Role of First-Line Managers in Implementing Effective Innovation in Organizations
Introduction
In the current age of rapid changes, businesses are under increased pressure to engage in innovative behaviors and practices to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Innovation enables firms to be more flexible and adaptable to ever-changing and advancing technologies and the unpredictable and uncertain business environment. However, for businesses to innovate, they have to rely on their employees’ innovative behaviors and creativity to develop solutions to the problems facing an organization (Elidemir et al., 2020). It is critical to note that employees’ innovative and creative behavior is frequently influenced by their work climate (Theurer et al., 2020). Given that environment is defined as workers impressions of official and informal organizational rules, practices, and procedures, it is reasonable to anticipate that employees’ perceptions of their line manager’s conduct can significantly influence their innovative behavior (Theurer et al., 2020). Therefore, this proposal will evaluate the role and ability of managers in bringing in innovation and the ways they implement these changes in their organizations to make them effective and produce positive results. It will outline the field of research, a brief literature review, as well as the objective, methodology, and schedule of the study.
Field of Research
This research study will seek to offer insights into the role managers, and particularly first-line managers, play in the innovative process of an organization. The research study will specifically, focus on the oil and gas sector in the UAE which in the last year has experienced upheavals driven by a considerable drop in oil prices (Kabbani & Mimoune, 2020). Oil and gas companies must embrace innovation as oil prices fall and demand shifts due to tightening emissions regulations around the world, the rise of electric vehicles, significant demand growth driven by non-OECD countries, and the younger generation’s embrace of the sharing economy, which reduces demand for oil (Lu et al., 2019). Innovation in this case is in pursuit of new efficiencies such as cutting costs to maximize productivity and profits and to produce low hydrocarbon products (Lu et al 2019). With the changing price and demand dynamics, a majority of the oil and gas companies in the UAE have responded with innovation initiatives. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for example putting in place a 2030 strategy whereby the company aims to transform its business and future success by delivering growth, value creation, and profitability by seeking new ways to suit the current world and the future needs (ADNOC, 2021). However, while introducing technology advances and innovations has not been difficult, putting them in place, maintaining them, and keeping them successful over time has proven challenging (Abuhejleh et al., 2016). This is due to the industry’s unpredictability, with competition and market changes becoming increasingly difficult to anticipate and react to, resulting in the adoption of short-term, ineffective, and difficult-to-maintain technologies (Alhammadi et al., 2020). Therefore, this research study will seek to offer insights into how UAE oil companies can implement and sustain their innovation by involving first-line managers in the innovation processes.
Research Background
In the ever dynamic and competitive contemporary business environment, businesses are always searching for a way to gain a competitive advantage over competitors, with innovation being earmarked as one of the avenues to help organizations achieve the latter (Alhammadi et al., 2020). Technological advancements, shifts in customer behavior, greater competition, limited resources, short product lifecycles, and changing business models are just a few of the elements that have helped drive the need for innovation in businesses in recent times (Kozioł-Nadolna, 2020). Internal organizational factors such as material, intangible, and human resources, in particular, play a considerable role in an organization’s potential and ability to innovate and hence the competitiveness and productivity of the organization (Kozioł-Nadolna, 2020). The role of internal factors in organizational innovation is informed by the resource-based theory/view, which implores organizations and management to focus internally and assess assets, capabilities, and competencies that can help an organization generate and deliver competitive advantages (Kozioł-Nadolna, 2020).
Therefore, based on the resource-based view, employees are one of the most valuable internal resources to organizational innovation. People/employees create and introduce new ideas and innovations with their attitudes towards innovation, playing a crucial role in how an organization perceives problem finding and solutions and determining how effective it can adopt and implement innovations (Paulikas, 2018). Kozioł-Nadolna (2020) further notes that leaders and managers have a critical influence in creating innovative mindsets. Leaders should be receptive to new ideas and efforts from their people, rather than stifling them. They should also trust their staff by cultivating a positive working environment based on cooperation, loyalty, and trust (Kozioł-Nadolna, 2020). Employees must be aware of their true effect on the company’s innovation processes (Kozioł-Nadolna, 2020). Line managers, in particular, are critical in influencing employees’ attitudes towards innovation, innovative employee behaviors, and innovation implementation since they are the ones who are in constant contact with employees (Fader, 2014). A study by Fader (2014) indicated that the role of line managers in encouraging innovative organizational behavior included recognition and encouragement of innovative behaviors, empowering employees in problem-solving and supporting innovation through participative decision making and openness to new ideas. The latter findings are supported by another study by Kozioł-Nadolna (2020) on the role of leaders and managers in stimulating innovation which indicated that managers stimulate innovation by incentivizing and rewarding innovative behaviors, openness to new ideas and new ways of doing things and inspiring employees by settings goals and open communication. Despite the above studies indicating that managers and specifically line managers have a crucial role to play in implementing innovation in an organization. Fader (2014) further notes that line managers are often not trained and equipped with sufficient knowledge on how to stimulate and implement innovation. In UAE specifically, a survey was undertaken by Abuhejleh et al. (2016), evaluating businesses that had participated in a UAE organized World Government summit, indicating that only 26% of the participants have successfully generated and implemented innovations. A majority of the participant (65%) indicated that while they were able to generate innovations, they were not able to sustain them in the long term (Abuhejleh et al., 2016). Therefore, while line managers can play a crucial role in stimulating and implementing innovation, they are usually hampered when it comes to the effective implementation of innovation in an organization. Therefore, this research will seek to solve the latter issue and research gap by examining the role of first-line managers in implementing effective innovation in organizations thus helping organizations to better equip line managers with the relevant training and knowledge for effective innovation implementation.
Problem Statement
Innovation is proving to be crucial to the competitiveness and adaptability of businesses, especially those in the oil and gas sector due to the changing price and demand dynamics; ineffective innovation can prove detrimental and even fatal to a company’s future as a going concern (Lu et al., 2019). While organizations are aware and able to generate innovations, sustaining them in the long term and ensuring that they effectively achieve, the intended objective has proven a challenge (Abuhejleh et al., 2016). In UAE, for example, 65% of the firms surveyed indicated that they could generate innovation but failed in implementing them (Abuhejleh et al., 2016). The latter findings indicate an issue in effectively implementing and embedding innovations into organizational operations especially in the long term. Therefore, this research study will seek to offer insights to organizations on the critical role first-line managers can play in the successful, effective and sustained implementation of innovation.
Purpose of the Study
This study aims to undertake phenomenological qualitative research to evaluate the role of first-line managers in implementing effective innovation in organizations in oil and gas organizations in the UAE. The roles of the first-line managers in effective innovation implementation in this study will be examined from the LMX theory conceptual framework, with the aim being to offer insights into how first-line managers can influence employees’ attitudes and adaptability to innovations
Research Objectives
• To undertake a phenomenological qualitative study to determine the roles first-line managers play in implementing effective innovation in organizations.
• To identify limiting factors that hamper first-line managers in innovation implementation.
• To provide practice and research recommendations to oil and gas organizations in UAE.
Research Questions
• What are the roles of first-line managers in implementing effective innovation in oil and gas organizations in the UAE?
• What are the competencies and skills needed by first-line managers to effectively implement innovation?
• What are the limiting factors that hamper first-line managers in the effective implementation of innovation in organizations?
Research Design
Research Philosophy
The interpretivism research philosophy will be used in this research study. Interpretivism is a study philosophy that seeks to comprehend human behavior or a phenomenon by seeking sympathetic awareness – seeing the world through the perspectives of the research participants (Žukauskas et al., 2018). The latter research philosophy is consistent with qualitative research methodology, with both interpretivism and qualitative research’s main emphasis being to provide insights/findings from the perspectives of the research participants.
Inquiry Strategy
The research study will take the inductive research approach. The inductive inquiry strategy involves first collecting data on the subject at hand and observing the data collected to develop patterns and develop a theory that can explain the observed patterns (Decarlo, 2018). One of the primary benefits of inductive reasoning is that it allows the researcher to work with a wide range of possibilities before narrowing down to specific possibilities that apply to the subject matter at hand (Decarlo, 2018). The latter core element of inductive reasoning will be critical and appropriate in this particular study since there are a number of roles performed by first-line managers ranging from operational responsibilities to supervisory roles but only a few of them can have an influence on the effective implementation of innovation.
Research Methods
This study will deploy a qualitative research methodology in line with the interpretivism research philosophy and inductive research approach. The study, in particular, will deploy phenomenological qualitative research whereby the focus is on the commonality of the lived experiences of a particular group (Cresswell & Poth, 2018). The phenomenological qualitative research primary purpose is to arrive at a description of the nature of the subject/ phenomena in question (Cresswell and Poth, 2018). In this case, the focus will be on the first-hand experience of first-line managers when it comes to innovation implementation and challenges they may encounter in the latter endeavors. The primary aim, in this case, will be to arrive at the common roles that first-line managers play in innovation implementation, and effectiveness and common challenges that may face or that may hamper effective innovation implementation.
Methodology of Study
Sampling
The research study will deploy the convenience sampling technique whereby the companies and respective research participants will be selected based on the availability and willingness to participate in the study. The use of convenience sampling in this is based on the fact the method is simple and easy to execute and the acknowledgement that not all oil and gas companies will be willing to participate in the research study (Stratton, 2021). The research study in this case will target at least 5 oil and gas companies in the UAE and around 60 managers, first-line managers and employees.
Data Collection
Open-ended questionnaires will be deployed as the primary data collection tool while interviews will be deployed for follow-ups and get clarification on the responses provided in the questionnaires. Follow-ups interviews will be used to get clarification on incomplete questionnaires and responses and review new developments in case of any. The questionnaires and the subsequent interviews will be primarily targeted at managers in the oil and gas sector to get an insight on what they expect the first-line managers to undertake to achieve effective innovation implementation, first-line managers (oil and gas sector) to get a first-hand perspective on what they perceive their roles to be when it comes to innovation implementation and employees on organization and leadership aspects that influence effective innovation implementation. The questionnaires will be administered remotely via email and follow-up interviews via phone calls and Zoom calls because of the current challenge of Covid-19 across the globe and particularly the shelter-in-place regulations and travel restriction among UAE seven emirates. The use of open-ended questionnaires as the primary data collection tool in this study is based on the fact that they enable the respondents to offer more in-depth information on the subject being investigated (Neuert et al 2020).
Conceptual Framework
Theory of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
The LMX theory will provide the conceptual framework for understanding how line managers influence innovation implementation, especially at the employees. The relationship that workers have with their superiors and first-line managers in the chain of command is one of the most important motivating elements for them (Lee, 2018). The latter simply indicates that workers’ capacity to satisfy the latter motivational component is heavily impacted by their daily and direct interactions with their first-line managers (Lee, 2018). The theory of leader-member exchange (LMX) and, in particular, dyad relationships investigates the latter phenomena. According to the LMX theory, the amounts and the level of exchanges that occur between the first-line managers and an employee determine the dyadic connections between the two parties (Lee, 2018). As a result, the success of LMX in influencing effective innovation implementation is based on how the first-line managers can be able to influence organizational climate and employees to take innovations and sustain in the long term (Mulligan et al 2021). High-quality dyadic relationships are characterized by the exchange of valuable resources with the leader, such as mentoring, support and encouraging and rewarding innovation aspects, which in turn motivate the employee to reciprocate with resources such as innovative behaviors, acceptance to change and commitment to a goal, therefore, helping sustain innovation in the long term (Mulligan et al., 2021). In regards to the LMX theory and innovation, Mulligan et al. (2021) provide that high-quality LMX relationships have a positive influence on the innovation and creative behaviors of employees. This is because innovative workplaces can offer more intrinsic motivation to the employees through for example high dyadic relationships between managers and employees, which transcend extrinsic motivations, such as rewards (Mulligan et al., 2021). The latter assertion is mirrored by Xie et al (2019) whose findings indicated that high levels of LMX boosted subordinates’ moods and attitudes, improved creative and innovative performances and sparked intrinsic motivation. With latter studies indicating that LMX relationships between managers and employees influence innovation behaviors and performances, this study will examine the role of first-line managers in effective innovation implementation based on the role first-line managers can play to enhance their dyadic relationships with employees for effective and sustained innovation implementation.
The context within which the Variables are Discussed
In this research study, the roles played by the first-line managers in the innovation implementation process will be the independent variable. On the other hand, the effective implementation of innovation (outcome) will constitute the dependent variable.
Operational Definition
First-line managers. In this study, first-line managers will refer to the managers with the responsibility of overseeing daily operations (Molin et al., 2020).
Innovation is the process of creating value by converting ideas into new goods, processes, and practices and improving current products, processes, and practices, using applicable knowledge, skills, and resources (Varadarajan et al., 2018).
Importance of Study
In the ever dynamic and competitive business environment innovating and critically, having the innovation adopted by an organization is critical for a competitive advantage. While organizations often can innovate, sustaining the latter innovations and having them successfully implemented and adapted in a business can prove challenging. Therefore, this research study will offer insights into the role first-line managers can play in solving the latter issue and the challenges and limiting factors to the first-line manager’s ability to implement innovation effectively, especially in the oil and gas sector.
Limitations of the Study
One major limitation of this study will be social desirability bias. Since the questionnaires will be self-reported, the research participants may be tempted to give responses that they perceive to be correct or desirable, thus affecting the reliability of the data and, therefore, the study’s findings. A similar issue may arise when conducting interviews with the respondents giving answers and information they perceive desirable to the interviewer.
