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Culture of Innovation and Skunk Works

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See ref: Jones, Gareth R. Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010. (Case 11: Southwest Airlines) and answer the following:

What strategies were developed to create a culture for innovation? Based on the different situations the company experienced, what is another strategy management could have implemented? Why would the company benefit from the strategy you recommended?

Consider a company you work for, have worked for, or are familiar with. How would the company benefit from skunk works? What goals would the skunk works team have at this company? How would the team accomplish those goals?

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Solution Summary

Encouragement of creativity is explained in a structured manner in this response. The answer includes references used.

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The strategies that were developed to create a culture of innovation were to place people first. Southwest made individuals the top priority that would lead to long-term innovation and success. Southwest developed a very flat organization that embedded decision making and idea development deep in the job of every employee. It was the responsibility of every employee to make decisions. People were rewarded for taking risks and designing creative processes and making improvements. The employees were encouraged to use innovative means of improving productivity, customer service, safety, profitability, and cost containment.

Another strategy that management could have developed would have been to create an innovation team. This team would have collected innovation ideas from employees. Every month an innovation meeting should be held to ask employees to arrive with ideas on a specific topic such as improving customer service, reducing costs, and decreasing plane turnaround time. Employees would be encouraged to share ideas. Most ...

Solution provided by:
Hatim Baxamusa, MBA
Education
  • BSc , University of Calcutta
  • MBA, Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management
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