Creativity in Business

Developing fresh solutions to environmental issues and guaranteeing operational effectiveness are made possible through innovation. The modern world is always evolving, therefore new ideas are created every day. In addition, practically every organization faces issues that require fresh approaches to resolve. As a result, in order for the ideas to be accepted and put into practice, they must first be evaluated and shown to be successful in resolving the issue at hand.

The University of Utah has struggled with a lack of personnel, especially those employed by the cleaning department. Over the years, the university has kept developing hence attracting a large number of student from different regions in the country and outside the country. This has led to a shortage of workforce to ensure that all the university sections are clean which includes the offices, lecture halls, washrooms and even in the student hostels. Consequently, a lot of time is wasted since the available human resources are not able to complete the job in the time leading to delays in operations (Manathunga, 2014). Stakeholders in the organizations where employees like the lecturers may not attend the classes in time. Also, there are those who are not within the organization who may also be affected, and they include employees responsible for food delivery in offices. For them to deliver their services in the offices, the staff members must be in the offices, but due to the challenge, they may not be able to deliver their services in time.

Floor cleaning machines will be the best innovation for solving the problem. The first advantage of using the floor cleaning machines is that they reduce labor to a minimum. However, due to the less number of workers available, the machine will be used to cover the number of people who should have been employed to solve the human resources challenge (Kirov and Ramioul, 2014). It is true that machines work faster than humans meaning that they will cover up for the time that is lost when human resources are used. It should be noted that they do not require a lot of human resources to make them perform since one machine can be operated with one person but clean a larger space when compared to humans.

The machines will work faster than humans implying that they will save time. For the past years, time wastage in the university has been a challenge to most of the operations. Thus, with the introduction of the cleaning machines, they will guarantee that the needs of the organization are met. It means that the offices will be cleaned in time and the normal services will begin (Manathunga, 2014). Lecture halls will also be clean in time so that the student will be in class at the right time. All the office deliveries will be done at the expected hours.

Time management is a key element that will help an organization be in a better position in a competitive environment. If time is well managed in the university, it means that it will be best in offering services to students and all others in need of the services. The university will be known for producing the best graduates in most of the fields. It is true that it is the performances that will make the university appear the best out of all the others. Putting the machines to use will help to help reduce the shortage of workforce providing services and hence they will save the time wasted daily (Manathunga, 2014).

All innovations require a way of implementing them and ensure that they work effectively. For the use of the cleaning machines to be effective in the university, some measures should be put in place for them to succeed. It should be noted that the floor cleaning machines use the electric power which should be available to every place that the machines will clean. Electric sockets should be built in all the places which require being cleaned. It might be however a challenge especially if it needs to be done within a single day. Hence, long electric cables should be bought alongside the machines so that they can help connect the machines from sockets that are a bit far from the cleaning site (Kirov and Ramioul, 2014).

Innovation as a process can be measured not only in terms the time it takes for the implementation but rather seeing the completion of the targeted objectives. Therefore the process of measuring the impact can be split into sections which include the goals identification and also exploration activities. The first part involves defining the course of action and at the same time setting motivational inspiration for the whole innovation process. Putting forward a vision for innovation aims and giving opportunities to look at different solutions will allow the inventor buy-in to the objective (Kirov and Ramioul, 2014). After identifying the objectives, one should now focus on the steps to be taken to realize success.

Exploration activities entail observing the effects of the implementation in the internal environment and the external environment of the organization. In our case, we should look at the effects of the cleaning machine on the operations of the university. It should focus on how well time is managed and the implications of time management (Manathunga, 2014). Externally, we should look at the performance received after the implementation. For instance, if there is a general improvement in the performance both in class and from different departments, it means that the innovation has a positive effect.

Additionally, feedback from the people involved can be used in measuring and in this case, it touches on all the stakeholders and the students in the university. Proper ways of finding such information should be put in place. Such information may include how expensive or cheap it is to use the machines, time management, and also advocating to use the machines of a better quality. To show if the measure used is correct, the results from all the sections will be pointing towards a given direction (Panek, 2014). Also, the information is just not collected from a single group of people and also on a single aspect of measuring.

For the plan to work, some recommendations should be met. The university should find a way of employing workers who know about operating the machines. Truly, the machines have a procedure of handling them and not properly handled; it is likely that they might end up being damaged. Since the university has some workers in place who are responsible for the cleaning process, they should be taken for training. This will help them know how to handle the machines if they are given the manuals that accompany them (Smith and Holah, 2016).

Setting a store for the machines and employing a worker in charge of them would be another recommendation. The employee should ensure that all the machines are returned to the store and ensure that they are in good condition. The person should have a record of the machines showing their number and the workers responsible for them. In case one of the machines is damaged, he should ensure that all is recorded and repairs are done in time (Kirov and Ramioul, 2014)

In conclusion, for the innovation to succeed, the above-given recommendations should be met. It should be noted that for organizations to nature the culture of innovation, the in-place innovations should be implemented. This will encourage individuals with ideas which can be used to solve problems in organizations institutions and in the place of work to share them out. Innovations come with new challenges hence inviting people with solutions to bring them forth. In some situations, it is likely that some innovations in organizations fail due to some reasons which include lack of teamwork participation and poor objective definition (Strickland, 2014). Also, if there is no monitoring of the results of the innovations and lack of better alignment of actions to the aims, then they will also fail. This failure in the organization can be internal or external hence proper action should be taken.

References

Manathunga, C. (2014). The deviant university student: historical discourses about student failure and ‘wastage’in the antipodes. International Journal for Academic Development, 19(2), 76-86.

Kirov, V., & Ramioul, M. (2014). Quality of work in the cleaning industry: a complex picture based on sectoral regulation and customer-driven conditions. The Comparative Political Economy of Work and Employment Relations, 290-311.

Panek, E. (2014). Left to their own devices: College students’“guilty pleasure” media use and time management. Communication Research, 41(4), 561-577.

Strickland, T. A. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,678,883. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Smith, D. L., & Holah, J. (2016). Selection, Use, and Maintenance of Manual Cleaning Equipment. In Handbook of Hygiene Control in the Food Industry (Second Edition) (pp. 627-648).