Operational Barriers in Organizations: Identifying and Overcoming Them

This article discusses the operational barriers that organizations face, including lack of resources, inefficient human capital, and lack of operational innovation. It also explores tools to identify operational barriers, three potential barriers to organizational innovation, and a case study on how Apple overcame innovation barriers. The article concludes that innovation is crucial for organizational success and recommends establishing a culture of innovation and creativity.

Running head: OPERATIONAL BARRIERS
Operational barriers
Name of the student
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Introduction
With regards to the operations of any organization, there are usually numerous barriers
that the management may have to encounter. These barriers may prove to be hindrances or
obstacles in the path to success for an organization (Sandberg & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2014). Lack
of adequate resources, inefficient human capital, lack of sufficient data and no operational
innovation are some of the barriers that an organization might have to face.
Tools to identify operational barriers
There are numerous models and frameworks that can help an organization determine the
potential barriers in the organization process (Hartley, Sørensen & Torfing, 2013). For instance,
the organization theory is one such model. According to this theory, there are several ways of
approaching organizational analysis. This particular theory is all encompassing and takes into
account the various aspects of an organization – these may include division of labor, leadership
and culture, contingency theory and so on. The contingency theory is another tool which may be
used by an organization to improve the organizational performance. It states that an organization
can maximize or optimize its performance by minimizing or reducing the number of internal and
external constraints within the organization.
Three potential barriers to organizational innovation
The three barriers to organizational innovation are as follows:
 Leadership and culture – The policies and missions of most organizations recognize
innovation as one of most crucial core values (Bekkers, Tummers & Voorberg, 2013).

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However, when it comes to day to day enforcement of such policies, the leadership and
organizational culture often falls short. The company leaders are usually more focused on
increasing profitability and revenue outcome than inculcating a culture of innovation at
the workplace.
 Restrictive tools and processes – In some companies, employees are expected to come up
with new and innovative ideas and concepts. Yet, they often lack the tools and resources
to do so.
 Culture – A fear of failure is deeply ingrained in the culture of most organizations. As a
result, most organizations fear failure which prevents their employees from embracing
new and out of the box concepts (Sarooghi, Libaers & Burkemper, 2015).
Case study on Apple overcoming innovation barriers
Apple is considered to be one of the most innovative and creative companies in the world
at present. Apple has a reputation for developing some of the most robust and innovative
marketing strategies that the world has seen. The company also has a dedicated team of
individuals who strive to come up with innovative processes and concepts which can benefit the
company (Jun & Sung Park, 2013). After thorough analysis, the following barriers to innovation
were observed at Apple:
 The company’s strategic management has been entirely customer centric. While that has
helped the company grow, it has also hindered the growth of an innovative culture at the
company. The company is guided by a very narrow mission and definition of how its
organizational functions should be (Gershon, 2013). This has prevented a growth of
innovation and creativity at Apple. However, now Apple has begun to prioritize its role in

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the tech industry over profitability. As such, innovations in terms of product and service
delivery is the prime focus of their strategic management.
 The company certainly has a lean innovation program in place. However, this initiative
has not been updated in a while and has thus become outdated. The innovation programs
at Apple require fine tuning and improvements. The first step to solving this problem was
the development of a new vision and mission for the company. The aim of this strategy
was to remove focus from brand and shift it to the need for innovation which would help
the technology industry grow.
However, on retrospection, there are certain things that could have been done to improve
the process of innovation at Apple:
 The culture and environment at Apple should be such that it allows for exploration and
divergence. Moreover, the emphasis should be on synthesizing individual ideas and
concepts into bigger platforms instead of development of specific ideas.
 The company should use experiments and other tools to test the assumptions which
would help in refining the innovative process and business model.
 Evaluation criteria should be established at the very beginning and should be
implemented at every step of the development of innovative processes. This would
ensure successful implementation of the same (Torgusa & Arundel, 2016).
Conclusion:
To conclude, it can be said that innovation at an organization is the most important
aspect, which can determine the success or failure of any organization. Hence, it is important to
ensure a culture of innovation and creativity at every organization. However, there are usually

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numerous barriers to such innovative operations, which include a lack of resources, human
capital and lack of proper leadership.

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References:
Bekkers, V. J. J. M., Tummers, L. G., & Voorberg, W. H. (2013). From public innovation to
social innovation in the public sector: A literature review of relevant drivers and
barriers. Rotterdam: Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Gershon, R. A. (2013). Digital media innovation and the Apple iPad: Three perspectives on the
future of computer tablets and news delivery. Journal of Media Business Studies, 10(1),
41-61.
Hartley, J., Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2013). Collaborative innovation: A viable alternative to
market competition and organizational entrepreneurship. Public Administration
Review, 73(6), 821-830.
Jun, S., & Sung Park, S. (2013). Examining technological innovation of Apple using patent
analysis. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 113(6), 890-907.
Sandberg, B., & Aarikka-Stenroos, L. (2014). What makes it so difficult? A systematic review
on barriers to radical innovation. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(8), 1293-1305.
Sarooghi, H., Libaers, D., & Burkemper, A. (2015). Examining the relationship between
creativity and innovation: A meta-analysis of organizational, cultural, and environmental
factors. Journal of business venturing, 30(5), 714-731.

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Torugsa, N., & Arundel, A. (2016). Complexity of Innovation in the public sector: a workgroup-
level analysis of related factors and outcomes. Public Management Review, 18(3), 392-
416.