Leadership Diploma: Analyzing Workplace Innovation & Barriers

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of innovation in the workplace, emphasizing its importance for modern organizations. It defines innovation, explores contexts for workplace innovation with examples such as improving work culture and processes, and discusses methods to encourage creative thinking among employees, including rewards, empowerment, and teamwork. The report also examines the legislative framework impacting innovation, particularly the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 in Australia, and how command and control leadership styles can hinder creative thinking. It identifies common barriers to innovation, such as fear, short-term thinking, and lack of resources. A case study of Samsung illustrates the organization's approach to risk-taking and learning from failures, highlighting the importance of a supportive environment for fostering innovation. The report concludes by suggesting measures to further encourage innovation through team cooperation, open discussions, and the development of analytical skills, while also considering the impact of consumer protection laws.

Diploma in Leadership

1 Innovation can be understood as the application of a new idea to create better or
greater value (Crainer, 2013). It includes all new ideas which help in improvement and
modification of products for business organisations. Modern business world is extremely
competitive. To survive in this world firms need to frequently come up with new and
modified products (DeFillippi, 2014). Innovation helps in generation of these new ideas.
Therefore, modern business firms need to innovate.
2 Innovation in the work place can be defined as creating a culture of ideas generation
(Oeij, 2017). Following are examples of contexts in which innovation can be done at the
workplace.
1) Improving work culture through inculcation of sense of belongingness and team
spirit.
2) Innovation in work processes
3) Innovation in new product development
4) Improvement in creation of talent pool of the company
5) Employee training and development
6) Employee engagement and inclusion in decision making
7) Innovation in marketing process
8) Innovation in customer management
9) Innovation in infrastructure
10)Innovation in team building and work dynamics.
3 Employees in the workplace can be encouraged to think creatively in order to innovate
by use of various factors (Mastroianni, 2017). Some of them are
1 Rewards and recognition- A major method employed by firms to encourage innovative
thinking is to reward and recognise the effort of the employees (Oeij, 2017). This can be
done by a talent award ceremony or by acknowledging the work of the employee
(Mastroianni, 2017).
2 Empowering employees to take responsibility and key decisions can also lead to
innovative thinking (Crainer, 2013). If employees feel empowered they will feel a sense

of belongingness for the company and would want to take measures to improve the
company.
3 Encouragement to employee to discuss matters in teams also helps to increase
creative thinking which leads to innovation (DeFillippi, 2014).
4 There are various legislations which govern business functions (Government of
Australia, 2018). Competition and Consumer Act 2010 is the major legislation which
affects product innovations in Australia (Government of Australia, 2018). According to
this legislation the new or innovative product should not harm the consumer in any way.
They should not be a threat to healthy competition and should be genuinely useful for
the consumer (Government of Australia, 2018). Additionally, the innovating firm must
make sure that its product does not infringe upon the intellectual property of another
company as per Australia’s IP law.
5 Under the command and control approach of leadership, the leader leads from the
front. Leader is rules oriented and checks and controls everything (Northouse, 2012).
He gives directions to his followers in all tasks.
Such form of leadership may succeed in getting everyday tasks to perfection but is a
failure when it comes to creativity and innovation (Crainer, 2013) .Command and control
oriented leaders kill the drive to think differently in their followers or employees. They
give directions on all tasks and this discourages the employees from thinking in a
different way (Stacey, 2012). Such a leader only tries to improve efficiency but does not
encourage employees to find new approaches. This totally hinders innovation.
Employees get engrossed in following orders. Thus command and control leadership
hinders with creative thinking.
6. Following are the barriers to innovation in teams and organisations (Oeij, 2017).
 Fear- Employees think if things go wrong they may loose their job
 Short term thinking- Most employees and managers do not have long term vision
of a particular innovation.

 Comfort zone- Employees feel comfortable doing their routine tasks and do not
have drive for anything new.
 Lack of time- Routine tasks take up all the time leaving no time for creativity.
 Lack of resources- Innovation needs financial backing which may be unavailable.
7 Chosen organisation- Samsung (Samsung, 2018)
1) Yes the firm is prepared to take risks. It employees new technologies to its
products however, there is always a risk of failure.
2) Innovation is something new and it may not be successful with the customers.
Therefore, risk assessment is essential.
3) The organisation is ready to admit its mistakes and recall the product like it did
with its Note 7 smartphone (Samsung, 2018). This is true for individual as well as
organisational level.
4) Employees feel encouraged as the organisation takes failures sporting and they
get encouraged to think up new ideas.
5) Mistakes should be viewed as an opportunity to make better products.
6) Frontline managers can encourage employees by paying attention to their ideas
and by motivating discussion.
7) A friendly and team oriented wok condition is prerequisite to innovation
8) Fear, lack of time, short term goals are some barriers to innovation in the
organisation
9) Managers can lead from the front by themselves discussing new ideas with
subordinates and encouraging them to participate in the discussion.
10) Polishing of analytical and reasoning skills should be done to encourage
innovative thinking.
11)Managers should evaluate their own approach because their approach will
determine whether employees are happy doing routine tasks or they are ready to
think creatively.
12) Samsung has a physical environment of rewards for innovative thinking which
support innovation (Samsung, 2018). Change is required as more measures like
team cooperation and discussions are required to further encourage innovation.

13)Consumer protection Act 2010 prohibits harmful innovations; hence, impacting
innovation in the company.

References
Crainer, S. (2013). Thinkers 50: Innovation, Leadership, Management and Strategy
(EBOOK BUNDLE). Chicago: McGraw Hill Professional.
DeFillippi, R. (2014). International Perspectives on Business Innovation and Disruption
in the Creative Industries: Film, Video and Photography. Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar Publishing.
Douglas, H., & Douglas, C. (2010). Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to
Build Breakthrough Brands. Oxford: OUP.
Government of Australia. (2018, July 30). Legislations. Retrieved July 30, 2018, from
Register of legislations: https://www.australia.gov.au/
Mastroianni, F. (2017). Technology and innovation. How does the strategic planning
process impact the management of technology and innovation and what
consideration is given to the impact of disruptive technologies in particular?
Nymphenburger: GRIN Verlag.
Northouse, P. G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and Practice. London: Sage.
Oeij, P. (2017). Workplace Innovation: Theory, Research and Practice. New York:
Springer.
Samsung. (2018, August 27). About Us. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from Samsung
Corporate Website: www.samsung.com
Stacey, R. D. (2012). Tools and Techniques of Leadership and Management: Meeting
the Challenge of Complexity. New York: Routledge.