Managing Innovations and Change in Organizations

This report explores the concepts of idealization of highly innovative organizations and their capability to introduce new innovations. It also discusses the importance of managing organizational culture and change, and provides strategies for successful implementation of innovations. The report emphasizes the need for a change strategy, measurement of change, and reinforcement strategies for employees and sponsors. It also suggests ways to manage risks and measure success. The report is relevant for students studying organizational change and innovation.

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Executive summary
In this report, we will introduce concepts of idealization of highly innovative organization that
has the capability to introduce new innovations. The idealization starts with its competitive
strategy and also its desire for new innovations. The focus will shift to environment as the
success of new innovations depends a lot on the environment, hence the need to scan it regularly
to try and identify opportunities or problems before they become threats. Change is triggered by
external or internal events of an organization; therefore, there is need for a change strategy which
will include measurement of change to ensure the capture of baselines before change is
undertaken. These baselines may include employee devotion to the change process and their
commitment and understanding which key metrics are in large-scale organizational cultural
change. Hence, regardless of the change the company is pursuing, the points in this report can
help organizations manage innovations and change, successfully, in their businesses as well as
develop the capability to recognize any need for innovation and change and to respond positively
to it.

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Introduction
There is significant emphasis about implementation of innovation across the corporates in
order to attain goals and objectives. Developing business process improvements and also coming
up with ground breaking strategies and target new markets offers substantial capability or
potential for increasing efficiency, market share and competitive advantage which is what
everyone in the corporate world is seeking (Klein & Knight 2015, p 244). But innovation in itself
can be a bit complex as it involves highly complex and large-scale organizational change with
several interdependencies. The main challenge faced by innovative organizations is in ensuring
that enough attention is given to the implementation of all the fabulous ideas necessary. Inn this
report, we shall explore certain innovations and their implementation process in an organization.
We shall also take a look at the changing organizational culture of today’s businesses and their
importance to the business.
PART 1
Innovation plan
First is to define the practices by getting alignment around business case and scope for
change, which includes human, business and technical objectives for the changes described in a
succinct business case for action and also identifies prospective disruptions. Secondly, build
change agent capacity through developing highly skilled and qualified network of agents of
change who will be able to implement the brilliant practices at the local level. This is due to the
fact that even at the corporate level, implementation of innovations starts at the local level.
Thirdly, assess if there are any cultural barriers to these practices inherent in the bank and how to
overcome them if present for successful implementation of the changes (Kenny 2013, p.49).

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Fourthly, generate project sponsorship by finding sponsors who will be willing to reinforce the
new behaviors associated with the changes down and across the bank.
Fifth, prepare the bank by managing and surfacing resistance to the changes. This is due
to the fact that innovation is disruptive which means that, even with forward progress, resistance
is inevitable. The other thing is to build a plan for communication by applying multiple methods
of delivery to communicate about the changes around innovation to the bank employees and then
create feedback loops so as to gather data from the employees. Lastly, develop reinforcement
strategies as they will be positive consequences for the employees who are on board with the
brilliant practices as well as negative consequences for the ones who are against them. These
reinforcements should be meaningful to the employees and should be applied with certainty and
immediacy (Christopherson., Kitson & mihie 2011, p.68). The sponsors should be reinforced too
as doing away with the traditional structure so as to foster innovation will require a significant
change of behavior on their part.
Appraisal of the practices
These brilliant practices for change involve organizational culture where culture is a key
issue for change and also something crucial that should be taken seriously for change to be
possible. Also, given that we are living in a time of dynamics, turbulence and movement,
development, change, and innovation are to be managed continually in the organization
(Alvesson & Sveningsson 2008, p 260). The bank’s competitiveness is dependent, to a greater
extent, on these changes and improvements. From a processual approach, the brilliant practices
will interweave, over time, intending to identify interlocking activities so as to gain temporal
understanding. It includes how the employees make and give sense to their change experiences
and also how these changes influence them (Dawson 2012, p 340). Also, this change is as a

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result of operational and administrative actions and decisions taken by the organization’s
members daily. These actions and decisions are aimed at adapting the bank to these practices and
the political struggles between various departments over their priorities (Knights &McCabe
2003, p.81). Processual changes involve an understanding of the chaotic and complex
organizational reality.
PART 2
The practice that could be implemented in another department of the bank is “no lunch
breaks at the desk” which if properly implemented, could get positive responses from the staff
members. One way to exchange knowledge about the innovation is for the project team to
include all individuals responsible for important functions which will ensure that the desired
outcomes are incorporated in the experimental analysis, design and the extension plan. Also,
innovation processes face some risks like investing in unsuccessful projects and also failing to
meet the costs required. This risk could be managed through investing enough time and
resources in formulating a plan on how the innovation or practice could be successfully
implemented.
Also, people and money are valuable resources that help in supporting innovation. A
team of innovative individuals who have access to the equipment and who dedicate their time for
innovation is needed so as the money is properly utilized (Klein & Knight 2015, p 244). One
way to tell if this practice will be of value to the bank employees is by measuring their
productivity as innovation improves employee engagement to their work which improves their
productivity and their job satisfaction is highly rated. If the employees are happier and there are
more productive employees, then the brilliant practice has been accepted. To measure the

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success of the plan, one should use operational metrics which are tied to the strategic objectives
and also focuses on moving the employees to follow the practice in place.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges involved, many knowledge-based organization are capable of
balancing the innovation’s competing nature as well as of efficiency by dealing with the
problems that are brought by implementation of new innovations through managing knowledge
exchange effectively, focusing on innovations that are meaningful, enhancing the culture of
knowledge sharing and collaboration and also finding effective ways of dealing with
organizational changes. Also, change is inevitable in the world of business as it can lead to
negative or positive results to the employees and the company as a whole. By implementing new
innovations, the organization shifts its focus to other different opportunities or threats which
could be implemented or prevented, hence ensuring the company’s success and also maintaining
their position in the industry.

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References
Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S 2008, Changing organizational culture: cultural change work
in progress, New York, Routledge, PP. 260-261
Christopherson, S., Kitson, M. and Michie, J., 2011. Innovation, networks and knowledge
exchange, pp 64-78
Dawson, PM 2012, Organizational change: A processual approach. Paul Chapman Publishing,
pp 332-351
Kenny, J 2013, Effective project management for strategic innovation and change in an
organizational context, Project Management Journal, vol. 34, no. 1, pp.43-53.
Knights, D & McCabe, D 2003, Organization and innovation, McGraw-Hill Education (UK), pp
81-82
Klein, K.J. and Knight, AP 2015, Innovation implementation: Overcoming the challenge,
Current directions in psychological science, vol. 14, no 5, pp.243-246.