L&M Bank: Case study Assignment Sample

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Management - ABC Company

Task 1

ABC company is a software company in Australia that specializes in the creation and development of accounting and financial software. This company has two branches, one in Melbourne, and the other in Victoria. The owners of the company are now planning to open one branch in Brisbane. But it is very important for each branch to uphold the values, culture, policies, and procedures efficiently and effectively in the organization. To inculcate the values, policies, and procedures in the company, it is very important for a branch manager to impart some principles of innovation in the workplace. According to Horth (2015), there are two main components of innovation leadership which are; an innovative approach to leadership and leadership for innovation. An innovative approach to leadership means how a manager or a leader bring different actions and new ideas to lead and manage a team. Leadership for innovation means how managers or leaders create an environment where the employees can apply various innovative ideas to solve a problem and create new products and services.

As stated by Hon & Lui (2016), the first principle for innovation in the workplace is a challenge and don't push which means that innovative leaders should begin conversations by asking questions and should never force a solution or dictate the path to their team. In simples’ words, leaders should never tell the team or employees how to do the task, they should simply tell them what to do and the employees will use their ideas and innovation and surprise leaders with their amazing work. This is one of the major principles for innovation that can be inculcated in the workplace. The second principle for innovation is maintaining curiosity which means innovative leaders are often passionate about the right idea or solution to a problem. Such leaders just focus on engaging with their team and stay committed with them for new ideas. These leaders work with their team until they don’t find the right solution for a problem. The curiosity in them to find the best possible solution to a problem is there until the work is done (Hon & Lui, 2016). 

The third and the most creative principle for innovation in the workplace updating the workplace. The creative work will have a positive impact on employees. The creative workplace will help employees in the innovation of new ideas, products, and services. The spacious and colorful office with flexibility will help employees in their task and they will feel motivated to succeed. It is not important to do too much at the workplace but giving enough space to employees to do their tasks with good use of colors will give a positive impact on the behavior and mood of the employees. Along with this, leaders must allow employees to add their own personal touch at their work station. All these above principles can be supported by policies and procedures that includes award and recognition programs for employees (Alasoini, Ramstad & Totterdill, 2017).

Task 2 

Innovation is important for the growth of any company and every leader must know how to implement innovation in the workplace. There are various methods that leaders focus to successfully implement innovation in the workplace. The three methods that will be implemented in the branch to achieve a higher level of innovation are; giving workplace a sense of freedom, providing the team with the required resources to implement various innovative ideas, and investing time in the nourishment of the employees in terms of nourishment. The first method is giving employees a sense of freedom to work which means employees should be given the freedom to practice their ideas and should not be imposed with rules that will ruin their creativity. If too many rules are imposed on the employees then they will not be able to come with new ideas and will feel reluctant to think out of the box. Freedom will help employees to think differently and they will be able to find solutions to the problem in their own innovative way (Talukder, 2016).

According to Potočnik, Anderson & Latorre (2015), the second method is providing employees with adequate resources so that there are no barriers to their innovations. For any company, employees are the main resources who operates the company with their innovative ideas. But to implement their ideas, employees need the right resources and company must provide all the resources so that they can implement their ideas in the right direction. Without adequate resources, the best of the ideas will also fail. So, the company must ensure to provide adequate resources to their employees. For IT firms, to develop new software and apps, employees need resources to work on their ideas. Thus, the company must ensure that all the employees are provided with the required resources.

The third method is investing time in the nourishment of the employees in terms of creativity. This means that leader should demonstrate to their team the ways to find creativity by giving various examples so that they implement these ways in their work. This can be done by taking workshops and encouraging the employees to work on their ideas through various activities. This will help them to know where they need improvement as well as they will also learn to find the solutions for their problem on their own. Leaders can also give examples to encourage them to take risks and learn from their failures as failures is a way to success. If a person will not experience failure then that person will not understand the importance of hard work, time, and energy that has been invested in creating an innovative idea. All the above method will help in achieving a higher level of innovation in the workplace if used in the right way (Talukder, 2016). 

Task 3

1. The size of the room that is created for the employees to discuss various innovative ideas is 15 by 10 ft. The room is of rectangular shape that can accommodate 15 to 20 people. 

2. The suggestions and improvements from the staff can be acknowledged in meetings by praising them for their suggestions, giving them rewards and recognition for their brilliant suggestion, and by giving them incentives. Employees are free to use the room and they can work with various items and resources that will be used in their innovations (Detert & Burris, 2016). 

3. As stated by Kesting, Ulhøi, Song & Niu (2016), the innovation can be promoted and supported according to the company's vision by tying the vision of the company to the achievable goals so that employees understand its importance and everyone in the company work towards the achievement of the goal. But for this, leaders must first promote the vision of the company to the employees by sharing the success stories. These stories will motivate and encourage all the employees in becoming one of kind for the organization. These stories and examples will motivate them to come out with the best ideas or innovations that will bring success to the company.

4. The room will be used to discuss and create various innovations for the company and come out with the best result. The room will be used for various workshops, programs, discussions, sessions, meetings, relaxation, and for many other creative tasks.

5. The room requires a large table with around 15 to 29 chairs, a projector, notice board, whiteboard and other interesting items, photos, and messages that will encourage employees to think out of the box. Also, employees can bring their own items to work on their new ideas. Along with this, coaters with motivational messages, notepads with interesting photos with creative pens can also be inculcated in this room.  

6. To encourage innovation within the team, the leaders must understand each of the team members and their talent. Then leaders must work on their communication skill and lead a team by giving examples and telling the success stories. Along with this, leaders must divide the work into groups so that each member of the team should learn teamwork and respect each other. Through group work, team members will learn about each other values and culture as well as will learn to praise each other ideas. More importantly, through group work, they will learn many things from each other and will improve in the areas where they are weak. Apart from all this, the leader can empower their employees to take actions and decisions on their own and must ease out on employees so that employees do not feel exhausted. Along with this, employees must be given appreciation for their work and should be given proper recognition for their hard work. All these factors will increase the productivity and the organization will be able to achieve their target within the given time frame (Kesting, Ulhøi, Song & Niu, 2016). 

Task 4

1. The leaders can celebrate their success by rewards and recognition programs, team lunch or dinners, giving incentives or bonus, etc. The can company celebrate their success through giving rewards to employees such as best employee of the month, best employee of the year, employee who completed the target in less time, tweeting on social media, inculcating success in the communication strategies, and most importantly thanking everyone who have helped in the work (Alvesson & Kärreman, 2016). 

2. The very first method to use failures as a means to learn from mistakes is to accept the failure as part of the process. Leaders must communicate to the team that during their failure that it is fine to get frustrated but it is more important to get up and again start with their work and see where and what went wrong in their work. Leaders must also give some time to their employees to accept their failure and to slowly return their focus on work. Then, leaders should help out the employees in figuring out the reason of failure so that they come back and work again on their task without repeating the same mistakes and including a more organized and productive way of doing the task (Alvesson & Kärreman, 2016). 

3. The two methods that will be used to ensure that the innovation changes are sustainable over a long term for the workplace are; open communication and reduce bureaucracy. Open communication between the employees, leaders, and the management will develop an atmosphere of trust. But this trust factor and communication have to be first initiated by the leaders or managers of the company through regular sharing of the information whether good news or bad news. The other method is by reducing bureaucracy because bureaucracy hinders the process of innovation. Thus, an organization must ensure that there no bureaucracy in the workplace and there is open communication between leaders, management, and employees (Adams et al., 2016).           

References

Adams, R., Jeanrenaud, S., Bessant, J., Denyer, D., & Overy, P. (2016). Sustainability‐oriented innovation: a systematic review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18(2), 180-205.

Alasoini, T., Ramstad, E., & Totterdill, P. (2017). National and regional policies to promote and sustain workplace innovation. In Workplace Innovation (pp. 27-44). Springer, Cham.

Alvesson, M., & Kärreman, D. (2016). Intellectual failure and ideological success in organization studies: The case of transformational leadership. Journal of Management Inquiry, 25(2), 139-152.

Detert, J. R., & Burris, E. R. (2016). Can your employees really speak freely. Harvard Business Review, 94(1-2), 80-87.

Hon, A. H., & Lui, S. S. (2016). Employee creativity and innovation in organizations: Review, integration, and future directions for hospitality research. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(5), 862-885.

Horth, D. (2015). Innovation Leadership: How to use innovation to lead effectively, work collaboratively, and drive results. Retrieved from https://www.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/InnovationLeadership.pdf

Kesting, P., Ulhøi, J. P., Song, L. J., & Niu, H. (2016). The impact of leadership styles on innovation-a review. Journal of Innovation Management, 3(4), 22-41.

Potočnik, K., Anderson, N. R., & Latorre, F. (2015). Selecting for innovation: Methods of assessment and the criterion problem. Recent and New Developments in Recruitment and Selection. London: Taylor and Francis.

Talukder, M. (2016). Managing innovation adoption: from innovation to implementation. Routledge.