Essay Example. Benefits of Change and Innovation

Change within an organization can be defined as a change in norms or organizational culture. Organizational culture can be characterized by employing personnel with the same background. It can also comprise of having individuals working as permanent employees within the organization. Change, therefore, can be either outsourcing individuals with specific professional and competence concerning a given field. In can also include diversity where individuals with different background information are deployed.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

On the other hand, innovation involves creating new ideas that lead to the improvement of the existing process. In most cases, the main drivers of innovation are changes, as described. An organization can significantly benefit from change and innovation in several ways.

Firstly, change and innovation result in cost-saving. Most organizations create change to enjoy the resulting cost benefits. If a company can save a high cost, it implies that other processes can be supported. Most organizations are, therefore, able to gain publicity and improve the general relationship with the public. As a result, an organization can increase service delivery by assessing products and services which have high demand.

Secondly, an organization increases overall productivity. By adopting change and innovation measures, an organization can significantly increase its productivity. To ensure the profit margins are realized through change and innovation, the firm has to practice proper organizational development. Productivity tends to rise concerning the adaptation to technological changes. When productivity increases, it implies that low operational costs will be achieved within the organization. Similarly, high productivity means high customer satisfaction, which can help in improving the relationship with the suppliers and enhancing the company's brand.

Barriers to Change and Innovation in The Organization.

As much as change and innovations bring about various benefits to an organization, some barriers do hinder these changes and innovations. One of the obstacles is inadequate or inefficient methods of communication among the workers or even between the management and its employees. In such a situation, no one will be comfortable in giving their ideas concerning the improvement of the organization. Another barrier is the inadequate budget to facilitate the change or even the new innovative ideas. If an organization lacks the required resources for the implementation of an idea, they are not likely to venture into it.

Another factor that will hinder innovations and change is the lack of management support. The management may not be for the idea of change due to what they are used to. That is the culture of the organization or may not like a specific innovative idea due to various factors such as fear of failure or unavailability of resources. Limited knowledge concerning change is another aspect that will hinder an organization from accepting change and innovations. If a group of staff or the management lacks a general understanding concerning an innovative idea, they are likely not to support the idea. Besides, if they are not aware of the impacts that these changes can bring or will result in, the organization will always not be supportive of it.

Overcoming Barriers to Change and Innovation

One of the ways that these barriers to change and innovation is through establishing a proper means of communication where all the management officials and staff have an appropriate way of airing their ideas without fear. This way, many ideas will be expressed, and everybody will give their opinions concerning it and making them aware of the changes. Concerning the lack of resources or a limited budget, the management should always allocate resources for innovative ideas and changes during their financial budgeting. About lack of management support, an organization should always come up with strategies of opening opportunities for innovations such that even when there is new management, they will still allow for the same-educating all workers in an organization concerning the innovative ideas and the impact they will have on the organization in general. Hence dramatically reducing the rate at which people in the organization may reject the idea since they understand it clearly.

Planning, Monitoring Review Techniques

Various planning, and monitoring review techniques have been applied in change and innovation management. Gantt charts, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART) and Plan, Do, Study, Act ( PDSA) are some of the techniques that have been applied in change and innovation.

GANTT charts are used during the planning, scheduling, and reviewing of change and innovation activities. Through this technique, it is possible to get all the activities that will be involved in a project and be able to determine the amount of time that will be taken for the completion of the project. The plans are also made more comfortable since it is divided into workable sections; hence the staff and the management are always informed of the progress.

Plan, do, study, the act is a cycle technique that is used in the evaluation process of innovations and can be used to assess its impact. This technique enables the organization to test out the proposed changes before it is fully implemented, giving all the stakeholders to see if the change will be useful or not.

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound objectives are crucial while implementing a change or an innovative idea. A particular goal to be accomplished is much easier to be achieved compared to the very general purposes of an idea. Measurable, is a form of an objective is where the progress towards accomplishing specific goals is measured. This enhances focus toward a particular goal, ensuring that an organization keeps track of the development of attaining a given change. Goals that are set concerning a given change should always be attainable; hence an organization should consider achieving goals that are within the organization's capabilities.

Another part of this technique is that the goals that have been set for a given change should always be realistic in that it is not exaggerated far from the capabilities of an organization. Lastly, the goal of change should be constrained within a given time frame. This enables the objectives to be accomplished on time, depending on their urgency.

The Importance of Communication in Change and Innovation

Communication is critical when it comes to change and innovation in the organization. One, communication fosters a rich culture brought about by change. This is because, through dialogue, the fear between the staff and the management is eliminated, thus opening the way of new ideas and solutions. As a result, everybody can understand the change more; clearly, that is the reason behind the move, the benefits, and the overall impact that comes with the change.

Through effective communication, it is easy to identify mistakes and errors that might result from the implementation of the change. During the planning phase, the staff and the management can be able to identify specific errors since they are able to interact freely without any fear amongst themselves. This will ensure the changes being implemented are only useful. Engagements of the employers make changes more successful. This is attributed to the fact that employees will not feel left out; hence they will always be good at responding to the changes and also at supporting its implementation.

The Human Effects of Change and Innovation

The personal effects of changes and innovation may include confusion, tension, and fear within the management and the staff members. Such factors will automatically hurt innovation and changes that might be brought about by the implementation of these. As a result, some of these effects on staff members may cause anger or even display aggression towards managers and colleagues. This kind of behavior among staff and managers might be intimidating to others, thus resulting in anxiety or even stress. Due to individuals' anger and aggression, they might turn to vandalism, therefore trying to disrupt any innovations and changes.

Different people react differently to changes; hence teams of staff and managers can respond negatively to change, which in turn results in the weakening of the organization or even the strengthening of the group if the team responds positively towards change.

Due to anxiety on innovation and change, individuals will always give wrong impressions and poor decisions, which will thus affect everyone else. People who might be suffering from anxiety will always find it hard to adjust to new changes and may influence other colleagues, thus increasing its effect on innovations.

Some employees fear change and innovations since they are afraid of losing their jobs. As a result of the implementation of the new changes, they might work extremely hard so that they can prove their worthiness. Some individuals are affected financially as a result of the changes. For instance, there is a change where there are no overtime. This will automatically reduce people's income.