This essay deals with the positive aspects of innovation. The author believes that innovation and innovative thinking is an integral part of any organisation and must be nurtured and encouraged. While change means doing things differently, innovation believed in doing different things for the growth and prosperity of the organisation. The conventional and staid form of management thinking with least risks and aversion to change has given way to new, dynamic and innovative managerial processes. It questions the existing processes, finds out the existing lacunas in the systems and introduces conspicuous changes which are aimed at doing things better more effectively and efficiently and thus contributing to enhancing the bottom line of the organisation. The Ford Story is a vivid example of how personal courage, integrity, perseverance and innovative ideas made the Ford Motors the No. 1 car industry in the USA
Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903, proclaiming, “I will build a car for the great multitude.” (Henry Ford 1863-1947).
The story of the invention of the telephone is also illustrative of how innovative ideas can revolutionise communication systems and create value efficiencies in modern business world. The innovative aspects in business could be considered from four aspects:
- Life cycle;
- Dialectical;
- Evolutionary;
- Teleological.
Under life cycle every product has a maturation, growth and market share. Depending upon product characteristics and market acceptance, the life span of the product is determined.
Next is the dialectical in which there is an impact of social relations and interplays of different market challenges in the particular communication of trade practices and product movements
Next is the evolutionary practice which is based on the development of viable strategies for the product marketing in consonance to strategic environment and other regulatory measures.Technology has to be adaptive to changing social and market demands and should compete in hostile and competitive environments.
Finally, we come to the teleological aspects in which it is believed that events and developments have a specific role in society and has a purpose and is aimed at fulfilling that purpose through the efficient performance of its role accordingly.
In the year 1951, Kurt Lewin proposed the 3way method of bringing about innovative thinking in industry.
He followed the three pronged process which could be delineated as follows:
- Unfreezing the present situation which needs to be corrected.
- Move things over to their suggested and recommended improved methods.
- Free the methods so that they are set for organisational development.
“Kurt Lewin’s three step change model is applied to the implementation of organizational change. If change is needed in an organization and the individuals affected by this change are asked to participate in the implementation of it, the change has a greater chance of being not only implemented but also successful.” (Worley and Vick). However, the theory suggested by Kurt has faced criticism from several quarters. It is believed that the problems faced by industry today are multi-faceted and there are many pressures operating on business enterprises. Therefore, several solutions are needed and by the method of freezing and unfreezing these may not be served. Further the change and continuity are completely linked and cannot be suddenly delinked for improvement.
This article believes that changer is inevitable in any organisation structure.An organisation does not change and continually innovate is as good as defunct.
It is necessary that enterprises need to continuously and continually innovate and extrapolate- use the known available sources of information to unravel the mysteries of the unknown.
Case Study No.2
John Storey (2001) Human Resource Management: A critical Text: Ch 10: Salaman Grawmw: The management of corporate culture change: P 190- 205.
Corporate culture is an important aspect of any organization, since its diffusion in the entire organization is what creates success for any organization. It is believed that corporate culture seen it terms of its work ethos, the interfacing and interaction between the personnel, and their critical problem solving abilities along with their abilities to cause and effect beneficial change in the organization are all important aspects of corporate culture and its impact on any business enterprise. “Firms with strong cultures achieve higher results because employees sustain focus both on what to do and how to do it.” (Kotelnikov).
In earlier times, the co-ordination was through market mechanism, but now it is through organisational mechanism. In other words when, in earlier periods, it was the market that determined success, nowadays, it is the organisation which has to assert and reassert itself for achieving corporate goals and objectives. It is seen that through enhancement and refinement of corporate culture, it is possible to introduce effective change agents in the organisation and make the entire corporate more well-run and efficient. However, the corporate culture could also be viewed from the fact that it is the cornerstone of managerial effectiveness and efficiency and the change attitudes could help in bringing about attitudinal changes in learning and performance skills in the organisation.
The corporate culture could also be seen in terms of the rights and responsibilities of the senior management of the company. When there are deficiencies in the present organisational systems which need to be re-designed and revamped, the existing corporate culture also needs to be changed and modified accordingly. The corporate culture also determines the administration of the system in that effective control measures are required in order to ensure that the present administration is competent enough to address the various problems and issues that confront the management in these specific areas. In case this is not possible, ways and means have to be devised by which the existing culture needs to be redefined and reprocessed in order to attune it to the revised demands on the enterprise.
Therefore, it is necessary that management needs to take constant stock of the problems confronting the enterprise and act accordingly, in order to safeguard the interests of the company. The corporate culture knowledge theory seeks to establish and re-establish authority whenever required to do so and also to control the performance of the employees at all levels. It is also necessary that systems working for the hierarchical chain of command and accountability needs to be reviewed and re-established through the organisation. “Effective interpersonal communication among group members and successful communication with managers and employees external to the team are critical components of group functioning.” (How to develop group norms). This essay also establishes the fact that necessary steps have to be taken in order to improve the performance of the organisation which has a major impact on the culture. The constant upgrading and reviewing of corporate culture is seen as a major exercise to improve all managerial aspects connected with corporate culture and its impact on organisational development.
In conclusion, it could be seen that the supervision, regulation and manipulative control that could be exercised over the employees can be re-established if proper administration of corporate culture could be made and this is vital for the future growth and prosperity of the company in conformity with existing plans procedures and goal seeking of the organisation.
Case 3
Fineman, Stephen. Sims, David., Gabriel, Yiannis. (2005)
Organizing and organizations. 3rd ed. London; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE.
Ch. 1: Introduction: Organisation and organising P 1-12 3.”Lifelong learning”, pp. 25-44.
The term organisation refers to a solid and robust business enterprise which have grown over the years in terms of profit making and contribution to society and also increased share holder value. It is also synonymous of permanency, solidness and an epitome of shareholder confidence. But over the years, it is also seen that many such strong organisations have either become less active or have even closed down its operations. In this essay we are therefore, more concerned about organising rather than organisations.”A Learning Organization is one in which people at all levels, individuals and collectively, is continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about.” (Karash). The term organisation means to set things in an organised or structure and orderly manner. To create competence from chaos and also creating meaning from abstruse matters. The major ways by which organising could be done could be in terms of:
- Deciding one’s major priorities
- Setting of time-frames for each project
- If the work needs to be done today, do it.
- What and who are the processes and people who can get it done
- How does one address to interruptions and disturbances
- How to maintain clear decision making abilities.
Although these aspects appear very easy on paper, they are very difficult to implement practically and therefore the need for proper organisation procedures and processes do come into play in today’s competitive world, organisation is a mammoth task that entails, along with it, a lot of sub-processes like planning, deciding, motivating and accounting.
Organising could also be seen in terms of creating value and substance during the working with others towards the development of the enterprise. The aspect of organising is a wide phenomenon which deals out the full previous experiences and history of the organiser including skills relating to negotiating deals, accepting and refusing contracts, and taking high level business decisions while keeping the interests of the Company while dealing with outsiders. Large organisations require many experts to work together and for the work to be done effectively and well, indeed for large organisations to succeed in doing their work without endangering the community, requires people to work together and to co-operate with each other, requires a participative style of management.” (Davidmann). The organising capacity of the negotiator has to bear in mind the cost, budgetary constraints and the availability of scare resources like men, materials and machines for planning and development activities. Also aspects of governmental and other regulatory aspects also have to be considered while organising strategies within and outside the organisation.
However another aspect that has to be kept in mind is that planning and organising are not fool proof and may sometimes fail, just as some as the best plans and strategies fail to see the light of day. As such performance is no guarantee for success of organised planning and organisation since sometimes circumstances may require change in planning/ organising due to unavoidable and supervening occurrences.
However, it is necessary that organising should be conducted, especially in activities that involve outside people, institutions and organisations upon which the enterprise may not have any direct control. This organising is necessary for, in military warfare in laying a siege, preparing for hosting Olympiad Games in a city, or even conducting business mergers and company takeovers. In such cases, obviously the level of organising would depend upon financial implications and the networking strategies that are adopted.
Case 4
Fineman, Stephen. Sims, David., Gabriel, Yiannis. (2005).
Organizing and organizations. 3rd Ed. London; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE.
Ch. 3.”Lifelong learning,” pp. 25-44.
The aspect of knowledge or learning management has been considered in this essay. There are some people who are good learners and there are others who are bad ones. It could arise due to faulty learning habits during young age, or could be due to plain laziness to learn. In the world today, there are many different ways or techniques by which we can learn and imbibe knowledge, whether through newspaper, magazines, TV and internet and also by interacting with wiser and more knowledgeable people. There are also several obstacles to learning in terms of time, money and other resources. Some knowledge is terms as inferential knowledge while others are called factual knowledge. (Knowledge: inferential knowledge v factual knowledge). Still others may be called narrative knowledge. While all these knowledge are no doubt useful, the way people do productive work is through use of tacit knowledge. Management gurus and experts earn millions by applying their professional knowledge, experience and skill sets in solving vexing problems of clients, including turning round loss bearing companies into profitable ones. These are areas which are difficult to work on by ordinary people and only specialists could deliver the goods in these circumstances since “more generally tacit knowing results in understanding.” (Gourlay 11).
But knowledge also needs to be practically used and exploited. This essay talks about the parable of an old man, who on his deathbed, called his three lazy sons and told them about the hidden treasures in his garden. After he departed, the sons turned over the garden over in search of the treasures, but they could find nothing. But in the process, they had tilled the soil which they could not have dreamt of doing if it were not in search of buried riches. Although the now hardworking sons were slightly angry with their dead father, they also realised that he (father0had taught them the importance of hard work. However, the perspectives of the sons would have been different. While the first may have realised the value of hard work, the second may have felt it was ideal for planting trees and vegetation and the third may have starting growing paddy and other cereals in his field.
Therefore, this parable enlightens us that even in the worst of adversity there is a ‘golden lining.’ Next this article speaks about people not being unduly worried by failures since they are stepping stones to success and future distinctions. It is necessary that one analyses the roots and causes of failures and thus tries to eliminate the causes that may be the reasons for failure and concentrate on success. As a famous statesman has said that success begins in the mind and a strong man has realised his success even before the test has begun, if he has envisioned success and imagined its sweet ecstasy, it is as though, one day or the other, success would be his destiny. Whereas a weak and pessimistic person would have lost, even before the event has actually begun. Therefore, success and failure are relative terms which are basically psychological and a successful man needs to think of the ways and means by which he could ensure success and not think about failures.
Work cited
Henry Ford (1863-1947). About.com.inventor. Web.
Worley and Vick. Free term papers on managing change: Managing Change. Oppaper.com. 2005. Web.
Kotelnikov, Vadim. What is corporate culture?. Business Coach. 2008. Web.
How to develop group norms. About.com: Human Resources. 2008. Web.
Karash, Richard. Learning Organizations: Where the learning begins. 2008. Web.
Davidmann, Manfred. Organising. 2006. Web.
Knowledge: inferential knowledge v factual knowledge. 2008. Web.
Gourlay, Stephen. Tacit knowledge, Tacit knowing or behaving?: A case for ‘tacit knowledge’?. 2002. P 11. Web.