2 Introduction

In this module, we will focus on innovation capability, the various forms of employee engagement with workplace innovation, and more specifically innovation adaptation.

Encouraging and supporting employees’ creativity and innovative ideas contributes to innovation capability. As we noted in the previous modules, an individual’s engagement with creativity and innovation in the workplace can take many forms. Initially, you can be creative and craft your own best way to contribute value. Over time, as you become more comfortable with innovation activities, you might pursue your own intrapreneurial ventures within your workplace – entrepreneurial ventures developed and launched within an organization (also known as “corporate entrepreneurship”) .

There are other forms of engagement between these two end-points (job crafting and corporate entrepreneurship) with different degrees of uncertainty and different resource requirements (such as time needed to explore fully an innovation opportunity or possibility). In this module, we will introduce a ladder of opportunities (see Figure 2.1) that illustrates a set of workplace innovation scenarios with their varying levels of resources needed, uncertainties to be addressed, and potential impacts that could be achieved. You will also encounter Innovation Adaptation concepts and cases as these are the next step for you to consider on the ladder of opportunities in workplace innovation.