Organizational Change Management: Innovation Implementation

The innovation implementation behaviour concerns with the commitment of the employees in using a particular innovation product or process. It deals with the usage of the innovation in the day to day functioning of the employees. The charismatic leadership concerns with the leadership qualities of the senior management. The affective commitment to change deals with the desire to implement the change process. This study demonstrates the  factors driving the innovation implementation behaviour- trust in top management and charismatic leadership. These two factors are influenced by the affective commitment to change.

The topic of the article deals with the innovation implementation behaviour. It is a psychological process by virtue of which employees are inclined to use innovative practices. They feel motivated to use the implemented technology in the organization. This motivation level is influenced by two factors, namely the “role of charismatic leadership” and “employees’ trust in the top management. This article is concerned with analyzing these factors. It also discusses the “role of affective commitment to change” to understand the psychological mechanisms in the employees of an organization.

The objective of the article is to investigate the background of charismatic leadership as well as the trust of the employees in the top management of an organization. The article explores the effect of these two factors on the changing patterns of the innovation implementation behaviour in the employees of organizations (Chaudoir, Dugan & Barr, 2013). There were individual studies to evaluate the effect of each of these factors on the overall behaviour of the employees regarding the implementation of innovation. The study also aims to identify the emotional processes of the employees that lead them to display innovation implementation behaviour. The study also strives to expand the existing literature on the innovation implementation behaviour.

The methodology used in the study is the quantitative approach. This type of research is used for the purpose of generation of the numerical data which can be transformed logically to gather useful statistics (Creswell, 2013). This type of method is used to gather information related to the attitudes, behaviours, mental abilities and other parameters of the sample population (Punch, 2013). In this study, the data was collected from employees who were working in an automobile firm in Germany. The firm had implemented a new computer software, which was based on the email program of the corporation. The employees had the alternative to use this software for various purposes such as address, calendar, audit, absence planning and others. This study aimed to find out the level of implementation of the new software by the employees. In other words, this survey measured the attitude of the employees towards an innovation or new technology implemented by the top management. The mode of data collection was through an online survey. The employees were sent a link containing an online questionnaire, which they were supposed to fill out within a time frame of four weeks. The participation of the employees was optional and kept confidential. The study considered the responses of 194 employees out of the total 270 employees.

The data collected was analyzed by “Brislin’s translation back translation procedure” (Shuttleworth & Cowie, 2014). The multifactor leadership questionnaire or the MLQ 5x short was used to analyze the types of charismatic leadership from the leaders of the organization (McCord, 2014). This technique was used to determine the admiration of the employees for the organizational leaders. A three item scale (proposed by Cook and Wall) was used to measure the degree of trust on the top management of the firm. The six item scale devised by Herscovitch and Meyer was used to measure the affective commitment to change (Kool, & van Dierendonck, 2012). The study measured the adaptive attitude of the employees in the implementation of the new software with the help of a scale proposed by Choi and Price. The primary data analysis tool used was “structural equations modelling” or AMOS 16.0 (Byrne, 2013). There was an inclusion of four “dummy coded control variables” in the structural model.

The study argued that affective commitment to change acts as an intermediary between the “innovation implementation behaviour” and the charismatic leaders (Bligh & Kohles, 2013). The top leaders are in a position to motivate their employees or followers by providing them with a compelling vision. It has also measured the positive correlation between trust in the top management and the affective commitment to change. The attitude of the employees towards the top management of the organization is vital for the success of implementation of the new software (Rafferty, Jimmieson & Armenakis, 2013). If the employees feel that the top management has a major role in the change process, then the employees would also like to apply it in their day to day functioning. This is because,  the employees are certain about the good intentions of the management and assume that they will benefit from the new technology.

The study presented some interesting findings regarding the topic. The effectiveness of the charismatic leaders is directly proportional to the behaviour of innovation implementation. The leadership qualities are directly linked to various factors such as the creativity of the subordinates, social change, improvement oriented attitude and the organizational innovation. The study confirmed that an increase in the employee’s trust in the management also increases the affinity to implement the innovative practices of the organization. The most vital contribution of the study included the physiological parameter that connects charismatic leadership and the employee’s trust in the top management with the subsequent behaviour concerning the implementation of change or innovation. There are situational factors such as sentiments that influence the behaviour of the employees towards a new process or technology. The findings focus on the need of “enabling leadership” for fostering innovation acceptance with the means of formal managerial framework.

The companies need to enhance the employee’s trust in the top management for better adoption of the organizational change process (Cameron & Green, 2015). The trust factor can be imbibed in the employees by several ways, such as leadership guidelines, reward system, company policies and others. It is important for the companies to keep aside budget for delivering leadership training as well as ideal recruitment of the charismatic leaders (Cameron & Green, 2015). The managers should take into account the psychological aspects of their employees, which would make them more adaptable to organizational changes (Cameron & Green, 2015). The leaders should also be trained so that they can be role models to the employees. They should also articulate a captivating vision to the employees.

The strength of the arguments include the relevancy of interrelation between the key parameters such as charismatic leadership, innovation implementation attitudes, trust in senior management and affective commitment to change. They are the vital factors that influence how a new process or technology is accepted by the employees of the organization. The charismatic leadership of the top management would induce trust among the employees, which in turn would make them committed to change in the process. The affective commitment to change would lead to the improved behaviour of the employees towards the new process and they would try their level best to make it successful (Cameron & Green, 2015). The weakness of the arguments include that there are several factors that increase the trust factor of the employees apart from the charismatic leadership of the senior management. The senior management may display excellent leadership qualities, yet the employees may not be satisfied. There may be several reasons of employee dissatisfaction such as a poor compensation package, poor working environment, excessive burden and others. There can be other possibilities such as non-conformance to change since many employees prefer to follow the traditional procedures. They do not embrace change easily. In such cases, the employees may not accept the innovation even if the senior management performs an excellent job. This would eventually lead to resistance towards the new innovation policy. This study was conducted on a single department of one organization. There can be different views of the people working in other industries and job roles.

The organizational change, leadership and behaviour concerning the implementation of the innovation are crucial fields of study for the researchers. This study served the purpose of integrating the three vital factors in question. It showed that charismatic leadership as well as the trust in top management influences the innovation implementation behaviour and the affective commitment to change. The study also aimed to closely bind the key concepts and aid in future investigations regarding this topic.

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