Social And Organizational Barriers To Promoting Creativity And Innovation In Organizations

Barriers to Implementing Innovation and Creativity in Organizations

Question:

You are required to Critically evaluate group and Organisational level support for Creativity and Innovation in the context of your Workplace.

The aim of this task is to inform about the social and organizational barriers affecting promotion of creativity in an organization. Creativity and innovation are the most important tools and techniques which are used in an organization to achieve success in the competitive world. Innovation helps the organization in implementing such changes in their management which not utilized by anyone in the external market. Due to such activities, the organization gains competences and eliminates competition from the market. So it shall be noted that such tools have become an important requirement for the organization now days (Drucker 2014). The report further discusses about the barriers faced by an organization while implementing innovation and creativity in their business process. Further it also tells about the climate which an organization shall attain in order to promote creative leadership, HRM/D, creativity and innovation in an organization. It also provides the recommendations with the help of which an organization can implement innovation with the help adequate models and theories. Further details about the task are discussed below:

As considered in the above statements that creativity and innovation are the two most important tools used in an organization. So in order to implement such activities the organization faces many barriers in their course of action. Also it shall be noted that before understanding the barriers, there should be clear knowledge about different between creativity and innovation. Creativity refers to the art of doing things creatively and implementing creative ideas in every action whereas innovation refers to the art of creating a new product with the help of creative ideas (Chalmers 2013).

But the fact shall be noted that it is noted for organization now days to use such innovation in their regular day to day business activities. Irrespective of the size of the organization, they faces social as well as organizational problems in implementing such activities. Further the barriers suffered by the organizations are discussed below:

• Lack of trust and motivation: motivation and trust are the two most basic things required in the business process so as to initiate and implement new activities. If the employees of the organization do not trust on the activities of their leader then innovation would not become successful in the organization. So, this is one of the most important organizational barriers which hinder the growth of the organization in competitive world (Siedlok, and Hibbert 2014). So, the organization needs to take the employees under their confidence and ask them to trust on their activities and follow the path then only they can successfully implement innovation in their organization. Further without motivation no person in the organization will put their hundred percent efforts to complete the task. Thus, it shall be noted that it is very important for the employees to trust on their managers and similarly it is important for the managers to regularly boost up the morale of their employees (Auernhammer, and Hall 2014).
• Lack of flexibility: The middle level managers who connect all the levels of management in the organization are rigid in adopting the new and innovative activities in the management due to which the lower level managers also becomes rigid to adopt such changes and implement them in the organization (Autio 2014).
• Condemnation from external factors: Critics given by the external factors highly influence the attitude of the workforce in the organization. Due to this, the whole environment of the organization become negative due to which the efficiency of the employees to work decreases (Caniëls and Rietzschel 2015).

Talking about the climate for the development of innovation and its measures in the organization, it shall be noted that only positive environment can help innovation to sustain in the workplace and show its effects. Positive in the workplace management gives a push to the implementation of innovation and creativity in the organization. So, in order to implement such activities, initially the leader needs to creatively initiate leadership in the organization so as to motivate the employees and help them to trust on instincts of the company (Aldrich, and Martinez 2015). Creative leadership shall be adopted by the leaders in the organization and creative leadership can be implemented through transformation leadership process. Transformation leadership refers to the process of understanding the needs and requirements of the employees present in the organization; and work in such a way so as to help them to achieve their personal target along with organizational goals. With such climate innovation can be implemented in the organization (Anderson, Poto?nik, and Zhou 2014).

Climate for Creative Leadership in Organizations

Also positive human resource in the organization supports the creative activities in the organization. If the human resource in the organization would be competent enough to manage such innovation then the climate of the workplace would automatically adjust according to the innovation. But if human resource of the organization is not qualified enough to initiate such activities in the organization, then the leaders would not be able to sustain the innovation practices in the organization. With respect to the human resource, the human resource wheel shall be initiated in the organization to develop and train the employees to work better. With such development the employees would become efficient to understand and positively adopt such measures to practice innovation in their regular business activities (Somech, and Drach-Zahavy 2013).

Conclusion

Thus in the limelight of above mentioned events the facts that shall be noted that innovation and creativity are two most important tools which shall be practiced by all types of organization in order to attain competitive advantage in the target market. Without using such tools no organization would sustain their growth in the target market. Thus, now a days organization shall become competent to adopt such measures in their regular day to day business activities to gain advantage in the target market and earn more profit (Ren, and Zhang 2015). Further innovation and creativity are two different tools which shall be utilized in the organization; such tools can be easily implemented in the organization by the way to creative leadership. Further the above mentioned report talks about the social and organization barriers affecting the promotion of creativity and leadership the organization and the climate for implementation of such practices. The report adequately supports the notions given in the task. Concluding to the above statement it shall be noted that innovative practices can be implemented in the organization if the employees in the organization are competent enough to understand the innovation and work on them and the leaders are efficient enough to help the employees to achieve the organizational objective by implementing creativity in their work. The leaders shall use adequate models and theories to support and initiate their activities in the organization.

The below mentioned are a few recommendation which shall be used by the organization in order to use the innovation and creativity practices in the organization.

• In order to eliminate the social and organization barriers, the organization shall initially develop a clear vision according to which they shall work in the organization. Vision will help the leader to creatively implement new practices in the organization which can help them to achieve their targets with full confidence. The defined goal will also help the organization to not get distracted from the path (Avolio, and Yammarino 2013).
• Further the organization shall also work on their communication skills so that growth of new and innovative ideas shall be emerged in the organization. Efficient communication will help the employees to share their view and ideas with each other and develop innovative measures to complete the task. Also with the help of communication, the leaders can also initiate to eliminate negative critics from the organization. Thus in this way communication can help and support the organization to achieve their respected target innovatively (Van Knippenberg, and Sitkin 2013).
• Training and development are the most important ways with the help of which the leaders can improve the skills of employees in and motivate them to work efficient and effectively. Human resource wheel can help the organization to develop measure to train the employees according to the requirement of the activities of the organization. This will help the employees to understand the business process in a better way and support the organization in achieving their goals by inputting their efficiencies.

References

Aldrich, H.E. and Martinez, M., 2015. Why aren’t entrepreneurs more creative? Conditions affecting creativity and innovation in entrepreneurial activity. Oxford Handbook on Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, pp.445-456.

Anderson, N., Poto?nik, K. and Zhou, J., 2014. Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. Journal of Management, 40(5), pp.1297-1333.

Auernhammer, J. and Hall, H., 2014. Organizational culture in knowledge creation, creativity and innovation: Towards the Freiraum model. Journal of Information Science, 40(2), pp.154-166.

Autio, E., Kenney, M., Mustar, P., Siegel, D. and Wright, M., 2014. Entrepreneurial innovation: The importance of context. Research Policy, 43(7), pp.1097-1108.

Avolio, B.J. and Yammarino, F.J. eds., 2013. Introduction to, and overview of, transformational and charismatic leadership. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. xxvii-xxxiii). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Caniëls, M.C. and Rietzschel, E.F., 2015. Organizing creativity: Creativity and innovation under constraints. Creativity and Innovation Management, 24(2), pp.184-196.

Chalmers, D., 2013. Social innovation: An exploration of the barriers faced by innovating organizations in the social economy. Local Economy, 28(1), pp.17-34.

Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Ren, F. and Zhang, J., 2015. Job stressors, organizational innovation climate, and employees’ innovative behavior. Creativity Research Journal, 27(1), pp.16-23.

Siedlok, F. and Hibbert, P., 2014. The organization of interdisciplinary research: Modes, drivers and barriers. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(2), pp.194-210.

Somech, A. and Drach-Zahavy, A., 2013. Translating team creativity to innovation implementation: The role of team composition and climate for innovation. Journal of Management, 39(3), pp.684-708.

Van Knippenberg, D. and Sitkin, S.B., 2013. A critical assessment of charismatic—Transformational leadership research: Back to the drawing board?. Academy of Management Annals, 7(1), pp.1-60.