Openness and Innovation Within Organizations - an Empirical Analysis of the Transformation Process of Romanian Enterprises

Zusammenfassung

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In this study, the authors examine how societal and industrial sector-specific peculiarities moderate the translation of infra-organizational openness into innovativeness. A sample comprising N = 24 subsystems from privatized Romanian natural gas companies and N = 26 subsystems from privatized Romanian mechanical engineering companies was analyzed. With this study, the authors aim to contribute to answering the question which industrial sector-specific conditions are conducive to success given the current societal and economic conditions in Romania. The findings indicate that in the mechanical engineering industry, there is a linear connection between opening processes and success, while this relationship is of a curvilinear nature in the natural gas industry.

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Auszug

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Openness and Innovation Within Organizations - an Empirical Analysis of the Transformation Process of Romanian Enterprises

1. Outline

Generating innovativeness is recognized as a decisive competitive factor, as it enables the organization to enhance its chances of success. Moreover, openness must exist within an organization as a prerequisite for innovativeness (Damanpour 2002). In this paper, openness within organizations means that a delegation of responsibilities occurs, a dialogical leadership style is used in interactions with employees, and a critical upward communication is practiced.

Empirical studies in Europe and in the U.S. corroborate this positive connection between openness and innovation within organizations that is often reported in the literature (Damanpour 2002; Amabile 1996; Wolfe 1994). For Eastern European countries it could also be assumed that openness should be intensified within organizations in order to increase competitiveness. This assumption could prove unfounded, however, since the results of contingency-oriented organizational and leadership research indicate that the consequences of opening processes vary depending upon the situation (Gebert 2002; 2004). Thus, it could be argued that the innovation enhancing effects of openness within organizations are more likely to occur under certain societal conditions and that these conditions are not always present in Eastern European countries (Heintz 2002). Opening processes within organizations succeed with greater likelihood when the society as a whole opens itself cognitively and economically (via deregulation and privatization). Concerning the conditions of successful opening processes within organizations, specific factors pertaining to industrial sectors could also play a role, since various sectors differ with respect to their potential for innovation (Finkelstein/Hambrick 1990).

We have studied privatized Romanian organizations in two industrial sectors (natural gas and mechanical engineering) with the goal of ascertaining the importance of societal, economic, and sector-specific opening processes within organizations. We have thus tried to contribute to answering the question as to which industrial sector specific conditions are vital for opening processes that facilitate successful innovations - given the unique societal and economic context of...

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