The competence profile derived from this literature has also been sustained by an empirical investigation. In such investigation methods as interviews and focus groups, participants were asked to express themselves on the critical incidents or challenging situations they faced in innovation settings and to describe how they managed all of this. The challenges and competences reported were different among the respondents.
The interviews gathered a large range of responses with apparently conflicting aspects related to competence. This could be the result of the fact that respondents took part in different innovation teams, with differences in partnerships, cooperation tools, and objectives. In addition, the diversity of responses may be due to the specific background and context of the interviewees.
The main outcome of the investigation by du Chatenier et al. How to develop these competences? From these lines, it is possible to derive two different principles for innovation, which are to be considered in training and development activities. The first one is that innovation is often the result of the ability to make use of existing knowledge and information to give birth to different combinations and reconfigurations Cantner et al. The second one, already stressed in this paper, is that innovation encompasses the cooperation of people and groups with different knowledge, experience and expertise human and psychological capital.
Kelley emphasizes that innovation is not accomplished by a single skilled worker, but can only be achieved in cooperation Sartori and Scalco, , p. All these gentlemen had labs full of people who shared their passion for creative pursuits. According to Ferrary , innovation would pass through a life cycle defined as an interactive process that begins with exploration and finishes with exploitation Sartori et al.
Exploration is considered to be the phase leading to knowledge generation, while exploitation happens when the knowledge that brings up innovation is finally industrialized and commercialized. Both the steps, exploration and exploitation, are dependent on human and positive psychological capital Sartori et al. According to the OECD , p. It is important to get an idea of what human and psychological factors foster or hinder the collaborative knowledge creation, in order to design training courses able to develop them.
Research also shows that people need to be trained on these issues since you cannot assume that people know how to do this spontaneously Sartori and Scalco, There is an abundant research literature on the question of what makes teams and work groups effective in the case of innovation. An exploration of the innovation literature dealing with training and development resulted in a final sample of studies.
Results revealed that such team process variables as support for innovation, vision, task orientation , and external communication displayed the strongest correlations r with creativity and innovation r -values between 0. Therefore, the authors conclude, it is worth training and developing people on those team-level aspects. Again, an article published by Ceschi et al.
Participants were involved in a business game in which the aim was not only to earn virtual money, but also to learn long-term strategies to develop profitable investments without losing sight of economic factors. The study investigated the communication and innovation CI dimension drawn from the Italian version of the team climate inventory TCI by Ragazzoni et al.
An r- value of 0. Finally, a study by Loewen and Loo clearly shows that the concept of internal communication measured by the TCI is in relation to group climate, organizational learning and group performance in terms of innovation outputs. All these studies presume that the learning processes are the underlying mechanisms that account for the effects of training on innovative performance Laursen and Foss, ; Chen and Huang, , strongly underline the importance of human resources training in developing the characteristics that literature has shown to be in relation to creativity and innovation processes Sartori and Scalco, , but they do not arrive to a clear training and development model to be delivered to people involved in such processes Sartori et al.
Instead, they identify in the psychosocial training the means by which it is possible to obtain the development of the characteristics needed by people dealing with innovation, without specifying how all this should work. In it, two different approaches to training are shown: The first one can be linked to the targets of combinations and reconfigurations expressed earlier Cantner et al. In addition, the filling-gaps approach can be used for training practices dedicated to just one person through off-line activities such as a handbook or on-line experiences such as a tutorial , while the developing approach can be achieved only in group, which makes this kind of training practice more suitable for sharing ideas and developing the ability to cooperate.
The Filling-gaps approach and the Developing approach to training. The latter seems to be a more effective approach to training for innovation than the former. Although most of the consulting books and dissemination publications emphasize the importance of the so-called human factor in innovation processes that really want to keep up with a world that changes so quickly, little research on the implications of training people has been carried out in order to understand how to properly develop them in the perspective of organizational innovation.
In fact and so far, the relationship between training practices and organizational innovation has been widely overlooked Nguyen et al. In addition, theoretical elaboration and empirical evidence remain lacking Sung and Choi, The study by Sung and Choi is one of the few ones examining the effects of training and development activities on organizational innovation.
The authors specifically suggest that the training and development investments of an organization affect its innovative performance by promoting several learning practices as the ones listed at the beginning of this paper. They empirically tested their hypothesis by using time-lagged, multi-source data collected from Korean companies that represent various industries. Their analysis shows that corporate expenditure for internal training predicts interpersonal and organizational learning practices, which, in turn, increase innovative performance. The data also reveal that the positive relationship between interpersonal and organizational learning practices and innovative performance is stronger within organizations that have stronger innovative climates.
The study provides a plausible explanation for a mechanism through which the investments of an organization in employees enhance its innovative performance but does not provide the way by which people in organizations should be trained in order to give birth to innovation processes. What is sure, though, is that, in order to guarantee a successful implementation of organizational innovation practices, it is essential to comprehend what are the elements, the factors and the dimensions that allow two or more parties to build up a mutual working relationship, which is important in closed innovation and necessary in open innovation.
Following Whelan et al. Their main task is to assemble the signals on emerging scientific and technological developments spread out all over the world. On the other hand, idea connectors are the people who, inside the organization, can count on an extensive network of people. They should have the know-how required to allocate the technological information collected.
Their main expertise lies in knowing who is doing what.
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They should have the ability to decipher external information into a form understandable and relevant for internal colleagues. Finally, they should also be able to convince other network members to take the actions required to give birth to innovation.
The model we have just presented is supposed to foster the implementation of both closed and open innovation strategies. Leaving apart the fact that some organizations appoint strategic job roles to single employees, as it is the case of idea scouts and connectors, other companies tend to implement innovation processes through open innovation teams , which are composed of different professionals coming from different organizations with the common objective to integrate knowledge in order to implement new products or services Hafkesbrink and Schroll, The studies carried out so far on the matter demonstrate that the cooperation with external partners is particularly challenging and difficulties should not be underestimated du Chatenier et al.
Some of the possible problems related to teamwork are: Once the cooperation is established, open innovation teams find themselves facing such problems as overcoming cognitive distances Cohen and Levinthal, , the risk of uncontrolled disclosure or leakage of information due to the difficulty of balancing individual and alliance interests Hamel, , lack of trust Doz and Hamel, and unequal power distribution Falk and Falk, These are some of the most important reasons why people involved in innovation teams should be properly trained in order to be able to cooperate and generate innovation in organizations through teamwork and collaboration.
In fact, and we want to stress the idea once again, organizational innovation requires competences of different kind given that innovation deals with different kinds of change and different kinds of change require different competences to be dealt with, in a circular and hopefully virtuous process according to which any change can be the stimulus for innovation, and any innovation introduces changes Sartori and Tacconi, Accordingly, organizational innovation needs ideas, ideas are generated by people and these ideas are influenced by the so-called human and psychological capital supplied to humans: All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.
RS is responsible for the title, the abstract and the general idea of the paper. ArC and AnC have contributed with their previous papers and new ideas in all the sections of the paper. FT is in particular responsible for the introduction and the conclusions. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.
Journal List Front Psychol v. Published online Mar Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. This article was submitted to Organizational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Received Oct 16; Accepted Feb The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Abstract The article aims to be a reflective paper on the interconnected concepts of training, development and innovation and the potential they have in dealing with change in organizations.
Introduction The focus of the article is organizational innovation as a way by which companies, businesses, firms and enterprises, in one word organizations , manage change in the multidimensional perspective of survival, competitiveness, growth, and development Sartori et al. What Competences for What Organizational Innovation Organizational innovation refers to new modalities by which work can be organized and achieved within companies, businesses, firms and enterprises to foster and promote competitive advantage.
An entrepreneurial mindset Cubico et al. Solid communication skills , which basically means being able to combine listening and speaking skills Shockley-Zalabak, ; Ceschi et al.
Ability to understand technical requirements which are not simple in their nature and reduce them into easier elements so that the different members involved in the innovation team can better manage them Kanter, ; Sloane, ;. Skills for building and maintaining relationships , in order to stimulate cooperation among people even in the presence of different personal characteristics Kanter, ; Lindegaard and Kawasaki, ; Sloane, ;. Curiosity , as spontaneous desire to learn things of different kind and to integrate them together in order to meet or sustain the strategic targets of innovation Lindegaard and Kawasaki, ;.
Holistic point of view: Table 1 Competences for innovation. Competences of extra importance in certain contexts Project management Involve: Identifies human, material and experiential resources for accomplishing various kinds of learning objectives. Identifies situations for participative group problem solving, using the proper degree of participation, and recognizes obstacles and corrective actions.
Knows who to inform and when. Appropriately adapts, calibrates ones behavior to each situation in order to elicit particular responses from others. Uses influencing skills as opposed to instructing: Knows how to play the political game.
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Shares success, allows people to make mistakes. Can be counted on to represent situations fairly. Develops, maintains, and uses effective networks. Is approachable, develops friendships easily and strong beneficial alliances and coalitions. Develops a team spirit. Deals with unexpected situations, is flexible with plans, deadlines, improvises. Is not too systematic, rigid. Deals with a flexible team composition. Has an overall picture of the project and influencing factor. Understands and manages complexity. Complex alliances Take on: Is aware of, and regulates, own thinking and feeling.
Manages tensions created by multiple accountabilities, tasks and roles. Has perseverance, keeps on thinking positively, having end-goal in mind. Appreciates the learning domain and has the motivation to learn, has a sense of urgency. Communicates clearly and understandably. Recognizes open and supportive communication methods. Competences related to team performance Positively Monitor: Coordinates and synchronizes activities, information, and tasks between team members. Designs a plan of strategies. Carries out the plan systematically and sequentially.
Feels responsible for the team and acts as such. Monitors, evaluates, and provides feedback on overall team and individual performance. Collects evidence of accomplishments. Asks many critical questions. Trusts the other party. Is critical but constructive. Is aware that s he represents an organization; refuses to accept less. Positively or negatively Handle conflicts: Respects, values and appreciates people and their ideas.
Has experience working in partnerships. Communicates own perceptions and feelings in a diplomatic way. Wants to learn from others. Understands social situations as well as interpersonal interactions Scalco et al. Is sensitive to the roles and responsibilities of all partners, aware of their collaborative motivations and expresses understanding and empathy. Has good reflective skills and applies techniques of lateral thinking or divergent thinking. Other relevant competences Relevant for all open innovation professionals Decide mindfully: Possesses basic knowledge and perceptions.
Establishes specific, challenging, accepted team goals. Diagnoses, formulates learning objectives in performance outcomes but not too quickly. Combines high advocacy egocentrism with high inquiry. Recognizes types and sources of conflict, encourages desirable conflict but discourages undesirable conflict. Picks up signals, sees opportunities, has intuition for innovation. Balances short- and long-term goals. Discerns sub from main issues. Employs integrative win—win negotiation strategies rather than distributive win—lose strategies. Brokers solutions or outcomes. Thinks in ways that differ from established lines of thought.
Agrees to disagree lose—lose strategy. Considers common goals mostly important. Adapts without violating own ideas. Open in a separate window.
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This table is copied from Sartori et al. Social inputs — In the first place, organizations try to recognize key insights for innovation. Through such social research techniques as focus groups and ethnographic inquiries or links to other organizations and disciplines, they try to collect insights and be inspired. Social evolution — Organizations make use of innovation teams and groups, not sole inventors, to convert key insights and find new solutions. Social execution — It comprises such social outputs as trials, beta programs and trade shows.
It is crucial for customers to be trained so that they can recognize their necessities for innovation. Conclusion and Further Considerations Although most of the consulting books and dissemination publications emphasize the importance of the so-called human factor in innovation processes that really want to keep up with a world that changes so quickly, little research on the implications of training people has been carried out in order to understand how to properly develop them in the perspective of organizational innovation.
The way to do this is still open to investigations and reflections. Author Contributions All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication. Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Footnotes 1 It is composed of the following Countries: Studies of independence and conformity: The Exercise of Control. Does training generally work? The returns to in-company training. Culture in a Liquid Modern World. Strategic human resource practices and product innovation. Purposes, Traditions and Prospects. Understanding and Facilitating Adult Education. The Use of Knowledge Management by Innovators: Empirical Evidence for Germany. Jena Economic Research Papers Training as a source of competitive advantage: The impact of occupational rewards on risk taking among managers.
The career decision-making competence: Decision-making processes in the workplace: Studying teamwork and team climate by using a business simulation How communication and innovation can improve group learning and decision-making performance. Turning bad into good: New insights into the moderating role of personality between the health impairment process and counterproductive work behavior. Advanced modeling methods for studying individual differences and dynamics in organizations: Work-family conflict based on strain: Strategic human resource practices and innovation performance: Harvard Business Review Press.
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