ENCOURAGING INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR AT WORKPLACE

In this era of fierce competition nearly every organization seeks to create a culture of innovation which will encourage and motivate employees to take risks that direct them to come up with something out of the box, something that is unique and lead to break through products and services. Innovation is an ascending concern all around the world. But the question that pops up is that how exactly a company can build this type of culture? What could be the barriers to innovation and how to overcome them and also what kind of leadership style should be adopted for it? These questions often threaten senior leaders menacing the success of their innovation initiatives.

Interestingly, it may be that the attention on culture is what’s pushing organizations back. They think about the big picture, instead of imbibing the incremental changes that would actually enable that picture to exist. Culture is an outcome of shared behaviors therefore inculcating innovative behaviors must come first. The culture gets changed by becoming more innovative — not the other way around. Certain behaviours if adopted can transform the culture and can help any organization take the leap. Following are some of the behaviours that can be inspiring-

1. Motivating the Entrepreneurs - Entrepreneurs are the ones generally the employees within a company who are consigned to work on a special idea or project. They are trained to develop the project like an entrepreneur would.  Recognition to such innovators boosts enthusiasm and enhances performance .Bonuses and incentives are a great source of motivation.

2. Raising collaboration across ecosystem of organization- Innovation is a team activity. Excellent Ideas get generated through brainstorming. It involves admirable collaboration among the various business and functional units. Combing the best ideas and resources inside and outside the organization is a characteristic of successful innovation.

3. Setting high goals and gravitating through speed- Leaders set extremely high bar, and give the colleagues the dare and opportunity to accomplish what they believed would be beyond their reach. They consider that things can be achieved sooner, not later.

4. Constantly challenge status quo and develop expertise- To be innovative it is imperative to enlarge knowledge and expertise in the respective field. Some highly effective leaders of innovation are regarded as inverse to the environment because they are always willing to accept change.

5. Providing spiritual environment and building trust – If one doesn’t feel safe, he wouldn’t feel motivated to bear risks. Sharing of ideas involve building trust with the team members. Spirituality would provide meaningful work, team work and a community feeling which is important for encouraging innovation.

Barriers to innovation in organizations

Following are some of the barriers to innovation currently faced by Indian organizations –

1.      Lack of financial support – it has been observed that in India the Government would makes a lot of noise when it comes to films, arts, sports, etc., but the importance given to research is trivial. In spite of various demonstrations, the government dither to fund innovative projects.

2.      Risk intolerance- In India entrepreneurs stay apprehensive while taking up innovative ideas because with huge investments comes the chances of failure.

3.      Orthodox mindsets of society in India- Indians are not always prepared to accept change. The general mindset is that from the very beginning students are encouraged to read books and write what they have learnt from them. Thus they don’t accept novelty in products and services very easily.

4.      Lack of training and development - for the attainment of short- term results constant pressure is put on employees as a result they stay engaged in achieving targets which doesn’t allow them to spend time to think, be creative and productive.

5.      Strict communication channels and hierarchy - Some organizations restrict their employees within certain boundaries and do not allow them to go beyond a specified domain. This acts as hindrance for new ideas to flow. Often the employees have creative ideas and also the capability to work upon, but they don’t succeed to put across the information to their leaders.

Leader plays a crucial role within the innovation process. In order to implant innovative work behaviour in a multidimensional way, it is imperative that the leader acts in a supportive way so that the employees feel at ease to put across their ideas. Transformational leaders inspire their subordinate’s creativity by encouraging them and helping them to see problems differently. Though Transactional leaders monitor their employees much more, their employees work extremely hard to achieve the goals. Supportive environment towards employees foster their self determination to become innovative and take initiatives. A culture of involvement should be encouraged through participation leadership allowing employees to be involved in decision making, employees would enjoy autonomy and also take risks. This leadership style will be an antecedent of innovative work behavior in organizations.