Organizational Innovation Instrument to Industry: Focusing in the U Theory

Abstract

This study highlights the organizational innovation practices of a glass processing plant, in order to promote radical change in the assumptions of Theory U. The question to be answered is how Theory U can be used to develop the innovative system of an organization. The overall objective of this research is to study an organization’s effort to innovate from the standpoint of its employees; and to achieve a specific interpretation of a production system by (1) improving, and (2) describing how Theory U can be used for organizational innovation, before (3) proposing a model of innovation for the organization under study. The qualitative and quantitative research is developed by the Case Study Method. It involves raising the awareness of employees working in the organization to highlight management’s planning efforts, in order to improve their organizational and pro-innovation behavior. The main result is a technical treatment of the management of the production system, in order to induce organizational innovation. It prioritizes the construction of an innovative model, with Theory U as a working tool. In addition, it is found that organizational innovation requires participatory planning. Operational success requires the employees to be wholeheartedly committed to improvement and constantly offering suggestions in order to contribute to organizational change; this maintains a vision that sustains competitiveness; The results allow us to offer an innovation model that prioritizes employees’ perceptions and break away from outdated behavior based on top-down industrial structure, in which the directors monopolize the decisions that restrict teams of workers to routine tasks.