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Journal ArticleDOI

Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation

01 Mar 2003-European Journal of Innovation Management (MCB UP Ltd)-Vol. 6, Iss: 1, pp 64-74
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the determinants of organisational culture which influence creativity and innovation, including strategy, structure, support mechanisms, behaviour that encourages innovation, and open communication.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present, by means of a model, the determinants of organisational culture which influence creativity and innovation. A literature study showed that a model, based on the open systems theory and the work of Schein, can offer a holistic approach in describing organisational culture. The relationship between creativity, innovation and culture is discussed in this context. Against the background of this model, the determinants of organisational culture were identified. The determinants are strategy, structure, support mechanisms, behaviour that encourages innovation, and open communication. The influence of each determinant on creativity and innovation is discussed. Values, norms and beliefs that play a role in creativity and innovation can either support or inhibit creativity and innovation depending on how they influence individual and group behaviour. This is also explained in the article.
Citations
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01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Tushman and O'Reilly as discussed by the authors define ambidextrous organizations as those having internally consistent structures and an internal operating culture that provides for excelling today, while also planning for the future.
Abstract: Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Change and Renewal Tushman, Michael L. and O'Reilly, Charles A., 256 pp., Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997. Reviewed by Subodh P. Kulkarni, Assistant Professor in School of Business at Howard University, Washington, D.C. Professors Tushman and O'Reilly are well known for their research on innovation and organizational culture. In this book, the authors address a fundamental and interesting issue underlying organizational change and innovation: that of how firms can achieve a balance between stability and change. Businesses are not likely to prosper or survive in the long run without this balance. One of the book's key premises is that short-term success may constrain a firm's ability to change. Short term successes often occur in larger, older, more structured organizations, the source of structural and cultural inertia, which yields success in stable environments and failure when environments change. Therefore, a company's culture holds the key to success (or failure) in the long run. To create and sustain a competitive edge in the long run, companies must learn how to manage incremental and revolutionary change. The key, according to the authors, is to develop an "ambidextrous organization." Tushman and O'Reilly define ambidextrous organizations as those having internally consistent structures and an internal operating culture that provides for excelling today, while also planning for the future. The ambidextrous organizations are, thus, engaged in a balancing act between the management of incremental and revolutionary technologies. Further, these organizations have very different cultures within a company (or even a business unit, for that matter). Vision is vital to ambidextrous organizations, often displaying one vision that hosts multiple cultures in the unit. Of course, a firm can have multiple cultures under one roof by spinning off different business units and managing them independently. This is unacceptable to the authors. It is important to manage them as a whole, or as a system. The thing that holds the system components together is the overarching vision for the technology firm. That is why the book emphasizes strategic intent or competitive vision; because without a common, overarching purpose and set of values, the ambidextrous company just does not hold together. So it is not only different cultures, but different structures, systems, rewards, and competencies that need to be managed together. Drawing on their extensive research, consulting practice, as well as the experiences of managers from several "ambidextrous companies," the authors develop a model that can be used by executives to understand the dynamics of change necessary for long-term success. Toward this end, the book provides several tools for identifying and diagnosing the causes of performance gaps and for developing action plans to attain, and maintain, industry leadership. The book is divided into nine chapters. Chapter 1 is introductory, and it outlines the concepts underlying the authors' model. Chapter 2 highlights the significance of the concepts introduced earlier in the context of global change and innovation. Chapters 3 through 6 focus on the building of capabilities, competencies, and cultures that can generate a sustainable competitive advantage. Chapter 4 develops a model that highlights the congruence among an organization's strategies and four distinct factors: critical tasks, culture, structure, and people. A lack of congruence often results in performance gaps. Chapter 5 outlines how organizational culture-the selecting, socializing, and rewarding of workers consistent with the company's goals-promotes this congruence. It also illustrates how to assesses an organization's culture. Chapters 7 and 8 stand out in particular because in these chapters the authors introduce techniques for building an ambidextrous organization. …

886 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the impact of organizational culture types on job satisfaction in a survey of marketing professionals in a cross-section of firms in the USA and found that job satisfaction was positively related to clan and adhocracy cultures, and negatively related to market and hierarchy cultures.
Abstract: This empirical investigation examines the impact of organizational culture types on job satisfaction in a survey of marketing professionals in a cross‐section of firms in the USA. Cameron and Freeman’s (1991) model of organizational cultures comprising of clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market was utilized as the conceptual framework for analysis. The results indicate that job satisfaction levels varied across corporate cultural typology. Within the study conceptual framework, job satisfaction invoked an alignment of cultures on the vertical axis that represents a continuum of organic processes (with an emphasis on flexibility and spontaneity) to mechanistic processes (which emphasize control, stability, and order). Job satisfaction was positively related to clan and adhocracy cultures, and negatively related to market and hierarchy cultures.

638 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors called for organizations to be more flexible, adaptive, entrepreneurial, and innovative in meeting the changing demands of today's environment, and appropriate leadership to effect such ch...
Abstract: Research has called for organizations to be more flexible, adaptive, entrepreneurial, and innovative in meeting the changing demands of today's environment. Appropriate leadership to effect such ch...

581 citations


Cites background from "Building organisational culture tha..."

  • ...…the degree of support and encouragement an organization provides its employees to take initiative and explore innovative approaches is predicted to strongly influence the degree of actual innovation in that organization (Martins & Terblanche, 2003, pp. 67-68; Mumford & Gustafson, 1988, p. 37)....

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  • ...That is, the degree of support and encouragement an organization provides its employees to take initiative and explore innovative approaches is predicted to influence the degree of actual innovation in that organization (Martins & Terblanche, 2003, pp. 67-68; Mumford & Gustafson, 1988, p. 37)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the organizational culture that fosters or inhibits organizational innovation and imitation strategy and find that organizational culture is a clear determinant of innovation strategy and that adhocracy cultures foster innovation strategies and hierarchical cultures promote imitation cultures.
Abstract: Purpose – Innovation is crucial for attaining a competitive advantage for companies. Innovation, versus imitation, motivates companies to launch new products and become pioneers on markets. Many factors have been shown to be determinants for supporting an organizational innovative orientation. One of them is organizational culture. The objective of this paper is to analyze the organizational culture that fosters or inhibits organizational innovation and imitation strategy.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a sample of 471 Spanish companies for examining the hypotheses. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, it relates the effect of organizational culture with an innovation strategy.Findings – The results confirm the hypotheses. The paper finds that organizational culture is a clear determinant of innovation strategy. Moreover, adhocracy cultures foster innovation strategies and hierarchical cultures promote imitation cultures.Research limitations/implications – The main limitations are...

489 citations


Cites background from "Building organisational culture tha..."

  • ...A possible explanation for these results is that adhocracy culture does not foster team working and this variable is considered to be a key element for enhancing innovation (Arad et al., 1997; Jamrog et al., 2006; Martins and Terblanche, 2003; McLean, 2005)....

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  • ...…culture, there is an agreement in the literature about its importance for innovation (Chang and Lee, 2007; Higgins and McAllaster, 2002; Lau and Ngo, 2004; Lloréns Montes et al., 2004; Martins and Terblanche, 2003; Mumford, 2000; Obenchain and Johnson, 2004; Ruigrok and Achtenhagen, 1999)....

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  • ...Consequently, the literature considers organizational culture to be one of the factors that can stimulate the most an innovative behaviour among the members of the organization (Ahmed, 1998; Ekvall, 1996; Martins and Terblanche, 2003; McLean, 2005; Mumford, 2000)....

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  • ...Various research works have been conclusive as to the key role of culture in innovation (Ahmed, 1998; Higgins and McAllaster, 2002; Jamrog et al., 2006; Jassawalla and Sashittal, 2002; Lau and Ngo, 2004; Martins and Terblanche, 2003; Mumford, 2000)....

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  • ...This has not only been mentioned frequently in the literature as a key feature of an innovative culture (Claver et al., 1998; Jamrog et al., 2006; Martins and Terblanche, 2003; McLean, 2005; Mostafa, 2005; Schneider et al., 1994; Shrivastava and Souder, 1987; Wallach, 1983) but it has been suggested as a determinant of the pioneer character of the firm....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed an empirically-based comprehensive instrument for measuring an organization's innovation culture based on exploratory factor analysis, and found that an innovation culture scale may best be represented through a structure that consists of seven factors identified as innovation propensity, organizational constituency, organizational learning, creativity and empowerment, market orientation, value orie...
Abstract: Purpose – Academic and practitioner interest has focused on innovation as a method of competitive differentiation and as a way to create customer value. However, less attention has been devoted to developing a measure of innovation culture. The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically‐based comprehensive instrument for measuring an organization's innovation culture.Design/methodology – This paper describes a procedure which explicates the innovation culture construct, and proposes a multi‐item measure of innovation culture predicated on exploratory factor analysis. These descriptors were derived from extant literature, key informant interviews, and a survey of over 282 employees from the financial services industry.Findings – Findings suggest that an innovation culture scale may best be represented through a structure that consists of seven factors identified as innovation propensity, organizational constituency, organizational learning, creativity and empowerment, market orientation, value orie...

429 citations

References
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Book
19 Mar 1985
TL;DR: A review of the book "Organizational Culture and Leadership" by Edgar H. Schein is given in this article, where the authors present a review of their approach to organizational culture and leadership.
Abstract: The article presents a review of the book “Organizational Culture and Leadership,” by Edgar H. Schein.

17,083 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the author analyzes the maturing research in the field of organization studies - the available ethnographic methods, participant observation, qualitative research, and clinical research, concluding that culture functions to solve an organization's basic problems of surviving in the external environment and integrating its internal processes to ensure its continued survival.
Abstract: Discusses the key role of organizational leadership in organizational culture, and the intertwining problems associated with each. Organizational culture is defined as the basic assumptions and beliefs shared by members of an organization. These are learned, operate unconsciously, and essentially define an organization's view of itself and its environment. Though cultural differences are reflected in companies, each company also has an individual culture that modifies local or national cultures. Origins of culture are discussed, especially the entrepreneur's effect on cultural formation, and mechanisms of embedding and reinforcing cultural standards as a means of guiding an evolving company. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the book analyzes the maturing research in the field of organization studies - the available ethnographic methods, participant observation, qualitative research, and clinical research. Results indicate that culture functions to solve an organization's basic problems of (a) surviving in the external environment and (b) integrating its internal processes to ensure its continued survival. Since the organizational structure and people's attitudes and perceptions constitute key artifacts of a culture, both these must be changed before the company's overarching cultural change can occur. Typically, change begins at the formative stage as a positive growth force in need of development, evolves into a complex, diverse model of culture, and finally at the point of maturation, often becomes dysfunctional. It is at this point that the leader-usually the entrepreneur - is most crucial, often turning to various change models as a means of sustaining the company. Though the leader's role in cultural formation shifts, such purposeful, foundational change in an organization only occurs rarely in mature companies and under effective leadership. In sum, cultural leadership - and especially the role of the cultural manager - needs to be assessed more clearly in light of the organization's rapidly changing internal and external environment. (CJC)

13,246 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
13 Jan 1950-Science
TL;DR: An extension and generalization of the principles of physics and physical chemistry, complementing the usual theory of reactions and equilibria in closed systems, and dealing with open systems, their steady states, and the principles governing them are needed.
Abstract: F ROM THE PHYSICAL POINT OF VIEW, the characteristic state of the living organism is that of an open system. A system is closed if no material enters or leaves it; it is open if there is import and export and, therefore, change of the components. Living systems are open systems, maintaining themselves in exchange of materials with environment, and in continuous building up and breaking down of their components. So far, physics and physical chemistry have been concerned almost exclusively with processes in closed reaction systems, leading to chemical equilibria. Chemical equilibria are found also in partial systems of the living organism-for example, the equilibrium between hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, and oxygen upon which oxygen transport by blood is based. The cell and the organism as a whole, however, do not comprise a closed system, and are never in true equilibrium, but in a steady state. We need, therefore, an extension and generalization of the principles of physics and physical chemistry, complementing the usual theory of reactions and equilibria in closed systems, and dealing with open systems, their steady states, and the principles governing them. Though it is usual to speak of the organism as a \"dynamic equilibrium,\" only in recent years has theoretical and experimental investigation of open systems and steady states begun. The conception of the organism as an open system has been advanced by von Bertalanffy since 1932, and general kinetic principles and their biological implications have been developed (4, 6). In German literature, Dehlinger and Wertz (15), Bavink (1), Skrabal (31), and others have extended these conceptions. A basically similar treatment was given by Burton (12). The paper of Reiner and Spiegelman (28) seems to have been inspired by conversations of the present author with Reiner in 1937-38. Starting from problems of technological chemistry, the comparison of efficiency in batch and continuous reaction systems, Denbigh (16) has also developed the kinetics of open reaction systems. The most important recent work is the thermodynamics of open systems by Prigogine (25, 26). In physics, the theory of open systems leads to fundamentally new principles. It is indeed the more general theory, the restriction of kinetics and thermodynamics to closed systems concerning only a rather special case. In biology, it first of all accounts for many characteristics of living systems that have appeared to be in contradiction to the laws of physics, and have been considered hitherto as vitalistic features. Second, the consideration of organisms as open systems yields quantitative laws of important biological phenomena. So far, the consequences of the theory have been developed especially in respect to biological problems, but the concept will be important for other fields too, such as industrial chemistry and meteorology.

1,359 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a new model, called cultural dynamics, articulates the processes of manifestation, realization, symbolization, and interpretation and provides a framework within which to discuss the dynamism of organizational cultures.
Abstract: Schein's (1985) model of organizational culture as assumptions, values, and artifacts leaves gaps regarding the appreciation of organizational culture as symbols and processes. This article examinee these gaps and suggests a new model that combines Schein's theory with ideas drawn from symbolic-interpretive perspectives. The new model, called cultural dynamics, articulates the processes of manifestation, realization, symbolization, and interpretation and provides a framework within which to discuss the dynamism of organizational cultures. Implications of the cultural dynamics model for collecting and analyzing culture data and for future theoretical development are presented.

1,083 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the nature of organisational climate and of organizational culture, focusing on factors which make for an effective organisational culture and suggest elements which promote innovation, concluding that the most innovative companies of the future will be those which have created appropriate cultures and climates.
Abstract: Notes that many companies pay “lip service” to the idea of innovation and stresses that becoming innovative requires an organisational culture which nurtures innovation and is conducive to creativity. Considers the nature of organisational climate and of organisational culture, focusing on factors which make for an effective organisational culture. Looks at the interplay between various organisational factors and innovation and suggests elements which promote innovation. Concludes that the most innovative companies of the future will be those which have created appropriate cultures and climates.

913 citations