Innovation and Change
A dynamic business environment requires modern organizations to be flexible and adapt to changing trends and consumer interests. Therefore, the concept of innovation and change, promoted in different areas, is a relevant methodology to address such changes and meet the needs and interests of the target market. The importance of analyzing organizational innovation and change lies in an opportunity to restructure certain aspects of business processes and production in accordance with modern trends to expand possibilities and enhance individual areas of work.
This report aims to present the existing types of innovation and change approaches, evaluate the selected case study associated with the topic under consideration, and make recommendations based on the existing theory. As a modern optimization framework, innovation and change is a sought-after strategy to adapt a business to the interests of the target market and maintain high productivity.
Literature Review
In academic literature, much attention is paid to the concept of organizational innovation and change. One of the current theories is a methodology known as disruptive innovation that has a major impact on today’s markets. Petzold et al. (2019) analyze this phenomenon and note that disruptive innovation is an unexpected product or service that, when entering the market, changes it gradually and creates new trends and tendencies. As a result, a specific area undergoes transformation under the impact of this innovation, which is accompanied by concomitant factors, in particular, competitive fluctuations, demand parameters, and other crucial indicators (Petzold et al., 2019). This concept can be a powerful approach to broaden the spectrum of influence and help organizations improve performance by creating new trends.
In the process of organizational change, types of innovation play an essential role. In the current research, different options are considered, which affect technological, structural (administrative), cultural, and other innovations. For instance, Chen et al. (2018) analyze technology innovation as a set of measures aimed to transform the production system of organizations. The focus is on optimizing both technical equipment and an intellectual base to expand the range of competencies and address modern market needs (Chen et al., 2018). This type of innovation is relevant to enterprises specializing in the production of complex technical equipment and machinery with advanced technical characteristics and digital designs.
Another type of innovation applied in today’s business environment refers to product and service changes. Lehrer et al. (2018) review these transformational steps and argue that moving to advanced interaction principles with the target audience is one of the main modern strategies. The key reason is that a corresponding change in service features contributes to developing value propositions that, in turn, allow businesses to stand out from competitors and retain a large target audience (Daft, 2015). These perspectives are important as drivers that stimulate interest in goods and services and increase organizations’ profits.
One of the relevant types of change is the approach associated with strategy and structure innovations. According to Rajapathirana and Hui (2018), this process often involves implementing measures aimed to reorganize the administrative norms of work in organizations. These solutions often include reallocating authority, establishing improved control processes, forming coordination teams, and other steps to optimize management over specific aspects of work (Rajapathirana & Hui, 2018). Strategic directions of innovation imply changing leadership concepts, updating the technological base, and other relevant solutions (Daft, 2015). All these measures are designed to ensure a stable and smooth transition to an innovative mode of operations.
Finally, the process of organizational change can be accompanied by cultural innovations. Edwards-Schachter (2018) notes that these innovations not only ensure the necessary behavioral changes, such as attitudes towards work responsibilities, organizational values, or ethical principles of interaction. As the author states, cultural innovations are incentives for building appropriate disruptive change strategies, which, as mentioned earlier, are potentially effective approaches to overcome high competition and gain credible market positions (Edwards-Schachter, 2018).
As a result, by following this path of optimization, organizations are able to create an enabling environment for changes and create a sustainable background for needed transformations. All considered types of innovations are relevant frameworks used in the modern business environment in accordance with the specifics of work and required optimization goals.
Case Study
As an example to analyze from the perspective of introducing appropriate organizational innovations, the case study of Airbus will be used. In 2010, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the global market faced the need to optimize certain aspects of operations to increase productivity and strengthen sales (“Airbus,” n.d.). In particular, according to the case study, technology and cultural innovations were taken as the main strategies for reorganization (“Airbus,” n.d.). The technology changes involved introducing additional sales and marketing functions as practices aimed to strengthen Airbus’s position in the market (“Airbus,” n.d.).
Creating a platform for employees to ensure an inclusive environment and promote the idea of innovations among employees fell under the category of cultural changes (“Airbus,” n.d.). This case reflects how a large market participant can pursue an optimization strategy by implementing the necessary tools and steps to influence business processes and ensure a sustainable transition to an updated operating mode.
Recommendations
Based on the specifics of the Airbus case study, individual recommendations can be given to support a sustainable transition to innovations. To address technology changes, organizations need to have sufficient resources to fine-tune internal design elements and avoid mistakes in building the necessary logistics (Daft, 2015). Therefore, Airbus needs to initiate a mechanism for assessing current capabilities from the standpoint of an opportunity to transfer part of its resources to a new industry, in particular, sales and marketing. The responsible department can propose relevant measures aimed to create or attract the necessary resources at the initial stage, for instance, digital platforms for marketing products or existing online sites.
With regard to cultural innovations, promoting the ideas of changes among the Airbus team is best done vertically by entrusting department heads to conduct career guidance with subordinates and offer relevant perspectives and bonuses. The company has thousands of employees working in different regions of the world (“Airbus,” n.d.). Therefore, establishing an appropriate communication environment should be local to ensure that employees understand the importance of innovative changes at each of the levels.
Conclusion
The concept of innovation and change is a relevant methodology that includes different types of transformation and allows organizations to optimize their business processes to compete and increase productivity successfully. Among the types of innovation, technology, product and service, strategy and structure, and culture changes are common approaches. The considered case of Airbus presents the relevance of measures to apply appropriate transformation principles to increase performance and strengthen the company’s market position.
An objective assessment of the current theory and the implementation of effective change algorithms in practice is an effective way to optimize business processes. The example of Airbus proves the value of attracting an available intellectual base for the necessary innovations and confirms the benefits of initial analytical work based on theoretical findings.
References
Airbus: Creating a core innovation capability. (n.d.). Hype. Web.
Chen, J., Yin, X., & Mei, L. (2018). Holistic innovation: An emerging innovation paradigm. International Journal of Innovation Studies, 2(1), 1-13. Web.
Daft, R. L. (2015). Organization theory and design (12th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Edwards-Schachter, M. (2018). The nature and variety of innovation. International Journal of Innovation Studies, 2(2), 65-79. Web.
Lehrer, C., Wieneke, A., Vom Brocke, J. A. N., Jung, R., & Seidel, S. (2018). How big data analytics enables service innovation: Materiality, affordance, and the individualization of service. Journal of Management Information Systems, 35(2), 424-460. Web.
Petzold, N., Landinez, L., & Baaken, T. (2019). Disruptive innovation from a process view: A systematic literature review. Creativity and Innovation Management, 28(2), 157-174. Web.
Rajapathirana, R. J., & Hui, Y. (2018). Relationship between innovation capability, innovation type, and firm performance. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(1), 44-55. Web.