Workbook: Innovation Climate
In order to examine differences in the level of innovation encouragement in organizations, you will be asked to rate two organizations.
The first should be an organization in which you have worked, or the university.
The second should be someone else's workplace, that of a family member, a friend, or an acquaintance.
Interview that person to answer the following questions.
Put your own answers in column A, your interviewee's answers in column B, and what you think would be the ideal in column C.
Innovation Measures
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Item of Measure
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A
Your Organization
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B
Other Organization
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C
Your Ideal
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Score items 1-5 on this scale: 1= don't agree at all to 5= agree completely
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1. Creativity is encouraged here.+
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2. People are allowed to solve the same problems in different ways.+
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3. I get to pursue creative ideas.+
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4. The organization publicly recognizes and also rewards those who are innovative.+
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5. Our organization is flexible and always open to change.+
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Score items 6-10 on the opposite scale: 1= agree completely to 5= don't agree at all
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6. The primary job of people here is to follow orders that come from the top.+
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7. The best way to get along here is to think and act like the others.+
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8. This place seems to be more concerned with the status quo than with change.+
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9. People are rewarded more if they don't rock the boat.+
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10. New ideas are great, but we don't have enough people or money to carry them out.+
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Questions
1. What comparisons in terms of innovation climates can you make between these two organizations?
2. How might productivity differ between a climate that supports innovation and a climate that does not?
3. Where would you rather work? Why?