INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Significance of Innovation and Creativity in International Business
Creativity and innovation is central to the repositioning of organizations in the uptake of new technologies and new techniques. International businesses rely on innovativeness and creativity of the management to enhance business developments in the provision of new products and services, and to formulate and implement strategies to secure competitive advantage. Through processes of change and innovations, global companies have rewritten patterns of competition in emerging and existing global markets, they have become rule makers and rule breakers, and they have developed new ways of operating and competing in a dynamic economy (Fo?Rster and Kreuz, 2007). The continuity of business entity requires innovation and creativity, and the basic knowledge and experience on the managerial aspect of the resources available within the entity. Business success also rests on making the right changes, on choosing the right ideas and implementing innovations that will make a difference.
1.2. Elements of Innovation and Creativity
International businesses have developed strategies that ensure that the management realizes the desired competitive advantage in the economy. One such way is embracing innovativeness and creativity in their operations. However, implementing innovation in an international business requires leaders who can integrate company’s objectives to meet the desired innovativeness (Krippendorff, 2010). Leadership style plays a key role in determining the direction of the firm in terms of its innovativeness and creativity. Organizational leaders who are rigid to change can find it difficult to initiate the required changes in terms of innovations within the organization. In addition, the organization structure also provides a platform over which the employees can practice innovativeness and creativity (Hasenfeld, 2009). The structure in an organization should encourage employees to be creative and innovative; otherwise, this change would not be realized.
1.3. Objectives of this study
Organizations, whether domestic or international, would always aim at achieving success and competitive advantage in the line of their operation. Achieving this success requires organizations to embrace creativity and innovativeness. In this study, the aim is to critically assess employee creativity and innovation in ensuring that an organization becomes competitive in the dynamic economy. This will be done through assessing the theories of innovation and creativity in the international market. The study will also concentrate on the literature review of the previous studies on the role of leadership in harnessing innovativeness and creativity. Finally, different leadership styles and approaches will be assessed, and assess how leadership styles can encourage creativity and innovation.
2.0. Critical Analysis
2.1. Innovation and Creativity: Theoretical Perspective
In this section, the focus will be on the key definitions of innovation and creativity and discussions of their potential impacts on organizational outcomes.
2.1.1. Definitions
Creativity and innovation are both issues of considerable interest to the management field as they are the primary means by which organizations survive and thrive in changing and uncertain circumstances. However, majority of the scholars believe that creativity and innovation are similar, and the management requires both for them to be successful. Although they are interrelated, there is a distinct difference between the two concepts and their applications in the international business management.
According to Daft (2003), creativity is an element in which organizations rely for competitive advantage. The most profitable organizations often rely on creativity of the management to devise new products that can meet the demands and needs of the consumers in an effective way than the products of the competitors. Creativity has a direct implication on the profitability of the organization. One example of a firm that has fostered creativity is the computer and IT sector. The consumers’ needs, in IT sector, are dynamic and the management should always be creative in devising new products in order to attract new customers.
On the other hand innovation, according to Von Stamm (2008), is process in which the company fosters idea generation and transformation that can be implemented in the operations of the company. Innovation process is the end product of creativity. Generally, innovation occurs in four phases; generation of ideas, screening of the idea, feasibility test, and implementation process. As creativity involves generating new ideas in the organization’s process, innovation involves implementation of the idea generated. Companies that benefit from creativity and innovation are known to increase their sales revenue and improve their efficiency. These two concepts must always be undertaken simultaneously for the company to realize the desired success and social benefits such as employee motivation and team working.
2.1.2. Potential Impacts on Organizational Outcomes
International business organizations have attributed innovation and creativity to positivity, and increasing the firm’s competitive advantage across the globe. According to Sarmento (2011), creativity and innovativeness of the management has facilitated an increase in technical efficiency. The production capacity has increased, as the management is doing the right thing in ensuring that the needs and demands of the consumers are met within a stipulated time. Strategies to increase to improve the growth aspect of organizational activities have been realized.
Consequently, organizations that embrace creativity and innovation have enhanced employee motivation. Employees are encouraged to undertake initiatives that would explore their, otherwise unexploited, talents within the organization (Martins and Terblanche, 2003). Giving an employee the freedom to generate and implement new ideas within the organization would encourage them to work extra hard in their endeavours. It shows that they are part of the changes that the management is implementing in the organization; therefore, encouraging them to be more productive and creative. Yahoo Inc, for instance, is operating in a sophisticated business and creativity of employees is critical in maintaining their customers. The company is giving employees freedom to generate and implement new ideas; otherwise, it will succumb to financial loss and lack of customers.
2.2. Literature Review on the trends in an Organization
In this section, the analysis of mediating effect of organizational culture, organizational structure and processes that stimulate creativity and innovation are assessed.
2.2.1. Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is one of the factors that would either facilitate realization of other organizational factors or impede its operations. Factors that depend on organizational factor for success include creativity and innovativeness of the organization. These enabling organizational cultural aspects include organizational encouragement, supervisory encouragement, work group encouragement, freedom or autonomy, and resources (Martins and Terblanche, 2003). Google Inc has performed immensely due to its encouraging organizational culture that provides independence to its employees. The company gives employees the freedom to implement new ideas and strategies without being coerced by the management. The same scenario is evidence in Apple Inc and Yahoo Inc.
2.2.2. Organizational Structure
Employee motivation is critical for every successful organization. One such way of motivating employee is to encourage him or her on any form of initiative that he or she has undertaken; whether successful or it has failed. New ideas can only be implemented in an organization when mistakes are not reprimanded but encouraged. Apple Inc motivates employees to devise new ideas and strategies that would realize creativity, and this has seen them become leading IT firms across the globe.
Communication within an organization often discourages employees who are willing to formulate new ideas (Weth, 2007). The management should not have cumbersome and complex channel of communication, but it should be simple and versatile. The CEO of Apple Inc can interact freely with subordinate staff, and this encourages them to share their ideas with the top-level management without following a complex channel of communication.
2.3. Leadership: Literature Review
In this section, definition of innovative leadership would be assessed, changes required by leaders to cultivate innovation processes, significance of leadership in championing for innovation and creativity in the organization, and the influence of culture on leadership.
2.3.1. Definition
There is no specific and outright definition of leadership that can be accepted in the economy. It is believed that leadership is a phenomenon that has not yet been coherently understood by most of the scholars. However, Sloane (2007) posits that leadership is individual’s ability to supervise or manage the operations within an organization. Such an individual not only have to supervise the subordinates, but also influence their operations and motivate them on the right course of actions. Although decision making process lies extensively on overall leader of an organization, one can rely on the opinions of the employees in determining the viable and subtle action to be implemented. Bertocci (2009) postulates that a successful leader should always have a cordial relationship with other employees, as this will facilitate an ease in sub-ordination of duties.
2.3.2. Leading versus Managing
Organizations, of the ancient times, often conceived that leadership is one of the heroic attribute, and their functions were majorly ceremonial. Appointment to the senior positions was a prestigious act (Krippendorff, 2010). However, in the modern times, there is need to recognize and utilize the extensive nature of leadership practices. Leadership needs to be conceived of as something that happens across functions and levels. New frameworks and strategies have been adopted in an attempt to increase the all-inclusive approach to leadership.
There has been an increase in the development and use of change methods as a result of increasing demands to change fostered by creativity and innovation. Most organizations have utilized methods like business process reengineering, total quality management or continuous improvement. Ideally, change strategies are devised with an aim of dealing with the incumbent transformation in the economy. These can be changes in the market place, customer needs, technology, or the structure of knowledge. Managing these changes requires a leader that understands the trends in the economy and appreciates the effect or impact of innovation and creativity (Northouse, 2010).
Some of the key traits that an innovative leader should possess include demonstrating a clear understanding and relationship between the top management and the lower level employees, providing a clear direction that should be followed by the organization, and demonstrating leadership qualities that are not rigid to changes in the economy. Although the management also plays key role in maintaining the efficiency and effectiveness of operations in the organization, leaders should also be flexible in ensuring that the efficient operation within the organization is realized.
2.3.3. Changes in Leadership
Unlike the traditional aspect of leadership, the current dynamic economy requires versatile leaders who can assess the economy and determine the positive and negative trends that will affect the operations of the entity (Northouse, 2010). In the IT sector, for instance, Apple Inc is constantly reviewing the changes and trends in the economy to determine the consumer’s preferences and needs. Although other sectors may be rigid to organizational change, Apple Inc is in a business environment that is constantly changing. With such changes in the sector, the organization should have a leader that embraces changes in the economy. It is difficult to have a leader that can change his or her objectives within a short period of implementation, but that is the case with innovative leaders—change is imperative.
2.3.4. Significance of Leadership in Championing for Innovation
Leaders play a critical role in ensuring that successful implementation of strategies in the organization is realized. One such aspect is through motivating the employees to initiate new ideas and implement them for the good of the organization (Northouse, 2010). Google Inc initiative of encouraging and fostering employees to increase their innovativeness through idea generation have not always realized success, as some of the ideas are bogus and cost the company a great deal of financial loss. However, an innovative leader would not rely on the mistakes of the employees, which would discourage them, but encourages them to continue with their innovation and creativity. With this strategy in place, both Yahoo Inc and Google Inc have commanded the internet search engines for over a decade.
2.3.5. Influence of Culture on Leadership
Global organization face challenge when operating in new cultures that are quite different from the domestic culture that they are used to. Leadership can be influenced by different cultural aspects that include power distance, orientation, gender inclination, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism/collectivism. According to Ashkanasy et al. (2011), uncertainty avoidance plays a critical aspect when assessing the cultural integration and leadership techniques that gel well in international operations. It is difficult to determine the implication and perception of leadership characteristics in a foreign economy.
2.4. Leadership Styles
In this section, leadership styles that encourage innovation and creativity will be assessed, and they include transformational leadership, share leadership, and transactional leadership.
2.4.1. Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership focuses on inspiring and stimulating employees to realize extraordinary objectives and outcomes. When they encourage employees to achieve high expectations, it also encourages them to develop their leadership traits. With such a motivational factor, these leaders enable employees to develop and grow in their area of their expertise as long as they articulate to the objectives and goals of the company. They are known for the aspect of motivating employees to do more than they originally intended and often even more than they thought possible. Such leaders also encourage high and challenging strategies and expectations as it is these challenges that will improve the performances of the organization (Prince, 2005).
Transformational leaders also tend to have more committed and satisfied followers, moreover, they also motivate and encourage employers and focuses on the personal development and individuals’ needs of employees, as they understand that it will encourage them to develop their potential in the sector (Northouse, 2010). There is no doubt that transformational leadership enhances efficiency of an organization. Apple Inc embraces such leadership style, and employees are encouraged and motivated to undertake innovative ideas and implement them. The same scenario is witnessed in the leadership style of Google Inc where idea generation and creativity is encouraged.
2.4.2. Shared Leadership
Shared leadership, according to Carson et al. (2007), is only felt in organizations that embrace team work. The leadership style encourages team members to actively participate in their groups in order to realize strategic goals and objectives. Such leadership style focuses on empowering the team members, though it is not a prerequisite condition that should be displayed by the leaders of the teams.
Shared leadership encourages shared cognition in which the team members possess similar strategies and knowledge regarding the vital aspects of the organization’s internal and external environment. As it is based on self-managed work teams, the leadership style encourages team members to have their own team leader who foresee the operations and initiatives of the team with focus on the overall organization’s objectives and mission. Team work, in an organization, have been perceived to be the answer to performance problems, and with these initiatives in place, the organization is assured of success in integrating innovation and creativity into the system (Pearce, 2003).
2.4.3. Transactional Leadership
Transactional leadership focuses on contingent reward to the subordinate staff. The leaders are given the mandate to reward the highly performing members, in an organization, when they perform beyond the expectations. Such is a strategy that encourages employees to work extra hard when disseminating their services to the society (Northouse, 2010). Like transformational leadership style, transactional leadership is engrossed in motivating employees to maximize their abilities in order to enhance creativity and innovation. In this leadership style, leaders avoid focuses on management-by-exception in which the leaders avoid giving directions if the old ways are working and allows employees to continue doing their jobs as always if performance goals are met.
2.0. Conclusion
In this essay, innovation and creativity was introduced and its potential impacts on organizational outcomes. The essay also outlined the mediating factors of innovation and creativity that includes organizational culture and organizational structure. Innovation and creativity will only be realized where there is innovative leadership that champions achievement of success and performances. Finally, leadership styles that encourage creativity were reviewed with major concern being on the transformational leadership, share leadership, and transactional leadership. The finding of these study showed that the evolution of leadership is necessitated by the innovativeness and creativity dynamics in the economy.
REFERENCES
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SLOANE, P., 2007. The innovative leader how to inspire your team and drive creativity. London: Kogan Page.
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WETH, A. 2007. Managing Innovation and Creativity – How Disney Keeps Ideas Coming. Munich: GRIN Verlag.
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