SHR044-6: Mobilizing Creativity and Innovation in Organizations

This report assesses the role of organizational climate and support in fostering innovation within Arabian Industries, an Omani mechanical service provider. It utilizes organizational climate theory and the theory of continuous innovation to understand how the company promotes creativity. The analysis covers organizational leadership, human resource management, and the implementation of new management strategies. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing innovation, including investing in new technologies, optimizing procurement strategies, and addressing employee well-being to create a more supportive and flexible organizational culture. The aim is to provide actionable insights for Arabian Industries to maximize its innovative potential and maintain a competitive edge.

MOBILIZING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
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Executive summary
This study focuses on sustainability and development of organizational climate in determining
the promotion of innovation in the organization. For that reason, Arabian Industries has been
evaluated on the ground of their available organizational support for promoting organizational
creativity. In order to be more specific, organizational climate theory has been used to illuminate
the role of organizational climate in bringing new scopes for innovation. On the other hand,
theory of continuous innovation has been discussed in context of its importance as a mediator of
creative change in the above mentioned organization. Moreover, a plan and recommendations
have been mentioned that can be helpful for the chosen company in promoting innovation and
creativity. In this regard, this can be mentioned that procurement strategy along with use of new
technologies has been suggested as recommendations for the company that can be helpful for the
above mentioned purpose.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Analysis.......................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Background of the company......................................................................................................3
2.2 Role of organizational and group support for bringing innovation...........................................4
2.2.1 Organizational climate........................................................................................................4
2.2.2 Organizational leadership...................................................................................................4
2.2.3 Human resource management.............................................................................................4
2.3 Organizational innovation.........................................................................................................5
2.4 Developing a plan......................................................................................................................5
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
4. Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................8
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1. Introduction
Organizational innovation or creativity refers to implementation of a new and creative idea that
can help in maximizing the potential growth of an organization. Creativity on various levels of
an organization happens to work as a prerequisite for bringing innovative changes in that
business. In this context, it can be mentioned that there are many organizational barriers that
hinder the increased use of creativity in the workplace. For example, lack of trained and creative
employees and creative leaders can affect the promotion of innovation in any company. Thus,
this study has focused on organizational innovation and its role in increasing business
performance in the context of the Omani company namely Arabian Industries. The main focus of
this study is to illuminate the role of organizational climate and support in the promotion of
innovation. Moreover, a brief plan has been elaborated that can be useful for the above
mentioned company in initializing innovation with the help of organizational support.
2. Analysis
2.1 Background of the company
Arabian Industries is an Omani company, located in Saudi Arabia. This organization works as a
mechanical service provider that provides products and services to oil and gas industry and
infrastructure industry (arabian-industries.net, 2018). The company has been running for last 24
years and has been continuing in taking various construction related projects like piping erection,
mechanical maintenance, structure fabrication and more. The company claims that it is one of the
best construction service provider globally that has its own subsidiary company namely KMS
Limited. Arabian Industries has over 200 experienced and qualified employees and has a wide
range of qualified technical staff (arabian-industries.net, 2018). One of the most important
characteristics of this firm is that Arabian Industries has been equipped with a vast range of
construction related machinery. Moreover, organizational innovation has always been an
important look out of this organization while providing superior solution in the construction
sector.
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2.2 Role of organizational and group support for bringing innovation
2.2.1 Organizational climate
A major part of Organizational creativity depends on the overall organizational support the
company gets. In this regard, this can be added that organizational climate or culture helps in the
creation and implementation process of any innovative decision making of a company.
According to Dawson and Andriopoulos (2014), organizational climate includes the behavioral
environment of an organization that revolves around its employees. Thus, both individual and
group support is important in turning any innovative idea into reality (Arshi, 2012). Arabian
industries, with the help of their efficient employees, have always tried to give creative solutions
to mitigate needs of their clients through providing innovative products and services. On the
contrary, it has been noticed that the clients require fast delivery of services that hinders the
creative thinking process as it takes time.
2.2.2 Organizational leadership
Apart from employee involvement in coming up with innovative ideas, the role of leadership is
also very important in facilitating the innovative changes in the organizational atmosphere. As
mentioned by Anne Loewenberger, Newton and Wick (2014), unlike ordinary leadership,
creative leadership helps in motivating the employees so that they get encouraged to come up
with new creative ideas for the betterment of the organization they work on. For example,
Arabian industries has been known for taking challenging projects from all over the world so that
the monotony of and work pressure get diverted and as a result, excellent performances can be
generated.
2.2.3 Human resource management
On the other hand, human resource management of Arabian industries plays an important role in
implementing innovation and creativity in the organizational setting. For that reason, the human
resource of team of this company provides adequate training to its employees for turning them
into professional construction experts. Additionally, the organization uses attribute dependency
strategy through which the HR department makes a list of attributes related to external
environment and the HR team in order to their contribution in the innovation and creativity in
their services (Shipton et al. 2016). Moreover, the HR department has initiated a safety
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environment program that promotes employee safety in the workplace so that the employees can
work with full intensity in this organization.
2.3 Organizational innovation
Organizational creativity and innovation has a vital role in the business world of this decade that
goes through continuous ups and downs and faces a serious market competition as many SMEs
are being established rapidly. Thus, companies like Arabian Industries has been investing their
efforts and capital on the implementation process of new business methods to handle
organizational practices. In order to be more specific, Arabian industries has implemented new
management strategies such as business merger strategy. In this regard, this can be mentioned
that innovation and creativity are very important mediums for injecting value among its
employees in a rapidly changing business environment (arabian-industries.net, 2018). This is
more significant in organizations like Arabian industries that provide a wide range of services
and products.
As mentioned above, creative individuals can come up with new and productive ideas but that
can only be possible with the help of effective training (Loewenberger, 2013). As a result, the
organization can maximize the utilization of the available machineries to manufacture a wide
range of products with the help of creative and innovative problem solving methods. According
to Urbancova (2013), theory of continuous innovation supports the fact that no organization is
expected to generate a continuous success over a long period of time because this is impossible
to sustain in practice. On the contrary, this theory sides with the fact that organizations that show
an ability of learning from the failures but to never cease the innovative approach.
2.4 Developing a plan
New steps can be implemented in the organization in order to enhance the use and utilization of
both individual and organizational creativity in Arabian industries. According to Schneider,
Ehrhart and Macey (2013), the organizational leaders can give challenging tasks to the
employees so that their potentials can be maximized. In this context, this can be added that
resource cognition can work as a facilitator of organizational innovation process. In this regard,
this can be mentioned that the whole organizational support is needed in enhancing the role of
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innovation in product manufacturing and in delivering to the clients. For that reason, the
employees need to be allowed to make individual decisions that can be acted upon by them.
3. Conclusion
In order to conclude, this can be said that after the evaluation of the organization, this has been
found that the chosen organization has implemented innovative changes that helped them in
coming up with consistent creative solutions to mitigate client needs. On the other hand, it has
also been found that there are several areas where new strategies can be implemented in order to
maximize organizational support in enhancing organizational creativity. As per the evaluation of
the organization, this has been identified that continuous innovation is capable of helping the
company in its continuous and effective improvement. On the other hand, the process of
innovation can be enhanced with the help of a kind of organizational culture that supports the
growth of innovative employees and managers. Innovation plays an important role in keeping the
sustainability and stability of an organization for a very long time. Moreover, this study has
explained the role of organizational culture and environment in the promotion of innovation in
the chosen company.
4. Recommendations
Organizations belonging to construction sector such as the chosen company can implement
innovation in various ways. For example, the organization can invest more in innovative
techniques related to production of goods. Along with that, the company can increase the
chances or scopes for innovation by lowering the production costs and buy making the delivery
process faster. In addition, the aim of organizational climate of Arabian industries need to be
helping employees in enhancing personal growth by promoting value of integrity and honesty.
On the other hand, the organization can use procurement strategy that includes an increased role
of the customers and an integrated type of supply chain (ice.org.uk, 2018). Moreover, the
organization can use new technologies like sensors, BIM and more that can help in managing the
assets of the organization.
On the other hand, the human resource managers can take actions in order to deal with employee
burn outs. This is more significant for Arabian industries because here the workload is heavy and
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employees have to give their full concentration in their work to avoid any physical risk in the
workplace. In opinion of Wallace, Hunt and Richards (1999), the organizational culture needs to
be easy going and flexible so that individuals can come up with innovative ideas and can feel
free to share them with their superiors. Apart from that, many innovative strategies can be used
to promote innovation such as design thinking (Brown and Martin, 2015). Companies like
Google has seen success with the help of this innovative strategy that helped them understand the
client needs and how to satisfy them creatively.
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Reference list
Anne Loewenberger, P., Newton, M. and Wick, K., 2014. Developing creative leadership in a
public sector organisation. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 27(3), pp.190-
200.
arabian-industries.net, 2018, Arabian Industries, Available at: https://www.arabian-
industries.net/ [Accessed on: 30/12/2018]
Arshi, T.A., 2012. Entrepreneurial intensity in the corporate sector in Oman: The elusive search
creativity and innovation. International Business Research, 5(9), pp.171.
Brown, T. and Martin, R., 2015, Design for Action, Available at:
https://hbr.org/2015/09/design-for-action [Accessed on: 30/12/2018]
Dawson, P. and Andriopoulos, C., 2014. Managing change, creativity and innovation. Sage.US.
11(2), pp.21-39.
ice.org.uk, 2018, Eight steps towards innovation in construction, Available at:
https://www.ice.org.uk/knowledge-and-resources/best-practice/eight-steps-towards-innovation-
in-construction [Accessed on: 30/12/2018]
Loewenberger, P., 2013. The role of HRD in stimulating, supporting, and sustaining creativity
and innovation. Human Resource Development Review, 12(4), pp.422-455.
Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M.G. and Macey, W.H., 2013. Organizational climate and
culture. Annual review of psychology, 64(2), pp.361-388.
Shipton, H., Budhwar, P., Sparrow, P. and Brown, A., 2016. Human resource management,
innovation and performance: Looking across levels. In Human Resource Management,
Innovation and Performance Palgrave Macmillan, London. 12(1), pp.1-12.
Urbancova, H., 2013. Competitive advantage achievement through innovation and
knowledge. Journal of Competitiveness, 5(1).pp.29-31.
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Wallace, J., Hunt, J. and Richards, C., 1999. The relationship between organisational culture,
organisational climate and managerial values. International Journal of Public Sector
Management, 12(7), pp.548-564.
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