Innovation Culture in Hamad Medical Corporation
Innovation is an aspect that is attributed to the success of any public or private organization. In the healthcare sector, innovative culture has helped in the delivery of quality care to patients. Employees should be motivated to engage in generation and implementation of innovative ideas. A close examination of the information provided in the article, ‘How Innovative Is Your Company’s Culture?’ and the one covered in the course reveals that there are many similarities and differences in the two pieces of information. The information given in the article explores the innovation culture in companies that seek to make profits while the course material entirely deals with the innovation requirements before integrating it into the context of a business entity (Horibe, 2016). As per the information from the course material, there is a clear cut difference between innovation and invention. The article does not explore this difference. THIS IS A SAMPLE ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
I. Introduction
Primarily, the course information concentrates on the understanding of corporations and the models that can help nurture an innovative culture in a company. Similarly, the article highlights that in one way or the other, the advocacy that innovative culture is a necessity within companies in the corporate world is an aspect that raises questions regarding the key aspects of an innovative culture. Therefore, when the executives of different small and large corporations inquire about the possibility of organizations lacking an innovative culture and ways one model can be built (West and Bogers, 2014). Generally, the article is shallow compared to the course information because of its narrow focus on the innovativeness of a company’s culture. Despite the similarities existing between the two sources of information, the course content is more detailed than the article.
II. Comparison between the Course Content and the Article
a. Similarities
The article and the course materials share information regarding the six blocks that enhance the building of an innovative culture. Evidently, the article confirms that the values, behaviors, the tenor of workplace life, resources, processes as well as successes are imperative to building an innovative culture as explored in the course in an in-depth manner (Rao and Weintraub, 2013). Both the course content information and the focus of the article helps in understanding the need to create metrics for measuring innovative culture within organizations. Implementing these metrics requires the organization in question to explore the specific elements and factors that influence each building block. For instance, the two sources of information explain that for an organization’s climate as a building block of innovative culture, the factor of safety within a corporation can be further explored in terms of openness, trust as wells as the integrity of the human personnel (Rao and Weintraub, 2013). The article and the course content concur on the fact that innovation, the welcoming of change and new ideas from is a necessity whether from the organization’s management or the employees regardless of their seniority. Thus, change as a way of encouraging an innovative culture within organizations extends beyond the manufacturing of new quality and superior goods but also designing efficient and effective services. The article and the course content both confirm that an innovative culture is aimed at a specified outcome, which is the success.
b. Differences
Despite the similarities outweighing the differences in the article and the course content, one difference is distinct in this case. The course content and the article differ on that the profit and non-profit organizations in the public and private sectors stand to benefit from innovative corporate culture. While profit-oriented organizations work towards increasing the volumes of their production, expanding their operations and thus amassing more profits and a large customer base for a competitive advantage in the market, non-profit organizations also stand to benefit as highlighted in the course content (Rao and Weintraub, 2013). For instance, educational and healthcare institutions use innovative culture to increase the value of the populations they serve because of the help in increasing literacy and improving the health of people who in turn increase the value of these institutions through increased productivity. However, the article explores the concept of innovative culture from the perspective of profit-oriented organizations and fails to acknowledge the benefits that the non-profit organizations stand to gain.
III. Hamad Medical Corporation Innovative Culture
The current state of the innovative culture at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is considered average in the healthcare industry. Despite HMC being ranked among the top healthcare organizations in initiating innovative ideas in Qatar, the organization still requires the implementation of the building blocks of an innovative culture in all departments. Primarily, the healthcare facility uses technology to increase its innovative culture, especially in nursing informatics. Apparently, the organization is keen on the improving the innovative culture by ensuring that the innovative culture is supported through the implementation of telemedicine research teams (Rosa, 2016). Through the telemedicine teams, the Sepsis Rescue Agent of Cerner’s St. Johns is an innovative idea that aids in the reduction of sepsis cases in which the healthcare industry in the nation has adopted as a way of detecting and determining warning signs for any sepsis cases in the early stages. Therefore, the innovative culture of HMC is largely characterized by the use of the available resources such as the health professionals to help in determining any workable healthcare model. Similarly, the innovative culture is sustained by research in which the team of HMC health workers concentrates on the telemedicine, the use of technology to discover and implement new tools, and processes of improving healthcare delivery (Rosa, 2016). One such example that improves the culture innovative culture of HMC is the Sepsis Rescue Agent of Cerner’s St. Johns.
IV. Steps to Improve Innovative Culture in HMC
The steps necessary in the improvement of the innovative culture of HMC in Qatar include experimenting to generate innovative ideas, giving the HMC staff time to work on generated ideas, selecting the viable ideas and investing in their generation and implementation as well as incentivizing the culture of innovation. HMC should always create awareness to its employees about the openness of the organization to innovation. The step should be followed by the creation of a space and allocating tie designated for creativity (Apekey et al., 2011). Space includes initiating the interaction among employees of different seniorities and healthcare consultants so that they can share their ideas. The interaction helps in setting timelines that are appropriate for the busy healthcare schedule to work on the ideas. Through experimentation, viable, innovative ideas can be selected and prioritized for implementation by the HMC management in terms of resources allocation, time and the quantities needed (Weng et al., 2015). While innovative ideas are considered to belong to the HMC, it is significant to acknowledge the individual employees and stakeholders who the generated the ideas. The acknowledgment in most cases involves the patenting the innovative idea with his name and that of the HMC organization, and ensuring that they receive royalties for the idea (Apekey et al., 2011). Apparently, incentivizing the employees at HMC requires the implementation of a rewards system which includes initiating promotions and financing the project and other personal needs of the employee (s).
V. Barriers and Solutions to Improving Innovative Culture
The possible barriers to improving the innovative culture of HMC include the bureaucracy and the red tape, small-picture thinking and inconsistent support. According to research, the existence of many rules and regulations in the management of healthcare organizations is the biggest barrier to the implementation to innovation (Uyarra et al., 2014). Therefore, to curb this problem, the set rules and regulations should be minimal, meaningful and protective to the establishment of an innovative culture in HMC. Apparently, most of the respondents in the healthcare sector lack foresight and future planning skills (Piwek et al., 2016). The same problem might be expected in HMC during the improvement plan. Therefore, a training program should be initiated to educate the health workers, professionals, and other volunteers. The initiative will help to ensure that they grasp the knowledge regarding the necessary skills for customer insights and intelligence. The training pragmas will foster the right climate at the workplace for sustaining an innovative culture. The last consideration should be the inconsistency in supporting the change within HMC. A significant 57 percent of the healthcare workers spend a great deal of their time innovating while others do not (Gammon et al., 2015). THIS IS A SAMPLE ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
The absence of complete support for change within the healthcare sector calls for the need to mobilize the HMC health workers to rally behind it immensely. Statistics prove that the management in HMC needs to put efforts towards creating awareness for change, the need for the change and the overall benefits that the change will bring. Creating awareness and need for innovative ideas helps in the smooth transition between the old and innovated systems without resistance because many of employees and stakeholders can understand the purpose of the change.
VI. Conclusion
In conclusion, the innovative culture is a concept that the healthcare should consider embracing so that quality care delivery is effected in correspondence to the increasing needs of patients. Particularly, the Hamad Medical Corporation requires an innovation-intensive program to help in the improving its innovative culture. Currently, the organization has performed averagely in sustaining an innovative culture, but there is room to avoid barriers such as inconsistency in supporting innovation, bureaucracy and small-picture thinking. HMC can improve its innovative culture through experimenting to generate innovative ideas, giving the HMC staff time to work on generated ideas, investing in their generation and implementation as well as incentivizing innovation.
References
Apekey, T. A., McSorley, G., Tilling, M., & Siriwardena, A. N. (2011). Room for improvement? Leadership, innovation culture, and uptake of quality improvement methods in general practice. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 17(2), 311-318.
Gammon, D., Berntsen, G. K. R., Koricho, A. T., Sygna, K., & Ruland, C. (2015). The chronic care model and technological research and innovation: a scoping review at the crossroads. Journal of medical Internet research, 17(2).
Horibe, F. (2016). Creating the innovation culture: Leveraging visionaries, dissenters, and other useful troublemakers in your organization. Vision Arts Inc. Managing Innovation Chapters 1-4