CIPD: ‘Embrace management innovation’

07/10/2008

Credit-crunch hit businesses need to do more to embrace management innovation, an employers’ organisation has warned.

A study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found less than a quarter of businesses give management innovation a high level of attention, compared with around two-thirds who said they are concentrating on product or service innovation.

Despite these results, eight in 10 respondents said they believe management innovation will drive long-term success.

The survey also measured business’ reactions to the arrival of so-called ‘generation Y’ employees – those born after 1980 – into the workplace, as well as the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies.

Almost half of respondents said generation Y workers have different attitudes to to previous generations, while only a minority had experimented with Web 2.0

Vanessa Robinson from the CIPD said businesses must get to grips with management innovation.

“The research shows organisations have not yet fully considered how management innovation can be used to embrace the needs of generation Y employees or the opportunities afforded by Web 2.0,” she said.

“We believe that innovation will only come about when organisations experiment with different methods.

“Pioneers in management innovation attract and retain top employees and they build a capability for change and adaptation. These attributes have never been more important in today’s highly competitive business world.”