Tlc role of a leader - greasley

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The Role of the Organizational Leaderin Promoting and Sustaining

Innovation

The Role of the Organizational Leaderin Promoting and Sustaining

Innovation

Paul GreasleyTimely Leadership ConsultingWest Palm Beach, FL

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IntroductionIntroduction

• Individual leaders influence corporate innovative practice

• Innovation at the organizational level requires effective leaders who apply leadership best practices in working with organizational members

• The focus of the corporate leader is on maximizing the inherent power of the innovative process by:

• Building interrelationships and interactions among people

• Fostering communicative practices among components of the organization

• Enabling the diverse perspectives that emerge from different operating environments

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Definition of Creativity and InnovationDefinition of Creativity and Innovation

Creativity ≠ Innovation

• Creativity – individual focus

• Ability to produce work that is both novel (original, unexpected) and appropriate (useful, adaptive concerning task constraints)

• Concepts include ideas, inventions, and breakthroughs

• Innovation – Group focus

• Process of developing and implementing new ideas

• Process of bringing original problem solving ideas into practical application

Leaders influence both creativity and innovation

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Organizational Impediment to Creativity and Innovation

Organizational Impediment to Creativity and Innovation

Impediment = Over Control

• Single most significant factor that impedes organizational innovation is over control

• An organizational culture that supports and encourages control results in diminished creativity and innovation

• Principal reason for this impediment is that over control negatively influences intrinsic motivation

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Propositions Related to OrganizationalCulture and Innovation


9 Propositions about Innovation

• Much has been researched and written about innovation as influenced by organizational culture that is directly shaped by leaders

• Based on scholarly research, nine propositions are presented and are intended to serve as the stimulus for dialogue about innovation and innovative practice within organizations

Amabile, T.M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J. & Herron, M. Assessing the work environment for creativity. Academy of Management Journal. 39(5), p. 1154-1185.

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Proposition 1:

Organization innovation occurs in organizations that provide a context that contains both enabling and motivating conditions for innovation; innovation will not occur where either factor is missing.

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Proposition 2:

Innovation effectiveness is positively associated with frequency of communication among persons having dissimilar frames of reference.

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Proposition 3:

Competition with peer units in the organization for scarce resources is associated with reduced innovation effectiveness.

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Proposition 4:

Innovation effectiveness is positively related to the extent to which the organization is able to integrate creative personalities into the organizational mainstream.

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Proposition 5:

The level of organizational innovation is higher in organic organizations than in mechanistic organizations, particularly under conditions of environmental change and uncertainty.

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Proposition 6:

The level of innovative activity in an organization is positively associated with the availability of innovation role models or mentors who enjoy high status in the organization and who are appropriately rewarded for their innovative contributions.

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Proposition 7:

The level of innovative activity in an organization is higher in an organization where there is a consensus between the organization and members that spontaneous, innovative behaviors are a legitimate part of the psychological contract that represents the mutual beliefs, perceptions, and informal obligations that exist between a leader and an organizational member.

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Proposition 8:

Innovation success is positively related to the leaders ability to balance team members’ commitment to the innovation and to the larger organization.

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Proposition 9:

Innovation effectiveness is positively associated with group cohesiveness, provided that an open, confrontive climate for conflict resolution exists within the innovation team. Absent such a climate, cohesiveness is negatively related to the level of innovation in the team.

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Summary and Conclusion

Role of a Leader in Promoting and Sustaining Innovation

• Fundamentally, leadership is contextual and is exercised in relationship with others

• The leader has a significant role in shaping an organizational culture that either promotes or impedes innovation

• The most distinguishing characteristic of the leadership process is change which is directly influenced by leaders

• Organizational innovative practice is primarily concerned with change as an outcome achieved as a result of intentional action toward a preferred future reality

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