Managing Change and Innovation - Assignment Example

MANAGING CHANGE AND INNOVATION Student’s Name Name of Course Professor’s Name Date Managing Change and Innovation Diary 1: workshop 1 Concepts: Nature of Change, Innovation Change and innovation is critical in any environment and my workplace is no exception. Change is the key driver of individual and organizational success. Through change, we develop new ideas and expand our capacity to come up with new ways of doing things better (Graetz and Smith, 2010). Change facilitates innovation while making employees competitive in the market. Without change, organizations can remain stagnated forever and in such scenario they become more obsolescent and unable to compete. At personal level, I cannot always count on my conventional skills and experience to succeed; I need to spot and conform to change so that I may add more value to the workplace. During this week’s seminar, I was particularly drawn to the nature of change and behaviors that promote innovation. Change is inevitable; whether we like it or not, change is bound to happen. It is a must for any organization and society that seeks to achieve their goals and objectives. Change is demanding because it dictates that people learn to do things in a new way, think and act differently. It is not easy especially since sometimes the workforce need to change immediately without harming the flow of work. Sometimes change is never planned for but this does not mean individuals rue its occurrence at the expense of adjusting accordingly. On the other hand, innovation is a culmination of embracing change. Once the workforce embraces change, they are better placed to see things differently and come up with better approaches and products that meet the market demands (Tidd., et al,2001) To promote innovation, it means that organizations and employees do things differently; from the past and from others. Innovation is an indicator of responsiveness to change. It is about taking risks at individual level but whose benefits spill over to the entire organization. What I learnt in this session is in line with my workplace experience. On several occasions, I have found that I can no longer operate the way I used to. Sometimes even clients complain that that is not the way I should handle them. We often upgrade our IT systems and train on the same, thus abandoning the old methods. Vocational training is part of the work program since the management realizes the workforce needs to stay updated with the current dynamics. Innovation has been rare in the absence of training, perhaps because individuals need to be induced by change so that they can think critically and yield new products. In broader terms, I have learnt that change and innovation are inseparable. Diary2: workshop 2 Concepts: Understanding change, Change Process The seminar today was about understanding change and how the entire process takes place. Pursuant to the realization that change is not instant (as seen in seminar 1), today I was interested on knowing what change really is, the forms in which it is presented in organizations and the stages it undergoes to reach the optimum level and have the desired effect Change is real and even in denial; we cannot equally deny the fact that change alters the way organizations operate and the relationship between members of the organization. However, it’s impossible to understand change minus fundamentally identifying and understanding the critical aspects that indicate change (Torugsa and Arundel, 2015). From the top management to the lowest level, change revolves around labor and transforming people to eventually spreading the ideals across the entire organization for the good of both entities. Organizational change is an indication of human response to change. In the event of change, there is need to understand the organization, its culture and values so that the workforce gathers the required impetus to learn and effect change. In entirety, change is about people rather than the organization. However, individual changes put together ads up to organizational change. Change undergoes through a process driven by different factors and in the presence of certain conditions. Basically, there ought to be tools to facilitate the change and a clearly designed framework/means of getting to the end (Conway and Steward, 2009). The tools and path of change vary from one organization to the other and this implies that 2 organizations subjected to a similar change can use different methods, at a different pace and achieve different results. Perhaps the Kurt Lewin and Field Theory summarizes the change process. The penultimate stage is “doing things in a new way” and this basically means that innovation has been achieved. Broadly, I learnt about change, its aspects and the process of achieving it. Comparing today’s session with what I experience at the workplace, there are notable similarities and disparities as well. It is agreeable that change fundamentally affects us, but more often, I am tempted to deny this and view it as more of an organizational concern. At the workplace, we are comfortable doing things the way we have been doing them because we tend to think it is right for us and therefore good for the organization, however change and innovation is inevitable eventually. Looking at the process, sometimes there is not enough time and individual goodwill to undertake all the steps. However, in totality, change affects us and the process ought to be adhered to. Diary3: workshop 3 Concepts: Strategic planning/thinking, culture and Change One of the key drivers of getting a desired outcome is an effective strategy. A strategy is the factor behind success and failure and the reason why organization A can fail while B succeeds when the two are subjected to a similar process. This is what caught my eye in this seminar as I was more interested in knowing how organizations successfully plan for and execute the change process and how culture contributes to this. Through the seminar, I learnt that a strategy is the first step in implementing change and innovation at the organizational level. A strategy involves planning and thinking critically; evaluating the change process, the risks and the outcome. Strategic planning and thinking are interdependent but they exhibit some differences. Planning lays the foundation while thinking executes the changes and innovations. Strategic planning and thinking cultivate a culture of responsiveness to change, innovation and increased appreciation of the process (Seebode., et al, 2010). The strategy ought to be implementable and universally understood by all members of the organization. A good strategy will not only facilitate change and innovation but also give the organization a particular durable direction that eases future response to change. By now I have learnt about change and innovation as well as the aspects and the process. One more thing I consider critical out of this seminar is organizational culture and how it affects change. Change cannot be managed in the absence of a vibrant culture within the organization. Organizational culture includes the way things are done, structures, systems and routines. These are the factors that determine how fast and effectively individuals respond to change and innovation (Bridges, 2012). Culture constitutes a particular network that determines how fast change can penetrate and add more value. For many organizations, innovation is as a result of culture rather than change. In a broader perspective, the seminar taught me how strategies are affected by culture and how they can be integrated to facilitate change. Narrowing down to my workplace, I find today’s lesson so valuable. The resistance to change is a result of fear of doing things outside the usual way. Personally, I have reservations about some new workplace practices simply because I feel so insecure to abandon the way I usually work. On the other hand, once I am able to think differently, I find it easier to embrace new things. Similarly, I realize that resistance to change as a result of culture cannot be justified since sometimes we are too selfish in nature by viewing change and innovation as only beneficial to the organization and not us. Diary 4: workshop 4 Concepts: Organizational Structure There exists a strong bond between change and structure and indeed the pace at which organizations move towards implementing and realizing change determines their innovativeness and how structure may affect them. This was the stand out area of concern in today’s seminar. Organizational structure forms part of the culture, defines the roles for every player and exhibits a particular image in and outside the precincts of the organization. Organizational structures are not constant due to the need to realign and conform to change as well adopt innovation (Thomas., et al, 2011). Modern structures ought to be more flexible so as to adapt to new conditions. The design of the structure will need to be altered from time to time in line with the need to stay in touch with organizational goals. This seminar was largely aided by the concepts of Taylorism, Fordism and Marxism. For Taylor, structures are about rationality; studying and understanding the system to become more efficient and productive. Ford articulates for repetitive practice and collective movement towards change. Marx Webber advocates for the bestowment of power upon positions rather than individuals. From the theorists, I learnt that most of the time change and innovation is hard to attain simply because the structure is not permissive or people with certain responsibilities do not understand how to involve all players and give them the perfect starting point. The organizational structure determines how easy it is for information to flow from one corner to another and how free people are to exercise new practice or even raise their concerns (Rothaermel, 2015. Change cannot occur when there is bureaucracy because it suffocates the space for deliberation and evaluation of the direction to be taken. Simplifying the structure does not imply that we cut down the numbers but calls for the realization of the need to be accessible at all times and breaking any visible barrier(S) which may obstruct change and innovation. My workplace experience is replicated in this seminar. Personally, I have had the fear of trying new things because the structure does not allow me that space. The larger percentage of such difficulties can be attributed to complexity, centralization and formalization; the dimensions of structure. The type of structure embedded in Mintzberg’s configurations is relevant in the modern workplace owing to the difficulty of trying new ideas. The matrix structure is easily penetrable but it has not been fully embraced by many organizations including where I work partly because some individuals feel their power and influence will be threatened. Diary 5: workshop 5 Concepts: Innovation: Drivers and Dimensions Looking back at the previous seminars, I realize there is a slight mention of innovation. This seminar is definitely a good opportunity to go deeper into innovation and understand how it comes about and its overall implication on the organizational goals and objectives. Notably, innovation is the end product in a change process. Innovation is key in helping an organization improve the standards to remain competitive in the ever-changing business environment .However, innovation can only take place in an organization where there are enabling factors and structures. Whereas innovation can be individually initiated, most of the innovations emanate from the workplace climate. This is because the workplace culture contributes greatly to how we think and act. Besides, innovation is for the benefit of the organization and as such, the workforce can only feel motivated to invent if the major beneficiary shows goodwill and support. Therefore, the key drivers stem out of the (changing) environment, customer needs, competition and technology. Out of these factors it is pertinent that it is difficult to understand the need for innovation from a personal point-further confirming that innovation is a product of organizational/management commitment. The four (4) dimensions of innovation; product, process, paradigm and position determine how fast innovations get noticed within and beyond the organization (Jones, 2010). Perhaps the fundamental one is the paradigm dimension that provided the necessary psychological preparation for innovation. Employees can only have a new approach and change the way they perform if they have a certain mindset. Organizations mentally prepare their employees for innovation. The four dimensions communicate volumes on what the organization offers, how it offers, where they offer it and the processes involved (Schein, 2010). In entirety, the dimensions will show how the entity perceives innovation and how it empowers its resources to get the desired results. Most of the concepts covered in this session were in line with what I experience at the workplace on a regular basis. I know that the need for innovation is because the business environment is changing and customers always need to be attended to in tandem with the newest approaches. Therefore, the only way organizations and employees can stay in touch with the trend is to embrace change and in so doing remain competitive in the market. The need to change is evident in every workplace and much of the need can be drawn from customer feedback. Change and innovation in the workplace cannot be avoided at all thus a need for organizations to embrace it. References Bridges, W., 2010. Managing transitions: Making the most of change. ReadHowYouWant. com. Conway, S. and Steward, F., 2009. Managing and shaping innovation. Oxford University Press. Graetz, F. and Smith, A.C., 2010. Managing organizational change: A philosophies of change approach. Journal of change management, 10(2), pp.135-154. Jones, G.R., 2010. Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River: Pearson. Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill. Schein, E.H., 2010. Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons. Seebode, D., Jeanrenaud, S. and Bessant, J., 2012. Managing innovation for sustainability. R&D Management, 42(3), pp.195-206. Thomas, R., Sargent, L.D. and Hardy, C., 2011. Managing organizational change: Negotiating meaning and power-resistance relations. Organization Science, 22(1), pp.22-41. Tidd, J., Pavitt, K. and Bessant, J., 2001. Managing innovation (Vol. 3). Chichester: Wiley. Torugsa, N.A. and Arundel, A., 2015. The nature and incidence of workgroup innovation in the Australian public sector: evidence from the Australian 2011 state of the service survey. Australian Journal of Public Administration. Read More