Fostering employee innovation: leveraging your “ground level” creative capital

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the importance of allowing operational or ground level employees to participate in the process of organizational innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper looks at various examples of employee innovation. It suggests five ways of enacting active empowerment of employees.

Findings

Participation of operational or ground level employees in the innovation process can be facilitated through active empowerment. Active empowerment can be fostered through sharing accurate information, active listening, encouraging employees to take risks, using failure as a learning tool, and fostering mutual trust.

Practical implications

Organizations can enhance the overall innovation process by empowering employees to participate in the process. This approach leverages creative resources that may, otherwise, remain untapped.

Social implications

Leveraging employee innovation through active empowerment will not only enhance the overall organization, but will also encourage employee learning, thus collectively contributing to the workforce within society.

Originality/value

A discussion on the importance of allowing employees to participate in the process of innovation lead to the identification of five suggestions for enacting active empowerment.

Citation

Self, D.R., Bandow, D. and Schraeder, M. (2010), "Fostering employee innovation: leveraging your “ground level” creative capital", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 17-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777281011056721