Report on Lead Innovative Thinking and Practice - Assessment

This report comprehensively assesses innovative thinking and practice within an organizational context, specifically focusing on Sim's Hardware. It begins by outlining various strategies for generating new ideas and fostering creative thinking, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and capitalizing on innovation opportunities. The report delves into factors that hinder innovation and provides actionable methods for building an innovative culture, including training employees to think creatively and establishing mechanisms to support idea generation. It examines the challenges faced by Sim's Hardware, including outdated practices and declining revenues, and proposes solutions such as implementing tools like mind mapping and fostering open communication. Furthermore, it explores the impact of leadership styles on creativity, analyzes trends shaping thinking and practices, and evaluates the risks associated with innovation. The report concludes by providing insights into leadership styles, innovation drivers and enablers, and strategies for sustainable innovation and change management, offering a holistic understanding of how to cultivate a thriving innovative environment within an organization.

LEAD INNOVATIVE
THINKING AND
PRACTICE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ASSESSMENT 1.............................................................................................................................1
1. Different strategies to generate new ideas and thinking..........................................................1
2. Creative thinking, check necessity of creative thinking technique to invent something.........1
3. Spot opportunities for innovation............................................................................................1
4. Innovative thinking a strategic priority....................................................................................2
5. Importance for organizations to innovate................................................................................2
6. Factors that can stop one from being innovative.....................................................................2
7. Ways to build innovative culture.............................................................................................2
8. Can innovate think be trained..................................................................................................3
9. Mistake organization can make in terms of innovation...........................................................3
10. think divergently and creatively............................................................................................3
ASSESSMENT TASK 2.................................................................................................................4
QUESTIONS...................................................................................................................................4
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
2. Problems and current position.................................................................................................4
3. Promoting innovation..............................................................................................................4
4. Trends shaping thinking and practices....................................................................................4
5. Innovative context...................................................................................................................5
6. Leadership styles.....................................................................................................................5
7. Challenging and refining own leadership................................................................................6
8. Risks with innovation..............................................................................................................6
9. Communicating innovation.....................................................................................................6
10. Fostering communication and team development.................................................................7
11. Mechanism supporting innovation........................................................................................7
12. Innovation as integral part of organisation............................................................................7
13. Developing and monitoring processes...................................................................................7
14. Innovation risks and barriers.................................................................................................8
ASSESSMENT 3.............................................................................................................................9

Techniques and tools that can be used to generate new ideas and thinking................................9
Conditions for innovation and issues that can impact innovative thinking and creativity..........9
Innovation drivers and enablers for Sim’s Hardware..................................................................9
Personal leadership style to model positive innovative thinking and practise..........................10
Requirements to promote sustainable innovative activity for operation context and people
involved.....................................................................................................................................10
Different means to promote knowledge transfer.......................................................................10
Risk associated with innovation and possible mitigation strategies..........................................10
Strategies to innovate and promote creative thinking techniques, innovative practise etc........11
Resources required for innovation in organization....................................................................11
Strategies to foster workplace culture capable of encouraging innovation...............................11
Potential barriers and risk to innovation along with the strategies to respond..........................12
Reflection...................................................................................................................................12
ASSESSMENT4............................................................................................................................13
1. Comparison of current innovation and thinking theories with past theories.........................13
2.................................................................................................................................................13
3. Impact of leadership style on innovation in organization......................................................13
4. Reason for relevance of organization and industry context to innovation............................13
5. Internal or external conditions that impact organizational innovation..................................13
6. Strategies for identifying, managing, assessing risks and challenges associated with
innovation..................................................................................................................................13
7. Five examples of innovation drivers in an organization........................................................14
8.Six examples of innovation enablers in an organization........................................................14
9. Mechanism that can be implemented at system or process level to support innovative
practises.....................................................................................................................................15
10. Five challenges and barriers to innovation..........................................................................15
11. Benefits of introducing change in the organization.............................................................15
12. Ways to conduct research in organization...........................................................................16
13. Different types of leadership styles.....................................................................................16
14. Characteristics of effective leaders......................................................................................16
15. Possible requirements for sustainable innovation................................................................17

REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

ASSESSMENT 1
1. Different strategies to generate new ideas and thinking
There are various strategies that can be used to generate new ideas and thinking such as:
 By engaging oneself in observation session i.e. by engaging oneself in sessions where an
individual can think differently.
 Reading more books can also help in generating new ideas and thinking as reading more
books helps in learning more and thinking differently (Zhu and et.al., 2016).
 Keeping a regular journal can also help oneself in recording one’s own thoughts, ideas
feelings as these journals helps in generating new ideas and think differently.
 Combining one thing with other is another strategy that can help in generating new ideas and
thinking differently.
2. Creative thinking, check necessity of creative thinking technique to invent something
Creative thinking can simply be defined as a way of looking at a thing in a new and
different manner or in other words thinking out of the box is also known as creative thinking. It
is looking at a situation or problem from a fresh perspective that suggest unorthodox solutions.
Creative thinking is an important technique which is required to invent something new. For
example: Steve Jobs used innovative thinking technique and combined three old ways(mobile,
touch screen iPod and internet communication device) and innovated new iPhone.
3. Spot opportunities for innovation
There are five ways in which innovation opportunities can be spotted such as:
 By analysing what best things other organizations are doing both in one’s own industry and
in other industries as well. This can help organizations to spot an innovation opportunity that
can drive them towards success.
 By obtaining customer feedback, companies can understand what new things they can try to
attract new customers
 Understand customer’s issues, frustration and complaints associated with product or service
so that changes required can be identified.
For example: Steve jobs obtained feedback from customers and realized that most of the
customers use their phones with ugly buttons and decided to invent touch screen mobiles.
1

4. Innovative thinking a strategic priority
Yes, innovative thinking is a strategic priority for every profit-making organization
because innovative thinking always helps an organization to focus on all the changes that are
required within an organization so that they can increase their profitability (Clapham and
Vickers, 2017). It also helps an organization to spot opportunities that can be used by
organizations to develop or produce something new. Using innovating thinking as a strategic
priority can help companies to think differently whenever required. Charles Goodyear could
stand despite being on the verge of bankruptcy because he thought differently and saw rubber
accident as an opportunity and discovered vulcanisation.
5. Importance for organizations to innovate
It is important for organizations to innovate because customer always seeks for something
new. Not only this it also helps organizations to move faster and gain a competitive advantage.
Innovating something can also help organizations to create better connections to developing
market which helps them in bigger opportunities which can help their organization to grow
(Adams and et.al., 2016). Similar ideas can lead to new inventions because similar ideas helps in
identifying gaps or flaws in the current technology or product or service that can be used as an
opportunity in inventing something new.
6. Factors that can stop one from being innovative
There are various factors that can stop one from being innovative such as:
 Short term thinking or not focusing on long term goals can stop one from being innovative.
 Lack of time or resources work as a barrier in development of new ideas and opportunities
which can further stop one from being innovative.
 Demotivating one is another factor that can affect one from being innovative as demotivation
affect one’s thinking ability (Brenner, Uebernickel and Abrell, 2016).
 Unwillingness to learn something from past failures, adopt something new or change
something can also stop one from being innovating.
7. Ways to build innovative culture
There are various ways in which innovative culture in an organization can be build such as:
 Learning from past failure and implementing changes in present can help in building an
innovative culture.
2

 By encouraging innovation in non-obvious areas can also help in developing innovative
culture. So that employees do not picture innovation as a limited market area (Biemans,
2018).
 By encouraging search for accidental innovation can increase employee’s lookout for their
innovation potential which can further help in building an innovative culture.
Yes, iPhone was an outcome of good innovative culture as it helped Steve Jobs to identify
three old areas that can be used together to build something new.
8. Can innovate think be trained
Innovative thinking cannot be taught but it can be trained. By training people to think
creatively can help them to think innovatively. Employees should be provided training of
working with what they have but in a creative manner can help them in thinking differently
which can further help them in thinking innovatively. By training employees to work on old
training or processes or techniques and demanding from something new or creative can also help
them in thinking innovatively.
9. Mistake organization can make in terms of innovation
Greatest mistake that and organization can make when it comes to innovation is to push
employees for answers or generate new ideas without creating a mechanism to do so or without
defining the proper in an appropriate manner so that it can be solved (Horibe, 2016). It is one of
the major mistakes each and every organization make because an employee can generate answers
for a problem only when they are taught a mechanism to do so or when they get a fully defined
problem If employees are forced then they cannot think innovatively and organization cannot
lead towards innovation.
10. think divergently and creatively
There are various ways in which one can think divergently and creatively is by various
methods such as:
 By brainstorming ideas to find or create a solution to problems so that one can think out of
the box and think creatively or divergently (Lane, 2016).
 Thinking of a common problem-solving technique that can help oneself to think divergently
and creatively and find a solution of each and every problem.
3

ASSESSMENT TASK 2
QUESTIONS
1. Introduction
Sim's Hardware deals in hardware and operates in Australia from several years. With
recent advancements in technology, supply chain and other operational aspects the practices of
organisation seems to be out dated and need to be creative and innovative. It is resulting in
declining revenues and organisational performance.
2. Problems and current position
At present Sim' hardware is facing several issues in its operations and outdated
technology. Due to lack of innovation organisation is not able to retain its customers. Most of its
customers are shifting to other organisation. The inefficient practices are also making operational
activities less efficient in terms of cost and quality. The services are not being provided to
customers on time and productivity of employees is also decreasing. Thus there is need of bring
innovation to practices and organisational culture of Sim' hardware so that it can regain
competitive advantage.
3. Promoting innovation
Innovations must be fostered at both individual and team level. This can be accomplished
by using various tools such as mind mapping, brainstorming, group discussion, idea management
and operational approaches such as Kaizen and assisted interviews (Goffin and Mitchell, 2016).
These tools will help Sim' hardware to assess the areas which can be innovated and the needs of
customers and staff members so that creativity can be fostered in desired direction. However for
promoting creativity among teams organisation must adopt several techniques such as open
communication, willingness to adopt creativity and experiment, favourable leadership style and
flexible work culture.
4. Trends shaping thinking and practices
At present employees of Sim' hardware may not be willing to introduce creativity or
innovation in their practices. Thus various motivational theories and improved leadership styles
can be used by management of Sim' hardware. It will encourage employees to seek for
innovative practices. Currently staff members of organisation are not motivated and thus they do
not receive any creative and supporting environment for innovation. This shapes the existing
position of company. However increased openness in communication, work place flexibility,
4

motivational rewards and appreciation to innovative and creative ideas can bring significant
improvement in existing practices and performance of organisation.
5. Innovative context
Innovation can be promoted by improving the work culture and practices. Sim' hardware
must allow its team members to share their ideas, to adopt creativity, communicate by providing
them rewards for innovative perspective. It will encourage innovative thinking at individual level
(Mahmoud-Jouini, Midler and Silberzahn, 2016). At group level leaders must emphasis on their
leadership style so that team members can collaborate and generate creativity at collective level.
The hardware industry is also undergoing in several innovative practices in marketing and supply
chain approaches. Thus Sim' hardware must also used innovative tools to assess the suitable
practices which can enhance the quality of its services.
6. Leadership styles
Leadership style chosen by the management of Sim' hardware critically affect the extent
of creativity. For instance autocratic leaders are focused on results only and thus they do not
prefer involvement of team members in decision making. Such leadership does not broaden the
possibility of creativity. On the other hand in democratic leadership leaders ensure the equal
participation of team members through communication and feedbacks. This type of leadership is
suitable to implement and monitor innovation.
However for generating new ideas transformational leadership is considered as the most
suitable personalised style. In this leadership style employee motivation, goal setting and open
communication is encouraged. Thus it will foster the productive innovations in alignment with
the organisational goals. For instance when leaders use transformational style then employees
feel free to share their ideas. Motivation and open communication inspires employees to adopt
creative practices. Similarly creativity must not compromise the quality. Thus transformational
leadership will also ensure that innovation is profitable for the organisation (Goffin and Mitchell,
2016). It promotes creative thinking and practices within services and operations. As a personal
leadership style transformational approach also allows to value ideas and to have strong vision
which allows optimistic work environment and quick feedback on creativity. It ensures that staff
members of Sim' hardware have positive attitude towards adaptation of creative thinking and
processes.
5

7. Challenging and refining own leadership
To support and model innovation personalised style of transformational leadership
requires some refining. For instance to encourage the idea generation and sharing leaders must
be more interactive with team members as in case of democratic style. Thus improved
communication and feedbacks from other team members is necessary method to refine
leadership style. In addition to this transformational style may not be suitable for innovation
implementation. Thus in implementation and monitoring phase leaders must have autocratic
behaviour so that regular improvement and growth in innovation process can be achieved.
8. Risks with innovation
The innovation risks are classified as operational, financial and commercial. The
organisation may not be able to achieve desired financial profits from the innovation. Thus it
may lead to unnecessary expenses or cost to company. If innovation implementation fails to meet
the needs of service users, quality or scheduling requirement or estimated budget then innovation
may not benefit the organisation (Mahmoud-Jouini, Midler and Silberzahn, 2016). There are also
possibilities that despite having success in all other aspect innovation may not attract customers
or success. Thus to eliminate these risk factors proper market and cost research must be
conducted. The feedbacks and assessment of needs must be carried out from staff members and
service users prior to practical implementation of innovation. This can be done by using surveys
or interviews as well so that risk can be identified and minimised.
9. Communicating innovation
The organisation must create a culture in which individuals can easily share their
innovative ideas. This can be done by group discussion, reports or rotation system in which all
staff members are required to think creatively. To capture innovative ideas they must be well
documented and practically possible ideas must be rewarded and stored (Baumann, and et.al.,
2016). These ideas can be shared by regular brainstorming sessions for all team members and
development of transparent and creative innovation zones. The crowdsourcing and time
investment can also be used by the organisation to capture the innovative ideas. The rewards,
appreciation and team shuffling are also effective ways to communicate innovative ideas among
team members.
6

10. Fostering communication and team development
Innovative teams and communication along with the consultation can be promoted by
using various approaches. The leaders of Sim' hardware must assure that while making decision
each individual have chance to share their views. The leaders must also have capabilities to
manage conflicts and contradictions in view points of two team members. This approach will
always foster communication and strong teams. The lack of conflict resolution and diversity can
make individual hesitate of under confidence to think creatively. The group discussion, peer
communication and effective channels for interaction is also helpful in achieving communication
and team development goals.
11. Mechanism supporting innovation
At system level Sim' hardware can develop policies for creativity rewards, group
discussion, communication and leadership changes which support the innovation. The ideas must
be appreciated so that employees are encouraged to be innovative in the flexible and creative
work culture. At process level there must be regular monitoring and feedback mechanism so that
it can be assured that implemented creativity is reliable and will give satisfactory outcomes.
Another important mechanism which must be followed by organisation is that there must be
strict control over the innovation management so that creativity is shared and implemented in its
original way without any misleading facts of methods.
12. Innovation as integral part of organisation
In order to make innovation as integral element Sim' hardware must emphasis on
identifying the need and methods to generate innovation. For instance when leaders will promote
open communication with service users and employees then it will generate the creativity needs
and techniques (Mahmoud-Jouini, Midler and Silberzahn, 2016). After generation of ideas
management of Sim' hardware must also develop an culture so that generated ideas can be
filtered and effectively implemented. The feedback and monitoring mechanism within
organisation will foster the creativity within organisational activities. Leaders as well as staff
members must also change their perspective to consider creativity and innovation as essential
dimension of business success.
13. Developing and monitoring processes
Sim' hardware must assure that relevant motivation such as rewards, freedom to share
ideas and creative culture is developed so that ideas can be generated. There must be a well
7

framed process so that each shared idea is reviewed and evaluated if it can improve the
operational or functional aspects of organisation. This can be achieved be team or group
discussions. The organisation can use innovation funnel in which a systematic pathway is
adopted to process the creativity and innovative thinking. To monitor the process necessary
feedbacks must be taken to analyse the methods to practically implement it or to improve it so
that it can be used. For minimising risk factors organisation can also interact with feedbacks
from external stakeholders and market surveys so that actual possibilities of the idea can be
analysed.
14. Innovation risks and barriers
Innovation may involve risks such as failure to meet the desired goals and loss of
financial resources, time and brand value. However, Sim' hardware can minimise these risks by
having a more precise analysis of innovation needs and methods. The fear of failure, negative
attitude towards creativity, excessive adherence to rules, making assumptions, time and cost
limitations, over reliance on logics and lack of favourable organisational environment are key
barrier to innovation (Martín-de Castro, 2015). These barriers can be overcome by using
techniques such as motivation, communication, flexibility in rules and behavioural aspect which
foster the development of positive attitude towards creativity.
8

ASSESSMENT 3
Techniques and tools that can be used to generate new ideas and thinking
There are various techniques and tools that can be used for generating new ideas and
thinking such as:
 Mind mapping is a common brainstorming technique used for generation of new ideas.
 Creating a checklist and asking six questions: why, where, when, who, what and how
 Focusing on six decision making hats: facts, emotions, caution, judgement, creativity and
control
 Lateral thinking in which problem is solved through creative approach.
 Random word generation in which content is tried and tied with two random words
generated.
Conditions for innovation and issues that can impact innovative thinking and creativity.
Conditions necessary for innovation are:
 Innovative culture
 Clearly defined innovation strategies
 Available finance for innovation
 Prevailing market conditions
 Using professional knowledge management system
 Questioning current existing organizations structure
Issues that impact individual or collective innovative or creative thinking are:
 Not thinking productively
 Being afraid of rejection of failure
 Never changing or adopting new situation or changes
 Not thinking proactively
Innovation drivers and enablers for Sim’s Hardware
 Technology is one of the most powerful driver that had helped Sim’s Hardware in both
innovation and evolution (Le Masson, Weil and Hatchuel, 2017).
 Using scalable technology and connecting it with growth had worked as a top driver for
Sim’s hardware.
 Alignment of business strategies to innovation is another innovation enabler.
9

 Empowering cross functional teams also helps in building innovative culture within an
organization and work as an innovation enabler for Sim’s hardware.
Personal leadership style to model positive innovative thinking and practise
Personal leadership style is a style that helps in determining one’s own leadership style in
taking right decisions. This personal leadership style can help in modelling positive innovative
thinking and practises. As these kinds of leaders believe in innovative thinking and realize its
importance for growth and development of the business.
Requirements to promote sustainable innovative activity for operation context and people
involved
Following are the requirements to promote sustainable innovation activity in an
organization for operation context and people involved:
 Align business strategy
 Obtain executive support
 Develop a suitable innovation management process
 Identify all kinds of tasks and roles required
 Determine check metrics
 Build a suitable process and strategy
 Establish an innovative culture for the employees so that they can think innovatively.
Different means to promote knowledge transfer
There are various ways through which knowledge transfer can be promoted such as:
 Creating a right mindset and environment can help in promoting knowledge transfer
 Leveraging social space where people can share and create knowledge within social context
(Carayannis, Sindakis and Walter, 2015).
 Team leaders or seniors should lead as an example by sharing and opening for significant
ideas or valuable information.
 By creating a rewards and recognition culture of employees so that they get motivated and
knowledge transfer can be promoted.
Risk associated with innovation and possible mitigation strategies
There are three main types of risks associated with innovation such as:
 Failing to meet quality and cost requirements associated with innovation
 Failing to attract new customers towards new innovative product or service
10

 Investing in unsuccessful innovative projects.
Possible mitigation strategies are:
 Before investing in large innovative projects professional advices should be taken and a
insight should be gained so that risk associated with the innovative project can be identified.
 Continuous feedbacks should be taken and thought on
 Remain updated with the ongoing market research.
Strategies to innovate and promote creative thinking techniques, innovative practise etc.
There are various strategies that can be used to promote and innovate creative thinking,
technique, practises, products, services are:
 By training staff in innovative techniques
 Tolerating mistakes and improving them so that innovation and creative thinking can be
promoted.
 Actively socialise and ask for suggestions and implement them in order to promote creative
thinking and innovation.
 Creating various challenges for employees so that they can think of some creative techniques
or practises to overcome such challenges.
Resources required for innovation in organization
There are various resources that are required by the organizations for innovation such as:
 First resource is no doubt money as every innovation requires some money to be invested
(Rajapathirana and Hui, 2018).
 Another resource is people who can think innovatively and bring innovation within the
organization
 Third is time as each innovation required undefined time period to be completed.
 Fourth is equipment’s whether they are hardware’s or software’s so that company can easily
work on innovative projects without any hurdle.
Strategies to foster workplace culture capable of encouraging innovation
There are various strategies that can be used to foster workplace culture capable of
encouraging innovation:
 First is to ask of new ideas so that employees can think and develop skills to work on
innovative projects and think differently.
 Allowing employees to devote their working hours in inventing new things.
11

 Allowing employees to make mistakes so that they can bring improvement within
themselves.
 Building effective and efficient teams who can work on achieving organizational objectives.
Potential barriers and risk to innovation along with the strategies to respond
There are various barriers to innovation such as:
 Lack of skilful brainstorm facilitation
 Lack of proper leadership
 Lack of resources of capabilities
 Lack of collaboration and coordination
Strategies to overcome such barriers are:
 Team building exercises can help in improving collaboration and coordination among team
members
 Providing proper training so that employees can work on their brainstorming abilities or
skills
 Empowering middle managers can also help in driving innovation strategies.
Reflection
As an innovation and development consultant I think one of the most important things
required for innovation and adopting innovation practises is to develop an innovative
organizational culture or environment. I can review my performance by asking feedbacks from
employees and brainstorming on it so that if any kind of improvement is required then I can
work on it. As I have already explained above that one of the major risks associated with
innovation or barrier of innovation lies within the organization like lack of brainstorming skills,
lack of creative thinking etc. According to me proper training should be provided to the
employees so that they can build creative thinking and can also think of innovative ideas or think
differently.
12

ASSESSMENT4
1. Comparison of current innovation and thinking theories with past theories
Roger’s innovation diffusion theory is one of the most common innovation and thinking
theory that was used by organizations initially but today Hall’s Concerns-Based Adoption Model
is used by most of the organizations because: this model helps the organization to focus on
change that occurs within an organization that can further help in driving innovation within an
organization in many ways whereas Roger’s innovation diffusion theory only focuses on
introduction of something new.
2. Ways in which theory and thinking on creativity and innovation contribute to applied practises
Theories of creativity and innovation helps an organization leader to understand creative
potential of their employees. This helps them to understand and invest in creative ideas in order
to product something innovative. These theories also help the leaders to organize creative and
innovative activities so that they can enhance their employee’s creativity and innovative
thinking.
3. Impact of leadership style on innovation in organization
Leadership style impact innovation within an organization because different types of
innovation requires various leadership requirements. As most of the times innovation requires
inputs from all the people under the guidance of a leader and each leader has different leadership
style and control over their employees due to which innovation is impacted. Types of leadership
style adopted by leaders also helps in ensuring level of innovation within an organization.
4. Reason for relevance of organization and industry context to innovation
Organizational or industry context is directly relevant to innovation because of various
reasons such as: organizational size has a strong impact on speed of the organization for
adaptation of new technology or process due to which innovation is impacted. Service or
produce scope also impact innovation as adaptation of innovation diversity for the organization
is impacted because of this.
5. Internal or external conditions that impact organizational innovation
There are various internal and external factors that might affect organizational innovation
both positively and negatively. Internal factors that may affect organizational innovation are:
policies, human resource, finance, resource availability. External factors that may affect
13

organizational innovation are: size of the firm, market structure, industry concentration degree
and various other macroeconomics factors.
6. Strategies for identifying, managing, assessing risks and challenges associated with innovation
 Strategy to identify risk associated with innovation are brainstorming and developing
checklist. Brainstorming at regular interval of time can help in identifying risk associated
with innovation.
 By doing risk screening risk associated with innovation can be identified. Risk screening can
be done with the help of risk matrix.
 With the help of event trees amount of risk associated with the innovation can be quantified.
7. Five examples of innovation drivers in an organization
 Go beyond developing products: For example, iPod was a cool device that allowed their
users to buy and load music.
 Keeping the right leaders: For example, if a company is going town, they need a right leader
with right kind of talent to continue its growth
 Failed attempts: For example, failed attempts of an organization can help them to work on
their failed attempts so that they can generate solutions to drive innovation within their
organization.
 Connection/network: many times, connections or networking also works as an innovative
driver for organizations.
 Expert teams: For example: expert teams help in creating innovative process within an
organization.
8.Six examples of innovation enablers in an organization
 Gamification (time to get serious): Gamification requires understanding of all mechanisms of
games. Competition is one of the main mechanisms through which participation in
gamification can be increased.
 Value added: it is said that it is not engagement that drives values, it is values that drives
engagement. If correct path from engagement to values is shown then in order to drive
innovation values should be communicated to the end users.
 Innovation infrastructure: if these innovation enablers are met on regular basis then new
working habits can be developed and innovation culture can be developed.
14

 People: Without passionate people it is not possible to enable innovation within an
organization. It is important to encourage people at work so that innovation can be enabled.
 Vision: one of the most powerful enabler is vision. Vision can help in enabling innovation
and find a solution to customer’s problem.
 Environment: an inclusive and collaborative environment is extremely important to enable
innovation.
9. Mechanism that can be implemented at system or process level to support innovative practises
Mechanisms to support innovative practises at both system or process level are:
 As it is already known that innovation requires taking of certain risk level. It is important for
organizations to embrace any kind of failure that they face. Any kind of failure whether at
process level or at system level should be embraced by the organization.
 At each level resource application should be done accurately so that innovation practises at
each level can be performed appropriately.
 Expose all the employees at each process level to open innovation so that innovation
practises can be carried out in an accurate manner.
10. Five challenges and barriers to innovation
Five challenges and barriers to innovation within an organization are:
 politics is one of the major barriers of innovation within an organization. It can work as one
of the biggest challenges to innovation especially for large organizations.
 Then comes cultural barrier that can work as a reason for unwillingness or failure of an
innovative project.
 Another challenge to innovation is incapability of employees to act on signals due to which
risk associated with innovation can also increase.
 Lack of budget is one of the most important challenge which is required to be focused on by
organization for innovation.
 One of the biggest barrier or challenge to innovation is lack of vision and lack of strategy.
11. Benefits of introducing change in the organization
There are various benefits of introducing change in an organization such as: Implementing
changes in an organization helps in saving overall cost of an organization in fact cost of change
can also be maintained. Introducing change within an organization can help in checking the
strength of organizational structure and identify requirement of changes within existing
15

organizational structure. It also helps in aligning existing resources within the organization.
Introducing changes within an organization also helps the organization to strengthen their
relationship with their clients, partners, customer’s etc. this can also help the organization to
strengthen their way of doing business within their partners, clients etc.
12. Ways to conduct research in organization
In order to conduct research in an organization for a particular issue it is important to
understand the minute details of the issues in a detailed manner so that research can be
conducted. Then the issue should be explained to the senior staff or board members so that they
can understand and agree on requirement, purpose and scope of the research. Then on the basis
of scope and purpose of the research, tasks, roles and responsibilities should be divided and
explained to each and every one. Regular reporting, sharing of findings, updates should be made.
13. Different types of leadership styles
There are various kinds of leadership styles but five of them are most commonly used such as:
 Laissez-Faire Leadership: Such kind of leaders do not directly supervise the employees as
they leave decision making to employees with little or no guidance.
 Autocratic Leadership: Such kind of leaders totally control all decisions and allow very little
or almost no input from employees.
 Participative Leadership: Also known as democratic leadership in which leaders encourage
participation from employees in decision making.
 Transactional Leadership: Such kind of leaders provide punishment and rewards to
employees in exchange of their performance.
 Transformational Leadership: Such kind of leaders create a vision for their employees and
communicate it quite often.
14. Characteristics of effective leaders
Few characteristics of effective leaders are:
 Leaders should have an ability to influence others which can only be done by building trust
with their employees.
 Transparency should be developed between leaders and employees so that employees can
trust their leaders.
 Effective leader should be able to encourage risk taking and innovation among their
employees.
16

 Leaders should value ethics and integrity as it is one of the most important characteristics of
a leader.
 Leaders should act decisively so that they can make strategic decisions quickly.
15. Possible requirements for sustainable innovation
First and the foremost requirement of sustainable innovation within an organization is to
build an innovative organizational culture where employees more motivated to participate and
share their innovative ideas. Second is to identify roles and responsibilities of employees for as
particular task or to achieve desired goal. Third is to have efficient and skilful employees who
are capable of thinking differently and innovatively for sustainable development. Last is to build
a strategy or process on the basis of which sustainable innovation within an organization can be
brought.
17

REFERENCES
Adams, R., and et.al., 2016. Sustainability‐oriented innovation: A systematic review.
International Journal of Management Reviews. 18(2). pp.180-205.
Baumann, T. and et.al., 2016. Education and innovation management: a contradiction? How to
manage educational projects if innovation is crucial for success and innovation
management is mostly unknown. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 226. pp.243-
251.
Biemans, W., 2018. Managing innovation within networks. Routledge.
Books and Journals
Brenner, W., Uebernickel, F. and Abrell, T., 2016. Design thinking as mindset, process, and
toolbox. In Design thinking for innovation (pp. 3-21). Springer, Cham.
Clapham, A. and Vickers, R., 2017. Policy, practice and innovative governance in the English
further education and skills sector. Research in Post-Compulsory Education. 22(3).
pp.370-390.
Dereli, D.D., 2015. Innovation management in global competition and competitive
advantage. Procedia-Social and behavioral sciences. 195. pp.1365-1370.
Goffin, K. and Mitchell, R., 2016. Innovation management: effective strategy and
implementation. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Horibe, F., 2016. Creating the innovation culture: Leveraging visionaries, dissenters, and other
useful troublemakers in your organization. VisionArts Inc.
Lane, D.A., 2016. Innovation cascades: artefacts, organization and attributions. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 371(1690). p.20150194.
Mahmoud-Jouini, S.B., Midler, C. and Silberzahn, P., 2016. Contributions of design thinking to
project management in an innovation context. Project Management Journal. 47(2).
pp.144-156.
Martín-de Castro, G., 2015. Knowledge management and innovation in knowledge-based and
high-tech industrial markets: The role of openness and absorptive capacity. Industrial
Marketing Management. 47. pp.143-146.
Zhu, W., and et.al., 2016, July. Research on training mode of improving college students'
innovative and practice ability. In 2016 2nd International Conference on Social Science
and Higher Education. Atlantis Press.
18