Innovation in Customer Service (Dissertation Sample)

Innovation in Customer Service
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Meaning of Innovation
Innovation is a continuous aspect in the economy, and it is a significant topic of analysis for different disciplines including engineering, business, sociology, economic, and science among others. Despite the fact that the concept has been researched in various disciplines, it remains a poorly understood concept with various individuals and scholars confusing the innovation term with words such as creativity, design, change, and invention (Gailly and Palgrave Connect, 2011). According to Gailly and Palgrave Connect (2012) many people are in a position to provide numerous examples of innovations such as PC and iPod, but only a few can give a detail explanation on the innovative aspects of these two products. In the realm of academic, there are differences in opinion regarding the meaning of innovation. One of the definitions, as outlined in the New Oxford Dictionary of English is that it refers to the ‘making changes to something established by introducing something new’ (p. 942):
However, there is limitation in the above definition from the dictionary. First is that it does not provide explanation of whether innovation is drastic or if it is something that happens only to products. Secondly, the definition does not show if innovation only happens to large organization or single entrepreneurs. Thirdly, the definition does not suggest whether innovation is applicable to both the profit making and not-for profit making businesses. Nonetheless, it is important to note that innovation is vital in local government and hospitals as well as in business entities. In the context of an organization, innovation can be realized in the form of improved services, processes, and products. The process can either be radical or incremental depending on the nature of the organization, and it generally occurs in the various levels of organizations; ranging from executive board to the low-level departments.
As innovation transforms diverse ideas or information into outputs, which will ultimately increase the value of the customer, there is need to manage the operations. It is crucial for an organization to ensure that bad and good ideas are not integrated in the innovation process for this will make an organization to fail to realize its strategic goals and initiatives (Gailly and Palgrave Connect). Ideas that are regarded as bad should be ignored, while ideas that are good should be nurtured. This will ensure that scarce resources are engaged only in good ideas that will take an organization to another level of success. Every time a good idea is adopted, it effectively replaces the old one, because it is an organization’s objective to successfully develop ideas that are good. As such it is critical to note that innovation process involves making changes to obsolete ideas in order to establish something useful (Burke, 2002). This is achieved through introduction of new concepts that adds customer value and contributes towards organization’s knowledge reservoir.
According to Burke (2002) organization knowledge is quite synonymous with organizational learning. Organizations that have the capability of creating new knowledge or innovating, retaining it and transferring it throughout various levels are very productive and stand a greater chance to be successful than their rivals which are not experienced in organizational learning. An organization that is willing to learn new ideas and adapt to the behavior that characterizes external stimuli in the business setting must have a collective knowledge on the changes in the environment. However, innovation is attributed to originality and novelty. Although novelty can be highly subjective, innovation has the traits of freshness or uniqueness. As such, from this perspective, innovation can be defined as;
The process in which the organization makes changes in its operations with an aim of introducing new concept into the economy that will enhance customer value and contribute towards organization’s knowledge store. These changes can either be small, large, incremental or radical on the services, products, and processes of the organization (Burke, 2002).
Though this definition is quite general, it outlines numerous aspects and elements of innovation that are applicable within the organization. It is, therefore, vital to note that innovation can only be beneficial to the organization if the concerned management team can apply the new ideas or concepts to the success of the entity. As such, innovation, in a broad perspective, can be defined as;
Application of various practical techniques and tools, within the organizations, that will necessitate changes in the operations of the organization—whether small, large, incremental or radical—including services, processes and products, which will enhance customer value and contribute towards organization’s knowledge store (Burke, 2002).
Organizational Change
Since 1980s, the reform initiatives have always focused on the need for public sectors to learn from the initiatives of private sectors in terms of organization change (Burke, 2002). Public organizations have always strived to enhance their efficiency through engaging in cost reduction measures while increasing its level of operations simultaneously. It is, therefore, normal that public sector’s managers have been subjected to increased pressures in their initiatives of organization management. The differences between private and public sectors are based on the environmental and social settings and it is not necessarily on the structure and the number of employees or workforce in the entity. According to Burke (2002) organizational theory articulates to the notion that organizations are affected by environmental settings and it puts emphasis on the differences in institutional and technical environments.
“In modern societies, the elements of rationalized formal structure are deeply ingrained in, and reflect, widespread understandings of social reality. Many of the positions, policies, programs and procedures of modern organizations are enforced by public opinion, by the views of important constituents, by knowledge legitimated through the educational system, by social prestige, by the laws and by definitions of negligence and prudence used by the courts” (Meyer and Rowan, 1991, p. 340).
Meyer and Rowan (1991) purport that the environmental setting affects the operations of an entity and makes the management to devise strategies that would make the organization adapt to the environment. There are two change models that demonstrate the relationship between environment and organizations; Strategic change model and Socio-technical systems change model. In the case of Strategic change model, the focus is on the analysis of the vital contingency elements of the environment using analytical framework (Burke, 2002). On the other hand, socio-technical systems change model focuses on individuals initiatives towards realization of organizational redesign or change. Its assessment is based on the individual employee.
When there are changes in the environment, organizations need to adapt to these changes in incremental steps. Small adjustments in the organization’s system enhance efficiency and sustain the operations of the organization. The continuous change is normally realized in most of the leading organizations; however, the management should have a reliable Research & Development team that would foresee any slight changes in the operations of the entity (Meyer and Rowan, 1991). Organizational development would be realized when there are changes in the operations of the entity based on the trends in the economy (Meyer and Rowan, 1991). Organizational development is an approach in which the management reacts to the slight changes in the environment through modifying its structure in order to work well with the changes in the environment.
Types of Changes
There are various types of organizational changes; revolutionary/evolutionary, discontinuous /continuous, Episodic /continuing flow, transformational /transactional, strategic /operational, and total system / local option. Revolutionary change demands tools and techniques that will shape the operations of an organization in order to realize success (Burke, 2002). These tools normally bring success in the organization especially when there is drastic change of operations and activities. Revolutionary change requires the organization to adopt initial initiative of soliciting employee’s attention in order to harness modification of its strategy and mission (Burke, 2002). The evolutionary change aims at achieving the desired improvement of organizational activities such as service delivery, designing of new product, and upgrading the quality of the product or service. Under transformation change, the members of the organization need to act swiftly on the small changes in the economy while continuous improvement of activities requires minimal attention or attention of the executive board only (Burke, 2002).
Levels of Organization Change
Various types of organizational change are often implemented or instituted at different levels in the organization. There are numerous effects that these changes in the organization have on the levels of the social or organization system. These levels that are affected include; individual level, the group, and the total system. At the individual level, the effect of organizational change is on issues such as employment of new staff, replacing employees, training them, and providing counseling services to the affected individuals in the organization. At the group level, the focus is on, for example, team-building and self ...