Innovativeness among employees
Innovativeness among employees is a very important factor in sustainability. The research question for this study is: to identify and better understand the role played by the innovativeness of employees in YK MNCs in China towards creating sustainability at the company.
To sustain a business, change has to be carried out from time to time. Employees are involved in the day to day running of YK MNCs. The employees also handle the customers on behalf of the organization. This implies that the employees handle the data to day running of the business. Through continued work in different sectors employees are expected to come up with better ways of handling customers and delivering services for more effectiveness at the company. Better handling of customers is advantageous to the company and the employee should be rewarded for the efforts. Any approved innovation from the service deliverers of the company implies that a new better method has been found without incurring excessive extra costs. Involving the company’s employees in innovation implies that the employees feel valued by the company. The company does not need to get experts from outside the organization to help in the formulation of better strategies, rather they can rely on able service of their employees who are also experts in fields related to the company.
Research objectives.
As stated earlier, the main aim of this report was to examine an employee’s creativity and innovativeness impact on UK MNCs’ sustainability. To fulfil the main aim of this report, specific objectives are formulated. The specific objectives are divided into four, namely:
- Carry out investigations on the role of creativity on the performance of MNC.
- To investigate the role of employee innovativeness on the performance of MNCs.
- To find out the functions of HRM practices (Leadership, motivation, collective decision making and rewards) and their role in building an effective workforce.
- To establish the impact of creative and innovativeness of employees on the competitiveness of MNC in the host country.
Research Questions.
To guide how the study will be performed, it is important to come up with research questions. The research in this report will be guided by the following questions:
RQ 1: How does employee creativity influence the sustainability of MNCs in the host country?
In this question, this report aims to examine whether creativity of an employee has any on MNCs’ sustainability in the host country.
H0: There exists a relationship between employees’ creativity and the sustainability of MNC.
H1: There exists no relationship between employees’ creativity and the sustainability of MNC.
Decisions for the hypotheses in this question will be made through the use of summary descriptive statistics. The variable under analysis is the competitiveness variable defined form the average of the responses from Q12.
RQ 2: How does employee innovativeness influence the sustainability of MNC in the host country?
H0: There exists a relationship between employee innovativeness’ and MNC’s sustainability in the host country.
H1: There exists no relationship between employee innovativeness and MNC’c sustainability in the host country.
To decide on the hypotheses, this study will use descriptive statistics to come up with a conclusion. The variable in this instance is innovativeness which is derived from finding the average of the responses in Q10. Sustainability in the question is indicated by the performance of the firm. High performance translated to better sustainability of the business.
RQ 3: What is the role of HRM practices (leadership, motivation, collective decision making and rewards) in promoting employee creativity and innovativeness?
H0: There exists a relationship between HRM practices and employee creativity and innovation.
H1: There exists no relationship between HRM practices and employee creativity and innovativeness.
RQ 4: How does a creative and innovative workforce affect the competitiveness of an MNC in the host country?
H0: There exists a relationship between MNC’s competitiveness and the creativity and innovativeness of the workforce.
H1: There exists no relationship between MNC’s competitiveness and the creativity and innovativeness of the workforce.
Statistical analysis results
The table below shows the results for the views of the employees on competitiveness.
| Competitiveness | |||||
| Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | ||
| Valid | 1.00 | 4 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| 2.00 | 10 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 15.6 | |
| 3.00 | 35 | 38.9 | 38.9 | 54.4 | |
| 4.00 | 33 | 36.7 | 36.7 | 91.1 | |
| 5.00 | 8 | 8.9 | 8.9 | 100.0 | |
| Total | 90 | 100.0 | 100.0 | ||
The figure below is a histogram for the distribution of views i.e. from 1 for strongly disagree to 5 for strongly agree.
From table 1 and figure 1 above, the majority of the employees agree that their creativeness and innovativeness leads to a competitive advantage. The smallest number of responses are recorded on the total disagree option. This implies that creatives have been a driving factor for the firm that the employee works in.
The table below shows the descriptive statistics for the frequencies of responses on the importance of innovativeness on performance.
| Innovativeness | |||||
| Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | ||
| Valid | 1.00 | 5 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 5.6 |
| 2.00 | 17 | 18.9 | 18.9 | 24.4 | |
| 3.00 | 27 | 30.0 | 30.0 | 54.4 | |
| 4.00 | 33 | 36.7 | 36.7 | 91.1 | |
| 5.00 | 8 | 8.9 | 8.9 | 100.0 | |
| Total | 90 | 100.0 | 100.0 | ||
The figure below shows the histogram for performance based on innovativeness.
From Table 2 and Figure 2 above, most of the employees at their respective companies agree that innovativeness boosts performance. The main aim of innovativeness is to come up with new ideas that are likely to reduce the amount of input required and maximizing output while reducing the waste from processes. Innovativeness reduces the time required to perform a task at the firm, therefore, an increasing performance which subsequently leads to improved sustainability.
Table 3 below represents the frequency of the views on the impact of creativity on performance
| Creativity | |||||
| Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | ||
| Valid | 1.00 | 7 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.8 |
| 2.00 | 12 | 13.3 | 13.3 | 21.1 | |
| 3.00 | 28 | 31.1 | 31.1 | 52.2 | |
| 4.00 | 36 | 40.0 | 40.0 | 92.2 | |
| 5.00 | 7 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 100.0 | |
| Total | 90 | 100.0 | 100.0 | ||
The bar chart in figure 3 below shows the distribution of reviews on creativity impact on performance.
Just like innovation, creativity works to find easier solutions to tasks at the firm my employees. Easier solutions take a shorter time to implement and the usage of resources is minimized. From figure 3 and table 3 above, most of the employees agree that creativity increases the performance of employees at the workplace. Better performance of the employees implies that sustainability of the firm increases.
Table 4 below shows the views of the employees on the impact of Human resource management practices (HRM) on performance.
| HRM | |||||
| Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent | ||
| Valid | 1.00 | 4 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| 2.00 | 12 | 13.3 | 13.3 | 17.8 | |
| 3.00 | 30 | 33.3 | 33.3 | 51.1 | |
| 4.00 | 33 | 36.7 | 36.7 | 87.8 | |
| 5.00 | 11 | 12.2 | 12.2 | 100.0 | |
| Total | 90 | 100.0 | 100.0 | ||
Figure 4 below shows the bar chart for the effect of HR practices on innovation and creativeness.
Human resource management is responsible for the creation of a suitable environment for employees to work in. This environment can either be innovative friendly or does not support innovation. Most of the employees agree that the practices of the HR department affect the innovativeness and creativity of the employees. This implies that there exists a relationship between HRM practices and the innovativeness and creativity scores of the employees.
The table below shows descriptive statistics for factors affecting sustainability and a scale of their importance.
| Statistics | |||||
| Creativity | HRM | Competitiveness | innovativeness | ||
| N | Valid | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Missing | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mean | 3.2667 | 3.3889 | 3.3444 | 3.2444 | |
| Median | 3.0000 | 3.0000 | 3.0000 | 3.0000 | |
From previous results, a relationship exists between sustainability and factors such as creativity, innovativeness, competitive edge gained from innovation, and HRM practices impact on innovation and subsequent sustainability. The most important factor according to the employees is HRM practices. There is an agreement among employees that HRM practices have a huge effect on the innovativeness and creativity of the employees.
Results and implication
From the results above, there is an agreement among all the employees that creatives and innovativeness affect the performance of the firm. However, the creativeness and innovation of the employees are dependent on HRM practices. It is therefore important for the management to ensure that the HR policies established at the firm are highly supportive of creativity and innovation from the employees. The firm should struggle to ensure that the employees are provided with a working environment that will enable them to make more use of creative ideas from the employees. Rewards for employees are also recommended. Rewards act as a motivating factor for the employees. With a rewarding system put together at the firm, the role of employee innovativeness and creativity is valued.
It is also recommended that the firm use ideas from the employees create a competitive advantage over other companies in the same field. Creativity and innovativeness in employees create a competitive advantage for MNC. This is a cheap option since no additional resources are required to come up with the ideas. The absence of additional resources is due to the utilization of the ideas generated internally.