Innovation in Global World Essay

Introduction

Organizations often seek ways through which they can make their operations highly efficient, while at the same time reducing the related costs in operations. This calls for continuous innovation to come up with new methodologies and practices while shunning those that appear to be less effective in terms of functionality. However, innovations come with various risks that might erode or eliminate their necessity in the long run. This paper seeks to discuss the conscious and unconscious risks that are involved in innovations. The paper also explains the benefits of self-awareness in as far as innovation situations are concerned.

Conscious Factors

Before undertaking any innovation, organizations often take the precaution of observing any facts as well as checking on the available information relating to the innovation. This is often done with the view of determining any risks that may, in one way or the other, be involved. The facts and related information concerning a particular innovation comprise of the conscious risk factors.

As Bolton, Mehran and Shapiro (2011) assert, conscious factors refer to the aspects and issues that are related to the situation in terms of familiarity, manageability, proximity, as well as propinquity and sternness or severity of the impact. It also takes into consideration factors such as the culture of the organization and group dynamics. Familiarity determines whether the innovation team has ever been involved in the same situation in the past.

Manageability, on the other hand, determines whether the people in the organization are capable of managing the situation. Proximity points at the necessity that the innovation is needed at the organization, while propinquity concerns the extent to which the team involved with the innovation looks at the risk involved as being inherent. The extent to which the risk and its consequences may affect the whole innovation is referred to as the severity.

Like in all groups or teams, an organization has its own group dynamics as well as a unique organizational culture. These aspects point at the extent to which the leadership and workforce at the organization identify and approach risky ventures such as innovation. The aspects are equally important as they influence people to work systematically as well as be biased in as far as the risk perception is concerned (Crenshaw & Yoder-Wise, 2013).

How familiarity may affect a leader’s decision on innovation

Past experience plays a critical role in helping a leader to build innovation familiarity. A leader of an innovation team that has never had the opportunity to lead any similar exercise is likely to make mistakes in his judgment. This will affect both creativity and innovation because it will hinder results, thus limiting the success of the entire process.

Unconscious Factors

These refer to factors that subconsciously affect innovation and risk taking. These factors often emanate from heuristics, as well as cognitive bias. Unconscious factors have far-reaching implications on individuals and groups because they are significant in terms of gaining insight of unclear situations (Bolton, Mehran, & Shapiro, 2011).

The factors are important to the organization’s leadership in the sense that they make it easier for the relevant authority to quickly process data both at the individual stage and at the group level. In essence, it makes it easier to identify the critical aspects that touch on the situation. It equally makes decision-making process to be much easier for the leadership and the teams involved in the innovation process. The unconscious factors include intuition, availability, representativeness, lure of choice, and confirmation trap.

Intuition is the feeling of right or wrong concerning a decision. Availability refers to data memorability, while representativeness refers to the connection between the situation in its current form and a different one which the organization, group, or individual may have encountered earlier. According to Altunbas, Gambacorta, and Marques-Ibanez (2010), optimist bias derives from assumed norms or organizational pressures. On the other hand, fatalism bias refers to the concern given to probable positive outcomes while the likely downbeat outcomes are disregarded. The lure of choice points at the inclination to avoid decision-making, thereby opening up room for additional options in the future (Crenshaw & Yoder-Wise, 2013).

How intuition may affect a leader’s decision on innovation

A leader in charge of an innovation team may disregard an idea or contribution made by a member as being wrong. Such a member might feel discouraged and shy of making other contributions in the fear of being incriminated or humiliated. This affects creativity because innovation is a factor of ideas. If team members do not contribute their ideas, they equally limit the opportunities of establishing new and better ideas.

Innovation-Related Risk: Personal and Organizational Perspectives

Individuals face the risk of failure on their part in as far as innovation is involved. Team members and leaders often seek to attain their set objectives as they pursue an innovation exercise. However, the existence of risks often hampers the chances of ever attaining the objectives, which in turn becomes a serious factor from the individual’s perspective.

Organizations, on the other hand, spend significant resources in seeking to innovate. These resources include the financial aspect as well as time in terms of the workforce involved. It, thus, becomes riskier for the organization when the innovation mission fails to achieve its targeted objective after such expenditure and efforts.

Importance of Self-Awareness in Risk-Taking and Innovation Situations

Self-awareness enables one to discover and rid themselves of dysfunctional ingrained habits, cultural preferences, and other prejudices that have the effect of barring adaptive responses (Davidsson, 2008). Innovation situations require that individuals give out their full participation and concentration in seeking to come up with better ideas concerning a situation. However, there are many personal factors that may sometimes be influenced by external aspects to an extent of dissuading one from undertaking any innovative attempts.

Self-awareness helps in the exploration of new ideas, approaches, as well as cultures instead of shrinking defensively because of an uncertain situation that lurks ahead. Thus, the self-awareness helps in anchoring non-negotiable principles and critical values. This helps one to nurture the important aspect of indifference that would eventually permit one to adapt confidently (Davidsson, 2008). In other words, self-awareness eliminates the fear of failure because of the risk factor, while it still enables one to recognize probable risk factors that are involved in an innovation.

Self-awareness provides the opportunity to recognize one’s strengths and weaknesses. It provides that ability to determine how working style can efficiently equip one in the fast-paced and ever changing work environment. It enables an individual to understand his own moods, drives, and emotions, and determine how it may be possible to control them. Innovation sometimes involves teams that are made up of several people. Such teams are definitely affected by the individual’s emotions and moods that in the long run act as risks to the whole innovation process. However, having the ability to control one’s own moods and emotions will save the team from facing the agony that is created by these risks (Davidsson, 2008).

Research Questions Related To K-12 Leadership

1. Does the reflection of corporate America’s needs in K-12 curriculum make it the leader in enhancing training in school administration?
2. Does the support model in K-12 online program help teachers to achieve the best results in school administration?

Purpose statement for question 1

I felt the urge to determine whether the training content of a K-12 program directly has an influence on the quality of school administration for its beneficiaries (Southern Regional Education Board, 2000). This research study will involve at least three sets of curricula, with one being the K-12 online teaching curriculum and the others being drawn from other online programs. I will particularly be involved in evaluating each of the topical aspects that are contained in a K-12 curriculum and compare them with the topical areas that are contained in the other curricula programs. I will seek to determine whether the K-12 curriculum reflects on the corporate administrative needs that are common in the American situation. I will equally analyze the corporate administration challenges that are witnessed commonly and seek to determine whether the solution proposals are contained in the K-12 leadership program, as well as in the other existing online teaching programs.

Purpose statement for question 2

In trying to understand how individual school administrators trained under the K-12 online teaching program perfect their roles, I have found it necessary to determine the efficiency of the direct support that they receive from the K-12 model. While there is greater integration of information communication technology, it is important to understand how the K-12 online program successfully uses it to improve the administrative capacities of its beneficiaries. I will use K-12 trained teachers and school administrators to determine how they cope with challenging situations while dispensing their duties. I will be particularly analyzing the extent of their interaction with online support programs that are run by K-12 (Vrasidas, 2000). I will examine the way in which the learners handle conflicts, whether they are keen on controlling themselves or whether they are inclined on getting their way by force.

Conclusion

Innovation is a critical aspect of every organization and must constantly be pursued in order to ensure efficiency in performance. However, organizations must realize the risks and challenges that they face as they pursue their innovations. Risks emanate mainly from two distinct factors of conscious and unconsciousness. Conscious factors comprise of aspects such as the available facts and other relevant information. Unconscious factors, on the other hand, refer to the subconscious mind of individuals that form the innovation team. Personal feelings, such as emotions and attitude, have a far-reaching consequence on the success of an innovation exercise because they can potentially dissuade others from being participative in the process. Self-awareness also plays a critical role in making individuals understand their strengths and weaknesses that may play a part in hampering or promoting innovation processes.

References

Altunbas, Y., Gambacorta, L., & Marqués-Ibáñez, D. (2010). Does monetary policy affect bank risk-taking? Web.

Bolton, P., Mehran, H., & Shapiro, J. (2011). Executive compensation and risk taking. FRB of New York Staff Report. Web.

Crenshaw, J. T., & Yoder-Wise, P. S. (2013). Creating an environment for innovation: the risk-taking leadership competency. Nurse Leader, 11(1), 24-27.

Davidsson, P. (2008). The entrepreneurship research challenge. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Southern Regional Education Board. (2000). Essential principles of quality: Guidelines for Web-based courses for middle and high schools. Atlanta, GA: Author.

Vrasidas, C. (2000). Constructivism versus objectivism: Implications for intercation, course design, and evaluation in distance education. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 6(4), 339-362.