Authors:
Malaviya Pratibha, Research Scholar, Group Head - Human Resources, Wadhwa Subhash, Professor
1) Unitech Limited, Unitech House, South City - I, Gurgaon, India.
2) Industrial Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India.
Companies have already begun to realize the importance of internal operations and the knowledge driven environment within a company. The effectiveness to contribute towards new knowledge useful for the company, that is, innovation by an employee is dependent on his/her perception of the organization.
Using data obtained from an Indian software company, this study examines the effect of some important organizational factors on the “innovation” dimension of its employees, that is, the ability to generate and stimulate creativity and innovation. The study supports the fact that the employee’s perception of organizational culture has an impact on the employee’s performance on the innovation dimension of performance.
Therefore, it is the ‘feeling’ that guides the individual’s behaviour. Thus, the perceived congeniality in the working culture duly supported by the supervisor’s encouragement and acceptance of an idea and its reinforcement by appropriate recognition and rewards fosters innovation in the organization. The study also discusses its implications for the industry.
Background
Economic modules and theories have been postulated in the past that have attempted to predict the future of nations and markets. It was in the mid 1980s that a distinct body of work began to emerge that employed the Darwinian approach to address the questions of economic growth. This approach argued that the key to economic success lie in a nation’s ability to introduce valuable new goods, to improve the quality of existing goods and to find more efficient ways to manufacture and deliver these goods. At its core the theory emphasized that “novel ideas” are central in driving economic growth. In fact, even in the 1950s, work led by Nobel Laureate, Robert Solow concluded that technological changes accounted for about eighty per cent of the economic growth in America. Sustained economic growth is possible only by accumulative improvements in capital goods. Therefore, any discussion on the economic future of a company or country must hinge on innovation, invention, discovery and technical progress.
The place for innovation in economic growth has been well-established. Innovative economies have experienced sustained growth and have led the economies of the world (Porter and Scott, 2001). Competition has intensified with expanding globalization. Success, therefore, can be achieved not with just innovation but by reaching world-class innovation (Hamel, 2000). Companies that are more innovative than others have a system of values that encourages individual and collective behaviour to creative endeavours (Prather and Gundry, 1995). It is this meta-theory that has led to the identification of appropriate contextual systems that encourage, cultivate and reinforce creative practices. New ideas are often triggered in an environment unique to the individual such as while taking a bath, gardening and so on (Syrett and Lammiman, 2002). Creativity and innovation will only be sporadic occurrences and will not thrive without a supportive environment and culture.
This study examines the individual’s performance on innovation dimension in relation to the employee’s perception of the organization in an Indian software company. The study explores the organizational cultural aspects that aid, facilitate or inhibit innovative performance in the organizational context. The issues that are covered through this study are the following:
* People who spark off innovative ideas may come from anywhere in the organization and from all types of professional backgrounds, that is, everyone is capable of being creative and innovative.
* Since creativity and innovation have their origin in an individual, the employee’s perception of the organizational culture is important. Certain dimensions of organizational culture if perceived high by the employee will facilitate the employee’s innovative behaviour. Therefore, those employees who are rated high on the innovative dimension of performance would have perceived the organization culture differently as compared to those who have been rated low on the innovative dimension of performance.
For more information, please contact Divan Enterprises at the contact link above or read the paper at the link below. Please note, contact link will be active for registered users only.
