Report: Overcoming Social & Organizational Barriers to Innovation

This report delves into the critical roles of creativity and innovation in organizational success, highlighting the challenges businesses face in implementing these practices due to social and organizational barriers. It explores the significance of fostering an innovative climate, creative leadership, and effective human resource development (HRM/D). The report discusses various barriers, including lack of motivation, trust issues, criticism, and conservative management styles, and suggests solutions such as clear vision, collaboration, and open communication. It emphasizes the use of models like the human resource wheel and transformational leadership to drive innovation and make it sustainable. Ultimately, the report underscores the importance of a positive organizational climate and proactive HRM/D to support and sustain creativity and innovation, providing recommendations for businesses to enhance their innovative capabilities and achieve competitive advantages.

Running Head: Creativity and Innovation
Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and Innovation 1
Executive Summary
Innovation and creativity are major aspect in today’s world which help an organization to grow
and success in the target market. But as noticing the market scenario it is not easy for business to
implement such practices easily in their business process, there are many social as well as
organizational barriers which affecting their performance and implementation of such techniques
in the business process. Thus, in the below mentioned report discusses about such barriers and
the climate which an organization shall have in order to implement creativity, innovation,
creative leadership and human resource development etc. activities in their business process.
Concerning to the need of current era the organization shall make use of models and theories like
human resource wheel, transformational theory of leadership etc. to adopt the innovation
activities in the business process and make them sustainable as well.

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Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Social and organizational barriers to organizational creativity and innovation...........................................2
Climate for innovation, creativity, leadership and HRM/D in an organization............................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
Recommendation........................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................6

Creativity and Innovation 3
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide a brief overview about the social and organizational
barriers which the management of an organization face while conducting creative activities in
their business process. Creativity and innovation are the tools which help an organization in
achieving competence in the target market but it is not easy for the organizations to adopt such
tools in their business process (Jain 2014). So, the aim of this report to tell about the issues which
an organization face while initiating human resource development, creative leadership, creativity
and innovation etc. activities. Further it also tells about the models used in the organization to
promote the use of such tools in the organization of increasing its efficiencies. Further the latter
part of the report includes the climate of the organization in implementing such activities and
recommendations for the organizations to improve themselves. More details about the task are
discussed below:
Social and organizational barriers to organizational creativity and
innovation
Before initiating the creativity and innovation, it is very important to understand the meaning and
importance of creativity and innovation in an organization. Creativity refers the art of creating
something new by doing the regular activities business process. And innovation refers to the
process of exploiting the creative ideas and creating a new and different way of doing things. In
the growing competition, it has become very important for the organization to initiate innovation
and creativity in their business so as to gain the competitive edge (Sieczka 2011).

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But it is not easy for the organizations to make use of such tools irrespective of their size. For
large scale organization it is difficult for them to initiate such big change in their business
process quickly whereas for a small scale organization, it is risky for them to make use of
innovation and creativity in their business. Further other social and organizational and barriers
are discussed below:
 Lack of motivation and trust: It is one of the biggest organizational issue that in order
to implement a new business activity, the managers firstly need to take the employees
under their confidence then only then can start the process efficiently. But, many times
the employees do not trust and support the activities of the leaders of the resulting in
failure of the innovation. Teamwork and employee participation is very necessary to
achieve success. If the employees are not motivated enough then neither they will provide
new ideas to the management nor will they flexibly adopt such techniques (Siedlok, and
Hibbert 2014).
 Criticism: criticism a negative approach to every task. Also it is not easy for the
management of the organization bar criticism while conducting new and innovative
business activities. With this process they lose their confidence which results in failure of
the approach. Also criticism is the killer of creative thinking (Nasurdin, Ahmad, and
Ling 2015).
 Conservatism and authoritarian management: even the middle managers of the
organization maintain the status quo and conflict in case of changes occurs in the
principles of the organization. They believe that they might lose their authority and power
with the use of creativity and innovation in the organization. Resulting to which, they

Creativity and Innovation 5
become rigid towards making such changes in the organization process (Naranjo-
Valencia, Jiménez-Jiménez, and Sanz-Valle 2016).
Climate for innovation, creativity, leadership and HRM/D in an
organization
It is very important for the organization develop a positive climate in their workplace so as to
promote creativity and innovation. In any organization change can only occur if the people
connected to it are positive enough to make such change otherwise its effectiveness would not
show in the organizational process. Further in order to implement creativity and innovation in the
regular activities of the business, firstly the employees need to trust o the instincts of thee leader
and follow the path which he suggests. In this way they can promote such activities in the
organization (Kuratko, Covin, and Hornsby 2014).
Also the leader of the organization also needs to make use of creative leadership kills in their
course of action so as to develop creativity in workplace. Creative leadership skills can be
utilized in an organization by implementing the transformational leadership in workplace.
Transformational leadership model helps the leaders to analyses the need of the employees and
organization and develop and mission accordingly and work on them innovatively (Eskiler, et.
al., 2016). Under this process the leader utilizes creativity and innovative skills to provide better
satisfaction to employees, reach the target and gain the competitive edge as well. Climate for
innovation in an organization is directly associated with innovative work behavior of the
employees. And innovative work behavior is positively connected with the organizational
performance and organizational performance is dependent on the human resource of the
organization (Bedford 2013).

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Positive human resource in the organization adequately supports the growth of innovation and
creativity in the organization and vice versa. If the human resource is not qualified enough to
handle the innovation in the organization or is negatively influenced by some other source in the
workplace; then it will become difficult for thee organization to sustain creativity in their
business activity. Resulting to which, it is very important for the organization initiate human
resource development. This framework helps in motivating and boosting up the employees and
eliminating the negativities from the workplace. Further the human resource wheel helps the
organization developing good workplace climate. Development is primary process of this
framework, so with the help of this framework the organization develops the capability to adopt
creativity and innovation in their regular activities (Audenaert, et. al., 2016).
Conclusion
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events it shall be noted that it is very important for the
organizations to make use of the innovation and creativity in their business process so as to gain
the competitive advantage in the target market. Innovation and creativity works similarly but
they have difference in their working. Innovation refers to the process of creating a new product
by using creativity in its process where as creativity refers to the process of applying creative
ideas in regular business activity. Further it shall be noted that creative leadership is one of the
major aspects with the help of business can initiate innovation in their practice. Creative
leadership can be applied in the business with the use of transformational leadership process.
Further human resource development plays a significant role in implementing creativity in the
organization as this type of development help in increasing the thinking skills of the human
resource by the process of training and development (part of human resource wheel) and helping

Creativity and Innovation 7
them adopt such techniques. Further the human resource wheel helps the workforce to become
more efficient as well. The above mentioned report also states the social and organizational
issues faced by the organization while conducting the innovative activities. By creating a positive
climate all such problem can be resolved in the organization. Thus the report adequately justifies
to all requirement mentioned in the task.
Recommendation
Thus, in order to promote and sustain the organizational creativity and innovation activities, the
business shall make use of the below mentioned recommendations.
 Clear vision: If the organization will develop a clear vision on the basis of which they
have to work and chive their target, then might become easy for them to make use of
innovation and creativity in their business. As the business goal of the organization would
only get achieved if the employees will make use of innovation, then in order to achieve
the target the workforce will work on their skills and initiative innovative activities to
accomplish their goals (D'Este, Rentocchini, and Vega-Jurado 2014).
 Collaboration: collaboration is the other word of team build, if good and efficient human
resource are collaborated in the organization then there would be adequately flow of
ideas and creativity resulting to which innovation will automatically happen. Thus, with
the help of collaboration the organization can easily develop innovation and creativity in
the organization (Seeck, and Diehl 2017).
 Communication: communication is the tool which helps the flow of ideas and creativity
in the organization. In an organization if there is efficient communication then the
employees will share their view and ideas resulting to which they would become more

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positive to make use of innovation to enhance their skills and help the organization to
achieve their target as well (Nainman 2017).

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References
Audenaert, M., Decramer, A., George, B., Verschuere, B. and Van Waeyenberg, T., 2016.
When employee performance management affects individual innovation in public
organizations: the role of consistency and LMX. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, pp.1-20.
Bedford, G. S., 2013. 5 ways to promote creativity in the workplace. Viewed on November
28, 2017 from < https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/feature/small-business/tip-of-the-
month-creativity.html >
D'Este, P., Rentocchini, F. and Vega-Jurado, J., 2014. The role of human capital in lowering
the barriers to engaging in innovation: evidence from the Spanish innovation survey. Industry
and Innovation, 21(1), pp.1-19.
Eskiler, E., Ekici, S., Soyer, F. and Sari, I., 2016. The relationship between organizational
culture and innovative work behavior for sports services in tourism enterprises. Physical
Culture and Sport. Studies and Research, 69(1), pp.53-64.
Jain, R., 2014. Innovation promotion strategies: A conceptual framework. South Asian
Journal of Management, 21(2), p.44.
Kuratko, D.F., Covin, J.G. and Hornsby, J.S., 2014. Why implementing corporate innovation
is so difficult. Business Horizons, 57(5), pp.647-655.

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Nainman, L., 2017. 12 Ways to Enhance Creativity and Collaboration in Teams. Viewed on
November 28, 2017 from https://www.creativityatwork.com/2008/05/15/12-ways-to-
enhance-creativity-and-collaboration-in-teams/
Naranjo-Valencia, J.C., Jiménez-Jiménez, D. and Sanz-Valle, R., 2016. Studying the links
between organizational culture, innovation, and performance in Spanish companies. Revista
Latinoamericana de Psicología, 48(1), pp.30-41.
Nasurdin, A.M., Ahmad, N.H. and Ling, T.C., 2015, January. High performance human
resource practices, identification with organizational values and goals, and service-oriented
organizational citizenship behavior: A review of literature and proposed model. In SHS Web
of Conferences (Vol. 18). EDP Sciences.
Seeck, H. and Diehl, M.R., 2017. A literature review on HRM and innovation–taking stock
and future directions. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(6),
pp.913-944.
Sieczka., K, 2011. Cause and Effect: Barriers to Creativity and Innovation. Viewed on
November 28, 2017 from < https://www.trainingindustry.com/articles/strategy-alignment-
and-planning/cause-and-effect-barriers-to-creativity-and-innovation/>
Siedlok, F. and Hibbert, P., 2014. The organization of interdisciplinary research: Modes,
drivers and barriers. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(2), pp.194-210.