The Creative and Innovative Organisation Climate of South African Management Consulting Companies
Date
2014-01-20
Authors
Suliman, Zaheer
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Abstract
Innovation and the ability for an organisation, both private and public, to be
innovative has become a prerequisite for survival and sustainability in the 21st
century. As organisations address the need to innovate, a growing trend is to
outsource innovation requirements to external service providers. Management
consulting companies have become a typical external service provider to
organisations, servicing their management creativity and innovation requirements,
often based on the view that management consulting companies have a superior
ability to be creative and innovative.
The purpose of this research was to evaluate the creative and innovative
organisation climate of South African management consulting companies in
comparison to their typical clients industries. Organisation climate was defined as the
work environment and conditions created by the combined effect and impact of
individual employees, teams, management, leadership, organisation strategy, culture,
support systems, policies, procedures and rules.
A total of 310 respondents completed a 7 point likert-scale survey measuring 54
variables that define a creative and innovative organisation climate. Exploratory
factor analysis was conducted followed by 2-tailed t-tests on the identified factors to
determine the significant differences between management consulting companies
and their typical clients’ industries.
The creative and innovative ability of management consulting companies in
comparison to their clients, in a South African context, could not be determined from
the available research. The findings of this research indicated that the secondary and
tertiary economic sector would benefit the most, the primary sector would have
limited benefits and the quaternary sector would benefit the least from outsourcing
creativity and innovation to South African management consulting companies.
In comparison to the total combined industry sectors, management consulting
companies showed an equal support for creativity and innovation as critical to
organisation strategy, equal provision of relevant resources to execute innovation
strategies and equal provision of a physical environment and enablers to enhance
organisational creativity and innovation. In comparison to the total combined industry, It was however found that South African management consulting companies have individuals, teams, an organisation culture, leaders and managers that have a greater ability and propensity to be creative and innovative. Overall, supporting the view that, generally, South African management consulting companies have an organisation climate that is more supportive, enabling and enhancing of organisational creativity and innovation.
Description
MBA thesis
Keywords
Organisational climate, Innovation