Assignment Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Executive Summary
The aim of this study is to critically evaluate support, barriers to creativity and innovation in organisation. In respect to this study, Drax Fire Alarm business is selected which is innovation and technology based firm and they are facing various barriers and limitation related to bring creativity in business.
Likewise, low work group support, challenging work, lack of employee freedom along with low level of creativity existences. These areas restrict the firm towards the achieving the innovation due to which it struggle to sustain in this competitive business environment. However, Drax is the firm which is totally based on innovation and technology. In that case, it is important to bring necessary change on business for making long-term survival.
Furthermore, there are various solution are figure out to solve such problems. it included the continual improvement in business by setting right policy and conduct weekly training & development session along with proper leadership guidance’s etc.
moreover, the delegation of work is also proved to be effective in regards to gain expertise work from individuals as allocate of work as per the skill of people help them to perform better and contribute productivity. Lastly, adopt of right work performances system also encourage the positive result. This way, Drax can bring improvement in their business operation and function.
In current times, organization places high relevance towards creativity and innovation. Creativity is related to generation of new and inimitable ideas for product, services, processes or solutions towards problem solving area while innovation is concerned with the execution of creativity (Anderson et al., 2014).
Thus, these both are important for an organization existence in the changing business landscape and in an increasing competitive pressure. The implementation of creativity is essential to give an organization a competitive edge in the marketplace and to drive the growth of the organization.
Also, in the process of entrepreneurial the creativity and innovation play a significant role in relation to development of new product, services, system or processes that leads towards generation of new jobs, utilization of new technologies and wealth and improvement in the quality of life (Somech and Drach-Zahavy, 2013).
Creativity is behind the idea to start a new business and provides an opportunity for an entrepreneur to be independent and develop a competitive edge for its new product design and use. Also, innovation in corporate entrepreneurship plays a role towards generation of wealth and to drive the growth and expansion (Edwards-Schachter et al., 2015).
Thus, it can be said that for a successful entrepreneurship the organizations needs to give relevance to creativity and the integration of an innovation culture in business practices and activities.
The Drax services division climate results highlight that there is no support towards the creativity and corporate innovation and differs from the Drax Technology division.
There is lack of workload pressure, supervisory encouragement and resources, moderate support from organization and few organizational hindrances, productivity is moderate, very low with regards to autonomy, creativity, challenging work, and work group support.
The aim of this report is to present an analysis on how the case organization, DRAX can arrange their system effectively to encourage and maintain corporate innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship and how an organization can manage change in an effective way using their capabilities and addressing the challenges and opportunities as it expands to optimize corporate innovation and entrepreneurship.
The objectives for the report are to evaluate how DRAX services can organize their system to support and sustain creativity, innovation and corporate entrepreneurship, to identify challenge and opportunities towards creativity and innovation and to suggest ways to DRAX services staff members, office-based service administrators, project engineers and sales team on how value can be added to improve organizational performance through creativity and innovation for developing Fire Alarm.
Thus, this report cover a general introduction to climate results of Drax services division and the importance of creativity and innovation for the organization, this is followed by an analysis section where the organization will be analyzed to endorse and uphold creativity, innovation and corporate entrepreneurship and to effectively manage change.
Next, would be the conclusion section that summaries the key analysis points and address the aim and objective of the report and learning for conducting this study. In the final section, recommendations are made based on the conclusion for the Drax Services staff members on ways to add value to their organization.
It can be analyzed that Drax Fire Alarm can arrange an organization system of high-performance work systems to improve the staff members’ effectiveness through interlinked practices of selection, employee training, performance appraisals and rewards/ compensation.
This will be helpful to influence innovation performance of an employee at the individual level and for the implementation of creativity in their work. It is stated that the high-performance work systems improves an organizational support towards its members which in turn encourages employee creativity (Tang et al, 2017).
It is also analyzed that high-performance work systems is linked to innovation as it provide an opportunity for employee to showcase their talent apart form improving their skills and abilities to innovate (Fu et al., 2015).
Thus, Drax Fire Alarm by adoption of high-performance work systems can motivate the employees through training, rewards or compensation as well as team work support to encourage participation in problem solving tasks and development of new ideas that can promote organizational innovation and strengthen the corporate entrepreneurship.
It will also promote organizational learning culture to sustain innovation practices in the organization. An important aspect of high-performance work systems is to manage change as the system continuously seeks to align with technology, work and workforce through its interconnected activities for developing Fire Alarm.
It is also analyzed that Drax Fire Alarm might effectively arrange organizational system that does not restrict the autonomy of their staff members. Thus, by giving them a certain level of autonomy in this services division can allow the staff members to think and implement new think, and become more creative.
Here, the role of organizational support plays a key role in supporting the staff members to try ideas without fear of failure consequences. According to Çekmecelioğlu and Günsel (2011), there is a positive impact of autonomy on the development of creative behavior and related performance.
It can be analyzed that organizing challenging work and challenging work environment can be effective for Drax to promote and sustain creativity and innovation and the corporate entrepreneurship.
As challenging work will encourage staff member to use innovative solutions and implement innovative practice (Argabright et al., 2012) as well as work environment will develop one’s ability to test or question existing business practices that can also lead to innovative solutions for organizational improvement.
Thus, a challenging work environment will allow the staff members to think beyond and come up with new creative ideas and also provide courage for the implementation of innovative solution. It is analyzed that the presence of organizational support to the service division members can be a significant factor to promote creativity.
It is also found in the study of Gumusluoğlu and Ilsev (2009) that organization supports towards the area of creativity has been positive towards contribution in making employee creativity, nurture an innovation culture which impacted organization growth, and competitiveness. Similarly, it is analyzed that work group support is important to promote and sustain creativity and innovation in Drax Services division.
According to Somech and Drach-Zahavy (2013), work group support from members having complementary skill sets promote creativity and innovation. It is also analyzed that to sustain creativity and innovation for entrepreneurial process and in management of change, there is a need for organization to allocate sufficient resources.
The resource based view theory also suggests resources to be an essential requirement for an organization high performance and to gain a competitive edge. Thus, allocation of more resources will be helpful in implementation of innovation and developing organizational capabilities to innovate and support creativity and entrepreneurship. The resources will allow grabbing innovation opportunities to improve in internal weakness and strengthen organizational performance.
In regards to new start ups as Fire Alarm, DRAX faces various challenges. In the initial stage of business challenges occur related to cash flow management, hiring employees, innovation, marketing strategy and budgeting. At the same time, the foremost challenge is to provide the products and services that meet the requirement of customers in the market (Siaw and Rani 2012).
As this company provides the fire protections and alarm management solution, it need to more focus on the advanced technology in order to produce better products so that it can compete in the competitive business environment. Therefore, it needs to make huge investment in new technologies in order to deliver the quality services.
In addition, the major concerns are the funds for the business and controlling the additional costs in the business. As to why, it is difficult to survive in the market without having the adequate capital. Apart from the cash flows, it is challenging for the company to hire the right resources for operating the business.
DRAX Technologies need to hire skilled, talented and experienced human resources for the operational work as per their job profile and to make necessary arrangements for them to develop Fire Alarm (Bocken, 2015). Company faces the challenge while searching the experienced and technically sound according the business requirement.
Also, company must investigate in detail about its competitors and marketing strategies. At the same time company needs to recent industry trends that is helpful to set the organizational goals and to plan marketing strategies.
Apart from that the allocation of budget for various business functions is critical task as per the availability of the capital for the company. At the same, company has two options for raising the funds for business for successful startups. These options are obtaining funds from investors, or bootstrapping.
Obtaining funds from investors are quite hard to achieve. Company need to prepare the details plan of business before approaching them. Also, company must have the assurance for rate of return on their investment and systematic and structure business plan (Berglund and Sandström, 2013).
So that, investors can invest in the company start up. However, the option is bootstrapping that refers to use the employer internal cash flows and steadily grow the business, however, it reduces the dependency on investors.
By providing the advanced and quality and advanced fire protection Equipments Company can establishes its market share. Also, it can select the Obtaining funds from investor’s for collecting the funds. It is also analyzed that change management can be significant for the company to introduce and maintain creativity and innovation at workplace.
It is because it will be crucial to introduce the changes in the existing practices and processes that will bring new insights in the products and services as well as the processes. The adoption of the change management would be effective to reduce the resistance level of the employees by encouraging them for the participation in the decisions and improve the creativity and innovation at workplace (Lu et al., 2017).
It will be a considerable point for the firm to adopt change management to find the solutions and implement them to bring innovation within the organization.
Apart from this, training programs can be conducted by the firm to develop skills and knowledge of the employees so they could take the improved decisions and provide their insights to bring innovation and creativity. Proper training programs can be helpful for the firm to make the employees capable of taking decisions instantly and bring changes in the existing services and processes for developing Fire Alarm.
The consideration of the participative leadership can be crucial for Drax to bring innovation and creativity within the processes and services for developing Fire Alarm.
It is because through participative leadership, the firm can provide the authority and freedom to the employees to take part in the decisions and also provide their insights over the changes possible in exiting services. It can also be helpful to enhance the motivation level of the employees to achieve the organizational objectives based on innovation (Derecskei, 2016).
It is because the participative leadership allows the employees to take decision at own level and bring the creativity in the business operations for achievement of the organizational objectives for developing Fire Alarm.
Workload pressure in the firm is very high posing a negative impact on the employees to perform better as well as affect their creativity to be shown at workplace. In relation to this, the firm should adopt some flexible practices that could be effective to manage the workload pressure.
There should be proper management of the work allocations to the employees so they could manage their allocated tasks on time. At the same time, the work allocations should be based on the skills and knowledge of the employees so they could use their skills and knowledge properly to manage the tasks on time without feeling any pressure.
In addition, there should be proper prioritization for the task completion as the categorization and completion of the works as per their urgency can be significant for the company to do tasks on time (Thayer et al., 2018). Apart from this, the firm needs to set realistic goals rather than the exaggerated goals that could not be achieved by the employees on time.
The establishment of realistic goals can be effective for the firm to meet their deadlines on time and also reduce the workload pressure among the employees.
Organizational hurdles in Drax are in mid range but still there is need for the firm to remove these impediments for the better adoption of innovation and creativity for developing Fire Alarm. It is because the consideration of this approach to remove these barriers at organizational level, it becomes easy for the firm to consider the measures and tools that can be helpful to enhance the level of creativity.
For instance, the management needs to be supportive for the adoption of the new changes for developing Fire Alarm and insights within the processes and services of the firm. The proper management support will be helpful to bring the innovation (Khalili, 2016).
A supportive and favourable working culture can play important role in facilitating the creativity and innovation at workplace in Drag for developing Fire Alarm. It is because effective work culture enables the firm to encourage the employees to perform towards the path of the organizational objectives.
For this, they show their full commitment and engagement to the goals of the firm and try to bring new to adopt those goals and objectives. With the help of this culture, the firm can develop team culture too because the supportive and favourable culture will develop cohesion among the employees that will encourage them work in group effectively.
Apart from this, it is also necessary for the firm to facilitate the knowledge sharing programs at workplace so experienced people or seniors could share their knowledge to new recruits and existing employees to enhance their skills and also promote the group working ability (Choi et al., 2016).
Apart from this, the motivational aspects are considerable in the organization to facilitate the creativity and innovation at workplace. It is because it is mandatory for the organizations to keep their employees motivated so they could give their full commitment to address the problems by adopting creative ideas and make the firm profitable.
In relation to this, there is need for Drax to adopt motivational aspects like rewards and recognition on introducing new ideas and insights in the work practices for developing Fire Alarm. For this, the firm can provide monetary and non-monetary rewards to the employees for their contribution in the innovation and creativity of the organization.
It can be helpful for the firm to encourage the employees to do better at workplace and share their insights to the management for bringing new services and changes in the existing processes (Lu et al., 2017). Overall, it can be analyzed that all these efforts can be helpful for the firm to overcome the existing problems and issues and develop innovation and creativity at workplace.
After discussing all the important facts above, it can be concluded that DRAX company‘s services division reflects that the company has been facing the issues related to lack of supportive environment. Due to which, there is less creativity as well as corporate innovation.
At the same time, DRAX services have also been dealing with the more issues such as lack of workgroup support, low challenging work environment, lack of freedom, few organization’s hindrances, challenging work environment, freedom and so on. In this manner, the employees within the organization are unable to provide their efficient work performance so that the company can achieve its main objectives in an effective manner.
In this manner, the company needs to adopt different strategies on the basis of them, it can resolve the identified issues and can also achieve organizational objectives in an effective manner.
Under its various strategies, high-performance work system, challenging work environment, autonomy of employees, organizational support as well as the work group support, etc. are included that can be beneficial for the company as these strategies will be helpful because these increase the employee’s efficiency and work environment in which they will feel motivated and more satisfied.
At the same time, by adopting high-performance work system and the challenging work environment strategy, a company can encourage its employees to give their best while performing any task at the workplace. In a similar manner, under the challenging work environment, employees deal with the different challenging situation which is effective for them to use their skills and knowledge for managing the work.
Moreover, employees also learn how to deal with the difficult situation so that in the future, they can manage all kind of work related situations.
In addition to this, it is also defined that with the help of this research study, company will get the learning in which it learned that innovativeness and the creativity are the major factors that can make the organization more growing as well as more profitable.
At the same time, due to this research, a survey has been conducted in which company got to know several important facts about it as in which areas, it has need to work hard so that the organization’s milestones can be achieved in more efficient way.
In similar manner to this, DRAX services also identified that it also has some areas in which company is more efficient and these areas are supervisory encouragement, sufficient resources, and lack of workload pressure.
At the same time, it is also found that in concern of the innovation and the creativity, there are number of ways that are also available for the company by which it can achieve more proficiency as well ass efficiency in its existing services.
In context to Drax limitations which arise from the survey result that firm is struggling with low work group support, challenging work, less freedom and lack of creativity etc. These areas give rise to the problem in bringing the innovation in work (MacLeod et al., 2019).
It is recommended to Drax that they adopt three practices such as incorporate advanced technology, delegation of work method and adopt the continuous improvement process in business (Rose et al., 2015).
In respect to suggestion related to advancement of technology, it is stated that firm should start focus on the adaptation of high performance work system such as ERP system, CRM and different updated software which could assist firm to maintain proper work performances with the flow of information on regular basis (Klein et al., 2016).
Alongside, the software and system can also help the employees to meet the challenging task on short duration. Thus, the adaptation of right technology is the important aspect in current business scenario.
At the same time, the delegation of work is another important yet effective recommendation to firm like Drax. In this area, the manager needs to allocate the work to individual in a way to firstly analyse the skills and expertise of individual and accordingly offer them the task.
This area could result in achieving expertise in work because the individual that has strong knowledge about particular field then they definitely contribute well and perform it with more efficiency (Allan et al., 2016). Therefore, the delegation of work as per the skills proves to be effective for organisation growth and development.
Furthermore, continuous improvement is other solution for organisation to eliminate the weakness in a way to bring changes in business as per the changing customer taste and preferences. It can be done through include right leader which influences the employees in positive manner in a way to use the democratic style of leading (Magnusson et al., 2017).
Moreover, the timely conduct of training & development session also proves to be effective for improving the people creative skills and bring into the innovation development in business operations. Thus, this way, Drax can bring improvement in business.
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