Abstract

With the ever increasing cutthroat market competition, an orientation towards entrepreneurial culture is both essential and inevitable for every organization that aspires to remain sustainable. This is important because such an approach towards freedom of innovation amongst employees signifies the company’s devotion to discovering new ideas, technologies, resources, and even new products. “Organizations that encourage workers to brainstorm and experiment with new ideas while peeking for gaps that others miss out, stand a higher chance of achieving a competitive edge through improved manufacturing efficiency, as well as increased market penetration.”(Kim and Ryu, 2017). Along this line of thought, this paper seeks to analyze how adopting a culture of innovation in the workplace enables organizations to stand out in the market. Furthermore, the piece also contemplates why workplace autonomy as a move towards employees engagement and ownership, is fundamental in promoting an orientation towards creativity within organizations.

Keywords: entrepreneurial culture, workplace innovation, autonomy, ideas.

According to Theresa. M, (2008), creativity has always been at the heart of business, but until now it hasn’t been at the top of the management agenda. Furthermore, related research indicates that to survive the dynamics of modern day market rivalry, organizations need to motivate individuals to innovate and even take risks by nurturing core values such as openness, adaptability, outcomes, and rewards. This way, employees can begin to accept the personal obligation of using their creative imagination to explore and assess new ideas and possibilities. For such organizations to initiate and sustain workplace creativity and innovations, cultivating active orientations toward an entrepreneurial culture becomes a distinguishing factor. “Based on a survey of firms in Vietnam, organizational innovation was seen to be a direct cause of improved performance.”(Phan, T.A.A, 2019). Some of the reasons why organizations need to allow and promote workplace innovation includes the following:-

● Product Differentiation Advantage
● Match Changing Customer Preference
● Nurture And Reward Talents

Product Differentiation Advantage

Due to extreme products competition, companies must continue to come up with innovative concepts in order to stimulate the development of new products that appeal to a wider range of clients. As such, organizations that introduce novel products always have an advantage with this frontage. This is because they stand the highest likelihood of gaining client loyalty, and hence grow their market stake. When seeking to build and sustain competitive benefits through product differential, organizational innovativeness becomes a substantial affair.

Match Changing Customer Preference

With appropriate innovation strategies, different parts of an organization can easily avoid conflicting priorities. Since customers’ needs evolve perpetually, workplace innovation can serve to foresee future market orientations and variations. For instance, through sales representatives, organizations can track down the hidden present and future needs of their customers. Also, through marketing innovation, firms can identify opportunities for expanding their market stake through new distribution channels, which means coming up with new ideas. However, it is difficult to satisfy the long term needs of the niche market unless organizations begin to realize the primacy of innovation and start acting. “Entrepreneurial Orientation is frequently cited as a forecaster of exemplary performance.”(Kraus, &J.P Corn, 2012)

Nurture And Reward Talents

Organizations can also inculcate a culture of innovation through instituting talent-inclusive policies. With this, organizations can be able to generate new ideas from entrepreneurial thinkers and contributors within the workplace. By employing such policies to identify, develop, and reward creative expressions from employees, an organization is set to inspire increased market share. As such, the main priority of organizational leadership should be to commit the right people, at the appropriate moment, to the right degree in creative work. This engagement starts when the leader begins to recast the role of employees. “Rather than simply roll up their sleeves and execute top-down strategy, employees are allowed to contribute creatively.”(Teresa M. 2008).

In todays innovation-driven economy, realizing how to harness and develop great ideas from employees has become a vital organizational preference. This state of affairs mandates organizational leadership to take up the challenge and begin to foster a culture of innovation. With such a strategy, organizations can manage to build workplace autonomy and thus direct their employees towards a better awareness of the organization’s topography. Furthermore, employee involvement serves to shape their understanding of the company’s willingness to support their innovative behavior. Last but not the least, when blended with a voluntary acknowledgment of employees task discretion and freedom, the entrepreneurial frontage of the firm becomes even more effective.

References

Phan, T.T.A. (2019):Organizational innovation always lead to better performance-
A study of firms in Vietnam, Journal of Economics and Development, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp.71-82.https://doi.org/10.1108/JED-06-2019-0003Emerald Publishing Limited, West Yorkshire, England.

King Kraus, Hughes,(2012):Entrepreneurial Orientation and the bbusiness
performance of SMEs:Review of management Science 6, 161-182(2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-011-0062-9.Open Access Publishing.

Kim,&Ryu.,(2017):Towards Entrepreneurial Organisations:Organizational process innovation in Naver:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.421. Elsevier Publishing.

Teresa.M, Mukti.K, (2008): Creativity and the Role of the Leader: Harvard Business Review :https://hbr.org/2008/10/creativity-and-the-role-of-the-leaderHarvard Business Publishing, Massachusetts, California.