Social Innovation and the Role of Leadership - Research Paper Example

? Social Innovation and the Role of Leadership Roll No: Teacher: Social Innovation and the Role of Leadership Critique of the Article The article, “Social Innovation: What it is, Why it Matters and How can it be Accelerated” is an influential article written by Goeff Mulgan as the main writer and other writers Simon Tucker, Rushanara Ali and Ben Sanders also supported the Mulgan in developing the article. The article was published by Said Business School, University of Oxford in the year 2007. Quality-wise the publishing authority enjoys good reputation and its published articles are quite valid and informative. In terms of external validity, it can be said that this document cannot be doubted in terms of its authenticity. As far as internal validity of the published article is concerned, it is again valid as there are a number of references used within the article. The used references in the paper are cited within the paper. The authors of the article make use of side notes and end notes to refer and explain any ideas or written content that needs description, which makes the article easy to follow. The references included in the paper differentiate in their content type as they are from books, journals and internet libraries. Their publication dates are before 2007 as 2007 is the year of the article itself. The writers have incorporated the written content from different timescales in order to collect different opinions about social innovation as a broad term. At the end of the article, however, a references section is absent that should be a part of academic writing. Only a section with the name of further reading suggestions can be found that informs that the readers of the article can go for additional readings if they are interested in the subject of the paper. Along with side notes and end notes, a separate references section should be given at the end that is lacking in the paper. Language of the article is informative and simple as the ideas and theories described by the writers are easier to follow and comprehend. The targeted readers of the article are people related to business, technology, sociology and other fields, youth and all other people as well. The article talks about improvement of societies and their problems so it cannot be restricted to any specific audience of group of people. This article is written for a wider audience. The format of the article is descriptive and formal as the readers can note proper headings with end notes and side notes along with examples that are explanatory. As the title of the article is social innovation, therefore, the writers give detailed and expressive definitions of the title. The article if observed theoretically is quite explicit and evocative and gives a clear picture of the different terms and theories related to social innovation. According to Mulgan, et al (2007), innovation is about ‘new ideas that work’ (8). The writers also explain that social innovation is not business innovation; it is a lot different than business innovation. Social innovation is associated with sociology and accomplishment of social goals. According to the writers, the term social innovation is quite rich in its meaning and is widespread in terms of its peripheries. By judging the article and its explicitly described content, it is quite clear that theoretically, the article is quite clear in its meanings. Leadership: Exploration and Identification The article gives examples of leaders who did innovative works in their respective fields. According to Mulgan, et al (2007), people from different fields who can also be termed as leaders of social innovation such as “politicians, bureaucrats, intellectuals, business people as well as NGO activists” (14) participated in defining the concept of social innovation and leaders play an effective role in exploring and identifying the concept of social innovation. According to the article, there are four horizons of effective leadership, which are legacy / generational time, long, medium and short. These horizons are employed by leaders who are interested in performing effective roles in the process of decision making. The legacy of generation time is related to timescales and steps that involve widespread activities such as climatic changes and issues like pensions (Mulgan, et al 2007, 17). Long horizon is related to development of fundamental revolutionary choices that range from three years to twenty years; medium horizon is related to implementation that ranges from one to three years while short horizon is about day to day management (Mulgan, et al 2007, 17). Mulgan, et al (2007), define leadership as something associated with social innovation. The article describes leadership as proficient if it takes into consideration the horizons of effective leadership, which are concerned to management, implementation, development and time scaling in the process of decision making. The process of decision making is attached to leadership and leaders have a duty to take many decisions. Leadership, therefore, can be described as a process, which involves improvisation of new ideas and decision making by taking into view different horizons in which, the task of decision making and innovation can be performed. Leaders should be able manage time and money according to the opted horizons set on the basis of the organizational structures (Mulgan, et al 2007, 17). In the real world, there are many leadership and management styles. Leadership and management are both related to each other as mostly the managers have the responsibility to become and act as leaders of the organization. In the article, the leadership and management are associated with change and innovation (Mulgan, et al 2007). The writers of the article inform about a leadership style that is interested in innovation and brings in new ideas about organization and decision making. The leaders should gain knowledge about barriers to change as this knowledge is essential for organizational growth in the right order. The leaders should be aware of people’s efficiency, their interests, their minds and their relationships in order to bring in a change or innovation socially or in organizations (Mulgan, et al 2007). Without convincing people, any kind of innovation is useless as it is not supported by people. Management should be aware that it cannot operate as a single unit; it needs its workers in any kind of decision making. Therefore, suitable horizons should be identified for bringing in innovatory change (Mulgan, et al 2007). The innovators of change should work in alliance to their environment. Leaders are the one that are able to bring in changes in any environmental setups but they should have their own supporting groups that take their sides and are always agreed with their works and ideas (Mulgan, et al 2007). There should be new ideas about the requirements that are recognized and for all the recognized requirements; there should be solutions that are possible and probable. Social innovators as leaders require some public support due to which, they try to understand what people require and present their ideas keeping in context the demands of the public. They also prefer communication as communication is the methodology that is utilized to deliver ideas and gain support. For managerial growth and governance, the leaders require to communicate their ideas to their workers. They are also required to comprehend the needs of the co-workers before presenting their ideas related to a social change or innovation. Leadership and innovation go side by side and leadership is incomplete without innovation and change. The authors of the article present a theory about social innovation in association with social change. According to Mulgan, et al (2007), leadership is incomplete with social innovation and it is the leadership’s role in bring in innovations and new ideas. However, they should be backed by supporting groups and horizons should be employed for decision making processes. All the ideas related to innovation should be delivered through communication and the needs of the workers should be comprehended in order to make them work in the way of the thought ideas. The writers of the article inform that while defining the concept of social innovation, some points should be remembered. Firstly, there should be some existing elements that are at the back of generation of new ideas as new ideas are not presented in nothingness. There should be some existing elements. Secondly, to implement the ideas in any setup involves to go beyond the limits as bringing in a change is not easy. Thirdly, the new relationships that are compelling should not be created with old group as there is no compulsion for anything. In social innovation described by the writers of the article, the social innovators are quite at ease to understand public needs socially and provide solutions to them by innovation or change (Mulgan, et al 2007). Servant leadership is a kind of leadership that involves the leadership as servant its workers. The leadership works for the public and sees their interests as its own. As far as this article is concerned, it relates that leaders should be able to identify the needs of the workers or public in order to bring in a change, however, it is the leaders who are to decide for the people not the people themselves. Dispersed leadership allows the leader to make all kinds of decisions on self analysis and evaluation and the leader under this theory is free to make individual decisions. According to the article by Mulgan, et al (2007), the preferred leadership style is people oriented in which, the leader is not working individually but as a group to take specific decisions related to a situation and by keeping the horizons into context. Concept of Social Innovation: Exploration and Definition The concept of social innovation is quite clearly described by the writers of the article, “Social Innovation: What it is, Why it Matters and How can it be Accelerated”. Innovation and change is essentially required in any organizational setup for organizational growth and development. Without innovation, there is no social growth or expansion of any organization. The concept of social innovation is applicable in any organizational setup. As far as my organization is concerned, the concept of social innovation can easily be transposed and is required in my organization. The leaders who are active in my organization require some innovatory ideas and are busy in their development as without change or innovation, progress within an organization is not possible. The concept of social innovation described by the writers of the article is “innovative activities and services that are motivated by the goal of meeting a social need and that are predominantly developed and diffused through organisations whose primary purposes are social” (Mulgan, et al 2007, 8). This means that social innovation is linked to development of new ideas and their implementation according to the social goals. These new ideas are based on the needs of the people working under organizations. As it is social innovation, the needs described and analyzed by leaders of the organization are social. Under the concept of social innovation, the writers explain that the organizations are not interested in only profit maximization but people and their needs. The organizations, which believe in the concept of business innovation or technological innovation, are motivated and encouraged by profits of the business and show a little concern towards employee development. However, social innovation is a concept that allows the organizational management or leadership to see the involvement of new ideas in the context of requirements of the people associated with the organization. For example, the organization and its leadership working with the concept of social innovation will try to understand the requirements of people to innovate new ideas such as if a new policy is required, the leaders communicate with the workers in order to introduce the policy according to their requirements. The employees will be involved in the decision making process, however, the main decisive power will be the management of the organization. In the context of my organization in which, I work, the implementation of social innovation is very much required as it is working on an old setup. The management puts less concern towards employees’ needs. However, it will be wrong to say that they neglect employees fully. The management gives some consideration to employees and their interests but overall, the management shows concern towards progress of business and profit maximization. The concept of social innovation is very much required in my organization as organizations cannot prosper in the read sense if they ignore their employees and their needs. To fulfil the needs of employees is the responsibility of the management. The management should be as much caring about the employees as for the customers as customers are the ones who bring in business and employees are the ones that help to run the business. Therefore, all the importance should not be given to one side only. Challenges for Leadership While opting for social innovation in any organization, the management has to give consideration to its environment as without understanding the environment of the organization to its full extent, the requirements of the employees cannot be comprehended. The leadership faces a number of challenges while bringing in any kind of change in an organization. Social innovation includes people as it allows the leadership to be people oriented. However, this fact cannot be neglected that leadership is a concept that involves decision making and the power of decision making lies with the leadership and management. The leaders are required to listen to people and their needs but have to decide themselves. As described by Mulgan, et al (2007), there are a lot many barriers to change that must be understood by the leaders. These barriers are consideration of employees that their performance will be affected because of change, their interests will be lost, their minds also appear to be barriers to change and finally, the last barrier to change is the number of relationships that are created between employees. The leader faces challenges to cope up with all of these barriers to change as they prove to be hindrances to implement any innovatory change. If social innovation is used in my organization, the leaders will be required to understand the needs of the employees and will have to work according to environmental conditions of the organization. They will be required to communicate to people in order to know what their problems are and whether they would be supportive towards the introduction and implementation of new ideas or not. The employees need to be ensured that their jobs or performances will not be affected because of the innovation and that they will be supported because of the change. They would also be required to take support of the workers as without supportive workers, the introduction and implementation of a change in any organization is not possible. Therefore, while making use of social innovation, the leaders will be required to be aware of the challenges that they face in the process. References Mulgan, Geoff; Tucker, Simon; Ali, Rushanara and Sanders, Ben 2007, Social Innovation: What it is, Why it Matters and How can it be Accelerated, Said Business School, University of Oxford, London. Read More