Harnessing Employee Innovation
Innovation is crucial for any company's success but is frequently hindered by the behaviour of managers.
A substantial amount of business and psychological research highlights the relationship between the willingness of an organisation to take the lead in innovation and its ultimate success. Some go as far as to suggest that innovation measures are as important as financial measures in evaluating a company's competitive position.
The Distinction Between Creativity and Innovation
Creativity is about the generation of novel ideas, alternatives, and possibilities - not novelty for its own sake, but novelty that can be applied and add value to an organisation's products and services. Innovation however, is about the successful implementation of these ideas. The distinction between creativity and innovation is an important one as employee creativity doesn't necessarily lead to innovative implementation.
Facilitating Employee Innovation
Converting employee creativity to an innovative output is something that can be greatly facilitated or inhibited by situational factors. Specifically, research by for example Patterson (2001) and Zhou (2003, 2004), consistently shows managerial behaviour has a large impact on employee innovation levels. Managers can influence innovation by instilling strong values, beliefs and assumptions that encourage creativity and innovation, thereby creating a climate that accepts and encourages innovative behaviour.
A number of managerial behaviours have been identified that are considered key to creating an innovative climate. These can be separated into 5 broad categories:
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supportive supervision (characterised by displaying empathy, respect, warmth, concreteness, trust and generally maintaining a supportive environment);
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encouragement (characterised by encouraging employees to pursue new ideas and voice their concerns);
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feedback (characterised by giving informative, valuable feedback);
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participative communication (characterised by encouraging and welcoming interaction and communication across all levels of the organisation);
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freedom (characterised by giving employees ownership and control over their work and ideas).
If employees do not perceive their managers as displaying these behaviours, their innovative output is likely to be greatly inhibited and subsequently have a negative impact on organisational productivity.
How can Human Assets Help?
Unfortunately, not all managers naturally display characteristics that are necessary to enhance subordinate innovation. As research highlights, innovation is crucial for keeping an organisation competitive and so, any factors that might inhibit employee innovation must be addressed and resolved.
To ensure that your employees have every opportunity to innovate, it is essential that you review your managers' style in relation to these characteristics shown to facilitate innovation. Building up a better understanding of your managers' strengths and potential development needs will have a number of positive effects:
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firstly, having insight into employees' perception of their manager's style will be thoroughly beneficial in terms of the managers' personal development;
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secondly, if managers adopt the behaviours essential for innovation to flourish, an overall organisational climate for innovation will be created, and so help sustain a competitive position;
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thirdly, a body of research, by for example Warr (2002) links the management style deemed essential for innovation as also being crucial for employee job satisfaction and morale.
Human Assets, a leading company of qualified business psychologists, can help you to improve your company's propensity to innovate. Our consultants, trained to develop and implement a wide range of organisational change and development strategies, can:
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evaluate the current climate for innovation;
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review management styles in relation to the facilitation of employee innovation;
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create personal development plans highlighting managers exercised strengths and problem areas that need to be addressed and resolved;
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provide tailored coaching for core problem areas;
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assess the manager and subordinate progress.
According to the Institute of Management two-thirds of British executives understand the importance of innovation. However, due to fast pace working conditions, are unable to focus on innovative development.
References
Patterson, F. (2001). Developments in Work Psychology: Emerging issues and future trends. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 74, 381-390.
Warr, P. (2002). Psychology at work. Personnel Psychology, 55, 1072-1074.
Zhou, J. (2004). Transformational Leadership, Conservation, and Creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 46, 703-715.
Zhou, J. (2003). When the Presence of Creative Coworkers is Related to Creativity: Role of Supervisor Close Monitoring, Developmental Feedback, and Creative Personality. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 413-422.
Newsletter: January 2005