Internet Interview Article - "The manager's role in building an innovative organization".

GCSE Business Studies

Innovation 1

Internet Interview Article

“The manager’s role in building an innovative organization”

Diane R. Easter-Brown

MGT 330 Management: Theory, Practice and Application

Professor: Andre Sowunmi

February 22, 2003

Innovation 2

Internet Interview Article

“The manager’s role in building an innovative organization”

Patrick Buhler’s article, The manager’s role in building an innovative organization, stresses the importance of innovation within the organization, and the significant role that managers play in building an innovative organization. He states that proper innovations will allow an organization to, not only thrive, but also survive in today’s competitive market. Furthermore, in order for a company to be successful, they must be willing to change how they do things, and not be comfortable with the old ways of doing things. An effective innovative organization recognizes, and is committed to improving its success by allowing its organization, managers and employees to be apart of new groundbreaking ideas that will help the company flourish.

Although innovation is an important step in warranting the success of any organization, the organization cannot undertake these steps without first implementing a plan for building innovation within the organization. Planning is the ongoing process of developing the business’ mission and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished. An innovation plan is developed under these same guidelines. The first steps in this plan are developing a strategy that reflects the demands of its future environment, and how the organization plans on reacting to, or changing the environment to meet its needs. The organization’s strategies will be a result of looking at the future, both internal and external environments, and determining what the organization must do to survive and prosper. One idea expressed in Buhler’s article is that “To build an innovative organization, care must be taken to ensure that the culture of the firm supports this type of organization …the critical dimensions of this culture include a tolerance of risk and an openness to change.” (Buhler, p.20, 2002)

Innovation 3

This is a preview of the whole essay

Innovation 3

It is important that in building an innovative organization that a manger is able to support, reinforce and shape the culture of the organization. The manager has to make sure that the company’s plan for building innovation will take root and be accepted by all employees. (Buhler, p.20, 2002) Yet changing a mature seasoned culture is not easy and presents challenges of its own. However, in order to flourish your firm's culture must encourage and nurture ideas rather than kill them. If an employee has a great idea and has it quickly squashed and mocked by their superiors, they tend to stop sharing their thoughts in fear of more rejection and humiliation. To truly profit, companies must transform and create a climate conducive to creative criticism and ideation. They must allow employees to be creative and leave them room to make mistakes. An antagonistic company culture that fights change of any kind is the ultimate idea crusher and will not be able to keep up with a fast changing society.

One of the new innovative plans that are presently being developed in my own organization, which is presently in the early stages of development, are the new innovative ideas for a Plantree Hospital. The hospital’s innovation strategies are to build a hospital that is entirely built upon patient focus care. One program that utilizes Plantree components is Maternal/Child Services. This program promotes personalized service in a family atmosphere that encourages patients to ask questions regarding their care. There are many complementary therapies available, such as music and aromatherapy. Additional features of Maternal/Child Services include education sessions about breastfeeding, car seat safety, and infant CPR as well as a Mom and Baby’s Day Out program.

Innovation 4

It is also the hospital innovative plan to get employees involved in the strategies for developing the new hospital. For instance, the have developed a committee which is a representation of the hospital population. We have nurses, nurse aides, and other ancillary staff that are members of this committee. It will be the job of these people to give the hospital an over idea of how they would run a hospital, how to maintain the nursing staff, how to improve the nurse to patient ratio, and what do we need to do in order to meet our goals.

For the most part, staff has been very receptive to the idea of improving the image of our organization, but tolerance and the ability of management to let go has been the biggest issue. Buhler states, “A tolerance for risk also requires-that managers be brave enough to let go. Employees must learn from their own mistakes. Managers cannot do everything for their employees. Workers must be empowered and then managers must trust them enough to let them make their own mistakes.” (Buhler, p.20, 2002) I believe that once management is willing to let go the apron strings and let staff experiment with the new innovative idea of building an improved organization, than we can have more of a constructive role in the development of a Plantree Hospital.

In conclusion, leaders of successful, high-growth companies understand that innovation is what drives growth, and innovation is achieved by awesome people with a shared relentless growth attitude and shared passion for problem solving and for turning ideas into realities.

Innovation 5

Companies that continuously innovate will create and re-invent new markets, products, services, and business models - which lead to more growth. Innovation is founded on your enterprise's ability to recognize market opportunities, your internal capabilities to respond innovatively, and your knowledge base. (Buhler, p.20, 2002)

Innovation 6

References

Buhler, Patrick M. (2002). The manager’s role in building and innovative organization. SuperVision, vol. 63, Iss. 8, p.20. Retrieved on February 21, 2004

University of Phoenix (Ed.). (2002). Management: Theory, Practice, and Application [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Custom Publishing Retrieved February 13, 2003.

Sowunmi, A. (2004). Overview of The Concepts of Management: Week II Lecture. Retrieved from MGT 330 Course Newsgroup on February 21, 2003.