Lesson 2.2: Supporting and Enabling Organizational Workplace Capability
Introduction
Lesson 2.1 focused largely on employees and their capability for workplace innovation, with a special focus on Motivation for Innovation as an element of employee innovation Mindset. This lesson has a complementary focus on organizational capability to enable, support and leverage employee-led workplace innovation. Positive expectations concerning employee innovation need to be prominent in the organizational culture. These cultural expectations must be backed up by supporting resources, routine practices or processes and management systems in the organizational infrastructure. And unless “all these gears mesh together” in seamless ways, the organization will only achieve low rates of innovation and will fail to create lasting value from even the most well-intentioned innovation efforts by employees.
The seamless integration of innovation culture and innovation infrastructure forms the organization’s Innovation Capability. In this lesson, we will explore key principles and strategies to cultivate a strong organizational innovation capability by focusing inclusive innovation. We’ll begin by exploring the research insights on organizational innovation capability as a foundation for transforming new ideas into end results (Lawson and Sampson, 2001). Following that, we’ll dive more deeply into The Fifth Element Model, a lens we have used with workplace partners to examine and enhance their organizational innovation capability. This framework outlines four key pillars that, when effectively integrated, create both the organizational culture and infrastructure to foster employee creativity and engagement, and to leverage those elements into enhanced performance and improved quality of work (Pot et al, 2016).
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this activity, you will be able to:
- Discuss organizational innovation capability and its various dimensions.
- Recognize the importance of developing workplace innovation capability to promote inclusion.
- Identify numerous strategies that, when adopted properly, lead to capability in workplace innovation.
Innovation Capability (IC)
IC is a company’s power to transform ideas into tangible results: new products, ways of working, and improved systems that benefit the company and its stakeholders (Lawson and Sampson, 2001). Lawson and Samson further highlight that IC development requires the amalgamation of two operating paradigms:
- Run a successful innovative business: Create and launch new projects or products.
- Manage mainstream capabilities: Take care of everyday business operations that keep things running. (2001)
A recent study (Mendoza-Silva, 2021) identifies three distinct dimensions that make up an organization’s IC: managerial, intraorganizational and interorganizational. Table 1, below, offers more details:
Table 1: Dimensions of IC (Mendoza-Silva, 2021)
Managerial
|
Management Style & Leadership: Commitment, positive attitude, and support for innovation initiatives by top management.Corporate Strategy: Shared vision, strategic direction, and alignment with innovation activities. |
Intraorganizational |
Resource Management: Effective use of human, financial, and physical resources for innovation.Work Climate: Positive and supportive culture that encourages innovation.Ideation & Structure: Flexible structure that facilitates knowledge sharing and collaboration between different departments.Technology: Utilization of technology to support innovation behaviour.Know-how Development: Generation, management, and transfer of knowledge within the organization.Individual Activity: Employees’ personal characteristics, motivation, and involvement in innovation. |
Interorganizational |
External Relations: Collaborative partnerships with other organizations to acquire and develop new knowledge.Network Characteristics: Patterns of connections, relationships, and shared understanding between organizations within a network. |
Cultivating strong IC within an organization unlocks powerful potential for success. This manifests in two keyways: innovation performance and firm performance (Mendoza-Silva, 2021).
Innovation performance reflects an organization’s ability to effectively translate ideas into reality, generating additional value. This can be measured by factors like the speed of bringing ideas to market and the value they create.
Firm performance, on the other hand, reflects the organization’s overall health, often measured by increased competitiveness, profitability, and market share. Ultimately, a strong IC paves the way for both effective innovation and a thriving business.
Recognizing the importance of employees in developing IC has led to many initiatives to foster environments that enable autonomy and engage employees in innovation (e.g., see the case story in Lesson 1.3). More recently, several studies have emphasized the importance of inclusion in boosting IC (e.g., Le and Le 2023; Lei and Le, 2023). For example, when leaders practice inclusive leadership and promote open communication, employees are more engaged and innovative, suggesting that traits like trust, courage, humility, empathy, and gratitude are essential in creating an inclusive environment that drives business success (Vladić et al 2021).
The Fifth Element Model
One way to promote inclusion in the organization is to promote and develop capability for workplace innovation that focuses and empowers the individual employee. To do so, organizations should build a culture of innovation that not only involves fostering individual capabilities, but also develops strong organizational support systems. This section explores the essential Fifth Element Model, developed by Dr. Peter Totterdill, which outlines four key pillars. When implemented together, these pillars lead to workplace innovation capability.
Watch this video with Dr. Totterdill where he explained this model. The graphic is also included as Figure 1, below:
(of Organizational Capability for Workplace Innovation)
- Encourage Employee-Driven Innovation: Empower and encourage employees to experiment, share ideas, and collaborate. This can involve practices like dedicated innovation workshops, intrapreneurship programs, and peer-to-peer learning initiatives.
- Foster Engaging and Empowering Teams: Create an environment where employees feel engaged, satisfied, and empowered to reach their full potential. This includes facilitating the formation and operation of self-managed teams, encouraging collaborative learning within functional teams, and providing ongoing learning and development opportunities.
- Enable Co-Created Leadership and Employee Voice: Implement shared and distributed leadership practices to ensure all employees can contribute their ideas and expertise. This can be achieved through conducting employee surveys, empowering employees to participate in projects and decisions, and fostering a culture of mentorship and coaching.
- Streamline Structures and Processes: While complete restructuring might not always be feasible, organizations can simplify procedures, align appraisals with innovation capabilities, and flatten hierarchies wherever possible. This helps remove unnecessary hurdles, incentivize innovative contributions, and empower employees at all levels.
By implementing these pillars together, the essential fifth element framework helps generate a culture that fosters innovation, engagement, and ultimately leads to enhanced performance and a more fulfilling work life for all employees.
Accenture is an example of a company that places high emphasis on inclusion to increase workplace innovation. Accenture is a multinational Fortune 500 professional services company, widely recognized as a leader in the field with over 770,000 employees. Accenture places high value on inclusive innovation throughout their organization and in Canada, and as a result has been repeatedly ranked high on Refinitiv’s Diversity and Inclusion Index.
Bill Morris, Accenture Canada’s President, highlights the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion to boost innovation (amongst other corporate goals):
“At Accenture, we know that our diversity makes us stronger, smarter and more innovative, which helps us better serve the needs of our clients, our people and our communities” (Ebden, 2024)
By embracing diversity to drive innovation, Accenture has adopted a multifaceted approach centered around their Diversity and Inclusion Strategy as presented in Table 2, below. To learn more about Accenture’s perspective on inclusion and diversity, follow this link.
Table 2. Representation of Accenture’s multifaceted approach to diversity and inclusion to drive organizational innovation (Accenture, 2023).
Focus Area |
Key Components |
Accenture’s Approach |
Leadership |
Fostering a culture of equality | Leaders expected to champion inclusion and diversity. |
| Transparency | Setting and sharing goals, reporting progress on inclusion and diversity initiatives. | |
Culture |
Belonging and trust | Creating an inclusive environment with strong allyship. |
| Zero tolerance | No tolerance for discrimination of any kind. | |
| Learning | Providing resources and opportunities for understanding and appreciation of diversity. | |
| Employee networks | Supporting vibrant employee networks based on various identities. | |
| Accessibility | Designing workplaces accessible and inclusive for all. | |
| Cultural observances | Recognizing and celebrating diverse cultural identities. | |
Processes |
Data-driven approach | Measuring progress through data and monitoring processes for equity. |
| Self-identification | Encouraging voluntary self-identification to understand workforce demographics. | |
| Diverse talent pool | Actively seeking and attracting talent from diverse backgrounds. | |
| Equitable benefits | Offering equitable and inclusive employee benefits. | |
| Diverse leadership | Building a more diverse leadership team. | |
| Career support | Providing support for all career journeys regardless of background. | |
Collaboration |
Partnering with clients and communities | Working with clients and communities to advance inclusion and diversity initiatives. |
| Clients | Engaging clients in creating diverse and inclusive workplaces. | |
| Communities | Partnering with communities to promote inclusion and address systemic barriers. |
Notice the overlap Accenture’s strategy and the Fifth Element model where both are centered around principles of inclusion.
Practice Exercise: Reflection Opportunity
Think about your own professional workplace (for working learners) or your learning environment (for students, i.e., your institution’s teaching and learning environment) and how it could adapt existing “resources, routine practices or processes, and management systems” to include a broader range of “workers” in innovation activity (see Accenture’s strategy presented in Table 2).
References for Lesson 2.2: Supporting and Enabling Organizational Workplace Capability
Accenture (2023). Embracing diversity to drive innovation and reinvention. Accenture. Accessed on March 03, 2024, at https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/company/integrated-reporting-inclusion-diversity.
Ebden, T. (2024). Accenture Further Strengthens Commitment to Inclusion & Diversity in Canada, Newsroom, Accenutre. https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2016/accenture-further-strengthens-commitment-to-inclusion-and-diversity-in-canada
EIPA (2019). Introducing Workplace Innovation in the Public Sector. European Institute of Public Administration. Accessed on March 03, 2024, at https://www.eipa.eu/blog/introducing-workplace-innovation-in-the-public-sector/
Kulkarni, V., Vohra, N., Sharma, S., & Nair, N. (2021). Walking the tightrope: gender inclusion as organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 34(1), 106-120.
Lawson, B., & Samson, D. (2001). Developing innovation capability in organisations: a dynamic capabilities approach. International journal of innovation management, 5(03), 377-400.
Le, T. T., & Le, P. B. (2023). High-involvement HRM practices stimulate incremental and radical innovation: The roles of knowledge sharing and market turbulence. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 9(1), 100006.
Lei, H., Saeheng, P., & Le, P. B. (2023). Stimulating knowledge sharing behaviors for frugal innovation: the roles of inclusive leadership and competitive intensity. Journal of Knowledge Management, (ahead-of-print).
Mendoza-Silva, A. (2021). Innovation capability: a systematic literature review. European Journal of Innovation Management, 24(3), 707-734.
Pot, F., Totterdill, P., & Dhondt, S. (2016). Workplace innovation: European policy and theoretical foundation. World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 12(1), 13-32.
Totterdill, P., Dhondt, S., & Boermans, S. (2016). Your guide to workplace innovation. Brussels: European Workplace Innovation Network (EUWIN).
Vladić, N., Maletič, D., & Maletič, M. (2021). Determinants of innovation capability: an exploratory study of inclusive leadership and work engagement. Quality Innovation Prosperity, 25(2), 130-152.