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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 7

Publication Date: July 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.87.10517. Matriano, M. T. (2021). Organization’s Characteristics that Facilitate the Innovation Process and Techniques- Case of Oman.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(7). 317-322.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Organization’s Characteristics that Facilitate the Innovation

Process and Techniques- Case of Oman

Dr. Maria Teresa Matriano

Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies

Middle East College, Al Rusayl, Muscat, Oman

ABSTRACT

Many global organizations today have shown tremendous growth year after year

and the measure of their success is beyond what the competition has achieve. The

most common characteristic of the globally successful organizations is their

continuous engagement in innovation that not only changes the playing field in the

competition, but also creates a disruption in which the influence of the innovation

impact social, economic, and political dynamics of the modern world. Facilitating

innovation requires strategic approach by organizations in the processes of

implementation. Some of the key characteristics of an organization that successfully

facilitates the innovation process includes flexibility, openness, agility,

adaptiveness, and cultivation. In the case of Oman, facilitating innovation and

strategically applying the techniques to achieving positive outcome is a challenge

that organizations are striving to overcome. Notable examples of innovation

process approach by Omani organizations include creating a network of other

organizations that are willing to partake in information exchange. Another example

is collaboration in which a less capable organization collaborate with larger firms

creating a mutually beneficial partnership to facilitate innovation and

development.

Keywords: Organizational Characteristics, Innovation process, Innovation Strategies,

Innovation and Organization’s Characteristics

INTRODUCTION

Innovation has always been the main driver for growth for the majority of organizations in the

world today. A lot of well-known brands were founded from conceptualized innovation and

translated into high value products and services. In some cases, the resulting output from an

innovative idea becomes a phenomenon that creates disruption in the status quo. One of the

quick examples would be the popular streaming websites such as Netflix. It did not only

introduce a new age of entertainment consumption, but also disrupted multiple industries that

currently are either no longer existing or reduced to a relic. This example provides a picture of

an organization’s achievement that goes beyond growth when innovation process and

application of its techniques were used while embodying relevant organizational

characteristics. In this discussion, the concept of organizational characteristics will be explored

in relation to the facilitation of innovation process and techniques. Furthermore, the discussion

will focus on the characteristics of organizations in Oman and how it influences innovation.

Oman is known to having an oil-dependent economy and the majority of its organizations were

founded on the ownership structure that follows a hierarchical construct of a conventional

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 7, July-2021

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

organization. This means that the flow of information, decision, and input always starts from

the top and cascaded down to the bottom. A type of organizational structure that provides

emphasis on authority and responsibility, but slows down the innovation process and

implementation of important changes because of bureaucracy (Al Zefeiti, 2017). In this regard,

facilitation of innovation process and techniques will require a closer look into the various

characteristics of organizations in Oman. In addition, these characteristics will be assessed to

determine the capability of the organizations in Oman in facilitating innovation given its

characteristics. Most of the organizations in Oman that are able to successfully facilitate

innovation have common characteristics that relates with the term flexibility and quick to adapt

to environmental changes. These characteristics are just two of the many attributes that

encompasses the behavioral prerequisites of an innovative organization.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZATIONS IN OMAN

The characteristics of organizations in Oman depends on the type of business and type of

ownership. For most business organizations, a limited liability company (LLC) is the most

preferred while larger organizations are formed as a joint stock company (SAO). Other

businesses were formed following limited partnership (LP), Oman free zone, foreign owned,

branch office, representative office, and commercial agency. Each of the business type follows

specific regulatory policies to operate. For smaller scale businesses, sole ownership is

consisting of startups and has more creative room when it comes to characteristic impressions.

There are not many literatures that explicitly defines the characteristics of organizations in

Oman. However, based on the organizational structure of the majority of large companies in the

country, it can be assumed that a large majority of major organizations in the country follows a

conventional hierarchical structure. The key features of hierarchical organizational structure is

having an organized work specialization, traditional departmentalization, hierarchy of

authority, centralization and decentralization, and line-staff relationship (Billinger and

Workiewicz, 2019). However, this structure is not very effective when it comes to quick

facilitation of innovations within the organization.

The drawbacks of the hierarchical structure in relation to its characteristics is that bureaucracy

is prevalent and the decision points including inputs only comes from the top management.

This limits the organization from being able to tap into the ideas that some of the organizational

members can provide. In addition, the specialization form of role delegation creates a repetitive

and narrow focused work environment in which leaves no room for creativity. More

importantly, the aforementioned characteristics makes the organization slow in developing

innovation and the adaptability to new changes also becomes limited. In a study by Al-Matari

and Alarussi (2016), it was found that corporate governance and its characteristics directly

impact organizational performance. This means that the structure, hence, the characteristics of

the organization has a significant implication towards performance. As observed from many

business organizations in Oman it is apparent that the prevailing organizational models and the

characteristics thereof is ineffective in terms of fast facilitation change. This is because the

hierarchical characteristics hampers the free expression of ideas for the organization.

PERSPECTIVES ON INNOVATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

In order to determine the appropriate process and techniques to use in facilitating innovation,

it is important to identify the type of innovation that the organization is aiming to adopt. For

example, if the organization is looking to improve its products and service the appropriate

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Matriano, M. T. (2021). Organization’s Characteristics that Facilitate the Innovation Process and Techniques- Case of Oman. Advances in Social

Sciences Research Journal, 8(7). 317-322.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.87.10517

innovation type would be ideation. Meanwhile, innovating customer experience, product

promotion, and customer involvement innovation; therefore, the best approach should focus

more on branding, co-creation, and technology. On the other hand, organizational innovation

aiming to improve internal processes, corporate culture, and greater involvement of

stakeholders; therefore, the best approach innovation approach should focus on open

innovation, business model, and social innovation. In the study by Gupta (2018), it was

mentioned that innovation is consists of generation and adoption in which the former revolves

around finding new opportunities while the latter exploits existing resources. On the other

hand, generation and adoption can only achieve positive outcome if the organization has the

right attitude and characteristics that will enable its members to easily adapt to the change. In

the case of Oman, the capability to adapt to change is an important characteristic which a few

organizations have failed to recognize.

In any given day, an organization’s capacity to innovate rely upon these five important

characteristics adaptability, openness, flexibility, agility, and cultivation. Openness

encompasses the concept of cultural change that needs to happen in the organization in order

to bring down the walls that limits the flow of new ideas. Participatory management style and

more dynamic and positive organizational communication must be in place to ensure that

innovation process deployment does not hit a roadblock brought by any prevailing

bureaucratic processes in the organization. In terms of adaptability and flexibility, both shares

the same attributes, which includes more accommodating policies and process, commitment

from top management to foster curiosity, resilience; and having the ability to create mutual

interest communities to identify common grounds for risk and benefits (Alyahya'ei et al. 2020).

In the case of Oman, the prevailing organizational culture of hierarchical nature hampers the

progression of innovation process development because the decision-making and flow of ideas

are restricted in a one-way direction.

Stories of failed ventures of organizations that failed to see the importance of having the right

characteristics to foster innovation in Oman can be found all over the internet. For example,

Qais Al-Khonji is an Omani serial entrepreneur who had four failed ventures have learned the

importance of having the right attitude to establish a more successful attempt to business.

According to Qais Al-Khonji, knowing the customers and conducting market research are two

of the critical components of nurturing a growing business (Rahal, 2013). In a larger scale

organization, failures also taught the company to go beyond the traditional approach to doing

business. Another example of an organization in Oman that falls short in recognizing the

importance of having a positive characteristic is an institution specialized in installing security

and safety systems in residential properties. The Primary Court in Wilayat Sahamin ruling

described in the Times of Oman (2020) report in which the organization was not named,

decided that the organization has violated the Consumer Protection Law promulgated by Royal

Decree 66/2014. In this case, the organization is obliged to provide the services to the

consumer in proper manner in accordance with the commitment to the transaction.

What can be taken from the aforementioned case is that commitment is part of the critical

attributes that makes an organization’s characteristic conducive to innovation. The study by

Thumiki (2017) suggests that the root cause of entrepreneurial failure in Oman is the lack of

creative knowledge and active pursuant of innovation and its applications. Furthermore,

several businesses that opened in the country by both large and small-medium scale