Similarities and Differences between Innovation and Change - Literature review Example

Comparing and Contrasting Innovation and Change Name Course Lecturer Date Introduction Innovation refers to the creation, approval and execution of new products, processes, services or ideas (Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook 2009, p.1325). According to Hallencreutz & Turner (2011, p.60), organisational change denotes altering a major feature of the operations of an organization. This essay will contrast and compare change and innovation. It will also include an identification of an event that has taken place in the university campus and explain whether it constitutes a change or innovation. The essay will be based on a review of management articles on change and innovation. Similarities between innovation and change One of the similarities between change and innovation is that both revolve around the introduction of new things in the organization. Hallencreutz & Turner (2011, p.60) maintain that, organizational change involves a modification of key aspects of the business operations of an organization. Some of the key aspects within an organization relate to its products, services, workforce, production processes and management. Accordingly, organizational change may take the form of hiring more qualified staff, having new managers, and beginning to offer after sale services for certain products. The concept of new things is also evident in Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook (2009, p.1325) who relate innovation with new processes, products, ideas or services. Wong, Tjosvold, & Liu (2009, p.240) further argue that, innovation is the effective application of products and processes that are new to a firm and intended to benefit it along with its stakeholders. It can thus be said that, both innovation and change leads to either a launching of a totally new product, service, or process or a modification of the existing ones. Another similarity is that both change and innovation are undertaken by organizations as a way of responding to business environmental changes. Drawing from Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook (2009, p.1323), there is a need for organizations to innovate in response to changes in customer lifestyles and demands. Organizations also should innovate in order to take advantage of business opportunities presented by technology as well as changing marketplaces, dynamics and structures. Organizations can undertake innovation in relation to its services, products, processes, operations and people. Accordingly, firms’ introduction of new products and services is guided by current customer demands with the aim of producing products and rendering services that effectively satisfy the needs of customers. Innovation in people may entail employment of new staff that will enable an organization to tap new technologies, identify changes in the market and formulate strategies for effective management of those changes. Damanpour & Wischnevsky (2006, p.270) add that, firms operating in the current conditions of fast technological advances, resource scarcity and global competition ought to innovate so as to grow, survive and be effective. Thus, innovation is necessary to adapt to technological changes, enable effective use of scarce resources and survive competition. This point is supported by Senior & Swailes (2009) who view change as normality and the necessity for organizational change as continuous as firms try to respond and adapt to changing client and customer expectations, shifting workforce and changing economic conditions. In this case, organizational change is considered significant in enabling an organization to offer products and services that meet the expectations of customers in order to enhance customer satisfaction. This will in turn facilitate retention of existing customers and attraction of new ones. Changes in the organization are also important in that they will enable a company to hire and retain the best workforce, as well as enable it to thrive in different economic conditions. In other words, changes in an organization’s external and internal environment provoke it to adopt change or innovation aspects within the organization in order to cope with such changes. Differences between innovation and change In terms of differences, innovation differs from change in that any innovation aspect leads to organizational change, while not all change aspects result in innovation. Damanpour & Wischnevsky (2006, p.270) observe that, from the viewpoint of managers, the principal rationale of innovation is to initiate change within the firm to generate new opportunities or capitalise on the existing opportunities. Accordingly, managers consider the introduction of change as the main grounds why an organization should devise and implement innovative ideas. In other words, innovation may not be necessary where an organization does not need a change and where business opportunities are not available. Moreover, Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook (2009, p.1324) note that, innovation is strongly tied to change. This is because; firms use innovation as an influential tool in the business environment or because of the changing external and internal environment. Nevertheless, innovation may entail a wide array of various forms of change, which depends on the firm’s capabilities, strategies, requirements and resources. Common forms of innovation concern new materials, products, services, processes and organizational forms. From here, it is very clear that innovation goes hand-in-hand with organizational change. The business environment keeps on changing and firms mostly make changes to their products, services and processes to suit the environmental changes. Under most circumstances, firms innovate new products or service aspect to compete with those of their competitors or meet new customers’ needs. Whenever an innovative idea is adopted by an organization, a certain form of change in relation to that idea must occur. For instance, a discovery and implementation of a new energy-saving and faster production method will result in several changes. Such changes may include employment of new staff, reduced consumption and cost of energy and higher production level, which in turn may increase the profitability level of the company. Another difference between change and innovation is that, the latter is susceptible to imitation by other firms, but an organization’s change aspect cannot be easily imitated by others. In line with this, Damanpour & Wischnevsky (2006, p.272) maintain that, creation of innovation leads to an outcome, such as a service, technology or product that is new to a firm’s population. Another firm adopts the created innovation by either through imitation or acquisition from the firm that has created it. Thus, adoption simply means that an innovation is created elsewhere outside the adopting firm. In short, an innovation that is generated by a given organization can be successfully implemented in a number of organisations regardless of whether it is imitated or acquired. Under most circumstances, after an innovation is developed and effectively implemented by a given organization, the organization usually patent it and later sell the idea to other organizations for application in their business operations. For instance, an innovation of a stock keeping system that helps minimize over-stocking or under-stocking. A company may use it for sometime and then publish it for other firms to try. On the other hand, Hallencreutz & Turner (2011, p.66) argue that, since every individual experiences from his or her own viewpoint, he or she experiences a varied reality. Hence, it is hard to find a single, universal organizational change practice that is ideal. Organizations have different goals and operate in different environments and thus, require different change aspects to meet their specific goals and survive in their particular business environment. Organizational change aspects are customized to suit each organization’s particular situation and not for universal application. A change aspect that has been developed and implemented by a given organization cannot be imitated by other organizations since it may not match or help them to effectively deal with their situations. Change in the university campus Currently, the library is opened from Monday through Sunday in order to present working students with an ample time for accessing reading resources in the library. In the past, it used to be opened from Monday to Saturday. This is a form of change and not innovation. There is no any new idea or process that is introduced in the operation of the library, only a modification of its opening hours. This matches the claim by Hallencreutz & Turner (2011, p.60) that, there ought to be some alteration of business operations for organizational change to occur. Changes in the library operation could have constituted an innovation if something new, such as creation of new databases to facilitate easy and faster access to library resources, could have been introduced. Conclusion In terms of similarities, both change and innovation lead to launching of new features and ideas within the organization’s products, services, processes, structures, management and workforce. In addition, both change and innovation are generated and implemented in order to respond to changes in an organization’s business environment. The difference between innovation and change is that, innovation is tied to organizational change and thus, all innovation activities leads to changes of certain things within the organization. On the contrary, carrying out changes within the organization does not always result in innovative ideas or concepts, or products or services. Furthermore, a single innovation that is developed by a given firm can be imitated and used by other firms to their benefit without any failures. On the other hand, change is specific to a given organization and thus, imitating and implementing a change aspect from another organization may result in ineffective implementation. This is due to a difference in the situations being attended to by each organization. Reference List Baregheh, A, Rowley, J & Sambrook, S 2009, Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation, Management Decision, 47(8), pp.1323-1339. Damanpour, F & Wischnevsky, J 2006, Research on innovation in organizations: Distinguishing innovation-generating from innovation-adopting organizations, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 23 (1), pp.269–291. Hallencreutz, J & Turner, D 2011, Exploring organizational change best practice: are there any clear-cut models and definitions? International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 3 (1), pp.60-68. Senior, B & Swailes, S 2009, Organizational Change, London, Prentice-Hall. Wong, A, Tjosvold, D & Liu, C 2009, Innovation by Teams in Shanghai, China: Cooperative Goals for Group Confidence and Persistence, British Journal of Management, 20 (2), pp.238–251. Read More