Management Innovation management techniques The term innovation has often been misunderstood to mean theonly advance in technology yet the term broadly refers to the new way of thinking or rather a creative approach to introducing new products, service or process(Soosa, Ferencz, & Dugas).Therefore, innovation management techniques can be defined as procedures and approaches that enable companies or organizations to easily cope with changing trends. In innovation management techniques, the most important aspect often exploited is knowledge. Innovation management technique (IMT) refers to the tools and methods of that can help an organization manage its changes. Innovative management techniques have been established to have originated from various theories. The innovative techniques can categorize as science and research related techniques that focus on scientific research.Market survey techniques are an approach that focuses the types of innovation that develop due to the existing market demands. The market survey techniques lead to a typeofinnovation also known as the market driven innovation.Another technique is the innovative cooperation technique that focuses on the existing links between innovation designing players. The innovative cooperationtechnique also relates to the various levels of production or the supply chain of organizations. Communication support design of technologies is an innovative technique that focuses on the changes in technology.The human resource management techniquefocuses on the social networks that relate to innovation. To ensure that an organization takes charge of its innovations by making sure that all the innovation techniques are integrated to function as a system.Innovation comes from various sources and managers have to ensure that all these sources are well controlled. For instance, smartphone producing company has to control the way research is conducted when proposing for a new project. In this case, other techniques such as creativity developing techniquesare considered to that the most creative smartphone designs are present in themarket.In addition, innovative project management techniques are consideredto ensure that only feasible,innovative projects are considered. A project may be innovative but its feasibility may fail to meet the organizational goals.Process improving techniques are often considered especially in situations of lean production, redesigning of process and re-engineering of processes.Companies or organizations that fail to manage their innovative approaches often end up spending a lot of money on projects that may never live up to expectations. Innovation Network When organizations take the step to manageinnovation, it is important to understand the aspect of innovation network and how these networks can be used to enhance innovation.Firms can hypothetically be considered as overlapping networks that need to be managed. These networks are important within theorganizationas they help in the transfer of knowledge as well as innovative ideas. It implies that lack of networks in an organization will confine knowledge and innovative ideas which may not be healthy for the organization. Organizations must manage these networks to ensure that the flow of knowledge and innovative ideas stand to serve the best interests of the organization. It is possible to use the various shapes of networks toexplain how knowledge is transferred within the organization.In this perspective, a network can be defined as linkages between or among people that facilitate theflow of information, knowledge, and innovative ideas. This linkage also refers to the channels in which communication flows within the organization.The nature in which linkages can be established in a organization to plot a network chart has bears a lot concerning the social behavior of the people within an organization. The figure below shows an illustration of a network that can exist within an organization. Networks have been considered as acritical component in organization since they are responsible for the flow of information. Change agents, as well as other agents of innovation, must be linked with the rest of the staff for any implementation to be realized. Networks can either have or lack centrality, but the presence of centrality has been identified as the most preferred. The aspect of centrality makes it easy to establish the main players in an innovation process. On the other hand, lack of centrality makes it possible to determine the key players in the innovation process within an organization. Three aspect of centrality that can be identified in a network include degree, closeness, and betweenness as shown in the illustration below. From the network diagram, it is possible to establish the degree of influence by identifying the node with many links to other nodes. It implies that the node with many links has a lot of information or coordination functions with other nodes. The network diagram can also be used to identify the closeness between nodes which is also a factor of flow of information and knowledge between the nodes. Betweenness can be described as the node that acts link between two nodes within an organization. Betweenness can be identified in organization conducting major innovation projects.As far as innovation management is concerned, the aspect of centrality may not necessarily imply that the central node has a higher rank. An individual with an innovation may be anintelligent junior worker working for the organization and centrality would only imply that the organization relies on the individual for the success of the project. Such individuals may own exemplary talents as far as an innovation project may be concerned. Organizing innovation Whenever organizations take the initiative to manage innovation, three critical componentsare considered which are culture,process, and structure(Lam). Culture defines the orientation of the minds of the people within an organization towards creativity and imagination. A business process includes all the practices that integrate all elements to work in harmony and achieve a specific target, which is innovation. Organizational structures also come in since they are directly responsible for offering support to technologies and innovative ideas. The first important consideration when theorganization plans for innovation is the innovation project team that will put together diverse efforts and abilities to meet a common goal. A project team is important as it provides a main goal, as well as means of achieving the goal.The second important consideration is the expert network that includes all individuals that are considered as the brain behind an innovative idea. These are the people who have the basic as well as technical knowledge as far as the innovativeidea is concerned. The third consideration is the shared service organization that relates to functional levels within the organization that is identified to avail special services.These special services may include market research as well as other research related to the innovation. An innovation community of practice is a special group that research; develop knowledge related to a particular topic of interest. A primary goal of the innovation community management practice is to collect tacit knowledge as well as explicit knowledge. Information generated by this function is disseminated suing a range of collaborative tools.Finally, the innovation council is responsible for the prioritizing al innovation which technically determines the innovation to be pursued.Another role of the innovation council is to avail feedback as well as funds for all innovations considered as feasible ventures.Technically, the innovation council is directly responsible for facilitating innovative projects within an organization. An innovation council of an organization can comprise of the senior personnel of various departments within the organization. A similar organization strategy has been used by the Toyota car manufacturing company for many years. The company always strives to produce the most efficient engines and car designs that are preferable in various regions around the world. Management innovation process framework An innovation process can be broken down into four distinct phases that comprise of the motivation phase, invention phase, implementation phase and finally the theorization and labeling phase(Hamel and Mol). Organizations always prefer the cheaper way to introducing innovation to that involves hiring a creative and competent staff. In this way, organizationavoids the costs of buying innovative ideas from out-sources as well as patented innovations. In most cases, the organizationwants to own an innovation in such a way that when the staff members develop a product, the product patent rights of the innovation remain to the organization and not the individual. To achieve this, organizations develop a favorable environment for employees to bring in innovative ideas.All activities that encourage staff members or individuals to sell innovations to an organization fall under the innovation phase. After individuals have been encouraged to bring in innovations, they take part in research, experiments, and development to come up with new ideas.Individuals further conduct experiments to prove the validity and reliability of their projects. In case an organization is behind the project this phase, also known and the invention stage is funded by theorganizations. The invention helps in determining whether an innovation is worth investing in which then leads to implementation(Brown and Duguid). The implementation stage involves the organization taking all consideration to adopting the innovation as part or whole. The implementation process may be gradual or drastic depending on various aspects such as the suitability of the innovation. Finally, theorization and labeling or monitoring and evaluation is conducted as a means of measuring the performance of the projects. Through monitoring and evaluation, comments, ideas and suggestion are collected regarding the innovation which can determine abolishment of the project, improvement of the project or maintaining the state of the innovation.Innovative ideas may develop from an existing problem, a foreseen challenge, improvement opportunities as well as research. Internal and external change agents As mentioned before, innovation can stem from either the internal of the organization or external to the organization(Aalbers and Dolfsma). The mostorganizationprefers innovative ideas to come from the internal sources since it is the cheaper as compared to the external sources. Externalinnovative ideas are likely to patent and sold out to the highest bidder. From this point of view, it is possible to define internal and external change agents of an organization.Internal change agents are individuals employed by the organization while the external agents are not employees within the organization.It has been argued that internal agents have a better understanding of the organization and are likely to propose more realistic ideas as compared to the external agents. The aspect of commitment also comes into play in a sense that internal agents tend to have more commitment compared to externalagents. Therefore, internal agents are beneficial in innovations that require improvement on the current status. On the other hand, external agents have always proven to bring in a completely new innovation that would probably incur more cost in implementation. For instance, a computer software developer can be used as an external change agent who brings in a completely new idea that requires companies to implement the innovation. Such changes force organizations to consider a complete overhaul of their current systems. As far as degrees of uncertainties are concerned, internal change agents are more likely to come up with innovations that have a small degree of uncertainty compared to the external change agents. It is for this reason that most organization would prefer hiring specialist in specific areas to play a critical role in developing innovative ideas. Companies also opt for internal agents since the organization will have more control such as patent rights over innovation, which may not be the case in innovations from external agents. Depending on the nature of innovation, organizations have to assess the type of change agent to rely on. After the Facebook platform had been developed, the company CEO assembled a competent team that ensured the innovation framework is in place and efficient. The people from various cultural backgrounds can bring various contributions for the development of additional features on the social platform. Facebook has made use of both internal and external change agents in their innovation approach. Most of the external change agents include suggestions from the social platform users. For instance, Facebook heavily relies on external change agents in translating the sites information to various languages. Theme of choice: innovation networks Innovation process within an organization is critical as it is one of the ways for improving the fortunes of the organization.It is critical for innovation to be effectively managed to ensure that entire process remains under control.This canbe identified as innovation management, which entails many aspects such as managing innovation agents and innovation networks. Organizations successfully manage innovation process by managing the flow of information, technology, and innovation ideas among various individuals within the organization.From this point of view, an innovation network is a major factor when considering innovation within an organization.Innovationnetworks may be structured or unstructured while others may have or lack the aspect of centrality. As mentioned before, centrality is preferred since it brings out a clear idea of the main agent of the innovation process.In case follow-up is to be considered, innovation networks with centrality make the process easy. Innovation networks may also be categorizedas simple networks or complex networks depending on the nature and pattern of the linkages. According to the network theory, it is possible to make predictions of the results of certain network structures as well as node position.Characterization of networks can be done basing on loose coupling. The phrase loose couples refer to the loose relationship developed between or among independent actors on a particular project. It has been argued that development of network relationship takes a longer time but thelast longer after establishment. Networks are practically characterized by the flow of information, enhanced trust and mutuality. Any form of thenetwork may have one or two instances of conflict as well as instances of power asymmetry. When analyzing networks it is important to analyze the trends of interaction rather than the behavior of the actors in the network. It has been argued that innovation systems may not be easy to characterize since there may instance of flux as well as constant interaction characterized by cognitive and social facets. The well-structured innovation networksmake it easy for an organization has proven to enhance the procedures intended for quality control(Schilling).Despite the fact that the innovation networks may help in identifying the various roles of parties in an innovation process, the networks cannot be used to correctly comment on hierarchy. Hierarchy within an organization is a different thing that may not be directly responsible for an innovative idea. Innovative ideas can stem from any level within the organization or at times outside the organization. Therefore, centrality only helps to identify the central players in an innovation project. Projects whose agents are not employees of the organization will have these individual at the center. Equally, junior employees within an organization who come up with innovative ideas are also likely to be at the center of an innovation network. Consider the two illustrations below. From the diagrams, it can be identified that the exploration and production company has an organizational hierarchy(Soosa, ferencz and Dugas). Various people occupy different influential positions within the organization as far as decision-making is concerned. However, the power of decision making changes when an innovation project is represented in a network diagram. In the network diagram, the employee whose name has been circled, Cole, is at the center of the innovation project. On the other hand, Cole has a lower hierarchy position because the employee is six levels below the senior vice-president of the organization. It can be argued that Cole is the brain behind the innovative idea which makes him the center of the entire project with more significance compare to other employees with higher ranks. Centrality has been identified as critical despite the organizational rank of the of the change agent. The shopfloor workers have more hands-on information compared to the workers at higher ranks. The shopfloor workers make some of the most efficient central agents in an innovation process(Palmer and Kaplan).Shop-floor workers have more information that is diverse and capable of having a greater impact in an innovation process.In addition, the shopfloor workers have a greater understanding of the needs, strengths, and weaknesses of the organization they work in.There is more influence among shopfloor workers as well as efficient utilization of the resources. The horizontal cross-unit tiesin innovation networksis a type of network where project team members have direct links between different units. These types of networks have been characterized with injecting a lot of creativity in an innovation process.The network has the advantage of offering complementary support to other units involved in a specific project.Project management and performance is greatly enhanced by access to alternative ideas is also increased. Figure 1: Horizontal unit ties The vertical cross hierarchaltiesare characterized by the maintenance of professional links with individuals of higher ranks within the organization. It has been established that maintaining hierarchical links with higherranksincreases the access to the required resources.The relationship also increases positive publicity as well as managerial attention towards an innovative project. Individuals of higher ranks have the power to approve or stop a project from being implemented. Therefore maintain links with higher ranks increase the lives of an innovation idea as well as support for implementation. Knowledge is created and enhanced once the different sources of knowledge are broughttogether, and the same applies to innovation(Brown and Duguid). Innovation networks enhance the flow of knowledge and ideas within an organization. It isimportant to understand that innovation is largely affected by knowledge diversity, communication, assets and social capital which networks enhance all. Conclusion Innovation management is one way through which organization comes up with a new product, new service or new process. All these new entities are aimed at improving the performance of an organization in the market. Since innovation is a critical but delicate input, it has to be managed in a way that an organization would realize full benefits rather than aloss. This paper has discussed the management innovation with acritical focus on management innovation process framework. It has been established that the process of managing innovation should be systematic from the point of inception and after implementation. Innovation networks are important since they help in enhancing theflow of knowledge within an organization or project teams. Works Cited Aalbers, Hendrik Leendert and Wilfred Dolfsma. "Bridging firm-internal boundaries for innovation: Directed communication orientation and brokering roles." Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Volume 36 (2015): pp. 97-115. Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. "Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation." Organizational Science, Volume 2, Issue 1 (1991): pp. 40-57. Dolfsma, W.A. "The process of new service development." International journal of innovation management, 8(3) (2004): pp. 319-337. Hamel, Gary and Michael Mol. "management Innovation." 2008. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 33, No. 4, 825–845. 25 October 2016 . Lam, Alice. 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