Assisting Employees: Innovation, Leadership, & Ethics

            The global marketplace demands a subsequent force of innovation to be present in the current organizational atmosphere, and this drive towards communal innovation is wholly dependent on the leadership team and its managerial skill and theories. One perspective is held by Irikefe Urhuogo and Victor Williams and their study of Innovation and Change in the article “Leading Innovation and Change:  Assisting Employees in Lifting Where They Stand” (2011). This article contains a discussion of ethics of leadership, organizational change as well as the cultivation of an innovative culture and the responses and actions the leadership team must take.

         In the text, Making Innovation Work (Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, 2013) the very first key to innovation is “Strength in Leadership”, and as leaders of organizations, no matter what market we are in, this is the most essential to the success of innovation as the leadership team is responsible for the cultivation. Urhuogo & Williams (2011) explain in the article that some businesses approach innovative ideas when presenting the concepts to the workforce that the encouragement needed for success doesn’t happen due to lack of vision or even a lack of facilitating culture. The main concept of “Lifting Where They Stand” (LWTS), the main premise of Urhuogo & Williams innovation concept, is based on the fostering and facilitation of the workforce by providing support and knowledge to them in order for them to succeed right where they are organizationally, educationally, and socioeconomically. If an employee is encouraged, developed and emotionally secure, innovation can happen right in place and can lift the organization, right from where they stand.  The text goes on to explain that as leaders, we must constantly observe our actions and the way they respond to others to ensure that they are treating other people in a manner that is moral and ethical as well as showing equal concern for the employees and the organization. We as leaders must recognize that the employees are the backbone of the organization and do everything in our will to support this structural idea in order to properly create the culture of innovative ideas and strategy. Not just for the creation of new strategy, but the installation of new procedures and concepts in to the existing workplace.  This long-view of employee grooming has a twofold effect on the organization.

            Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as defined by Vilanova, Lozano & Arenas (2008) is the voluntary integration of social and environmental concerns in to business operations. This responsibility is evident and requisite in the LWTS theory of Urhuogo & Williams (2011) by making the leadership team accountable to all of the people in the innovation process, regardless of the educational, social economics, or mental processes of the workforce and motivating the employee to one forward goal of inter-organization cohesiveness and cultural adhesiveness. This participation in the innovation process may enable employee to understand the need for such innovation and also may provide the employees with ideas of how to introduce the innovative ideas to their customer as well as, leaders and employees are more likely to achieve the organizational objectives if both parties lift where they stand, or push for success in their current environmental and social standings (Urhuogo & Williams, 2011).  This falls right in line with the basic concepts of CSR in which the strategic management process can contribute to implement a successful strategy in the firm is so far as it can help to develop simple and consistent long-tem goals (Vilanova, Lozano, & Arenas, 2008).

            Another key of innovation that is reflected the “Refined Approach” as laid out by Urhuogo & Williams (2011) in which runs parallel with another main key of innovation being a part of the company’s strategy, per Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, (2013). The Refined Approach encompasses several cohesive parts, including: Recognition of Error of Old Systems, Check-list for Daily Improvement, Focus of Customer Needs, Using Available Resources, and Evaluation of the System for Results. These steps are meant to be a catalyst for polishing, purifying or improving the current status of the work force in order to further drive the innovation inter-organizationally in order to fully realize the LWTS theory by developing, facilitating and encouraging the work force (Urhuogo & Williams, 2011).

            The article examined here also addresses the consequences of negative actions and unethical decisions. If the leadership morals, values and vision are out of parallel with the company goals and ethics, this can create an atmosphere of fear, and this fear has caused employees in organizations to hold back their opinions even though the opinions may amount to something that may be beneficial to the organization (Urhuogo & Williams, 2011). This fear can be substantiated by the leadership team disconnecting from the work force, caring more for the organization than the work force, unethical value sets, abandonment of fine principles and behaviors dictating a focus beyond their current condition, causing a preoccupation for what is to come, rather than what is existing and what can be currently advised and lead. Pies, Beckmann, & Hielscher (2010) state in an article on Value Creation and Corporate Citizenship, that there are may instances in which substantial potential for cooperation fails to be realized. This creates a “social dilemma” that rational actors fail to realize their common interests due to there conflicting individual interests. This social dilemma needs to be contested by the leadership team for innovation to properly curate and develop fully as well as the facilitation of the Lifting Where They Stand to not only succeed with innovation but provide a culture of dependence and trust among the work force.

            The article discussed here raises some severe points about ethics in the work place and the responsibility of the leadership team to nurture innovation and ease the difficult task of creating a successful culture that is in tune with the company’s directives, values, ethics and innovative strategy. These points in addition to change management theories, leadership theories and a strict adherence to ethical decisions, can create an innovative business model with a flourishing work force. With the mindset in place to provide the very best service to the workforce, employees become the support system to each other and then provide other opportunities and structure for further innovations.

 

References

Davila, T., Epstein, M. J., & Shelton, R. D. (2013). Making Innovation Work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.

Pies, I., Beckmann, M., & Hielscher, S. (2010). Value Creation, Management Competencies, and Global Corporate Citizenship: An Ordonomic Approach to Business Ethics in the Age of Globalization. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(2), 265-278.

Urhuogo, I., & Williams, V. (2011). Leading Innovation and Change: Assisting Employees in Lifting Where They Stand. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 2(2), 80-97.

Vilanova, M., Lozano, J. M., & Arenas, D. (2008). Exploring the Nature of the Relationship Between CSR and Competitiveness. Journal of Business Ethics, 87, 57-69.