Barriers to Creativity and Innovation

Discuss about the Training and Development Investments Organizations.

The aim of this report is to determine how organizational productivity and innovation can be improved across the different levels of an organization. This is only possible through the development of a culture in organizational management that will promote and support innovation and creativity across the group and organizational level of analysis.

Most organizations are on the verge of fostering creativity  since it is one of the important pillars of innovation as it gives the company or organization competitive advantage. Creativity in our organization has been identified from different angles with different essential elements and foundations. One of the essential element is the removal of the different barriers that affect innovation , the evaluation of ideas , the procedures of communication , development of ideas  and where to generate them. In general the organization creativity entails the creation of valued  new product, service, idea or process  in the organization. Another factor that will determine the creativity in our organization is the organizational environment which encourages people to bring up new ideas and make the organization to grow to be able to increase efficiency (Dawson,2014).

Organizational creativity is very important in our organization as it leads to important outcomes of the organization such as productivity and quality of the goods and services. With creative thinking, solutions to any given problem will be maximized and in turn increase the profits acquired by an organization. Organizations that act on the basis of innovations not only survive in the market but also compete successfully with the other organizations in the industry (Kim,2015).Despite the importance of creativity and innovation, there are social and organizational barriers to creativity and innovation. These barriers include attitudes and perceptions of leadership in an organization.

Barriers to creativity and innovation tend to remove creative possibilities from our organization and it is therefore necessary to completely remove this barrier. Humans tend to be very stubborn as they may resist new ideas and processes that have been invented. This forces them to stick with the old habits and beliefs since new changes are introduced. To solve this issue; stories about innovation and creativity should be shared so as to discourage negative notions and innovations (Dawson2014). The importance of employing new ideas should be shared with fellow employees so as to create a positive attitude in the workplace.

Another tool that should be used by our organization is the  Situational Outlook Questionnaire. The Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ) has been used to assess climate for creativity and innovation. The SOQ has its basis on over 50 years of thorough research and development that was started by Goran Ekvall’s study of climate of organizations in Sweden. The SOQ has enough evidence of validity, reliability and utility. The SOQ has been used in organizational, team and work-group contexts as it validated  through numerous research in each and every setting. The SOQ is made up of nine dimensions. They include: conflict, risk-taking, freedom, trust, idea-Time, playfulness, idea support, and debate and challenge involvement (Isaksen,2007).

Tools to Foster Creativity and Innovation

The society has also led to the decline in innovations and creativity. Many people fear sharing new ideas as they may end up being criticized or mocked by fellow workmates who might not like the idea. This has made employees to be reluctant in sharing ideas as they think that it will not be liked by the management or fellow employee. To reduce this, our organizations should ensure that a no-ridicule ideology is created in the workplace thus giving each employee the freedom to share what they have in mind. All employees from our organization can be brought together through meetings and encouraged to be innovative( Kim,2015). With any failure the management should try and encourage the employees so that they may continue coming up with new ideas. Leaders can also hold interventions that will reduce conflicts thus helping the employees to reduce the level of tension they may have (Issaksen,2007).

Freedom is to ‘send clear messages by product owners inviting and specifying creative suggestions for improvement’ . The culture of sticking with the set rules is also a big barrier in innovation and creativity.  Policies and structures of the organization are the main cause of this as they force the employees to follow a set policy or face the consequences. Our organization can seek to reduce or do away with the rules that are in place so as to encourage the employees to be innovative. To make an allowance for new ideas, the management is supposed to create a good environment that will favor creativity and innovation. The employees should try their level best to try and take risks in businesses. Many employees do not want to take risks in trying out new ideas and this has reduced the individual willingness to take part in innovation initiatives that involve ambiguity. Leaders can ensure that their employees have a positive attitude when partaking in a given idea and should not consider the risks that may set in (Anderson2014).The leaders should invite all the individuals to bring forward all the ideas that they may have.

Another factor in which the organization should consider is the way of leadership. The leadership of any organization is supposed to take into consideration the creation of the correct working environment that will encourage creativity and innovations. The climate for change, creativity and innovation of a human resource organization works in conjunction with the avoidance of innovation projects and look into the needs of the consumer (Sung,2014).

The Role of Leadership in Organizational Creativity and Innovation

Human resource leaders should be creative in their leadership and management in order to encourage innovations and creativity. It is the responsibility of leaders to create an environment that will make it easier for employees to share their ideas and thus come up with a new idea. They can also ask their staff for any new ideas that they may have and even put a timeframe for coming up with the new ideas so as to increase their working speed. With close supervision, employees tend to underperform as they lack the freedom to do what they want. Leaders can allow the employees to interact with one another and even encourage them to form teams that can efficiently perform their projects. All members of staff should know that innovation is a priority in the organization in order to improve their performance.

Change management is very important according to the theory of Leum Force-Field Theory of change which states that forces arise from the way organization operates from culture , structure and the systems to be controlled. It is important to control the resistance to change force and increase the force to change in relation to creativity and innovation. Organization change is one of the ways of fostering the creativity. The change process in the organization should be considered first by defining the change that our organization want and aligning to the goals, objectives and performance goals i.e development of creativity and innovation. Secondly, our company should develop communication strategy of communicating the change that the community wants. After communicating the  change needed the company should practice effective communication of the staff on creativity and innovation. Lastly the organization should try as much as possible to measure the change process through putting up structures and change management plan of how the innovation and creativity will be fostered in our organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion it is necessary for the leadership of any human resource industry to ensure that the employees are working comfortable and have the freedom to do what is best for the organization. With more innovations, a company is able to maximize the profits it gets as the new technology will be easily incorporated into the business. New innovations are needed in all businesses whether small or large so as to keep pace with the changing technology in the world.

The barriers to creativity and innovations are a great threat to the creation of new ideas and technology and should thus be dealt with. Having a more creative workforce it is easy for a manager to exercise the leadership skills simply because a good cooperation with the employees will exist. Creativity and innovation are very beneficial to the functioning of the organization. Good innovations will lead to production of products that are different from the ones in the market, having a strategic market position, creation of new business opportunities and increase in the profit margins. It will also enable an organization to satisfy all the needs of the customers, increase or maintain the market and produce product that can serve all cultures.

Change Management for Creativity and Innovation

In today’s economy innovation is considered the most important tool for developing companies. There are different ways in which the company or organization can employ the innovativeness in the industry.  A company should try and innovate in all sectors of the business including customers, suppliers, operations and the management. For this to occur a well- structured management should be put in place with all the members involved starting from the CEO to the lowest employee. After achieving any particular goal, the employees are not supposed to stop the innovations but instead continue with the innovation processes (Hall2014).

The management  of the organization can also can also reward employees who come up with new ideas that are beneficial to the company. Rewards can be in the form of bonuses, promotions or even trips. By doing this, the employees will be highly motivated as they will put more energy in coming up with new ideas. The company is supposed to provide enough resources which the employees can use to turn their ideas from a dream into reality. Funds should specifically be set aside for this purpose and employees can be allowed access with ease depending on the nature of the idea. A company that cooperates effectively with the employees will achieve all the set goals immediately without incurring a lot of costs (Karlsson2009).

References

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.

Dawson, P. and Andriopoulos, C., 2014. Managing change, creativity and innovation. Sage.

Herrmann, N. and Herrmann-Nehdi, A., 2015. The Whole Brain Business Book: Unlocking the Power of Whole Brain Thinking in Organizations, Teams, and Individuals. McGraw-Hill Education.

Kim, S. and Yoon, G., 2015. An Innovation-Driven Culture in Local Government: Do Senior Manager’s Transformational Leadership and the Climate for Creativity    Matter?. Public Personnel      Management, 44(2), pp.147-168.

Isaksen, S.G. and Lauer, K.J., 2002. The climate for creativity and change in teams. Creativity and innovation management, 11(1), pp.74-86.

Isaksen, S. and Tidd, J.,2006. Meeting the innovation challenge. Chichester, England: John Wiley. The Climate for Transformation: Lessons by Leaders. Creativity and Innovation Management, 16, 3-15.

Isaksen, S.G., 2007. The climate for transformation: Lessons for leaders. Creativity and  Innovation Management, 16(1), pp.3-15.

Karlsson, T. and Honig, B.,2009. Judging a business by its cover: An institutional perspective on new ventures and the business plan. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(1), pp.27-45.

Sung, S.Y. and Choi, J.N., 2014. Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations. Journal of organizational behavior, 35(3), pp.393-412.