...The Role of Leaders in Innovation Capella University Leading Innovation Global MBA6006 The Role of Leaders in Innovation Introduction The role of leaders in innovation is crucial to the success of businesses and for their continual growth in the economy. Leaders have to possess the DNA of innovators in order for them to lead their companies to newer heights in the industry and world. “Innovation is the lifeblood of our global economy and a strategic priority for virtually every CEO around the world” (Dyer, Gregersen, Christensen, year, pg 1). Therefore, leaders must incorporate the DNA of innovators. The introduction should tell us the precise purpose and organization of the paper. Leadership Models There are many leadership models that companies can incorporate to support innovation within their organizations. Depending on the specific company and what they are trying to achieve, one leadership model may be beneficial for one company to implement while it may fail another companies company’s goals. Nevertheless, there are two leadership models that can encourage and support innovation, which are the situational leadership model and the transformational leadership model. Situational Leadership Model The situational leadership model supports innovation in organizations due to the different personalities and strengths of their fellow subordinates within the company. This model also supports the innovation in the organization because each issue and...
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...The Role of Leaders in Innovation Saran Crenshaw MBA 6006 September 7, 2014 Innovation. It’s the lifeblood of our global economy and strategic priority for virtually every CEO around the world (Dyer et al., 2011). What is Innovation? The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. Innovation involves deliberate application of information, imagination and initiative in deriving greater or different values from resources, and includes all processes by which new ideas are generated and converted into useful products. In business, innovation often results when ideas are applied by the company in order to further satisfy the needs and expectations of the customers (www.businessdictionary.com). Leaders must learn how to create an organizational climate where others apply innovative thinking to solve problems and develop new products and services. It is about growing a culture of innovation, not just hiring a few creative outliers. How can you help others to think differently and work in new ways to face challenges? What can be done to innovate when all resources are stressed and constrained? How can you stay alive and stay ahead of the competition? (Bunchner & Horth, 2014). Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement...
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...The Role of Leaders in Innovation within the Global Society Cindy Cloutier Introduction The incorporation of coast-to-coast economies in a global economic system has become a crucial characteristic of modern governments, social capacity, financial, and traditional existence. As the global economy boards on a delicate recuperation, businesses in all segments are under immense pressure to innovate. Abrupt development in China and the surrounding economies, an increasing global population and the rapid pace of technological change are three of the developments redesigning the global business environment, raising the significance of innovation. Surpassing commercialization of ideas, while maintaining heavy investment into research and development and drawing more ideas from the outside world, will also assist within innovation for business leaders. Leadership Models that Support Innovation in Organizations There are modified principles concerning origination and ethnicities surrounding organizational movements over past, present, and future. Networking is huge within cultures that are instrumental, self-organizing, and willingness to assist. Many leaders still perform under Old Era approaches but cultural consciousness is essential in today’s universal society. (Hitt, Haynes, & Serpa, 2010) There are Old Era beliefs and New Era beliefs that sustain leadership functions that uphold innovation in business. Things aren’t going to slow down any time soon and competition...
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...Promoting and Maintaining Innovation NAME University of Phoenix OI/361 Innovation, Design, and Creativity for a Competitive Advantage Promoting and Maintaining Innovation Innovation is a combination of creativity, to come up with ideas, and implementation, putting those ideas into practice. Implementation is a three step process: idea selection, development, and commercialization (Von Stamm, 2003). Innovation is required in order for an organization to grow and remain ahead of the competition. Organizations use motivational tools to promote innovation in the workplace. This paper will evaluate the roles these motivational tools play in promoting innovation and the leadership required to maintain innovation in an organization. Roles of Motivational Tools To promote innovation, organizations use incentives, training, and education to motivate employees. Incentives come in the form of monetary rewards such as a bonus and non-monetary rewards such as a reserved parking space. Incentives attract employee’s attention and motivate them to work harder. Employees in the sales department tend to work harder knowing that at the end of the quarter there will a bonus based on the amount of revenue they generated. Training and education have the same overall result. They both provide knowledge to employees in their area of work thus helping them be better at their job. Training however is more specialized than education. Some organizations...
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...The Role of Leaders in Innovation Bradley Lewis MBA6006 Capella University Table of Contents Introduction 1 Leadership practices that support innovation in organizations 1 Innovator’s DNA- Discovery skills 3 Innovator’s DNA- Delivery skills 4 Personal strengths and weaknesses in discovery and delivery skills 4 References 5 Introduction This paper will have four sections in which will explain how leadership practices support innovation in organizations, a section that analyzes the role of discovery skills for their support of innovation in organizations, a section that analyzes the role of delivery skills for their support of innovation in organizations, and finally a section that will analyze my own strengths and weaknesses in the discovery and delivery skills, and how they help or hinder your ability to support innovation in organizations. Leadership Practices that Support Innovation in Organizations An innovative leader is an individual that is capable of adapting to and combining different leadership styles in order to influence employees to produce creative ideas, services and products. Companies are in high demand for innovative leaders who can work effectively and responsibly within an organization as well as be capable of presenting new ideas (Lyons, 2011). It is the main goal of an innovative leader which involves the progress and success of a company or organization. According to Dyer, Gregersen and...
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...Leadership Supporting Innovation in Organizations Introduction Leaders come in all shapes and sizes; this is evident from the many varieties of leaders in many different organizations. Whenever there is a crisis, all leaders have to step up and become innovative thinkers in order to successfully achieve the goals set forth. But there are some leadership practices that support and foster innovation within organizations. “Among the factors that influence employees’ creative behaviors and performance, leadership has been identified by many researchers as being one of the most, if not the most important” (Jung, Chow, & Wu, 2003, p. 526). Leaders have the ability to affect an employees’ creativity by catering to their needs and motivation, and by setting up an organizational culture and environment that will allow for employees to attempt different methods of thinking and speaking up with ideas or concepts without fear of being punished. (Jung, Chow, & Wu, 2003, p. 526) Leadership Practices Supporting Innovation A few key practices particular, in my opinion, spurs innovation, including leading people, strategic planning, participative management, and change management. A final leadership practice – transformational leadership – is an essential practice in supporting innovation in organizations. Leaders who can effectively lead their members ensures that members are motivated and develops an environment that supports innovation. “Leaders who have good skills in...
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...Personal Definition of Innovation Innovation has a different meaning to different people. Innovation in simple terms as I see it is creativity and problem solving. Thinking outside the normal realm of everyday life whether as an individual or an organization. Innovation is about addressing issues and challenges and brainstorming for new ways to grow as individuals. Innovation takes chaos and turns it into order. Creativity is a thought in our minds and taking that thought and improving on something that already exist or an idea of something new. Invention is taking that creative idea and put it into form that can be used. Innovation is taking this idea or product/idea to the market. Creativity consultant Joyce Wycoff (1991) defines creativity as "new and useful". Creativity is the act of "seeing things that everyone around us sees while making connections that no one else has made." (p. 22). Inventions are new to the world, never seen before or to put it into a better perspective, to discover something new. Nevertheless, innovation is about changing or improving something or some would say ideas to improve the quality of life or business. For example, the phone was an invention where cell phones are an innovation. In some form, creativity, invention and innovation work together to bring the idea/product to life. With the changes that have taken place over the last century, Organization has had to face the realization that in order to move...
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...Effectiveness of Innovation Leadership ----Based on the Failure of Com Dev International Ltd In the first essay, I analyzed the leadership of Roger, the leader of Suzhou Com Dev International Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Suzhou Company). In this essay, I will discuss the problem and solutions to Roger’s problematic leadership based on ecology of innovation, initiating and consideration structure, and transformational leadership In order to create ecologies of innovation, we should know what is innovation and ecology. On one hand, innovation precisely means going beyond the norm, an implication embedded into the center of the world innovation—nova—which means doing new things rather than repeating what worked in the past (Jeffrey; James hazy) . On the other hand, the term ecology, which stems from the Greek word “eco”, meaning household or community, refers to particular kind of community. Innovation is the outcome of a system-wide set of processes and interactions—what we call an ecology of innovation. In a new situation, innovative leaders should find the diversities and amplify the diversities into emergent innovations, which will cause interaction resonance and render the organization more adaptable to unpredictable changes in its environment. Transformational leadership is seen as one of the factors that drive subordinates’ innovative activity, and as the psychological mechanisms that underlie transforming and transactional leadership (Howell and Avolio...
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...Contentes Page No. Introduction: 2 The Role of Innovation in Organizations: 2 Innovation and other similar terminologies: 3 Benefits and limitations of Innovation: 3 Innovation Audit: 4 Benefits of being more innovative: 5 Managerial Style for Innovation: 6 Climate of Innovative Organization: 8 REFERENCES 9 Introduction: Innovation is a common phenomenon among the organizations around the world in the current business scenarios. Finding a new solution to an existing product, process, services, technologies or ideas and meet the newer constraints of the market or society is innovation. The term can be used in the sense of finding something original which breaks into the market or into society and considered as important finding in some way. Innovation can be viewed in different perspectives. From individual perspective, innovation is to most of the extent compared as the creativity. While in social perspective, innovation has been a widespread study in the fields of economics, business, sociology, entrepreneurship, technology etc. Improving the older way of doing things and providing comfort to the users or people is known as innovation in societal view. In other words, finding an added value meeting customer’s existing needs or a newer development that meets new needs is innovation. From organizational point of view, innovation is a positive change in the organizational setting; such as efficiency...
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...described by using traits and qualities in a leadership role. The different leadership models discussed shows how techniques reinforce the importance of having a shared general goal based on different explanations. Leadership models are guides to show you the different leadership behaviors to use when dealing with specific work related situations. To best understand the different leadership models, graphic representation is used to visually show the different behaviors. Leadership is about behavior, an observable set of skills and abilities. Many individuals associate leadership with one person leading or taking the lead and others follow. There are four things that stand out and make effective leaders. The first is in order to lead one must be capable of influencing others. Second the leaders must have individuals who are willing to follow. Third leaders tend to take the lead when there’s an issue or problem to solve. Lastly, successful leaders have a great understanding of what they want to achieve and how to get it accomplished. Hence, leaders are individuals who are able to look outside the box and take action in non-routine situations. As effective leaders they try and persuade the actions, approach, and values of their followers. Being a leader of this sort is shown as personal and comes from the traits and qualities the leader currently holds. The traits and qualities possessed by leaders can also be linked to other roles such as managers or subject matter experts. This can...
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...understand a leader simply as somebody whom people follow, or as somebody who guides or directs others,[citation needed] while others define leadership as "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal".[citation needed] different types of leadership: * Ambidextrous leadership * Democratic Leadership * Innovation leadership * Transactional leadership * Transformational leadership Innovation leadership involves synthesizing different leadership styles in organizations to influence employees to produce creative ideas, products, services and solutions. The key role in the practice of innovation leadership is the innovation leader.[1] Dr. David Gliddon (2006) developed the competency model of innovation leaders and established the concept of innovation leadership at Penn State University. As an approach to organization development, innovation leadership can be used to support the achievement of the mission or vision of an organization or group. In a world that is ever changing with new technologies and processes, it is becoming necessary for organizations to think innovatively in order to ensure their continued success and stay competitive.[2][3][4][5][6] In order to adapt to new changes, “the need for innovation in organizations has resulted in a new focus on the role of leaders in shaping the nature and success of creative efforts.[7]” Without innovation leadership, organizations are likely to struggle.[3] This new call for innovation represents...
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...a concept for understanding innovation and explains how to lead innovation in an organization. This paper examines and describes how leadership models support innovation in organizations. This paper also addresses the role of discovery and delivery skills for their support of innovation in organizations. Lastly, in this paper I will explore my own strengths and weaknesses in the discovery and delivery skills and speak about how they help or hinder my ability to support innovation in organizations. Models That Support Innovation in Organizations Each of the different leadership models support innovation within organizations in some form or fashion. In order to grasp how, one must first develop an understanding of innovation and leadership. Innovation has many meanings, but on a broad scale one can say that innovation is thinking outside the box. Leadership is a bit harder to describe because it is best understood when seen. To put leadership in words according to Doyle and Smith, leaders often become visible when an innovative response is needed (2001). Now that we have an idea of what these words mean one of the leadership models that support innovations in organizations is transformation leadership. Transformational leaders serve as a role model by gaining the trust and confidence of peers and employees. By stating future goals, developing plans to achieve these goals and displaying an innovative edge, transformational leaders are generally successful (Bass...
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...new and evolving way of doing business. As businesses continue to expand in the global markets, it will require a strong leadership commitment to change the vision of what the goal of change will be in order to sustain continuous innovation. In the excerpt of Vineet Nayar’s, “Recasting the Role of CEO: Transferring the Responsibility for Change. How Leaders Tap the Creative Energy of Employees”, it demonstrates the concept that if management can remove itself and allow employees to lead that the collaboration process will lead to continuous and sustaining innovation. This assessment will explore the transformation that Nayar implemented within HCLT to change the organizational structure, culture, and processes to support and sustain innovation in the changing global markets. Recasting the Role of CEO is as it states is the role reversal change that Nayar implemented to change the organizational structure of thinking within his organization. From that trend he developed and equally important initiative call Employee First Councils which evolve from EPIC. As Nayar points out he saw that his organization would need to rethink the role of CEO and to transfer much more responsibility for change to the employee (Nayar 2). By reversing the role of CEO the goal was to rejuvenate the management within HCLT. This innovative and practical approach was a transformation to change the organizational culture way of thinking. “Culture has been defined as the outcome of group learning...
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...“To challenge and inspire students to be servant leaders with the business skills and values necessary to drive organizational success and positively impact society” (“About”, n.d., para 6). To be successful in any personal venture one must be committed to their cause and posses certain qualities that help support their end goal. Entering into the GCU College of Business it is important to understand the three pillars that embody a graduate business student. The three pillars include servant leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and innovation. Servant Leadership describes a leadership style that focuses on serving the needs of the team, client or community rather than the needs of the leader. “Characteristics of servant leaders include but are not limited to listening, empathy, awareness, persuasion, foresight, stewardship, and commitment to the growth of people” (Campbell & Rudisill, p. 27). As a registered nurse and nursing supervisor it is imperative I support my patients and peers through a servant leadership style. Today's healthcare system has become very complex; and in turn can be intimidating for patients and overwhelming to healthcare workers. In my professional practice I try lead by example and promote health and wellness through my commitment to caring for others. Servant leadership, like nursing is dedicated to promoting the growth and success of those around you. Everyday is a new opportunity for a servant leader to empower those in which they lead. Through a commitment...
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...Unit 2 Assignment 1 – The Role of Leaders in Innovation MBA6006 – Leading Innovation Global Org Shyla Hasal Capella University INTRODUCTION With the changes in technology and globalization, most organizations today are faced with a dynamic environment. It is important that organizations operating in today’s economy need to be more artistic and innovative to stay alive, to contend, to develop, and to lead. Innovative companies are almost always led by innovative leaders (Dyer, 2011). Leaders are people who are able to think and act creatively in non-routine situations – and who set out to influence the actions, beliefs and feelings of others (Doyle, 2001). Classical Leadership First, to lead involves influencing others. Second, where there are leaders there are followers. Third, leaders seem to come to the fore when there is a crisis or special problem. In other words, they often become visible when an innovative response is needed. Fourth, leaders are people who have a clear idea of what they want to achieve and why (Doyle, 2001). Literature over the last 80 year list four main “generations” theories of leadership which are: Trait theories, Behavioral theories, Contingency theories, and Transformational theories. Strategic Leadership Strategic leaders must develop and maintain a culture that fosters and encourages innovation, and invest in the development and exploitation of innovation (Pellet, 2008). According to Krupp (2013), most executives do not consider...
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