Assignment5-innovationManagement-UL30416
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Discuss how, in relation to your organisation, you are currently
attempting to apply ambidexterity with the aid of course material.
As our organisation has only recently been created, we are at the early stages of its development.
Due to this I intend to write this assignment on how I plan to introduce and encourage innovation
into our organisation with a view to making it an ambidextrous organisation.
I have reached 52 years of age and started being a productive unit in the labour sense of the word
at the age of 7. That is 45 years experience of ‘work’ and at seeing ‘innovations’ taking place.
Looking back, I now realise that I was introduced to the principles of innovation very early in my
life. I was reared in a small mixed farm where the quality of the land was predominantly poor. In
1971, my parents sold the horse and replaced him with a tractor, a Ferguson 20. The money they
had was invested in the tractor but there wasn’t money to buy the machinery they would need for
the tractor. They already had the machinery which had been used with the horse; plough, hay
mower, hay turner and so forth, so my father adapted these instead of buying new farm
machinery. All that was needed for him to do was to change the tackle so as the tractor could
pull them rather than the horse. He also needed someone to drive the ‘New Horse’ which was
where I came into use. This process which I have just described is innovation. It is small
incremental innovation which was using what you already have in a different fashion. Innovation
does not require coming up with a completely new invention or design, it mostly means adapting
the existing system or process in a way that will generate better results.
Innovation
Organisations and Businesses have to be always looking at being innovative due to the rapid and
constant changes that are happening in the Marketplace and in Society. No one product or
service is so perfect that it will consistently and persistently appeal to its users. Competition
ensures that nobody can sit on what they have and pat themselves on their backs. Systemic,
Sectoral and Organisational influences dictate that organisations need to be always working
towards improving their services/products. In the provision of services sector, which is where I
work, the three main forms of service innovation fall within developing new business models,
new services and new ways of providing existing services to your customers. Great care and
awareness needs to be taken, when introducing new innovations, on the gaps that can occur
between the organisation and their customers. Examples of these gaps are if the customer is
receiving what they expect or if the management’s concept of the service are the same as the
organisation’s concept of quality.
In order to get rid of these gaps, organisations need to deal with a number of key issues
comprehensively during the implementation phase of new service innovation. The
implementation phase is composed of the following steps. Firstly, ideas are generated in the
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organisation, secondly, the best idea is agreed upon and lastly the idea is ready to be
implemented, that is, brought to market. The generation and selection stages with innovation
needs to be given time. The overall impact of the innovation and it’s success will be dependent
on the amount of rigour that went into the initial selection.
Ideas can be either developed by an individual in the organisation or by special teams which
have been set up for this purpose. Not all innovations will have successful outcomes and there
needs to be a willingness in the organisation which appreciates this and able to accept it. The
whole concept of creativity requires the organisation to have it embedded in it’s culture. For
creativity to exist and impact the organisation positively, it needs to be fostered. When this is the
case, new ideas can be developed and communicated throughout the organisation increasing the
chances of service improvement. The elements contributing to positive outcomes of new
innovations are vision and leadership, team and organisational structure, creative individuals and
effective teams. The organisation also needs to embrace new ideas positively, needs to have
organisationwide participation and has to have outward focus. The idea selection phase requires
the following to exist:
● Deciding which projects to foster, and which to drop
● Building a group of projects that are complementary
● Maintaining the commitment of people resources
● Managing these challenges despite uncertainty and risks
● Creating robust systems and processes in the organisation that support wise and
transparent decisionmaking
(Taken from class notes, Unit 2, Dr. John F. Noonan, University of Limerick)
Care also has to be given in considering the financial impacts of innovation, both outward and
inward. Financial analysis should be conducted at this stage which will feed back and help with
the idea selection process. There are a variety of techniques available to help determine the
financial implications and measurement of the outcomes such as Payback, Net Present Value and
Sensitivity Analysis. Innovation will happen in the space when: what is desirable, what is
possible and what is viable intersect and overlap.
Once the idea has been determined, the implementation phase will demand further exploration,
such as, testing, learning from these tests and adaption. From the learning that should occur, the
team needs to experiment in order to improve the overall idea or improve specific elements of
the idea. A period of reflection and time are required to test it, cost it and an effort should be
made to measure the quality of the proposed idea.
Structure
For these important steps to take place, the type of culture in the organisation will play a big part.
Many organisations have structural frameworks that don’t encourage innovation. These types of
organisations require a root and branch change in order for innovation to be even considered.
Assignment 5 ‘Innovation Management: Developing Structured Creativity for Processes and Services for
Community and Voluntary Organisations’ Michael McGagh. 30/4/’16
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Two of the more suitable types of organisational structures where innovation can flourish are
known as the ‘Adhocracy’ and ‘MissionOrientated’ types.
In the case of Adhocracy, both teamwork and individual’s skills are valued. Creativity within the
organisation is promoted and emphasis is placed on “getting the job done”. In the
MissionOrientated structure members share a common purpose and empowerment of
individuals ranks highly. Both structures allow flexibility and freedom and promote
collaboration, within the organisation and also with external organisations. A downside to both
of these structures are that they are not strong on getting the day to day business of the
organisation done, the continuous and repetitive transactions which are essential to the survival
of the organisation. If the core activities of the organisation are not attended to, the organisation
will be jeopardized which will mean that it won’t be around long enough to consider being more
innovative. The type of organisational structure which is best suited to getting the transactions
done is called ‘Machine Bureaucracy’. Systems and processes within this structure are simple
and streamlined. It facilitates stability with high levels of technical skills and steady at churning
out daily transactions.
The concept of getting the routine transactions completed plus encouraging an innovative culture
is what is known as an ambidextrous organisation. Thus, the optimal ambidextrous organisation
needs a blend of the Adhocracy/MissionOrientated and Machine Bureaucracy elements.
Teams
Once this type of structure is in place, care and attention has to be given to the type of team
which will take the innovation from idea stage, to rollout to service users stage. There are a
number of options available depending on the type of organisation and the type of innovation
envisaged. The most common types are
1. Functional
2. CrossFunctional
3. Skunk Works
4. Virtual
1. The Functional team will have members usually drawn from the same department. These
are common in larger organisations which would have a number of different departments,
such as, R&D, Technical and Marketing. When one team have completed their role in the
project, they hand it on to the next department (known as ‘overthewall’) who will have
a team to input their part in the overall project development.
2. CrossFunctional teams are suitable for innovations which require multidisciplinary
inputs and the team is composed of members drawn from the different functions of the
organisation. This model allows the team have an overall view of what is required with
specialist’s knowledge available from start to finish. At times, there can be friction
between the project and functional commitments of the organisation, but with appropriate
Assignment 5 ‘Innovation Management: Developing Structured Creativity for Processes and Services for
Community and Voluntary Organisations’ Michael McGagh. 30/4/’16
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communication techniques promoting discourse, chances are increased in achieving a
smooth operational ambidextrous organisation.
3. Skunk Works or Autonomous teams operates separately from the main functions of the
organisation. They are purely project orientated with a high degree of independence.
They possess a large degree of autonomy and flexibility. This structure is best suited for
highly technical types of projects, or ones that have not been tried before. They are more
common in large organisations where innovation and competitive advantage is critical for
maintaining their market share, but can work really well in smaller organisations.
4. Virtual teams are composed of members who work together on a common objective.
Usually they are not located in the same site and often are drawn from different
organisations. Benefits with this model include the availability of the best of expertise,
flexibility and an expectation for collaboration. To optimise communication flows in this
team, it is recommended to not fully rely on virtual means but to have face to face
opportunities available also.
Collaboration & Knowledge Management
The concept of collaborating with others has always appealed to me but I am wise enough to
know that not everyone is cut out to do this. Fortunately, I have worked with many people who
believe in the principle of working together for the greater good and I’ve witnessed the many
advantages of operating in this manner. Collaboration requires us to leave our ego at home, we
cannot be concerned about ownership or be overly territorial in our activities. It is not about
earning personal kudos. For collaboration to impact an organisation positively, the style of
leadership and culture of the organisation plays a big role. Leaders who deem control to be high
in their priorities don’t cultivate the conditions necessary for collaboration to advance. Leaders
who create an environment of trust, transparency, fairness and respect, with sound methods of
communication inherent in the process, stand a much better chance of reaping the rewards from
organisationalwide collaboration. Knowledge is much more easily accessible to all in the
organisation once this setting exists. Knowledge Management (KM) concerns itself with how
well the knowledge that all organisations have use it. In order that the knowledge an organisation
has be optimally utilised, then the purpose of KM is to capture, develop and share this
information.
According to Griffin & Mitchell, 2010:
“ Innovation requires creativity, the application of knowledge, effective ways of
recognising customers’ requirement and protection of the resulting ideas.” (p139)
With regard to the ambidextrous organisation, such a climate of sharing knowledge and
collaborating is a prerequisite if success is to be achieved. Structure, Culture, and Leadership
styles greatly influence if and how successful an ambidextrous organisation can be. The
organisation must attend to it’s transactional duties whilst supporting its transformational
Assignment 5 ‘Innovation Management: Developing Structured Creativity for Processes and Services for
Community and Voluntary Organisations’ Michael McGagh. 30/4/’16
