The rationale behind scale development

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Introduction

Two major challenges that face us now more than ever are how to adapt successfully to change and how to bring about change in environments that are not conducive to our well-being and effectiveness. Work environments in particular are often directly damaging to our health and well being with stressors causing both physical and psychological damage to people. With the study of innovation and creativity at work, we can evolve strategies for meeting the challenge of how to bring about change in work environments. However, there are broader reasons beyond those concerned with immediately psychological issues for studying creativity and innovation at work. Innovation and creativity are often associated not only with economic prosperity, but with specific advances in knowledge which improve the health and welfare of many in the population – ethically guided advances in medicine, education, science and psychology are some examples.
Moreover, many of the most pressing human problems are institutionalised and it is only by bringing about innovative change that many of these problems can be overcome. For example, social systems and structures that institutionalise inequality in resource and opportunity distribution within communities can promote alienation and inter-group hostility. Effective responses to such problems require changes not only in individual behaviour, but innovative change in the organisations and institutions that perpetuate these problems (Storey & Salaman, 2005:4-5). The study of innovation presents an optimistic picture of people’s involvement in their social and organisational contexts. It promises to advance our understanding of how people can be effective in transforming and shaping organisations
Growing competition, globalisation and changing circumstances make innovation an inevitable prerequisite for the growth, success and survival of any private or public organisation. Maxims such as ‘innovate or die’ are clear expressions of the necessity for innovation as a concept with practical applications and utility (Isaksen & Tidd, 2006: 4-5). In what promises to be an even more volatile and demanding 21st century, the competitive ante will be raised even higher. Factors that were once genuine competitive advantages are now simply minimum admission requirements for staying in the game. The premium has shifted to the ability to manage major, strategic change effectively and almost continually – in short, to innovate consistently. Companies must innovate and innovate continuously to have any hope of survival, let alone dominance. While innovation in technology, production, marketing and finance all remain essential, it is innovation in management and strategy that is most desperately in short supply (Kiernan, 1996: 51). The effective transformation and shaping of organisations is largely the responsibility of management. Management must create a vision of where the organisation wants to go and must create an environment that will enable the organisation to make the necessary changes to live up to its vision. This will include making the necessary adjustments to create favourable conditions for innovation to take place as well as enabling the management of the innovation process (Hales, 1993: 2).

Problem statement and study objectives

Innovation is a term that is used widely in management and organisational development literature. In business circles it is common to hear people talk about the importance of innovation. Management ‘gurus’ stresses the need for organisations to be innovative in order to survive. However, rarely do the people who talk about the need for innovation say exactly what they mean by it; and, more importantly, they do not explain in detail what an organisation must do in order to be innovative. They do not tell their audience what processes are involved in innovation; nor do they outline the factors that need to be taken into consideration. During the literature search the author could not find any scale that sets out to measure the whole process of innovation and the factors involved in it.
As stated in the Introduction to this study, it is ultimately the responsibility of management to create the most favourable conditions for innovation to take place – and to steer the whole process. In a previous study (Boonzaaier, 2000), the author developed a scale to measure managerial innovation. The scale was developed to measure the following: To establish whether people within management have the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to lead and manage innovation within their organisations; To determine whether they know how to create the most favourable conditions for successful innovation; and To determine whether they know what type of workers they must create in order to have a workforce capable of creative and innovative work.
In order to develop the scale of managerial innovation the work of various researchers were used, Amabile (1998; 1990; 1984; 1982), Bean and Radford (2002), Burnside (1990), Delbecq and Mills (1985), Drucker (1985), Duncan and Holbek (1973), Ettlie, (2006), Galbraith (1982), Gluckman and Liyanage (2006), Goffin and Mitchell (2005), Harvard Business Essentials Series (2003), Hennessey and Grossman (1986) Janssen, Van De Vliert and West (2008), Jehn and Bezrukova, (2004), Kanter (1990; 1983), Kimberly (1981) Kimberly and Evanisko (1979), King and Anderson (2002), Koestner, Ryan, Bernieri, and Holt (1984), McGraw & McCullers, (1979), Quinn (1985), Reuvers, Van Engen, Vinkenburg, and Wilson-Evered (2008), Rogers (1995), Trott (2008) Van den Ven (1986), Walton (1987), White and Bruton (2007), Zaltman (1973).

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

• DECLARATION
• ABSTRACT
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• 1 INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Problem statement and study objectives
  • 1.2.1 Study objectives
  • 1.3 Importance and contribution of study
  • 1.4 Theoretical considerations
• 2 LITERATURE STUDY: DEFINITIONS, CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES
  • AND SOURCES OF INNOVATION
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Defining innovation
  • 2.3 Innovation, creativity and change
  • 2.4 Characteristics of innovation
    • 2.4.1 The innovation process is uncertain
    • 2.4.2 The innovation process is knowledge intensive
    • 2.4.3 The innovation process is controversial
  • 2.4.4 The process of innovation crosses boundaries
  • 2.5 Distinctions between different types of innovations
    • 2.5.1 Product Innovation
    • 2.5.2 Process innovation
  • 2.6 Sources of innovation
    • 2.6.1 Unexpected occurrences
    • 2.6.2 Incongruities
    • 2.6.3 Process needs
    • 2.6.4 Industry and market changes
    • 2.6.5 Demographic changes
    • 2.6.6 Changes in perception
    • 2.6.7 New knowledge

• 3 LITERATURE STUDY: SYSTEMS THEORY AND AN OVERVIEW
  • OF ORGANISATIONAL INNOVATION
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Introduction to Systems Theory
    • 3.2.1 General Systems Theory
    • 3.2.2 The emergence of Systems Theory
    • 3.2.3 Key concepts from General Systems Theory
    • 3.2.4 Systems approach and organisation theory
    • 3.2.5 Organisation as an open system
    • 3.2.6 An Integrated Systems view of organisations
    • 3.2.7 Systems view of the innovation process
    • 3.2.8 Innovation systems and General Systems Theory
  • 3.3 Qualities of individuals that influence creativity
    • 3.3.1 Qualities of problem solvers that promote creativity
    • 3.3.2 Qualities of problem solvers that inhibit creativity
  • 3.4 A model of individual creativity
    • 3.4.1 Domain-relevant skills
    • 3.4.2 Creativity-relevant skills
    • 3.4.3 Intrinsic task motivation
  • 3.5 Qualities of work environments that influence creativity
    • 3.5.1 Qualities of work environments that promote creativity
    • 3.5.2 Qualities of work environments that inhibit creativity
  • 3.6 The delicate balance
  • 3.7 The structural, collective, and social conditions for innovation in organisations
    • 3.7.1 Idea generation and innovation activation
    • 3.7.2 Coalition building
    • 3.7.3 Idea realisation and innovation production
    • 3.7.4 Transfer and diffusion
• 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Research methodology
    • 4.2.1 The rationale behind scale development
    • 4.2.2 Understanding the latent variable
    • 4.2.3 Latent variable as the presumed cause of item values
  • 4.3 Data gathering procedure
  • 4.4 Measuring instrument
  • 4.5 Statistical analyses
• 5 EVALUATION OF THE DATA
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Biographical data
  • 5.3 Factor Analysis
    • 5.3.1 Reliability analysis
  • 5.4 ANOVA
    • 5.4.1 Background
    • 5.4.2 Discussion on Pre-processing and ANOVA
  • 5.5 SUMMARIES OF ANOVA RESULTS AND INTERPRETATIONS THEREOF FOR VARIABLES VIEWED IN ISOLATION
  • 5.6 ANOVA results for combined variables
  • 5.7 Validity
    • 5.7.1 Construct validity
    • 5.7.2 Criterion validity
    • 5.7.3 Content validity
• 6 RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • 6.1 Overview
  • 6.2 Results of the study
    • 6.2.1 Age and innovative behaviour
    • 6.2.2 Gender and innovative behaviour
    • 6.2.3 Education level and innovative behaviour
    • 6.2.4 Industry and innovative behaviour
    • 6.2.5 Length of service and innovative behaviour
    • 6.2.6 ANOVA results for combined variables
  • 6.3 Recommendations
    • 6.3.1 Policy recommendations
    • 6.3.2 Recommendations for practice
    • 6.3.3 Recommendations for further research

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