Innovation and the Changing Workplace

- Self-Interest
People typically resist a change they believe conflicts with their self-interests. A proposed change
in job design, structure, or technology may increase employees’ workload, for example, or cause
a real or perceived loss of power, prestige, pay, or benefits.
- Lack of Understanding and Trust
Employees often distrust the intentions behind a change or do not understand the intended
purpose of a change. If previous work ing relationships with a manager or promoter of an idea
have been negative, resistance may occur.
- Uncertainty
Uncertainty is lack of information about future events. It represents a fear of the unknown. It is
especially threatening for employees who have a low tolerance for change and fear anything out
of the ordinary
- Different Accessments and Goals
Another reason for resistance to change is that people who will be affected by a change or
innovation may assess the situation differently from managers or promoters of a new idea.

Changing Things: New Products and Technologies

Organizations must embrace many types of change. One vital area of innovation is the introduction of
new products, services, and technologies. A product change is a change in the organization’s product or
service outputs. Product and service innovation is the primary way in which organizations adapt to
changes in markets, technology, and compe tition.

The aMBIdextrous approach

An ambidextrous approach means incorporating structures and processes that are appropriate for both
the creative impulse and for the systematic implementation of innovations. For example, a loose, flexible
structure and greater employee freedom are excellent for the creation and initiation of ideas; however,
these same conditions often make it difficult to implement a change because employees are less likely to
comply. With an ambidextrous approach, managers encourage flexibility and freedom to innovate and
propose new ideas with creative departments and other mechanisms that we will discuss in this chapter,
but they use a more rigid, centralized, and standard ized approach for implementing innovations.

Nói cái bảng nhé

Three critical innovation strategies for changing products and technologies are illus trated in Exhibit
11.1.31 The first strategy, exploration, involves designing the organization to encourage creativity and
the initiation of new ideas. The strategy of cooperation refers to creating conditions and systems to
facilitate internal and external coordination and knowl edge sharing. Finally, innovation roles means that
managers put in place processes and struc tures to ensure that new ideas are carried forward for
acceptance and implementation.
Nói bảng 11.2

Characteristics of highly creative people are illustrated in the left column of Exhibit 11.2. Creative people
often are known for their originality, open-mindedness, curiosity, fo cused approach to problem solving,
persistence, relaxed and playful attitude, and receptiveness to new ideas. Creativity can also be designed
into organizations. Most companies want more creative employees and often seek to hire creative
individuals. However, the individual is only part of the story, and each of us has some potential for
creativity. Managers are responsible for creating a work environment that allows creativity to flourish.

The characteristics of creative organizations correspond to those of individuals, as illustrated in the right
column of Exhibit 11.2. Creative organi zations are loosely structured. People find themselves in a
situation of ambiguity, assign ments are vague, territories overlap, tasks are loosely defined, and much
work is done by teams. Managers in creative companies embrace risk and experimentation. They involve
employees in a varied range of projects, so that people are not stuck in the rhythm of routine jobs, and
they drive out the fear of making mistakes that can inhibit creative thinking.

Coordination Model for Innovation

The model shows that the research, manu facturing, and sales and marketing departments within an
organization simultaneously con tribute to new products and technologies. People from these
departments meet frequently in teams and task forces to share ideas and solve problems. Research
people inform marketing of new technical developments to find out whether they will be useful to
customers. Marketing people pass customer complaints to research to use in the design of new products
and to manufacturing people to develop new ideas for improving production speed and quality.
Manufacturing informs other departments whether a product idea can be manufactured within cost
limits. Throughout the process, devel opment teams keep in close touch with customers.

The horizontal linkage model is in creasingly important in a high-pressure business environment that
requires rapidly developing and commercializing products and services.

Innovation roles

The third aspect of product and technology innovation is creating structural mechanisms to make sure
that new ideas are carried forward, accepted, and implemented. Managers can directly influence
whether entrepreneurship flourishes in the organization by express ing support of entrepreneurial
activities, giving employees a degree of autonomy, and re warding learning and risk-taking.

Managers can directly influence the success of entrepreneurship within the organization by expressing
support for entrepreneurial activities, providing employees with autonomy, and rewarding learning and
risk-taking.

Fostering Idea Champions: An important aspect is nurturing idea champions. These are
individuals who recognize the need for and advocate productive change within the organization.
Successful new ideas often have champions who wholeheartedly believe in them and are
determined to convince others of their value.

Skunkworks: A skunkworks is a small, informal, highly autonomous, and often secretive group
focused on breakthrough ideas for a business.

New-Venture Fund: This provides resources for individuals and groups to develop new ideas,
products, or businesses.

Example: SpaceX

New-Venture Teams

SpaceX has established numerous new-venture teams to develop groundbreaking space

projects. For example, a team was tasked with planning and building the Falcon 9 reusable
rocket. This team had the freedom to innovate and test new methods and technologies,
unencumbered by cumbersome organizational processes. This autonomy helped them save
costs and reduce development time, resulting in a series of successes such as the
operationalization of the reusable rocket.

Skunkworks:
SpaceX has also undertaken projects in a secretive and autonomous environment to
foster innovation. For instance, they created a secret research team to rapidly and
efficiently develop advanced space technologies. One of SpaceX's famous secret
projects is the Starship project, a type of spacecraft capable of transporting humans to
other planets within the solar system. This team operates with high levels of autonomy
and secrecy, enabling them to focus on testing and developing breakthrough
technologies without leaking information or being influenced by external pressures.