Causes of innovative processes deceleration and methods of neutralization of innovation resistance

There is given a definition of the innovative conflicts in relation to social system. There is listed the characteristic of the constraining forces of innovative processes. Factors of potential resistance to innovations are described. The special attention is paid to measures for overcoming of resistance to innovations in the organization (enterprise). There is provided the value of the six groups of market subjects,  actively influencing on the effectiveness of innovation. It is considered the tasks of the CEO to neutralize innovation resistance.

Innovative conflicts

It is known from practice, the innovation confuses the operation for some time, requiring its adjustment, and then making up lost time, labor and rate. In addition, the function change causes a change in the struc- ture, which is fraught with social costs. All these are called innovation conflicts. With reference to the social system, innovation conflict manifests itself primarily in combating social group to this innovation.

Difficulties accompany most innovations — up to 86% of cases, according to the managers` rates. The passivity of workers, the shortage of qualified and motivated staff are related to the main difficulties. In turn, these problems are associated, in the heads` point of view, with the fact that workers fear reducing the wage, increasing the operation during introduction of a new product or in the future; they fear to not manage to cope with new responsibilities; and just few of them, who are interested to engage in the implementation; there is no material and moral incentives during implementation. That is the main reason lies in the fact that workers are afraid of the deterioration of their socio-economic status.

You can see the characteristics of the restraining forces of innovation processes in the Table1. 

The characteristics of the restraining forces of innovation processes

T a b l e   1

Note. Data of the work [1; 90, 91]. 

It is important to note that the subject carries in the process of social costs innovation, that are associat- ed with the fact that innovation:

• requires time and effort of certain groups;
• requires decision making of workers associated with more (compared to the normal situation) and li- ability risks;
• is associated in some cases with the deterioration of some employees` status (a decrease in the im- portance of the place occupied by the worker);
• is associated with the increasing complexity of management team production; fraught with conflict situations;
• can reduce access to important information and key

In addition to these purely psychological reasons, there are the following factors hindering innovation processes [2; 287, 288]:

• Social, which include an interest in maintaining the status quo. No matter how difficult the situation may be, there are always some social groups, that are interested in its preservation, because they are «fused» to him; interagency compromise — that the interests of different groups often reduces the potential for inno- vation; Sociological uneasy transition to innovation, especially where technical innovation entails a trail of social change (change in the organizational structure, forms of work organization and so on), and many other factors, unaccounted as a part of the innovation;
• Organizational: interagency coordination, specialization, fractional division of function, hypertrophy of the control lead to the fact that it is need a lot of agreeing signs for the launch of new products, as well  as a shortage of skilled production;
• Economic: cheap

In addition, means of innovation, including logistical and financial resources, organizational and meth- odological support of innovation cause oppugnancy.

Isolation of internal and external innovation resistance factors

According to the experts [3; 151], the main sources of innovation contradictions are the innovative re- sources, the interests clash of innovation with operational activities, and also interaction of innovation with the external environment of the enterprise. 

However, as international experience shows [4; 484], failures and setbacks associated with the release of new products, failure in new markets, untenable expectations, related to the reorganization of   companies it all happened and is happening not only with beginners in business, but also with the world-famous companies — «Chrysler», «ITT», «Saturday Evening Post», «Penn Central», «Rolls Royce», and even hun- dreds thousands of different companies. The reason is often the inertia and conservatism, originally inherent in man and creating external and internal barriers to innovation. Therefore, we can and need to allocate inter- nal and external factors of resistance to innovations (Fig.).     

Figure. Factors of resistance to innovation (data of the work [5; 307]) 

It can be argued that none of the innovative strategies has been implemented with resistance from the subjects  of innovation.  Often  untimely and ill-conceived  reaction to the company's  management  on  such «sabotage» of innovation led to a complete failure of innovation policy and significant damage.

Internal resistance to innovation

Under the internal resistances to innovation must be understood reluctance or complete refusal to partic- ipate in this process from the organizational units of the company, managers of different levels of manage- ment and employees themselves. This type of resistance is both conscious and unconscious in nature and de- pends on many factors.

Among the main factors of the internal resistance can be identified [5; 308]:

• The nature of internal management (in particular functions such as planning and control);
• the level of development of communication and data collection and analysis of information;
• training of employees;
• the practice of decision-making by

Overcoming resistance to innovation within the company should contribute to the development of a set of measures, such as in Table 2. 

Methods to overcome resistance to change (innovation) within the organization (enterprise)

T a b l e   2

Note. Data of the work [6].

Any organization operates in an environment of other market subjects, and, of course, is affected by them. Suppliers, customers, intermediaries, NGOs, competitors all of them affect the company's operations in some way. This influence often goes into pressure and resistance, due to the fact that strategic innovations affect all of the above named subjects of microenvironment during the implementation of innovations.

There are six groups of market actors, what influence on the effectiveness of the innovation actively: fi- nancial institutions, the media, educational institutions, labor market resources, state legislative institutions, and business community [5; 311].

Nobel Prize winner H. Simon`s research [4; 492] shows that the area of management specialization in- fluences on his attitude to environment changes strongly. Marketing, sales, product or region managers are primarily perceived change in the volume of sales and, consequently, in spite of the cost, try to raise the level of trade. Production managers are inclined to rationalism; they are more concerned with their return and profitability rather than market share.

Financial managers are strictly focused on financial flows and the availability of net assets.

Thus, firm ability to perceive environmental changes and adapt to them at the expense of innovation depends on the one senior manager who makes strategic decisions.

Tasks of the director (of the company) to neutralize resistance to innovations

Thus, resistance always accompany any innovation. The internal resistance stems from subjective of managers`, conservatism of employees, lack of information and a low degree of communicative between the individual levels and divisions of the company. The external resistance is provided by such entities of micro- environment, as financial institutions, business community, the media, trade unions, the education system, government agencies and others.

The tasks of the manager are to neutralize the resistance and directing the energy in a positive way at the stage of planning and development of innovation policy. This requires [5; 315]:

• To assess the company's ability adequately;
• To establish a coherent system for collecting and processing the information;
• To stimulate the flow of information from all functioning departments;
• To implement a system of collective decision making and collective responsibility involving managers and employees at all levels; 
• To build a motivational system for encouraging the creativity and idea generation in the grass-roots levels;
• In innovation activities to focus on the social and ethical useful innovations for society as a whole;
• To create long-term relationships with lenders, suppliers and customers, and also keen to collaborate with community groups and agencies on a reciprocal basis, involving them in the innovation 

References

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