Influence of Chief Executive Officer’s management styles on organizational intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurship is an effective and established field of organizational management research with an impressive history of around 25 years. An innovation culture that can be attained through intrapreneurial initiatives can add significant competitive advantages to the organizational framework. The roles played by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in any organization are vast in terms of involvement with creativity and innovation but there are no substantial researches that clearly identify any of their distinctive characteristics and management profiles associated with intrapreneurship. This thesis addresses these gaps using a qualitative research approach. Using a semi-structured interviewing approach, different CEO characteristics involved in the intrapreneurial climate have been studied. The thesis also explores the different intrapreneurial management profiles of CEOs in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and how the adoption of these profiles can influence the innovation dynamics of the overall organization. Three cases of successful intrapreneurship management with their distinct CEO profiles have been illustrated in this thesis and are constructed following a longitudinal study with data primarily derived from in-depth interviews with the CEOs and different employees from these SMEs, website information, annual reports and site visits. This study will serve as a guideline for academics and corporate firms in understanding the importance of intrapreneurship in the 21st century and the role CEOs play in advancing the innovation framework of an organization. Understanding these distinctive management roles will benefit both CEOs and different organizations in approaching and practising intrapreneurial initiatives in an effective manner

Role of a CEO in adopting intrapreneurship as an organizational strategy in SMEs

Intrapreneurship is an effective organizational strategy to enhance the innovation progression in any organization regardless of their size. It is an established field of organizational management research with an impressive history of around 25 years. For any Small Medium Enterprise (SME), an innovation culture that can be attained through intrapreneurial initiatives can add significant competitive advantages to their organizational framework. The roles played by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in any organization are vast in terms of involvement with creativity and innovation but there are no substantial researches that clearly identify any of their distinctive management profiles especially in the process of intrapreneurship management. This paper addresses this gap and explores different intrapreneurial management profiles of CEOs in SMEs and how the adoption of these profiles can influence the innovation dynamics of the overall organization. Based on literature review and our earlier detailed study on CEOs from intrapreneurial firms, we identified three key management profiles. We observed that CEOs in some organizations act as the facilitator of intrapreneurship providing different intrapreneurs the support, guidance, resources and an environment to innovate. In cases where entrepreneurs start their own organization, they usually act as the CEO and in such circumstances they dominate as the lead innovator strategizing all the major innovation decisions themselves. In other cases, CEOs tend to have a combination of these two distinct profiles, shuffling in and out of their roles as a facilitator and an innovator based on situational demands. In this paper we have illustrated three cases of successful intrapreneurship management with their distinct CEO profiles and they have been constructed from data primarily derived from semi-structured interviews with the CEOs and different employees from these SMEs, website information, annual reports and site visits. Understanding these distinctive management roles will benefit both CEOs and different organizations in practising intrapreneurial initiatives in an effective manner

The Assessment of Engineering Student Public Speaking Ability : What, How and Issues

This paper discusses the assessment of public speaking as a generic skill in engineering students. The assessment is far from a new topic however there are a few fundamental questions surrounding this generic skill that remain unclear and subject to a number of measurement issues. The paper commences on the premise that public speaking is actually a meta competence which sits in the middle of a hierarchy of skill definitions under the general umbrella of communication. Below it are skills such as: the ability to convey a technical subject to a lay audience; the ability to convey a technical subject to a technical audience; and a number of other variants. The paper then considers some of the issues with measuring it as a skill starting with why, as academics, we should measure it and what any statement of ability means. It looks at issues of measurement reliability and validity and some of the common sources of conscious and unconscious measurement bias. The paper will draw on the findings of 3 years experimental research at the University into the use of a marking rubric and how effective this is compared to the more common overall assessment methods. It will also report on the need for assessment of how well the student can defend their presentation and the more controversial question of whether, if a student shows complete incompetence in being able to defend their presentation whether they should pass or fail the overall presentation

Enhancing intrapreneurial skills of students through entrepreneurship education : a case study of an interdisciplinary Engineering Management Programme

Innovation orientation in a modern society is experiencing extensive complexity due to rise in globalization, revolutionary changes in technologies and standard of living. Intrapreneurship defined as the innovative initiatives undertaken inside an organization is an effective strategy to address these complexities systematically. Successful ideas within an organization occur due to the tireless persistence and practical imagination of intrapreneurs who are the smart innovators actively involved in the design and creation of new products, ventures and business models. Today there is an increasing global demand for such intrapreneurs and different universities are therefore adopting various entrepreneurship education and training programmes to cater to this. Pedagogy in higher education is also witnessing a significant rise in new interdisciplinary programmes specifically designed for non-business students such as art, engineering, and science students so as to develop their organizational management skills. This paper sheds light on these growing trends of different University programmes and examines their effectiveness. It utilizes an in-depth study of one such successful case: the MSc Engineering Management programme in the University of York, United Kingdom in its role of enhancing intrapreneurial skills of global students. This paper explores how this programme has successfully incorporated active and experiential learning tactics within its teaching modules to gradually train and build up the intrapreneurial skills for working in multidisciplinary teams and industries

Is Reflective Writing an Effective Peer Assessment tool for Students in Higher Education?

Today the ability to monitor and evaluate the performance of team members and identify their strengths and weaknesses is highly crucial in any organizational role. Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) are adopting different strategies in their teaching curricula and assessment methods to encourage the development of team management skills among graduates, one of which is peer assessment. It is an important component in the design of an effective learning environment in Higher Education (HE) and for promoting a strong participatory and collaborative culture among students. It provides students with a platform to not only engage with the HE learning process but also to learn from each other by receiving and giving critical feedback. Reflective writing in HE offers a flexible platform for students to discuss the contributions made by peers in teamwork however, not many researchers have looked at its potential as a peer assessment tool. This study addresses this gap by using the case study of the MSc Engineering Management (EM) programme at York (UK). Using the method of content analysis, this study looks at the quality of peer assessment and the skills gap analysis demonstrated in the reflective assignments students undertake in one of the modules. The findings show the viability and potential of this method for building peer assessment skills. It eliminates some of the limitations like bias among students usually encountered in other peer assessment tools. It also helps in skills gap analysis and for understanding group dynamics in teamwork. Students should therefore, be encouraged to seek the application of such tools for skills analysis, to build up confidence in peer assessment and boosting employability factors

What do job adverts tell Higher Education about the ‘shape’ of Biomedical Engineering graduates?

Higher Education Institutions are required, at least in some Countries, to design their curricula taking into account the needs of relevant industry. Use of Industrial Advisory Committees is a common way of demonstrating this input. This paper explores an additional window to industry needs through the textual analysis of job advertisements. 36 internet published adverts using the “Biomedical Engineering” search phrase were downloaded and textually analysed to identify the mentioned technical skills, generic skills and the adjectives used to describe the required level of proficiency in them. Results of the analysis of these adverts, using qualitative re-search analysis software starts to reveal a relevant technical skills hierarchy that Higher Education can use to help inform curricular designed for this employment pathway. The analy-sis of the generic skills reveals those rated important by em-ployers for different levels of jobs, again of potential use to curriculum designers. Finally the results reveal the adjectives used to show the level of ability employers seek of their gradu-ates. Herein lies a significant difference across the supply and demand side of the first employment transition. The difference can be rationally explained but does not help in closing the gap between what Higher Education provides in terms of gradu-ates and what Industry seeks. The paper concludes that dia-logue between Industry and Higher Education could usefully focus on the way skills are defined and claims of ability war-ranted as a means of closing the “Higher Education is not gives us what employers want” claims

Analyzing the perception, judgment and understanding of Ethics among Engineering students in Higher Education

The Royal Academy of Engineering, which is Britain’s national academy for engineering, identifies and stresses the importance of personal and professional commitments and obligations of professional engineers to enhance the wellbeing of the society. These can be attained by adopting the highest standards of professional conduct and integrity which are now commonly represented as ‘Engineering Ethics’. The engineering profession requires the exploitation of knowledge, resources and innovation and in the process; engineers face different complex situations and scenarios that regularly test their ethical judgment and understanding. A lot of emphasis is therefore placed today on familiarizing engineers with the ethical standards and moral codes of conduct involved in an organization as part of their commitment towards their roles. However, there is very little research conducted so far on the influence of Ethics Education on the moral growth of engineering students. Some recent studies suggest a growing concern among universities on the issue of increasing the ethical knowledge among their students and produce ethically responsible engineers or business leaders. Can Engineering Ethics Education reinforce students’ inclination to act ethically and give a strong foundation to their ethical decision making skills? Some researchers seem to imply that students who attend an ethics based course or module are more likely to recognize the core of a moral issue in a given complex situation than students who haven’t had any such prior experience. Other researchers seem to disagree on that context. There is also a degree of uncertainty and inconsistency as to how Ethics related courses can be incorporated and delivered as part of an Engineering curriculum. It is also not clear at what stage should engineering students be exposed to ethics courses? This study aims to bring clarity in some of these areas by examining the perception and decision making skills among two groups of students: one which has attended a course on ethics and the other which hasn’t. It uses the example of the MSc Engineering Management Programme at York where a session on Engineering Ethics is delivered every year. This study will analyze the potential of Ethics Education in boosting a student’s ethical responsibility, awareness and decision making skills

How employees’ intrapreneurial profiles map across gender in different sectors? -analysis of a pilot study

Organizations are pushing to be proactive and intrapreneurial so as to explore and utilize any potential competences among employees and attain competitive advantage and growth. Intrapreneurship is a major driver for facilitating organizational renewal or reinvention enabling employees to unleash their passion while generating new strategies for business growth and development. It instigates entrepreneurial spirit and freedom among employees and can help transfer resources from an area of low productivity to an area of high productivity. Employee innovation behaviour is key to sustaining an intrapreneurial climate inside an organization. Such behaviour paves way towards developing new products and markets as well as improving business functionality. How can organizations push employee innovation behaviour? So far, there are very limited research on how to measure the intrapreneurial behaviour among employees and the factors that influence their engagement with innovation. This paper addresses some of these gaps and reflects on the various personality traits among intrapreneurial employees and how these might map across gender and various industrial sectors. Using the ‘Spectral Inventory’ Scale of Lessem (1986) that categories seven distinct intrapreneurial profiles in employees, this study examines their variation and occurrence in different sectors. As part of a pilot study, this study reflects on 228 participants who completed an online survey on intrapreneurial profile mapping. The analysis shows how some employees demonstrate single dominant intrapreneurial profiles and in some cases a combination of profiles. Based on the findings, the study illustrates four key profiles within the intrapreneurial spectrum- uni, dual, triple and quadri profiles. The analysis further discusses these profiles with examples and explores how they map across gender and in different industrial sectors. Are there any consistent patterns in intrapreneurial employees? Can organizations utilize these to understand their employees and facilitate their engagement with intrapreneurship? These are some of the areas this paper explores