CRITICALLY ASSESS THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY, INNOVATION & LEADERSHIP IN DRIVING THE MODERN SECTOR 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATION

TO GOAL ATTAINMENT AND STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT. BY ABIMBOLA BABATUNDE

M.Sc Email:tundeabimbola@gmail.com
Mobile: +2347033584015

March, 2012.

INTRODUCTION:
This paper explores the important role of innovation, creativity and leadership in our modern organizations. It argues that while culture, strategy, technology, and other management tools are important in generating effectiveness in the 21st century, creativity, innovation and leadership are what drive organizational success in many sectors. However, for creativity to take place, leaders must actively implement strategies that encourage it. Therefore, leadership is the catalyst and source of organizational creativity and innovation. In essence, for organizations to be able to achieve constant innovation, leaders must establish an environment conducive to renewal and build organizational culture that encourages creativity and innovation. Organizational creativity also depends on how leaders encourage and manage diversity in the organization, as well as develop an effective leadership structure that sustains the innovation process. However, for clarity of purpose I shall endeavor to exam the definitions of the three main concepts and keywords: creativity, innovation and leadership which are concepts within the sphere of strategic human resource management.

WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
According to Linda creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing.1 She stressed further that, Creativity is the process of bringing something new into beingcreativity requires passion and commitment. Out of the creative act is born symbols and myths. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life.2 Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art, a novel, a joke, etc.) that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs. What counts as "valuable" is similarly defined in a variety of ways.3 It can be argued that to enhance creativity in business, three components were needed:

Expertise (technical, procedural and intellectual knowledge), Creative thinking skills (how flexibly and imaginatively people approach problems), and Motivation (especially intrinsic motivation).

There are two types of motivation:

extrinsic motivation external factors, for example threats of being fired or money as a reward, intrinsic motivation comes from inside an individual, satisfaction, enjoyment of work etc.

Six managerial practices to encourage motivation are:

Challenge matching people with the right assignments; Freedom giving people autonomy choosing means to achieve goals;

Resources such as time, money, space etc. There must be balance fit among resources and people; Work group features diverse, supportive teams, where members share the excitement, willingness to help and recognize each other's talents; Supervisory encouragement recognitions, cheering, praising;

Organizational support value emphasis, information sharing, collaboration

WHAT IS INNOVATION? Innovation is the production or implementation of ideas. The National Innovation Initiative (NII) defines innovation as The intersection of invention and insight, leading to the creation of social and economic value.4 Innovation means making meaningful change to improve an organizations products, services, programs, processes, operations, and business model to create new value for the organizations stakeholders. Innovation should lead an organization to new dimensions of performance. Innovation is no longer strictly the purview of research and development departments; innovation is important for all aspects of operations and all work systems and work processes. Organizations should be led and managed so that innovation becomes part of the learning culture. Innovation should be integrated into daily work and should be supported by performance improvement system.
For innovation to flourish, organizations must create an environment that fosters creativity; bringing together multi-talented groups of people who work in close collaboration together- exchanging knowledge, ideas and shaping the direction of the future. LEADERSHIP: A DEFINITION According to R. J. House, leadership is "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they aremembers". No matter how one defines leadership, it typically involves an element of vision. A vision provides direction to the influence process. A leader (or group of leaders) can have one or more visions of the future to aid them to move a group successfully towards this goal. Before we get started, lets define leadership. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. This definition is similar to Northouse's definition that says Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.5 Bankole says leadership occurs when a person induces other people to work towards some pre-determined objectives. 6 In essence, a leader is a person who inspires others to work towards a goal. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership . However, we know that we have traits that can influence our actions. This is called Trait Leadership , in that it was once common to believe that leaders were born rather than made. On the style of leadership, these are the following:

Autocratic style: The leader centralizes power and decision in himself and exercises absolute control over the subordinate. Democratic style: Contrary to Autocratic leadership style, the democratic leader practices leadership by consolation. Laissez faire: This kind of leadership is impracticable particularly in business organizations that are profit oriented. Here all decisions are taken by the subordinate as the leader relinquishes power.

Creativity, Innovation and Leadership as the Most Crucial Factor for goal attainment in Modern sector: An Overview of Nigeria.
In the observation of Bankole, an average Nigerian worker performs below the average level expected of him.7 According to him, many reasons had been adduced to this unhealthy situation. One of such reason is the problem of poor innovation, creativity and ineffective leadership. The problems of poor creativity, innovation and ineffective leadership in Nigeria and the resultant consequences are evident in every facet of our national life. Most organization and industries are operating below their anticipated capacity. In fact it is an open secret that nearly all government organizations operate at a loss as a result of lack of these three germane issues in strategic management. All the aforementioned situations are not unconnected with the prevalent leadership style. Much as one cannot say with all emphasis that effective leadership alone guarantees efficient management in achieving organizational goals, yet its curtail role cannot be neglected. It is therefore, amazing to observe that effective leadership, innovation and creativity has not received that attention it deserves in the country despite its relevance to the present Nigerian economic situation. It should be noted that among all odds some organizations in Nigeria are still adhering to the principle of best practice and are being creative, innovative and practicing leadership in its best form but the percentage is very minimal. According to the IBM 2010 Global CEO Study, which surveyed 1,500 Chief Executive Officers from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, CEOs believe that, more than rigor, management discipline, integrity or even vision successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity. CEOs say creativity helps them capitalize on complexity The effects of rising complexity calls for CEOs and their teams to lead with bold creativity, connect with customers in imaginative ways and design their operations for speed and flexibility to position their organizations for twenty-first century success. One cant expect his business to be a 21st-century success story if he persists in using 19th-century techniques to run it. A fundamental re-think is needed. In this advanced world managers must modernize or die.

For creativity and the spirit of innovation to develop in any organization, it must recognize the role of the leaders in encouraging creativity. Leaders can successfully encourage organizational creativity and innovation by designing the organization to foster an environment that is conducive for creativity to flourish. Leaders can do this by building friendly and inclusive working conditions for the members of the organization. When the social structure of the organization helps workers feel secure and accepted, it brings out their creativity.8 Consequently, organizational leaders must respect, value, and harness the richness of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives of every employee and allow them to use their unique personal assets and experiences to work for the organization.9

Moreover, the top leadership of the organization must value creativity themselves and be enthusiastic about encouraging new developments. This provides the needed challenge and opportunities for people in the organization to be creative.10 The vision and strategic goals of leadership determine if the organization actively nurtures creativity. Hence, an exciting vision helps produce a work environment where everyone can participate fully and achieve professional and personal growth in the pursuit of a common vision. Here the leader motivates the rest of the people in the organization to bring out their creativity through creating a shared vision of the type of organization they should build. The leader inspires others with a purpose and a greater sense of mission.
However, it has been the topic of various research studies to establish that organizational effectiveness depends on the creativity of the workforce to a large extent. For any given organization, measures of effectiveness vary, depending upon its mission, environmental context, nature of work, the product or service it produces, and customer demands. Thus, the first step in evaluating organizational effectiveness is to understand the organization itself how it functions, how it is structured, and what it emphasizes. The models many organizations have used in the past most especially in Nigeria no longer seem adequate for effectiveness and success in the 21st-century organizational environment. The situation in their sector has changed from when the environment and processes were stable or slow.11 In many sectors in today Nigeria, work processes are changing at a much faster pace as organizations face the challenges of rapidly changing technology, globalization, uncertainty, unpredictability, and turbulence.12 In the past, because of monopoly to technology, market, or brand, they could expect to be successful for a long time despite inability or refusal to innovate. However, due to the volatile environment in these sectors, many such organizations are failing and need creativity and constant innovation to remain competitive and successful. This means that they must recognize and harness the creativity and leadership that exist in the organization to manage its innovation processes. Strategic design, technology, culture, and organizational strategy may not be able to sustain them very long unless organizations also establish a structure that continuously develops creative leaders to run and sustain the process. This strategy will help the organizations establish environments that are conducive to renewal, build organizational culture that encourages innovations, and establish organizational diversity that in turn helps these organizations remain competitive.

INCONCLUSION: Beyond incremental management, strategic management should be employed by modern sectors in Nigeria in order to strive in this competitive business environment and to attain set goals in order to stay alive and remain in business. This can only be achieved with the help of innovation, creativity and good leadership.

REFERENCES
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Linda Naiman, Creativity at Work (TM) Vancouver BC Canada www.creativityatwork.com Ibid; From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Linda Naiman, Creativity at Work (TM) Vancouver BC Canada www.creativityatwork.com Northouse, G. (2007). Leadership theory and practice. (3rd ed.) Thousand Oak, London, New Delhe, Sage Publications, Inc. p3. Rafiu Bankole (2011) Human resource Management : An introduction , p 241 Ibid; p.240 Pfeffer, J. (1998). The human equation: Building profits by putting people first. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School. Meurling, E. (2004). Diversity as a business opportunity. The PAUSE Scholarship Foundation Kuhn, R. L. (1993). Generating creativity and innovation in large bureaucracies. Westport, CT: Quorum Books Nadler, D. A., & Tushman, M. L. (1997). Competing by design: The power of organizational architecture. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 7-10. Jamali, D., Khoury, G., & Sahyoun, H. (2006). From bureaucratic organizations to learning organizations: An evolutionary roadmap. The Learning Organization, 13(4), 337-352.