Leadership and Radical Innovation: A Study on Wicked Problem and Democratic Leadership Approach

This study discusses the wicked problem of radical innovation and the challenges it poses for leadership. It explores the application of democratic leadership approach to deal with the problem and highlights its benefits in resolving complex situations. The study also discusses the role of organizational culture, managing internal stakeholders, and the importance of creativity in leadership.

Leadership

Leadership is required in both profitable or non-profitable organizations to provide
direction all team members to achieve the set of targets. It is a skill and ability to exercise the
authority and making decision so that confidence among employees can be enhanced. The
current study based on the radical innovation as a wicked problem of leadership which effects
the productivity of the employees. In this context, a democratic leadership approach has been
applied to maximize the involvement of team members in the decision-making. It has been found
that democratic leader can completely communicate with employees with the help of
engagement so that resistance to change can be reduced. Apart from this, an autocratic leadership
has been recommended for the effective implementation of the radical innovation because of set
of rules and guidelines. In this manner, employees would have to accept he disruptive
innovations without any unfair means and interruptions.

Leadership is a skill which enclosed the ability of an organization or individual to guide
and lead all team members along with entire organization (Răducan & Răducan, 2014; Renz,
2016; Bolden, 2016). Leadership is based on a cleared vision and communication of all the
information to attain that vision. Further, it is helpful to maintain a collaboration between team
members and conflicts so that specific objective of the firm can be achieved. The current essay is
based on the radical innovation which is a wicked problem of leadership. In this context, several
issues such as lack of communication, cultural environment of the organization, managing
internal stakeholders etc. have been identified through which radical innovation become as a
wicked problem for the organization. Further, an appropriate leadership approach like
democratic leadership has been applied to deal with the wicked problem in the form of radical
innovation. Furthermore, an autocratic leadership framework has been recommended for the
additional improvements in the firm and to reduce the constraints of acceptance of radical
innovation.
Radical innovation is a wicked problem for the company because of ineffective
leadership approach skills. Radical innovations are those which arises in any situation to meet
the demand of the task but employees not ready to accept the rapid changes in the firm. Even
there is no definite solution for that disruptive innovation because there is no alternative solution
for the new implementation. Radical innovation creates mismanagement and another unfair
activities in the organization which may not be reduced without effective leadership framework.
In this regard, radical innovation has been selected as wicked problem for the organization which
affects the entire organization. Radical innovation blows new things and replace with the existing
approaches as well as system in a completely new manner (Beinecke, 2009).
The conditions which has no definite or proper solution for the issues are comes under
the category of wicked problems. In this regard, these problems do not have a simple and solid
solutions because it includes the various teams of the organization to resolve the problems of one
particular area which hampers another field of same firm (Grint, 2010). Moreover, wicked
problems do not have any relevant, correct or wrong solution because these are depending on the
interaction with others that can arise plenty of solutions and can be stretched to long time. So that
it affects the productivity of the organization. In this context, according to Norman & Verganti
(2014), radical innovation is a wicked problem for the leadership because these is do not have a
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definite formulation and solution of the problem. Further, radical innovations are the major
problem in current competitive environment because are associated with other issues and
challenges and do have an end solution. In this manner, it affects the confidence level of the
employees and they have fear to engage with critical task in the form of radical innovation
(D’Este, Iammarino, Savona & von Tunzelmann, 2012).
Wicked problem arises due to unpredicted changes in the organization because the
employees do not accept the rapid changes as it develops the critical challenges in front of them
(Head & Alford, 2015). In this regard, radical innovations become as a wicked problem for the
organization due to leadership issue of lack of interaction among team members. Moreover, the
company is implementing the rapid or disruptive innovation and not properly communicated by
the leader to the employees then it generates several issues such as strike, mismanagement and
perform unfair task against the organization. These types of issue create the challenging
situations for the public sector organizations and are a common in nature at all levels like
individual interaction to higher level management (Liang & Yu, 2015). Thus, radical innovation
is the critical task for the organizations to enter into new markets and continue in existing market
place . However, all the organizations bring the radical innovations for the growth and if it is
successfully executed then radical innovation critically resulted in high level of rewards;
nonetheless, it also generates different kinds of risk such as resistance to change. Moreover, it
arises by slow rate of adoption because of disruptive nature.
Radical innovation become as a wicked problem for the leaders because of collective
intelligence. In the collective intelligence, leader keep all the team members together and focuses
on the experience of employees (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). But, as above issue of
lack of communication, leader remains unable to manage employees collectively in case of
radical innovations. This type of issue affects the radical changes because for the implementation
of new insights, coordination of all the team members is required. Further, without the consent
and involvement of the team members innovations and creativity cannot take place; however, it
is an issue for the leader to apply collective intelligence due to huge number of employees. In
this regard, transfer of authority requires in wicked problems from individual to collective
because in the absence of collective involvement the problem cannot be addressed (Woolley,
Chabris, Pentland, Hashmi & Malone, 2010).
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Radical innovations get affected due to default culture of the organization because the
culture always resist to employees to accept the changes and innovations (Tannenbaum,
Weschler & Massarik, 2013). A culture is a reflective part for the organization which represents
the product and process innovation. In this context, there is positive relationship between radical
innovation and organizational culture; however, the employees are not encouraged to accept the
changes because of default organizational culture. At this juncture, employees play a role of
mediator between radical innovations and organizational culture because without the employees’
innovative behavior, disruptive changes cannot take place (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). On the
other hand, employee’s behavior affected by the organizational culture and it can be difficult for
the leader to convince or trained the employees to operate the new technology in the
organization. Therefore, default organizational culture is a crucial element for the leaders to
make employees adaptable in case of radical changes.
Managing internal stakeholders is a critical issue for the leader because before
implementation of radical innovation it could be communicated to stakeholders (Weiss, 2014).
But it is difficult to manage the stakeholders because of diverse nature and culture of the people.
Moreover, at the time of radical innovation, a challenge occurs in front of the leader that
mismanagement of relationship and politics among various stakeholders and leader would be
unable to gain managerial support. However, it is not easy to understand the nature of each
stakeholder’s and may be encouraged the stakeholders to resist the implementation of the new
system and disruptive innovations due to diversified nature.
In order to address the wicked problem related to the radical innovation leadership plays
important role. Leadership is an important aspect for all type of organizations to attain the
specific goals and objectives. A leadership is a style or method of the leaders which is used to
guide and direct the employees for the implementation of plans as well as motivating team
members (Bolden, 2016). In this regard, there are several types of leadership approaches such as
transformational, transactional, autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic leadership etc. are used
(Yang, Huang & Wu, 2011; McCleskey, 2014). All types of styles are adopted by the leaders as
per the nature of the problem to manage the employees and entire team members for the
achievement of better results. Further, effective leadership would be helpful to enhance the
productivity, revenue and outcomes (Zembylas & Iasonos, 2010). At this juncture, to deal with
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the radical innovation which is a wicked problem for the leadership an appropriate leadership
style – democratic leadership framework can be applied by the leader. Democratic leadership is
known as participative leadership which involves all team members in the decision making for
the final implementation (Giltinane, 2013). It is beneficial to incorporate the positive relationship
between team members and leader so the desired outcomes can be derived.
Peachey & Burton, (2011) stated that a democratic leader would distribute the
responsibilities among all the group members and encourage them to take part in the decision-
making process. The participation of employees facilitates the adaptive nature towards the
organization. However, Iqbal, Anwar & Haider (2015) argued that excessive involvement of
team members in the decision-making can be risky because it requires the extra efforts as well as
time for the engagement. Moreover, democratic leadership may not be appropriate in urgent
deadline projects because of limited time scales. Nonetheless, Goleman et al. (2013) argued that
an autocratic leadership is effective in nature instead of democratic style because the leader
remains rigid towards the application of policies and regulations. Further, the leader delegates
only the needed responsibilities to complete the specific task. On the contrary, Ng'ethe,
Namusonge & Iravo (2012) asserted that democratic leadership boost the morale of team
member through the supportive nature as well as collective work environment. The employees
could be able to deal with time constraints through participation and concern of every member.
Therefore, it reveals that democratic leadership has significant effects on the performance of the
employees because it focuses on the collective working and encourages adaptive nature among
team members within organization.
Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube (2015) mentioned that creative environment can be
fostered by the democratic leadership because it uplifts the innovation as well as input of the
entire team members. Moreover, in the democratic style creative designers and innovative people
can be successful because it provides a supportive environment in the organization. Nonetheless,
Khan et al. (2015) argued that for the creation of innovative environment, a long period of time
is needed since the decision-making process become complicated. However, for the creativity,
every team member of the organization must be consulted and after that for the execution of that
particular idea will be demanded a great deal of understanding as well as patience. Apart from
this, Hackman & Johnson (2013) asserted that creativity is an important aspect for the leader to
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complete the targets and specific task within time period by applying the creative thinking.
Similarly, Randsley et al. (2018) supported that creativity is a recipe for disaster of any
organization because it provides a positive healing to employees to work effectively than others.
There is no one in-charge for the workings and all the decisions can be taken on the basis of
mutual consent. At this juncture, this type of leadership is fruitful in the situation of
implementation of changes because there would be a role of all members of a team in entire
processing. Hence, it indicates that democratic leadership is extra beneficial in the situation of
creative environment because it provides an opportunity to all team members to apply the
innovative nature. Further, it also facilitates a role of change making during the time of
processing and execution of task.
Democratic leadership works in the complex situations in the organization, although
leaders have a knowledge to solve the critical problems; however, they may not be able to
resolve all types of issues because of limited experience and intelligence (Hendriks & Karsten,
2014). Nonetheless, Dunphy & Bale (2011) argued that democratic leadership approach
empowers the leader to work with entire team and success of the work-based on mutual consent
and open lines of interaction. Furthermore, by incorporating everyone in the problem-solving
process, it can be helpful to address complex concerns by applying team members education and
experiences. At this juncture, Goleman et al. (2013) asserted that democratic leadership may
generate the negative emotions in team members if their consent and experiences does not
consider for the decision-making. In this regard, the ideas of strong team members would be
implemented on continuous basis instead of other teams which do not have adequate knowledge
regarding problems. At this juncture, it can enhance negativity in the employees and also reduces
productivity of the people. Therefore, it reflects that democratic leadership approach is helpful to
integrate all team members in a critical situation; however, it also creates negative perception in
the team members due to overwhelming of another experienced team members.
Democratic leadership approach is appropriate for resolving the radical innovation as
wicked problem because it focuses on every aspect of team member as well as organization. A
democratic framework used the several tactics to enhance the collaboration of team members in
the following manner. Here, democratic leaders are helpful to bring the whole system of the
organization at single table because its emphasis on the involvement of entire team members.
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Here, radical innovation is a wicked problem for the leadership because it is difficult to manage
all the employees together. In this regard, democratic leadership would be helpful to deal with
this type of challenges in the organization because it incorporates all the members in the
decision-making process. Further, it can have significant effects on the motivation level of
workers and leader would come to know about the key interests as well as dependencies of
stakeholders. At this juncture, the leader would be able to communicate regarding radical
innovation to stakeholders and effective execution can be done without interruption.
The application of democratic leadership facilitates to resolve the complex situations
since the radical innovation is not easily accepted by the employees because have fear to lose the
authorities. For the new innovations, skilled employees would be required to operate the system
instead of existing employees; however, democratic leader involve the all employees along with
new resources and provide the complete training to run the system. In this manner, it can be easy
for the organization to resolve the complex situations instead of fear to breakdown. A democratic
leader conveys the related information before the implementation of new system so that workers
may not resist to change.
The wicked problem can be resolved with the democratic leadership as it renders the
related authorities and responsibilities to all team members to perform the task in effectual
manner. In context of radical innovation, leader would delegate required authorities along with
responsibilities so that particular target can be achieved. Moreover, it can enhance the confidence
level of team members and ultimately focuses on the effectiveness of working. With the help of
this, leader may deal with the disruptive innovation as a wicked problem because the respective
workforce would concentrate on their task due to delegated responsibility. Democratic leadership
creates a feeling of liability in the team members and being a part of the organization employees
keenly remains engaged in specific task. In this manner, all the employees would perform the
task as per the responsibility and self remains involved in the execution of rapid changes and
may not go against the leaders.
The wicked problem related to radical innovation will be resolved with the help of
democratic leadership as it foster the creative environment. Here, radical innovation lies under
the category of creative innovations because drastic changes based on creative nature of workers
and requirements of the organization. In this regard, a democratic leader can be applicable to
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implement those innovations and changes in the organization because it is helpful to foster
creative environment in the firm. Further, democratic leader encourages the inputs and
innovation of team members to collaborate with radical changes and preparing the employees to
work in the upcoming changed environment.
As per the entire analysis of essay, it has been found that radical innovation is a wicked
problem for the leadership which affects the productivity of organization. By considering the
wicked problem, few recommendations have been provided so that working procedure can be
improved and specific targets can be attained. In this context, radical innovation take place in the
case of emergencies for the completion of target and specific tasks. For that democratic
leadership has been suggested because it involves all the team members in the decision-making
and before implementation everything would be discussed with employees regarding pros and
cons of the implementation. Apart from this, only democratic leaders are not preferable to
prepare the employees to accept the changes; however, an autocratic leadership can also be
supportive to incorporate the radical innovations because if the leaders would not be rigid then
there may be chances of resistance to change in the organization. In this context, disruptive
innovations may not be effectively implemented in the company and creates the mismanagement
and unfair activities against the firm. At this juncture, an autocratic leader can effectively
manage the team members by emphasizing on the policies and regulations and strictly instructed
the workers to follow the guidelines. Therefore, it reflects that an autocratic leader should be
hired by the organization for the implementation of new and radical changes so that the
conditions of violence and unfair tasks can be reduced.
On the basis of analysis, it has been found that democratic leader delegate the rights and
accountabilities to the team members in excessive manner, so that better relationship and
interactions can be maintained between leader and employees and can be ready to adopt the
changes in the firm. Nonetheless, load of responsibilities among the employees creates the
frustration which has impact on the performance of the work and employees would resist to
accept the rapid changes. In this regard, the leader should delegate only required responsibilities
to the team members to reduce the burden of accountabilities, though it would be helpful to
create readiness in the workers to involve in the changed environment and accept the disruptive
innovation.
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On the basis of essay, it has been concluded that most of the organizations deal with the
issues of resistance to change such as radical innovation and it is a wicked problem of the
leadership because ineffective leader does not convey properly to the team members. On the
other hand, leadership issues affect the incorporation of disruptive innovation in the organization
because employees have a set of minds that new implementations would lose their authorities
due to demand of additional skilled employees. Furthermore, it has also been summarized that a
democratic leadership approach is helpful to deal with the challenges of wicked problem of
leadership and to enhance the confidence level of employees to accept the radical innovation in
the firm. The issues such as lack of communication, collective intelligence and managing
internal stakeholders can be resolved with the help of the democratic leadership because it
focuses on the integration of all the team members. However, on the basis of recommendations,
it has been concluded that an autocratic leadership style may be appropriate to reduce the
chances of resistance to change because of the rigid nature so that employees follows the leader’s
instruction and ultimately, radical innovations can be easily executed.
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