Unit 2 Discussion: Leadership and Sources of Innovation

Purpose

Leadership is a key driver of innovation, shaping team culture and fostering creativity within organizations. In this discussion, you will explore the connection between effective leadership traits and diverse sources of innovation.

Task

This discussion encourages you to critically examine the challenges leaders may encounter when fostering innovation and propose strategies to overcome these obstacles while ensuring sustainable growth. After reading and reflecting on Chapters 5 and 6 in Managing Innovation, analyze how leadership styles influence innovation, and how leaders can leverage specific sources to create value.

In your initial post, address the following:

Identify one key leadership trait or style from your textbook that you believe is critical for fostering innovation in teams. Provide an example from your experience that illustrates this leadership trait or style in action.
Select one source of innovation from your textbook that aligns with this leadership style. Explain how leaders can leverage this source of innovation to create value for their teams or organizations.
Discuss the challenges leaders might face when fostering innovation from this source and propose strategies to overcome these challenges.
Reflect on how organizations can balance the push and pull of innovation to ensure sustainable growth.

In your responses to your peers, address the following:

Compare their leadership examples or sources of innovation to your own.
Offer additional strategies or leadership practices that could maximize innovation in their examples. Use specific insights or examples from the readings or your own experiences to support your suggestions.

Submission

Post your initial response (2–3 paragraphs) supported by at least two reliable sources by 11:59 p.m. ET on Saturday. Properly cite all sources using an appropriate citation style.
Respond to at least two classmates (1–2 paragraphs each) by 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Your responses should encourage meaningful dialogue and provide constructive feedback.

Criteria for Success

Discussion participation is graded using a rubric based on the following criteria:

Quality
Quantity
Timeliness
Writing
For more information, review the Discussion Rubric.

This discussion is worth 50 points and will be graded using the Discussion Rubric.

BMGT 620 Discussion Rubric
Course: BMGT 620 9085 Innovation & Entrepreneurship (2252)

Initial Post Excellent Proficient
Approaching
Proficiency

Needs
Improvement

Not Evident (0) Criterion Score

Initial Post

(10

pts)

/ 10

Timeliness (5

pts)

/ 5

points

Applied

knowledge of

appropriate

topical content

in a

comprehensive

and

insightful

way. In-depth

analysis is

present.

(10 pts)

9 points

Demonstrates a

good

understanding

of the topical

material and

applies it in a

satisfactory

way. Good

analysis is

present.

(9 pts)

8 points

Demonstrates a

basic

understanding

of the topical

material and

applies it in a

basic way.

Rudimentary

analysis is

present.

(8 pts)

7 points

Demonstrates a

limited

understanding

of the topical

material or

applied it in a

limited way.

Little or no

analysis is

present.

(7 pts)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

points)

5 points

Submits initial

post on time

(4.5 – 5 points)

4 points

Submits initial

post within 24

hours of the

deadline.

(4.25 – 4 points)

3.5 points

Submits initial

post within 48

hours of the

deadline.

(3.75 -3.5

points)

3 points

Submits initial

post within 72

hours of the

deadline.

(3.25 – 3 points)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

(0 points)

Initial Post Excellent Proficient
Approaching
Proficiency

Needs
Improvement

Not Evident (0) Criterion Score

Response 1 (5

pts)

/ 5

Response 2 (5

pts)

/ 5

5 points

Provided a

sufficiently

detailed and

insightful

response,

demonstrating a

deep

understanding

of the

course

material.

(4.5 – 5 points)

4 points

Provided a

sufficiently

detailed

response,

demonstrating a

basic

understanding

of the course

material.

(4.25 – 4 points)

3.5 points

Provided a

response that

was not

sufficiently

detailed or

insightful and

did not

demonstrate a

clear

understanding

of the course

material.

(3.75 -3.5

points)

3 points

Provided a

response that

was poorly

written and

organized and

demonstrated

little or no

understanding

of the course

material.

(3.25 – 3 points)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

(0 points)

5 points

Provided a

sufficiently

detailed and

insightful

response,

demonstrating a

deep

understanding

of the course

material.

(4.5 – 5 points)

4 points

Provided a

sufficiently

detailed

response,

demonstrating a

basic

understanding

of the course

material.

(4.25 – 4 points)

3.5 points

Provided a

response that

was not

sufficiently

detailed or

insightful and

did not

demonstrate a

clear

understanding

of the course

material.

(3.75 -3.5

points)

3 points

Provided a

response that

was poorly

written and

organized and

demonstrated

little or no

understanding

of the course

material.

(3.25 – 3 points)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

(0 points)

Initial Post Excellent Proficient
Approaching
Proficiency

Needs
Improvement

Not Evident (0) Criterion Score

Cumulative

Posts:

Evidence and

research. (7.5

pts)

/ 7.5

Cumulative

Posts:

Professional

writing and

organization

skills (5 pts)

/ 5

7.5 points

Included

multiple specific

and

relevant

examples to

support claims

from course

resources and

additional

research.

(7.5-6.75

points)

6 points

Included some

good

examples

from course

resources and

research, but

they were not

always specific

or relevant to

claims.

(6.5 – 6 points)

5.25 points

Included only a

few examples

from course

resources and

research, or the

examples

provided were

not

specific or

relevant

enough.

(5.75 – 5.25

points

4.5 points

Did not include

evidence from

course

resources or

research or

provided

inaccurate

evidence to

support claims.

(5 – 4.5 points)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

(0 points)

5 points

Demonstrated

professional

writing and

organization

skills, with very

few or no

errors.

(4.5 – 5 points)

4 points

Demonstrated

professional

writing and

organization

skills with some

minor errors.

(4.25 – 4 points)

3.5 points

Demonstrated

professional

writing and

organization

skills but with

several errors.

(3.75 -3.5

points)

3 points

Demonstrated

poor writing and

organization

skills with

multiple errors.

(3.25 – 3 points)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

(0 points)

Total / 50

Initial Post Excellent Proficient
Approaching
Proficiency

Needs
Improvement

Not Evident (0) Criterion Score

Cumulative

Posts:

Application of

course

material to

real-world

situations (5

pts)

/ 5

Evidence of

Skills (7.5 pts

/ 7.5

5 points

Post(s)

incorporated

examples of

real-world

situations to

support and

substantiate the

position.

Demonstrated a

deep

understanding

of how the

course material

can be used to

solve

business

problems.

(4.5 – 5 points)

4 points

Post(s)

incorporated

some examples

of real-world

situations to

support and

substantiate the

position.

Demonstrated a

good

understanding

of how the

course material

can be used to

solve business

problems.

(4.25 – 4 points)

3.5 points

Post(s)

incorporated

few examples of

real-world

situations.

Examples may

not have been

specific or

relevant, or the

post(s)

demonstrated a

limited or

inaccurate

understanding

of how the

course material

can be used to

solve business

problems.

(3.75 -3.5

points)

3 points

Post(s) did not

incorporate any

examples of

real-world

situations or

demonstrated

inaccurate

understanding

of how the

course material

can be used to

solve business

problems.

(3.25 – 3 points)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

(0 points)

7.5 points

Submission

provided an

exceptional

application of

business

strategies skills

in the

discussion

response

(7.5-6.75

points)

6 points

Submission

provided a

sufficient

application of

business

strategies skills

in the

discussion

response

(6.5 – 6 points)

5.25 points

Submission

provided a

somewhat

sufficient

application of

business

strategies skills

in the

discussion

response which

did not show

proficiency

(5.75 – 5.25

points)

4.5 points

Submission

provided an

insufficient

application of

business

strategies skills

in the

discussion

response

(5 – 4.5 points)

0 points

No evidence, or

the post was

dated after the

end of the

discussion

activity.

(0 points)

Overall Score

Excellent
45 points minimum

Proficient
40 points minimum

Approaching Proficiency
35 points minimum

Needs Improvement
30 points minimum

No Submission
0 points minimum

Student
Resource

Chapter 6: Sources of innovation

Chapter 6:

Sources of
innovation

• In the following PowerPoint slides you will
find the key headings from CHAPTER 6
together with the main illustrations, tables,
etc.

• There are also slides summarizing the key
messages in bullet-point fashion, and a wide
range of activities which you can use to help
students explore around these themes.

• Finally there are some reflection questions
which can be used as the basis for discussion
or assignments.

Learning
Objectives

By the end of this chapter you will develop an
understanding of:

where innovations come from – the wide range
of different sources which offer opportunities to
entrepreneurs

the idea of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ forces and their
interaction

Innovation as a pattern of occasional
breakthrough and long periods of incremental
improvement

the importance of different sources over time

where and when you could search for
opportunities to innovate.

Sources of innovation

Knowledge
push

Accidents

Design-driven

and experience
innovation

Benchmarking
/ learning
from others

Need pull

Process
improvement

Crisis driven
and extreme
contexts

Frugal
innovation

Mass
customisation

User –led
innovation

Recombinant
innovation

Regulation

Prototyping
and
experiment

Futures and
forecasting

Core themes
and material

from the
book

Where do innovations come from?

Figure 6.1 of the book indicates the wide range of stimuli which can begin the innovation journey

Sources of
innovation

• Knowledge push

• Need pull

• Product innovation

• Process improvement

• Crisis-driven

• Frugal innovation

•

Mass customization

• User-led innovation

• Prototyping

• Benchmarking

• Recombinant innovation

• Design-driven innovation

• Regulation

• Futures and forecasting

• Accidents

Knowledge push innovation

Types of product innovation

Figure 6.2 of the book indicates a typical breakdown, and we could construct a similar
picture for process innovation

New to the world products

New product lines

Line extensions

Repositionings

Cost reductions

Incremental product
improvements

Disruptive innovation

Mass customization

Table 6.1 of the book summarises options in customization (after Mintzberg and Lampel)

Mass customization
(continued)

Design driven innovation

Source: Based on R. Verganti (2009) Design-Driven Innovation. Harvard Business School Press

Meaning

Technology

Incremental
change

Radical
change

Incremental
change

Market pull
(user centred)

Technology push

Design-driven

Summary

Innovations come from many different sources

Innovations don’t just appear perfectly formed
– and the process is not simply a spark of
imagination giving rise to changing the world.
Instead innovations come from a number of
sources and these interact over time.

Sources of innovation can be resolved into two
broad classes – knowledge push and need pull
– although they almost always act in tandem.
Innovation arises from the interplay between
them.

Summary

There are many variations on this theme –
for example, ‘need pull’ can include social
needs, market needs, latent needs
(squeaking wheels), crisis needs, etc.

Whilst the basic forces pushing and
pulling have been a feature of the
innovation landscape for a long time, it
involves a moving frontier in which new
sources of push and pull come into play.

Examples include the emerging demand
pull from the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ and
the opportunities opened up by an
acceleration in knowledge production in
R&D systems around the world.

Summary

Users are a rich source of innovation ideas and
can help accelerate diffusion

Regulation is an important element in shaping
and directing innovative activity – by restricting
what can and can’t be done for legal reasons,
new trajectories for change are established
which entrepreneurs can take advantage of

Accidents, crises and extreme conditions can
provide unexpected triggers for novel
directions

Videos

• There are several videos
which can help explore and
present the key themes of
the chapter:

• knowledge push and need
pull as sources of innovation

• examples of knowledge push
innovation

• different kinds of need pull
innovation:

• Incremental improvement
• Radical innovation
• Disruptive innovation

Videos

Other films which explore in more detail:

• User-led innovation (part 1)
• User led innovation part 2
• Interview with Pedro Oliveira talking about

the Patient Innovation platform, a way of
mobilizing user innovators in the healthcare
space

• Mandy Haberman talking about user
innovation

• Interview with Helle-Vibeke Carstensen
talking about innovation search in the public
sector

• Continuous improvement at Veeder Root
• Finding innovation opportunities in

healthcare settings
• Emma Taylor and employee innovation
• The birth of bike
• The birth of mp3
• Sweeping the floor with innovation

https://johnbessant.org/resources/media-resources/the-innovators-media-library/

Videos

• Interview with Michael Bartl of Hyve, talking
about the use of ‘netnography’ in the search
for new innovation opportunities

• Interview with Tim Craft (audio and video)
talking about his experience as a user-
innovator

• Interview with Catharina van Delden and her
company Innosabi which mobilizes external
communities as a source of innovation for
businesses

• Interview (audio) with Helen King of the Irish
Food Board talking about their use of futures
methods to search for innovation opportunities

• Interview with Lynne Maher, UK National
Health Service talking about user experience as
a source of innovation

https://johnbessant.org/resources/media-resources/the-innovators-media-library/

Disruptive
innovation

• Follow the link below to watch a
video briefly explaining Clay
Christensen’s theory of
Disruptive Innovation

• https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=mbPiAzzGap0

• Follow the link below to watch
Ted Graham’s TED Talk, ‘Three
things I learned about disruptive
innovation as an UberX driver’

• https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=4L30uIkMeMM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbPiAzzGap0

Human-
centred
design

• Follow the link below to
watch David Kelley’s TED
Talk ‘Human-centred
Design’

• https://www.ted.com/talks/
david_kelley_on_human_ce
ntered_design

Blogs and
podcasts

• There are several podcasts
and blogs picking up key
themes around managing
innovation as a process and
some of the key variables:

• Birth of the bike

• An innovation birthday party

• Flirting with ideas

• Frugal innovation

• Recombinant innovation

https://www.buzzsprout.com/721626

https://johnbessant.org/category/blog/

Slide 1: Student Resource
Slide 2: Chapter 6: Sources of innovation
Slide 3: Learning Objectives
Slide 4
Slide 5: Core themes and material from the book
Slide 6
Slide 7: Sources of innovation
Slide 8: Knowledge push innovation
Slide 9
Slide 10: Disruptive innovation
Slide 11
Slide 12
Slide 13
Slide 14
Slide 15
Slide 16: Summary
Slide 17: Summary
Slide 18: Summary
Slide 19: Videos
Slide 20: Videos
Slide 21: Videos
Slide 22: Disruptive innovation
Slide 23: Human-centred design
Slide 24: Blogs and podcasts

Student
Resource

Chapter 5: Building the innovative organization

Chapter 5:
Building the
innovative
organization

• In the following PowerPoint slides you will find the
key headings from CHAPTER 5 together with the main
illustrations, tables, etc.

• There are also slides summarizing the key
messages in bullet-point fashion, and a wide range of
activities which you can use to help students explore
around these themes.

• Finally there are some reflection questions which
can be used as the basis for discussion or
assignments.

Learning
objectives

• By the end of this chapter you will understand:

• how leadership and organization of innovation is
much more than a set of processes, tools and
techniques,

• how different leadership and creative styles
influence the ability to identify, assess and
develop new ideas and concepts.

• how teams, gro

s and processes each contribute
to successful innovation behaviours and
outcomes.

• how different environmental factors can support
or hinder innovation and entrepreneurship.

Core themes
and material

from the
book

The innovative organization

Research shows these factors are associated with good performance:

The innovative organization
(continued)

Innovation leadership

Reviews of research on leadership and performance suggest leadership directly
influences:

• Around 15% of the differences found in performance of businesses;

• Contributes around an additional 35% through the choice of business strategy;

• So directly and indirectly leadership can account for half of the variance in
performance observed across organizations.

Characteristic traits of
good leaders

• bright, alert and intelligent;
• seek responsibility and take charge;
• skillful in their task domain;
• administratively and socially competent;
• energetic, active and resilient;
• good communicators.

BUT

There is no brief and universal list of enduring traits that
all good leaders must possess under all conditions.

Key factors for leaders to
focus on

A review of twenty-seven empirical studies of the
relationships between leadership and innovation
investigated when and how leadership influences
innovation, identified six factors leaders should focus on:

1. Upper management should establish an innovation
policy that is promoted throughout the organization.
It is necessary that the organization through its
leaders communicate to employees that innovative
behavior will be rewarded.

Key factors for leaders to
focus on (continued)

2. When forming teams, some heterogeneity is
necessary to promote innovation. However, if the
team is too heterogeneous, tensions may arise, when
heterogeneity is too low, more directive leadership is
required to promote team reflection, for example, by
encouraging discussion and disagreement.

3. Leaders should promote a team climate of emotional
safety, respect, and joy through emotional support
and shared decision-making.

Key factors for leaders to
focus on (continued)

4. Individuals and teams have autonomy and space
for idea generation and creative problem solving.

5. Time limits for idea creation and problem solutions
should be set, particularly in the implementation phases

6. Finally, team leaders, who have the expertise,
should engage closely in the evaluation of innovative
activities.

Creative style

Kirton’s ‘adaptors and innovators’ spectrum:

• Adaptors characteristically produce a sufficiency of ideas

based closely on existing agreed definitions of a problem and
its likely solutions, but stretching the solutions. These ideas
help to improve and ‘do better’.

• Innovators are more likely to reconstruct the problem,
challenge the assumptions and to emerge with a much less
expected solution which very probably is also at first less
acceptable. Innovators are less concerned with doing things
better than with doing things differently.

Collective and social
aspects of innovation

• ‘It takes five years to develop a new car in this country. Heck, we won World
War 2 in four years…’

• Ross Perot’s critical comment on the state of the US car industry in the late
1980s captured some of the frustration with existing ways of designing and
building cars.

Collective and social aspects
of innovation (continued)

• The power of team working

• Lew Varaldi, project manager of Ford’s Team Taurus
project put it, ‘… it’s amazing the dedication and
commitment you get from people…we will never go
back to the old ways because we know so much about
what they can bring to the party…’

• Groups are not necessarily teams….

High involvement innovation

Key factors in high
performance teams

Key elements in effective high-performance team
working include:

• clearly defined tasks and objectives;
• effective team leadership;
• good balance of team roles and match to individual
behavioural style;
• effective conflict resolution mechanisms within the
group;
• continuing liaison with external organization.

Tuckman’s model of team
development

Teams typically go through four stages of development:

•‘forming,

•storming,

•norming,

•performing’.

Advantages and
disadvantages of groups

Source: S. Isaksen and J. Tidd (2006) Meeting the Innovation Challenge, John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd, Chichester

High performing teams

Based on Tidd and Isaksen research, high performing
characteristics are:

• a clear, common and elevating goal;
• results-driven structure;
• competent team members;
• unified commitment.

Collaborative climate:
• standards of excellence;
• external support and recognition;
• principled leadership.

High performing teams
(continued)

Based on Tidd and Isaksen research, appropriate use of
the team:

• participation in decision making;

• team spirit;

• embracing appropriate change.

‘Tripwires’ undermining
team effectiveness

• group versus team;

• ends versus means;

• structured freedom;

• support structures and systems;

• assumed competence.

• Climate is defined as the recurring patterns of
behaviour, attitudes and feelings that characterize life in
the organization.

• Objectively shared perceptions that characterize life
within a defined work unit or in the larger organization.

• Climate is distinct from culture in that it is more
observable at a surface level within the organization and
more amenable to change and improvement efforts.

• Culture refers to the deeper and more enduring values,
norms and beliefs within the organization.

Context and climate

Climate factors influencing
innovation

Source: Derived for Scott Isaksen and Joe Tidd (2006) Meeting the Innovation
Challenge (Wiley).

Summary

Leadership and organization of innovation is much more
than a set of processes, tools and techniques, and the
successful practice of innovation demands the
interaction and integration of three different levels of
management, individual, collective and climate.

Summary

At the personal or individual level, the key is to match the
leadership styles with the task requirement and type of
teams. General leadership requirements for innovative
projects include expertise and experience relevant to the
project, articulating a vision and inspirational
communication, intellectual stimulation, and quality of
leader-member exchange (LMX).

Summary

At the collective or social level, there is no universal best-
practice but successful teams require clear, common and
elevating goals, unified commitment, cross-functional
expertise, collaborative climate, external support and
recognition and participation in decision making.

Summary

At the context or climate level, there is no “best
innovation culture”, but innovation is promoted or
hindered by a number of factors, including trust and
openness, challenge and involvement, support and space
for ideas, conflict and debate, risk-taking and freedom.

Videos

• There are several videos which can
help explore and present the key
themes of the chapter:

• Building the innovative organization
part 1

• Building the innovative organization
part 2

• Piers Ibbotson talking about
leadership

• Patrick McLoughlin on leadership
• Victor Cui on organizing a startup
• Tidewave as a start-up organization
• Melissa Clark-Reynolds on her start-

https://johnbessant.org/resources/media-resources/the-innovators-media-library/

https://johnbessant.org/tidewave/

https://johnbessant.org/resources/media-resources/the-innovators-media-library/

Videos

• Hugh Chapman, Managing
Director of Veeder Root on
innovation leadership

• Emma Taylor of Denso
Systems on employee
involvement

• Armin Rau, Strategy Partner
of Sicap.

https://johnbessant.org/resources/media-resources/the-innovators-media-library/

Armin%20Rau,%20Strategy%20Partner%20of%20Sicap.

Videos

• Douglas Merril of Google
who explains a little about
how the organization
supports innovation

• Linda Hill’s TED Talk on
collective creativity

• https://www.ted.com/talks/
linda_hill_how_to_manage
_for_collective_creativity

• Four cases of employee
involvement in innovation

On the Portal there is a case study of Nokia Networks
together with a media interview with Fabian Schlage,
Innovation Manager, which illustrates some of these
themes:

http://www.innovation-portal.info/resources/fabian-
schlage-nokia/

http://ispim.org/video-and-articles/#mg_ld_1706

Case study and video: Nokia
Solutions and Networks

http://www.innovation-portal.info/resources/fabian-schlage-nokia/

http://ispim.org/video-and-articles/

Blogs and
podcasts

• There are several podcasts
picking up key themes
around managing
innovation as a process and
some of the key variables:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/721626

Slide 1: Student Resource
Slide 2: Chapter 5: Building the innovative organization
Slide 3: Learning objectives
Slide 4: Core themes and material from the book
Slide 5
Slide 6
Slide 7
Slide 8
Slide 9
Slide 10
Slide 11
Slide 12
Slide 13
Slide 14
Slide 15: High involvement innovation
Slide 16
Slide 17
Slide 18
Slide 19
Slide 20
Slide 21
Slide 22
Slide 23
Slide 24
Slide 25
Slide 26
Slide 27
Slide 28
Slide 29: Videos
Slide 30: Videos
Slide 31: Videos
Slide 32
Slide 33: Blogs and podcasts

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