Strategy And Decision Making For Creativity And Innovation

Programmed and Non-Programmed Decision Making

Discuss about the Strategy and Decision Making for Creativity and Innovation.

Decision making in any organization entails choosing a specific course of action from among alternatives to be able to respond to the problems as well as opportunities that present themselves to the organization. Success and effective running of any organization starts and ends with good decision making.  The organization needs to implement programmed as well as non -programmed decision making for it to be effective. None-programmed decision making entails coming up with the right information and ideas that will address novel problems and opportunities that emergence in the organization.  [1]Such decision making is able to address the problems and opportunities in the organization that had never been experienced before.

On the other hand, programmed decision making entails coming up with responses able to address problems and opportunities within the organization that have been experienced before. It involves making decision that enable the organization to address problems and opportunities that recur after having arisen and been addressed before. To ensure that problems and opportunities are dealt with appropriately immediately they arise, organizations design a performance program to guide its employees on how to address the opportunities and problems that may arise along the way.  [2]A performance program therefore is a standard sequence of behaviour that guide the operations and conduct of the members of the organization and which the members are expected to follow routinely whenever confronted by a problem or an opportunity within the organization.

According to the Classical decision making model, after a while, the non-programmed decision making becomes programmed decision making as the organization gets used to it. [3]Due to the fact that decision makers are used to making decisions to address problems and opportunities in the organization, it is assumed that the decision maker is always equipped with the necessary information which they will always choose from whenever confronted with a problem and an opportunity within the organization.

The Classical decision making model offers a prescriptive approach on how people within the organization should make decisions. [4]This approach presents four essential steps in the decision making process. These include;

• Listing all the available decision making alternatives that can address the problem or opportunity presented.
• Against each alternative, list the likely consequences that will arise as a result of using the alternative decision making approach.
• Consider your best choice that you think would address the problem and opportunity effectively and rank the consequences from the one you would prefer most to the least.
• Select the alternative that if used will result to the best set of consequences that you would prefer

In any given organization, the leadership acts as the focal point in decision making. As a result, good and efficient leadership is directly proportional to the effectiveness of the decisions made. [5]An organization that is able to come up with the decision making best strategies to address its problems and opportunities is regarded to have good leadership. This is because leaders are the head of the organization and as a result are in charge of the decision making process after which they communicate the decision making strategy to the rest of the organization. Due to the changes in the trends of doing business brought about by factors such as technological advancements and globalization, it is essential that the leadership of any given organization embraces and encourages creativity as well as innovation.

Classical Decision Making Model

An innovative approach to leadership entails bringing up new ideas, management styles as well as leadership styles that when implemented are able to change the face of the organization and improve its output. [6]An innovative leader thinks about how they can transform the face of the organization. Similarly, they come up with the best decision making strategies to address problems that seem impossible to handle. Moreover, an innovative leader is flexible and employs the use of alternatives to address problems for the organization. Furthermore, innovative leadership does not begin and end with the leader. It is about openness and creation of an organizational climate that allows other members of the organization to apply their innovative thinking in the resolution of the problems as well as in the development of new products for the organization.

 In order for there to be creativity in the organization, the leadership of the organization ought to actively implement strategies geared towards encouraging innovation and creativity. This is characterised by the creation of a conducive environment that is able to promote the creative and innovative culture within the organization. [7]One way through which leaders can encourage innovation and creativity in decision making in the organization is by encouraging diversity among the employees of the organization while at the same time they develop an effective leadership strategy that is able to promote and sustain innovation and creativity within the organization. [8]Innovative organizational leadership encourages and promotes growth of a culture of innovation and creativity within the organization as opposed to hiring a few creative and innovative persons in the organization. With a creative and innovative culture within the organization, the leadership together with the employees are able to think differently as well as employ new ways of working to face any challenge that may arise while at the same time are able to come up with creative and innovative ideas to address any problem or opportunity that may arise within the organization. Through creativity and innovation, the organization is able to stay alive despite any challenges that may arise at the same time stay ahead of the competition that may present itself in the market.

[9]Today, unlike in yester years, globalisation has completely changed the global competition in the market. This change hassled to the increase in the rivalry and vast possibilities among organizations. Many are the times organizations have been closed, others facing consequences such as shorter products, service as well as process life cycle. To remain relevant and compete favourably in the market under the harsh conditions, organizations have no other option but to strive for continuous enhancement, development as well as think out of the box. This entails creativity and innovation. Through creativity and innovation, the organization is able to embrace out-of –the-box-thinking which enables its leadership as well as employees to embrace decision making strategies able to address emerging problems as well as handle opportunities that may arise. [10]To enable an effective use of creativity and innovation to enhance the level of decision making strategies, organizations and their leadership should develop a clear framework comprising of structures as well as guidelines that will enable the organization to measure and enhance the level of innovation and creativity among its employees and guide them in their decision making strategies of the benefit of the organization.

Role of Leadership in Decision Making

In order for the organization to make viable decisions able to address its problems and opportunities, it is of significance for the organization to put great emphasis on creativity and innovation by using a continuous updated, clear as well as a well formulated organizational strategy. [11]The main purpose of putting up an innovation strategy in the organization is to enable the organization to establish processes as well as creation of an infrastructure and climate able to tap the creative and innovative capability of every employee within its system and utilize this capability to the full benefit of the organization. [12]To enhance organizational creativity and innovation in decision making, it is paramount for the organizational leadership to be effective and put up strategies able to promote creativity and innovation throughout the entire organization. This calls for a systematic as well as sustainable leadership effort within the organization as through this, the organizational potential is able to be realized.

The creative environment and culture should be created from the top as this will set the level and guide the employee in the organization on how they are supposed to use their creative potential in the decision making process within the organization. [13]It is therefore the duty of the leadership of the organization to actively promote creativity generating initiatives while at the same time eliminate the barriers to effective decision making as well as oversee the formulation of innovative strategies that will work as a guideline to the organization in decision making whenever the organization is confronted with problems and opportunities in its life cycle. Creative decision making in an organization can be promoted through motivation as well as investing in team-building structures.

 [14]According to Nagasundaram and Bostrom (1994), creative people in an organization perform better when the organization has minimal hierarchy, puts in place team building structures as well as when the individual is motivated through rewards and incentives that are well re-thought. However, the organization should embrace intrinsic incentives as opposed to extrinsic incentives like rewards to encourage creative and innovative decision making among its employees. [15]Intrinsic incentives entail incentives geared towards enhancing pleasure within the employee to overcome a challenging problem. This works better that extrinsic incentives and rewards such as giving cash bonuses. The organizational leadership should work towards eliminating any scenarios that may make the employee feel as if they are being controlled. [16]Measures such as surveillance, limitation authority for the employee to make their own decisions and making employees feel as they are being given bribes to influence their decision making should be eliminated.

Importance of Creativity and Innovation in Decision Making

Instead, the leadership of the organization should focus on creating a culture of innovation and creativity and putting in place guidelines that guide the employees in decision making without necessarily feeling as they are controlled in their decision making. [17]The employee should be given the liberty to make decisions that affect their area of jurisdiction without interference from the leadership of the organization. However, in the exercise of liberty in decision making, the employee must adhere to the set guidelines within the organization. [18]Therefore creative and innovative decision making entails effective leadership and facilitation as opposed to control and manipulation. It entails creation of a creative environment where there are clear organizational goals and objectives.

Similarly, a creative environment ensures that the employees of the organization have the autonomy and freedom to come up with decision making strategies that will enable achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization freely without any form of interference. Hence creativity and innovation makes the decision making process to be novel, original and innovative. Therefore, apart from culture, strategy, technology among other management tools, creativity and innovation serves as an essential factor that drives the success of the organization through ensuring effective decision making. [19]To further encourage a culture of innovation and creativity in decision making within the organization, the leadership should create an environment that ensures that employees are guided by clear organizational goals and problem statements. [20]Moreover, the employee should be allowed the autonomy to explore alternative decisions, experiment with the new decisions and at times to fail in the decision making strategies. Hence autonomy and free will promotes rational-decision making among employees in the organization.

Through autonomy, the employee is able to act deliberately, without any form of coercion in their thinking and reasoning. This ends up influencing the individual in their rational decision-making process. [21]Max Weber viewed autonomy as an essential component in the rational decision making process. In his writing on Methodology of the Social Sciences, Weber maintained that human beings have the habit of associating their freedom o feeling with the actions which they consciously perform and that in the absence of coercion, human being are able to make rational decisions. [22]Autonomy hence encourages creativity and innovation among an organization’s employees. The influence of innovation and creativity in decision making is the reason behind major improvements in the way business is done globally. Creativity and innovation has contributed to decisions that have led to improvements in the essential business areas such as technology, communication and infrastructure.

Encouraging Creativity and Innovation in an Organization

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