BSBINN502: Build Innovative Work Environment Assignment

This management assignment explores various aspects of building and sustaining an innovative work environment, focusing on BSBINN502. The assignment delves into leadership strategies such as brainstorming, customer involvement, and local sourcing of finished goods. It examines the importance of understanding innovation through a systems concept, emphasizing the interconnectedness of different departments. The student's answers highlight the benefits of employee involvement, the risks associated with innovation, and the need for contingency plans. The assignment also covers leadership characteristics necessary for building effective relationships, and the ways in which stakeholder consultation contributes to innovation. Overall, the assignment provides a comprehensive overview of key concepts related to fostering innovation within organizations and managing related challenges.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

1MANAGEMENT
BSBINN502 - BUILD AND SUSTAIN AN INNOVATIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT:
Activity 1.
Answer 2.
The following are the three examples of innovations which leaders might undertake:
Brainstorming:
The managers should encourage their subordinate employees to engage in forming
decisions. Oppong (2017) mentions that brainstorming encourages the employees participating in
particular decision making activities to express an array of ideas. This leads to generation of
ideas of different types including ‘out of the box’ ideas. This enables the managers to choose the
appropriate ideas expressed to form the business strategies.
Customer involvement:
Managers can adopt the innovative strategy of customer involvement while forming
business strategies. Cui and Wu (2017) mention that business organisations can involve their
customers in the process of product development. Here the customers here act as value co-
creators and co-develop the products. The managers should gain customer reviews and feedback
about products to identify the expectations of the customers from the products. The managers
should incorporate the feedbacks and suggestions gained from customers to form their product
strategies. This innovative NPD approach involving customers would ensure that the products of
the companies are more aligned to the needs and expectations of the customers. The products as
a result are able to ensure higher levels of customer satisfaction and generate higher revenue.
One can point out that this method of customer involvement in forming of product strategies are

2MANAGEMENT
helpful for smaller firms with limited resources and business networks which prevent them from
carrying out open innovation to develop products (Kimita et al. 2016).
Local sourcing of finished goods:
The managers overseeing procurement of finished goods should source materials from
the local suppliers instead of sourcing finished goods from foreign companies. The procurement
managers should procure goods like food products, skincare products and apparel from local
producers which would enable the companies keep their procurement costs low. The companies
would also be able to support the local suppliers in generating revenue which would eventually
bring about economic development in the local community. The local suppliers would also
supply superior quality goods to the companies at lower rates, which would result in lowering the
procurement costs of the latter.
Answer 3.
It is important for managers and leaders to understand innovation in terms of systems
concept because operations of all the departments or systems are interrelated. For example, the
marketing departments gains customer feedbacks about their expectations from the companies in
terms of product innovation. The manufacturing department checks whether the raw materials
required to manufacture innovative products are in the stock. If it is found that the inventory
available with the companies are insufficient to process the orders, the manufacturing department
informs the procurement department about the amount of inventory which has to be procured.
The procurement department informs the finance departments to release funds to procure the
inventory. The procurement department then procures the inventory of raw materials which the
manufacturing department channelizes into manufacturing of the innovative goods. The
marketing department then delivers the finished innovative products to the customers and the

3MANAGEMENT
revenue generated is once again received by the finance department. Thus, it can be established
on the basis of this discussion that the process of manufacturing of innovative products is
dependent of different systems/departments like marketing, procurement and finance which
points out to system concept.
Activity 2.
Answer 1.
Managers should encourage employees to give ideas, opinions and suggestions regarding
improvements and changes which would be beneficial to the business organisations due to the
following reasons:
Accurate decision making:
Generation of ideas and suggestions from employees results in innovation in the decision
making process. Woods et al. (2018) mention that generation of ideas in large numbers enables
in more creativity in decision making. For example, availability of large numbers of creative
ideas, suggestions and opinions enable the managers to consider an array of alternative strategies
which could be considered to achieve the business targets or overcome business challenges. They
are as a result able to make more accurate business decisions which ultimately leads to
improvement in the business.
Employee participation:
When managers encourage employees to express more opinions and ideas, employees are
encouraged to participate in the decision making processes. They feel a sense of belongingness
to the company which encourages them to proactively participate in the attainment of business
goals (Niesen et al. 2018).

4MANAGEMENT
Answer 2.
 Encouraging the employee to analyse the suggestion which he wants to present and
provide a more detailed picture.
 Hold a meeting with all the employees (including the employee having the idea) to
discuss on the suggestion.
 Motivate the employee to be more innovative while putting forward ideas.
 Interact customers to a greater extent to develop his customer management skills.
 Arrange training sessions to further improve the skills, knowledge and competence of the
employee.
 Encourage the employee to express more ideas and suggestion in the subsequent team
huddles.
Activity 3.
Answer 1.
Innovation involves risks of different types. Bustinza et al. (2019) mention that carrying
out innovation has emerged as a necessity before the business organisations in order align their
business operations with the changing macroeconomic conditions. However, they do not always
guarantee positive returns on the capital invested which results in risks. For example, business
organisations invest immense amount of financial resources to introduce innovative products into
the market in order to ensure higher level of customer satisfaction. However, if a competitor firm
introduces a more innovative product which is more aligned to the customer preferences, the
former company fails to generate the target revenue and incurs losses. Thus, failed innovations
expose firms to immense amount of risks like revenue risks.

5MANAGEMENT
Answer 2.
The risk which The General Confectionary Company would face owing to introduction of
the new product and recalling an existing product would be revenue risks. This because the new
product may not generate the target revenue in case it fails in the market. This would give rise to
revenue risks as the firm would lose revenue owing to failed NPD instead of gaining revenue
(Etriya et al. 2018). The firm can control this risk by promoting the new product aggressively in
the market in order to generate a strong demand among customers prior to launching the product.
The second risk which the confectionary company would face owing to the failed NPD
would be capital generation risks. This is because, if the company generate low amount of
revenue owing to failed NPD, it would not be able to give high ROI to investors. The investors
as a result would reduce their investments in the confectionary firm which would weaken its
operations. The confectionary firm can control this issue by ensuring that after successfully
tackling the revenue risk and generating high revenue, it should give high returns to the investors
(Grimpe et al. 2017).
Answer 3.
Contingency plans are alternate plans that are required to be implemented once the
original plan in the process fails to impress. These plans enable the business organisations to
manage challenging situations. For example, the companies in order to sustain in the market and
ensure that their products have minimum negative impacts on the environment, are compelled to
introduce products made from environment friendly raw materials which are usually more
expensive compared to their synthetic counterparts. Thus, one can point out that the firms in
order to bear this increase in the cost of procurement (Katsikeas, Leonidou and Zeriti 2016). One
can also point out that the firms may face shortage of raw materials which would capsize the

6MANAGEMENT
entire product strategy, thus leading to immense financial losses. Thus, in this case business
organisations have to maintain contingency plans like maintaining stand by financial resources to
minimise the loss they would incur due to the shortage of environmental friendly raw materials.
The term contingency plan can is not restricted to financial resources. The business organisations
may maintain human resources, inventory and even technology to tackle sudden business
challenges (Sharma 2018).
Contingency plans are necessary which introducing new or innovative change. This is because
adopting innovative or innovative changes usher both benefits and create challenges before the
companies. For example, business organisations in order to streamline their operations with the
market requirements often bring about innovations like restructuring their management structure
and redesigning the jobs of the some of the managers. These steps may result in alteration of the
jobs of certain managers and the latter may view these changes as threats. The managers may
enter into conflict with the management which would impact productivity, thus causing revenue
risks. Thus, the firms have to maintain alternative plans to deal with these issues (Micu et al.
2018). They may offer training, counselling and mentoring to the managers to cooperate in
implementation of the innovations (change in management structure). Introduction of new and
innovative changes can bring about risk in terms of failure and thus the adoption of contingency
plans is required. It can help in ensuring that alternate strategies are adopted so that sliding of the
initial failure can be taken into account for the failure implemented during the process.

7MANAGEMENT
Activity 4.
Answer 2.
The leaders should exhibit several characteristics to build effective relationships based on
mutual respect and trust with their subordinate employees. First of all, the leaders should exhibit
a diversity management leadership. Kundu, Mehra and Mor (2017) mention that diversity
management leads to ‘Employee personal development, self-esteem, morale, involvement toward
organisation.’ When leaders exhibit diversity management by accepting and respecting
employees from diverse diversity dimensions like gender, race and cultural origin, the employees
develop trust in those leaders. Secondly, when managers train and mentor employees, it creates
greater amount of trust and mutual respect between them. When managers instead of merely
assigning targets to employees, train and mentor them to achieve the targets, it creates a sense of
collaboration between the two. The employees feel more related to the respective teams and the
company as a whole. This boosts mutual respect and trust between the management and the
employees.
Activity 5.
Answer 2.
Consultation with stakeholders including employees can contribute to innovation and the
success of innovations in several ways. Doran and Ryan (2017) while shedding light on the
importance of innovation in the business generation and the very survival of the firms mention
that, ‘Today a firm’s growth and survival depend on its ability to innovate.’ This statement
clearly points out that importance of innovations in firms. Firms in order to boost their
innovation prowess, can engage stakeholders. For example, when management bodies of

8MANAGEMENT
companies consult employees, who are internal stakeholders prior to making product decisions.
The employees dealing with the customers directly have greater knowledge about the
expectations and requirements of the customers. These employees as a result can express ideas
which are more aligned to the expectations of the customers, thus leading to innovation (Gaur et
al. 2017). Similarly external stakeholders like bankers of firms can also contribute towards
innovations in the operations. For example, the banking partners can provide the management of
the firms with innovative investment methods and financial products which would likely give
higher profits to the companies concerned (Stern 2017). Thus, in order words external
stakeholders can lead to innovations. Thus, one can transpire that consultation of internal and
external stakeholders leads to innovation in the firms.
Activity 7.
Team leaders and managers leading the management bodies of certain organisations have
to take steps to implement innovation within the teams under their respective leadership and the
organisations as a whole (Khandakar, Huq and Sultana 2018). The following are the ways in
which these team leaders and apex managers can implement innovations within their teams and
organisations under their respective control.
Participation leadership:
The managers heading organisations should gain participation of the departmental heads
while making important decisions. They should encourage the managers to use their knowledge,
experience and skills to come up with ideas which would ultimately contribute towards making
apex decisions. Similarly, the departmental heads should encourage the employees holding
different positions within the respective departments like the managers and assistant managers to

9MANAGEMENT
participate in their strategy making activities (Mwakajila, Kessy and Sanga 2020). They should
even encourage the lower level employees to express ideas but the right to take. However, the
managers both at the organisational and departmental levels should reserve the right and power
to take the final decisions to themselves. This would ensure that ideas expressed by employees
are actually streamlined in order to align the requirements of the company. Thus, the leaders
would be able to reject less appropriate ideas and incorporate ideas into their strategies. Thus,
adopting of participative leadership would enable the leaders both in the departmental and
organisational levels to maximise the opportunities to bring about innovation in the departments
and companies respectively under their control.
Training the employees:
The managers should train employees in order to align them to participate in the
innovations. One can point out that the first step to which the managers can implement in
adopting innovation within their respective loci of control namely, participation leadership. This
is because, in order to ensure that the employees are able to put forward appropriate ideas to
implement innovations with operations like financial management and marketing strategies
would require certain amount of training (Gupta and Barua 2016). For example, in order to
acquire new customers using innovative products, the front line employees would have to
develop knowledge about the innovative products they would market. Similarly, in order to
manufacture goods by using more innovative techniques, the manufacturing department
employees require to be trained in the innovative techniques. Thus, one can establish that
managers both at the organisational levels and departmental levels would be required to offer
training to employees in order to implement innovations. This would in fact encourage the
employees to participate in the innovations. The employees on the contrary without proper

10MANAGEMENT
training would resent innovations which would lead to conflicts, thus ultimately leading to the
failure of the innovations on the whole. Thus, training of employees on innovations can enable
the organisations to implement innovations more successfully.
Challenge the employees:
Team leaders and organisational managers need to provide challenges to the team so that
team bonding can improve. It is also necessary that during innovation ideas be welcomed so that
development of each of the ideas can help in determining the positiveness of the actions
undertaken. At the same time, it is also necessary that every employee be provided with an
opportunity to display their talents so that proper positioning of the teams can be made
(Khandakar, Huq and Sultana 2018). Thus, overall, it can be said that the adoption of the
democratic leadership style can help in the building and leading of successful teams within an
organisation.
Activity 8.
Answer 1.
Managers and leaders can reward innovations in financial and non-financial ways. Freitas
et al. (2017) mention that firms should provide financial incentives to employees to reward them
for taking initiatives in the implementation of the innovation strategies. The employees could
also be given special bonuses to reward for participation in innovations in the companies. The
managers can reward employees for innovations using non-financial strategies like providing
them with awards and appreciations.
It is necessary to reward employees for their participation in innovation. Gloet and
Samson (2017) mention that rewarding employees for participating in innovations motivates

11MANAGEMENT
them to participate to a higher level in the future innovations. Dhir (2019) strengthens the
argument by mentioning that embracing innovations enables companies to embrace changes.
Thus, if the employees are motivated to participate in the innovations, this paves ways for the
companies to lead them towards embracing organisational changes more collaboratively. Thus,
one can clearly point out that gaining employee support in innovations leading to organisational
changes enable the management of the companies to minimise resistance to changes among
employees. Thus, it transpires from the description that it is necessary for managers to reward
employees for innovations in order to gain their participation and voluntary support in future
innovation strategies as well as change management strategies.
Answer 2.
It is important to celebrate innovations and the successful implementations of innovative
ideas in order to encourage future innovations. Vlados (2019) mentions that innovations are
usually triggered by organisational changes which attract resistance from employees. If this
resistance from employees are not managed in suitable ways, it would lead to preventing the
organisations from embracing changes. The organisations would consequently fail to adapt to the
changing business environmental factors like changes in customer preferences and would
ultimately fail in the market. Celebrating innovations and successful implementations of
innovations would motivate the employees to participate in the innovation strategies which
business organisations take. This would ensure that the employees offer less resistance to change
embracement which would ultimately enable the organisations to adapt to the changing market
conditions more seamlessly which ensures greater degree of market performance.

12MANAGEMENT
Activity 9.
The organisational leaders and managers can promote and reinforce the value of
innovation in alignment with the vision and the contexts of the organisations they lead by
adopting the following strategies:
Holding meetings with the employees:
The managers at the top level of the companies can hold meeting with the middle level
manager to inform them about the necessity of aligning the innovations and their
implementations in line with the organisational contexts and visions. Geissdoerfer (2019) while
elaborating on the importance of innovation mentions, ‘The capability to quickly and
successfully innovate ones business model becomes an increasingly important competitive
advantage for organisations, due to falling returns on technology.’ The top managers should
inform the middle level managers about the necessity and benefits of operating in innovative
ways, which may to some extent require changes in the operational methods. For example, in
case of companies aiming to launch innovative products, the top managers would point out to the
middle level managers the necessity of embracing the innovative NPD and the expected benefits
which the company would gain for the introduction of the innovative products. Similarly, the
marketing departmental head may require to change his customer management approaches in
order to market the new innovative products. Similarly, the management of the firms have to
ensure that their innovation strategies and the reinforcement of the innovation strategies are
aligned to the organisational contexts like legal factors (external organisational contexts). These
innovation strategies should also be aligned with the long term growth target which the
companies mention in their vision statements. Thus, one can point that holding meeting with the
middle level employees would enable the top managers create awareness among the middle level

13MANAGEMENT
managers about the need to align the innovations and the implementation of the innovation
strategies with the organisational contexts and visions. In fact, the middle level managers should
in turn hold similar meetings with the lower level employees to create awareness about the
necessity of aligning innovations with organisational contexts and visions among them.
Training of employees:
The management of the companies should train the employees to align their innovations
with the organisational contexts and vision. For example, the employees in the manufacturing
department involved in manufacturing of innovative goods (reinforcement of innovation) should
be trained to operate plants in ways so as to generate minimum wastes which lowers
environmental damage (external organisational contexts) and financial losses therewith (internal
organisational contexts).
Activity 10.
Answer 1.
It is necessary to evaluate to impact of physical environment in pertaining to innovation
because the physical environmental conditions have direct impacts on the innovations and their
success levels (Geissdoerfer 2019). Physical environmental factors like climate and availability
of raw materials have direct impacts on the innovations. For example, markets, especially the
developed and developing ones, with readily available resources like financial capital and
manpower are able to provide business organisations with these resources at more economic
rates to carry out innovations. Thus, it is evident that evaluation of physical environmental
factors have important impacts on innovations and need to be considered by organisations prior
to forming innovation strategies.

14MANAGEMENT
Answer 2.
The following are the resources which should be available to foster, promote and
encourage innovations in business organisations:
Financial resources:
Business organisations require to allocate immense financial resources to bring about and
boost innovations (Pradhan et al. 2016). Availability of financial capital ensures that the firms
are able to procure other resources like manpower and materials to embrace innovations.
Manpower:
Manpower is one of the most important resources which business organisations need to
acquire and retain to achieve high level of innovation (Haneda and Ito 2018). This is because the
employees which companies acquire at management, middle and lower levels make and
implement innovation strategies respectively.
Other resources:
The firms in order to foster and reinforce innovations need to acquire other resources like
technological resources, knowledge and raw materials. The firms should also collaborate with
other firms to bring about innovation to get access to more resources.
Activity 13.
Answer 2.
The learning opportunities out of the square which could be provided to the employees to
boost their creative and innovative skills would be simulations and brainstorming. Simulation

15MANAGEMENT
would enable the employees to participate in activities like decision making which would
resemble real life situations.
Brainstorming would encourage the employees to generate and express ideas to tackle
given situations like entry of new competitors in the markets. This generation of myriads of ideas
provide an array of suggestions before the manager to form innovative strategies.
Summative assessment 1.
Answer 2.
The context for innovation in the workplaces refers to generation of new ideas to
introduce new products (goods, services or both). These new products are more aligned to the
market conditions. For example, business organisations introduce new products which are
aligned to the customer preferences and expectations. These products as a result more aligned to
market environmental factors like changing customer preferences which in turn enable the
business organisations generate higher revenue. Thus, one can also point out that the context of
innovation enables organisations to align their strategies with their business targets like
generating higher revenue. The second example of innovation contexts are streamlining of the
management structure of companies to enhance decision making. The third example of
innovation context is acquisition of modern plants which consume less energy while the fourth
example is the recycling of wastes. The fifth example of innovation context is entering into open
innovation with other firms while the sixth context is redesigning the job responsibilities of the
employees. The seventh context is to invest knowledge management systems while the eighth
contexts is acquisition of new suppliers. The ninth context is to recall less innovative products

16MANAGEMENT
while the tenth context is engage external stakeholders like customers in the innovation
processes.
Summative assessment 2.
Answer 1.
The organisation chosen in this case is Woolworths. The organisation is prepared to
undertake changes so that it can succeed. The table shows that the risks which the supermarket
giant is likely to face while operating in the retail market of Australia which is extremely
competitive. For example, in order to tackle the risk of competition which it would face from
competitors like Coles, the management of Woolworths would adopt strategies like promoting its
products more aggressively in the market of Australia. The supermarket chain would also adopt
the strategies of introducing new products in its product line. The supermarket may also
introduce new products which would be more innovative compared to its previous products. It
can also be pointed out that the supermarket chain on the contrary to tackling risks it would face
owing to entry of new competitors, the retail chain can take no step to deal with natural
calamities. It can however evacuate its retail outlets off employees and inventory of finished
goods to the possible extent in order to reduce the risks. Thus, one can establish that Woolworths
is prepared to tackle the risks which it would face in the market. One can also point out that the
retail chain giant can mitigate certain risks like threats from competitors by adopting methods
like promotion and new product development. However, the firm has no power to deal with risks
like natural calamities. It can take steps like evacuation of employees and inventory of finished
goods to the possible extent to reduce the losses.

17MANAGEMENT
Answer 2.
The concept of risk is important to change, innovation and market place success of
organisations because the former necessitate the companies to embrace the latter. Subramanian et
al. (2016) mentions that business organisations face risks owing to changes in the external
market conditions. These business organisations like Woolworths are forced to implement
innovations in order to mitigate or at least minimise these risks. These risks and innovations also
necessitate the organisations to embrace organisations in order to emerge successful in the
market. For example, the increase in rates of import taxes require companies to bear higher
expenses to acquire raw materials from overseas markets. The companies in order to control their
procurement expenses would consequently be forced to reduce their production of goods which
would hit their revenue generation (revenue risks). Thus, the companies in order to ensure that
their procurement expenses remain within control in spite of the increase in import tax rates
(legal risks) and their production is not hit, can bring out innovation in their production
processes. They can acquire modern machinery which would be capable of processing the raw
materials optimally to produce goods. This means they would be able to produce more goods
from the raw materials imported which would reduce their import expenses without hitting their
production and consequent revenue generation. Thus, it is clear from the example, the risks
necessitate business organisation embrace changes in their operational areas like production and
innovations which ultimately attributes them with market success.
Answer 3.
The attitude of Woolworths towards dealing of failure, mistakes and lack of success at
individual or personal levels is extremely strategic. When the employees of the retail chain giant

18MANAGEMENT
of Australia are faced with failure or mistakes to achieve their assigned targets like customer
satisfaction levels or customer acquisition targets, they undergo training and mentoring.
Answer 4.
The continuous improvement support like training and mentoring which Woolworth’s
offers to the employees to improve their skills and competencies have strong positive feel on the
employees (Obeidat et al. 2016). These continuous improvement strategies create a feel of
relatedness to the retail giant among the employees. They as a result participate in the sessions
which involve presenting of suggestions and proposing new ideas which are directed towards
development of new products. The employees are motivated further to improve their skills and
competencies to perform better owing to the sense of belongingness to the retail chain they
experience.
Answer 5.
The organisations like Woolworths should view mistakes strategically in order to
proactively support changes and innovation. They should train the employees on doing mistakes
instead of making them feel victimised. For example, if an employee fails to provide superior
services to a customer or fails to answer a customer’s query, the reporting manager should view
this failure on the part of the employee as a training need (Obeidat et al. 2016). The employee
should undergo training and mentoring sessions which would enhance his skills and
competencies of serving customers. This approach (training and mentoring) of organisation of
dealing with the mistakes committed by employees of create a sense of belongingness to the
organisation. These employees as a result view the innovation strategies of the company is a
positive light (Olayiwola, Akeke and Odusanya 2019). They contribute towards the making of
the innovation strategies for the retail chain by putting forward new ideas and suggestions. These

19MANAGEMENT
employees would as a result present less resistance to the organisational changes which would be
embraced by Woolworths to implement innovative ideas (Nash and Hann 2017).
Answer 6.
The front line managements can support and encourage employees to gain their
contributions towards innovation by taking several steps. The first step which the managers can
take to encourage employees to contribute in the innovations is by encouraging them to
participate in the innovation strategies. For example, the employees could be encouraged to
express ideas and suggestions which would be considered while making the innovation
strategies.
The second step which the managers can take to encourage employees take part in the
innovations in the organisations is by training them. For example, the managers in Woolworths
can train employees on the changing market scenarios like changing customer preferences. The
customers today use smart phones to shop from online retail chains, make online payments for
retail purchases and give their reviews about the experiences of shopping from the retail chains
like Woolworths (Wulfert, Betzing and Becker 2019). The retail chain giant in order ensure
higher level of customer shopping experience has to bring about innovations in the customer
management practices which would mean the marketing team employees would have to be more
responsive to the expectations of the customers in order to generate revenue. The employees
upon gaining knowledge about the changing market scenarios like changing customer
preferences as discussed above and the need to align these contexts in order to generate higher
revenue would be motivated to adopt their modes of customer management by adopting more
innovative strategies. Thus, it can be pointed out that managers can provide training to encourage

20MANAGEMENT
employees encourage them to participate in the innovations in the business organisations like
Woolworths.
Answer 7.
The work conditions and procedures in place in the business organisations like
Woolworths should conductive to support innovation. The work place environment should have
certain aspects in practice in order to support innovation. The first aspect which should be in
place should be a continuous channel of communication between the employees across
designations and departments. This would enable continuous flow of information like changing
customer expectations and changes in laws which would be instrumental in triggering
innovations and supporting the entire innovation strategies. Secondly, the organisational policies
of the organisations should be responsive the changing expectations and needs of employees. For
example, the organisations policies should enable the employees obtain training and
development needs to enhance their knowledge and skills (Obeidat et al. 2016). Thirdly, the
management of the organisation should ensure that employees irrespective designations are
treated ethically and are not exploitation. The management should also ensure that there is strong
organisational conflict management systems in place to deal with conflicts between employees
based on grounds like ethics and morality (Nash and Hann 2017). Fourthly, the HR policies of
the companies should have provisions of rewarding employees for participating in innovations
and putting pertinent ideas in line with the innovations.
Answer 8.
There are several barriers which exists within organisations which prevent them from
adopting innovation. The first barrier which inhibits organisations from embracing innovations
is scarcity of financial resources. Usman and Vanhaverbeke (2017) mention that firms often need

21MANAGEMENT
to enter into open innovations in order to bring about innovative products and business solutions
which surpass the innovations of their competitors. Open innovation, though extremely
important to bring about ground breaking innovations, is extremely expensive. Thus,
multinational companies are able to carry on large scale innovations while the small scale
forming the majority portion of the global industry are deprived of innovations in general owing
to their lack of financial resources.
The second barrier which firms face while adopting innovations is the scarcity of
available technology at their disposal and lack of KMS, both of which are important for
innovation. Zanello et al. (2016) mention that firms in order to embrace innovations require to
immense body of knowledge about stakeholder preferences like customers preferences and
supplier expectations. This means that the companies in order to acquire, retain, manage and
share this immense bodies of knowledge require to acquire KMS which once again attracts
immense capital investments. The small firms owing to the lack financial resources cannot be
acquire the advanced technological software and hardware, both of which are expensive.
The third barrier to innovations which business organisations, mostly the small scale
firms in general face while carrying out innovation is scarcity of human resources and scarcity
professional development opportunities available to present employees. The small scale firms
owing to their limited resources are not able to acquire new manpower. They are also not able to
offer professional development opportunities to employees owing to lack of resources like access
to training facilities, consultancy firms and training materials, of all which are expensive. Thus
scarcity of manpower and training facilities impede firms, small firms specifically from
embracing innovation (Azar and Ciabuschi 2017).

22MANAGEMENT
Answer 9.
Managers can lead by examples to encourage their subordinate employees to embrace
innovations by themselves embracing innovations. For example, the management of Woolworths
introduces an innovative customer management plan which would require the employees
including the floor managers and sales staff show cultural intelligence to the customers by
greeting customers on religious occasions including the non-Christian festivals. This would
require the employees update about the different festivals celebrated in Australia, including
which do not pertain to Christianity. Some of the lower employees may resent. The top and
middle should set examples by themselves going and greeting customers on religious occasions.
This would obviously encourage the lower level employees in embracing this practice of
innovative customer management strategies by showing regard to their religious background,
thus strengthening diversity management.
Answer 10.
The managers can provide different types of training or learning & development
opportunities to employees to develop their innovative skills. For example, the employees can be
given training on changing market conditions. The employees should be given knowledge about
changing customer preferences and technological advancements taking place in the industry
(retail industry for Woolworth’s employees). Similarly, the employees should be given
knowledge about innovations which the competing firms are bringing about in their product lines
and operations. The employees after gaining these bodies of knowledge would be encouraged
and motivated to develop their innovative skills.

23MANAGEMENT
Answer 11.
Managers should evaluate their own approaches to innovation for consistency with wider
organisational or project contexts to ensure their operations are aligned with the contextual
factors. For example, the managers should ensure that innovative products which the company
introduces in the market do not breach the Competition and Consumer Act 2010
(Consumerlaw.gov.au. 2020). Similarly, they have to ensure that the innovations which the
companies (like Woolworths) do not breach the welfare of the stakeholders like employees and
suppliers. Thus, when managers evaluate their approaches to innovation, they ensure that their
approaches do not contravene with the laws and policies which the organisation require to
comply with.
Answer 12.
Physical environmental factors within which business organisations operate play very
significant role in carrying out innovations in these business organisations. For example,
presence of a large network of suppliers, business partners and research laboratories enable
companies to bring about innovations. Similarly, availability of skilled technical manpower also
enable firms to carry out innovations. Firms on the contrary operating in markets which are
technologically poor are not able to adopt high level innovations. Thus, physical environmental
factors impact innovations in organisations very strongly. Business organisations can strengthen
their innovation capacities by bringing about changes in the internal factors like training their
manpower. However, changing the external market conditions are concerned, business
organisations alone cannot take any step. Collaboration with employees to generate ideas to
improve physical work environment to support innovation is significant. This is because,
employees are able to provide myriads of ideas to bring about improvement in the physical

24MANAGEMENT
environment to boost innovation. For example, the employees may generate ideas like proposing
of names new local suppliers (element of physical environment) with which the company may
enter into procurement contracts to replace underperforming suppliers to acquire raw materials to
manufacture innovative products. Thus, it can be established that companies can collaborate with
employees to enhance physical environment and boost innovations (Vlados 2019).
Answer 13.
The legislative framework which impacts the innovations of business organisations is
the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Consumerlaw.gov.au. 2020).

25MANAGEMENT
References:
Azar, G. and Ciabuschi, F., 2017. Organizational innovation, technological innovation, and
export performance: The effects of innovation radicalness and extensiveness. International
Business Review, 26(2), pp.324-336.
Bustinza, O.F., Gomes, E., Vendrell‐Herrero, F. and Baines, T., 2019. Product–service
innovation and performance: the role of collaborative partnerships and R&D intensity. R&D
Management, 49(1), pp.33-45.
Consumerlaw.gov.au. 2020. Consumerlaw.gov.au. [online] Available at:
https://consumerlaw.gov.au/australian-consumer-law/legislation [Accessed 30 Jan. 2020].
Cui, A.S. and Wu, F., 2017. The impact of customer involvement on new product development:
Contingent and substitutive effects. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 34(1), pp.60-
80.
Dhir, S., 2019. The changing nature of work, leadership, and organizational culture in future
ready organizations. Corporate culture, Management, Leadership, Job redesign, Organizational
Behavior, Innovation, Change Management, Human Resources, VUCA.
Doran, J. and Ryan, G., 2017. The role of stimulating employees’ creativity and idea generation
in encouraging innovation behaviour in Irish firms. The Irish Journal of Management, 36(1),
pp.32-48.
Etriya, E., Scholten, V., Wubben, E., Kemp, R. and Omta, O., 2018. The importance of
innovation adoption and generation in linking entrepreneurial orientation with product

26MANAGEMENT
innovation and farm revenues. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 21(7),
pp.969-988.
Freitas, Â., Correia, A., Braga, A. and Braga, V., 2017, September. Financial Incentives for
Employees to Develop new Ideas and Their Importance to Stimulate Creativity in Portuguese
Firms. In 12th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship ECIE 2017 (p. 248).
Gaur, S.S., Sharma, P., Herjanto, H. and Kingshott, R.P., 2017. Impact of frontline service
employees’ acculturation behaviors on customer satisfaction and commitment in intercultural
service encounters. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.
Geissdoerfer, M., 2019. Sustainable business model innovation: Process, challenges and
implementation (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge).
Gerner-Beuerle, C., 2017. Diffusion of regulatory innovations: the case of corporate governance
codes. Journal of Institutional Economics, 13(2), pp.271-303.
Gloet, M. and Samson, D., 2017, January. Linking Knowledge Management, Business
Excellence and Innovation Performance. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences.
Grimpe, C., Sofka, W., Bhargava, M. and Chatterjee, R., 2017. R&D, marketing innovation, and
new product performance: a mixed methods study. Journal of Product Innovation
Management, 34(3), pp.360-383.
Gupta, H. and Barua, M.K., 2016. Identifying enablers of technological innovation for Indian
MSMEs using best–worst multi criteria decision making method. Technological Forecasting
and Social Change, 107, pp.69-79.

27MANAGEMENT
Haneda, S. and Ito, K., 2018. Organizational and human resource management and innovation:
Which management practices are linked to product and/or process innovation?. Research
Policy, 47(1), pp.194-208.
Katsikeas, C.S., Leonidou, C.N. and Zeriti, A., 2016. Eco-friendly product development strategy:
antecedents, outcomes, and contingent effects. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 44(6), pp.660-684.
Khandakar, M.S.A., Huq, K. and Sultana, S., 2018. Perception of Employees Regarding
Participation in Decision Making and Problem Solving: A study On Different Branches of Banks
in Dhaka City. ABC Research Alert, 6(1).
Kimita, K., Sugino, R., Rossi, M. and Shimomura, Y., 2016. Framework for Analyzing
Customer Involvement in Product-service Systems. Procedia CIRP, 47(1), pp.54-59.
Kundu, S.C., Mehra, L. and Mor, A., 2017. Effect of Diversity Management on Employees
Intention to Quit: Mediating Role of Employee Motivation. Journal of Strategic Human
Resource Management, 6(3), p.17.
Micu, A., Micu, A.E., Capatina, A., Cristache, N. and Dragan, B.G., 2018. Market intelligence
precursors for the entrepreneurial resilience approach: The case of the Romanian eco-label
product retailers. Sustainability, 10(1), p.190.
Mwakajila, H.M., Kessy, S.S. and Sanga, J.J., 2020. Employees’ Participation and Innovative
Work Behaviour in Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania. ORSEA
JOURNAL, 9(1).

28MANAGEMENT
Nash, D. and Hann, D., 2017. Organizational Innovators: A Study of Workplace Intra-Employee
Conflict Management Strategies.
Niesen, W., Van Hootegem, A., Vander Elst, T., Battistelli, A. and De Witte, H., 2018. Job
insecurity and innovative work behaviour: A psychological contract perspective. Psychologica
Belgica, 57(4), p.174.
Obeidat, B.Y., Hashem, L., Alansari, I. and Al-Salti, Z., 2016. The effect of knowledge
management uses on total quality management practices: A theoretical perspective. Journal of
Management and strategy, 7(4), pp.18-29.
Olayiwola, P.O., Akeke, S.S. and Odusanya, O.M., 2019. Quality Control Management and
Customer Retention in Selected Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria: An Empirical Analysis.
Oppong, N.Y., 2017. Exploring the importance of human resource activities-strategies
alignments: Interactive brainstorming groups approach. Cogent Business & Management, 4(1),
p.1273081.
Pradhan, R.P., Arvin, M.B., Hall, J.H. and Nair, M., 2016. Innovation, financial development
and economic growth in Eurozone countries. Applied Economics Letters, 23(16), pp.1141-1144.
Sharma, B.N., 2018. Green Marketing and Environment. Janapriya Journal of Interdisciplinary
Studies, 7(1), pp.95-99.
Stern, C., 2017. Fintechs and their emergence in banking services in CESEE. Focus on
European Economic Integration Q, 3, pp.42-58.
Subramanian, V., Semenzin, E., Hristozov, D., Zabeo, A., Malsch, I., McAlea, E., Murphy, F.,
Mullins, M., van Harmelen, T., Ligthart, T. and Linkov, I., 2016. Sustainable nanotechnology

29MANAGEMENT
decision support system: bridging risk management, sustainable innovation and risk
governance. Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 18(4), p.89.
Usman, M. and Vanhaverbeke, W., 2017. How start-ups successfully organize and manage open
innovation with large companies. European Journal of Innovation Management.
Vlados, C., 2019. Change Management and Innovation in the'Living Organization': The Stra.
Tech. Man Approach. Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, 7(2), pp.229-256.
Woods, S.A., Mustafa, M.J., Anderson, N. and Sayer, B., 2018. Innovative work behavior and
personality traits. Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Wulfert, T., Betzing, J.H. and Becker, J., 2019. Eliciting Customer Preferences for Shopping
Companion Apps: A Service Quality Approach.
Zanello, G., Fu, X., Mohnen, P. and Ventresca, M., 2016. The creation and diffusion of
innovation in developing countries: A systematic literature review. Journal of Economic
Surveys, 30(5), pp.884-912.