Engaged employees as leaders in workplace innovation

Employees represent the most significant potential of any organization because of their involvement in all processes and activities, from production of products/services to their sales and servicing. They have the best knowledge about the business processes and activities they perform because they are directly involved in the implementation and therefore, employees can be significant generators of workplace innovation.

By their nature, innovations are the result of a constant search for positive change. They have traditionally been associated with new technical and technological solutions, while in modern times innovations do not have to be physically tangible and can relate to improvements in management processes, decision-making, production of goods and services, different and efficient application of existing working tools, etc. [Brkl7ač, et al., 2018]

The necessity for innovations in modern management systems of organizations arises from the speed of changes in the environment, unpredictability, interconnectedness and conditionality of all changes, as well from their impact on many areas of social and economic life. +s a result of these changes, the life cycle of technology and products is shortened. Hence, the main tools that organizations use to survive the market competition are changes and adaptations through the ability of differentiating the products and services by innovativeness. Innovative organizations base their business on knowledge and flexibility because they have the ability to respond very quickly to all challenges from the environment. +ll novelties in management methods are called management innovations and aim to continuously motivate employees to be innovative in the process of performing their working tasks. The constant creativity of employees will continue to be the foundation of the competitive advantage of organizations in the future. [Kokeza, 2016]

The aim of this paper is to show how engaged employees take the leadership role in encouraging, generating, and implementing innovations in the workplace and in what manner employees give their innovation proposals.

• 2.    The role and significance of engaged employees in the process of workplace innovation

In recent decades, great attention of theorists and practitioners has been focused on the concept of employee engagement. Great interest about this topic has led to the emergence of different definitions, but among all authors and practitioners dealing with this topic is a consensus that employee engagement is the key to success of any organization. [Lukić Nikolić, 2021] Employee engagement represents the complete employment and indulgence of employees during the performance of work tasks and activities on the three ways: physically, cognitively and emotionally. [Kahn, 1990] This concept is the opposite of burnout syndrome (physical and mental exhaustion, cynicism, dissatisfaction, decreased productivity), because it indicates employee commitment, positive energy and performance. (Table 1)

Table 1. Opposites between burnout syndrome and employee engagement

Burnout syndrome              Employee engagement

Fatigue/exhaustion                Energetic

Cynicism                          +ctive participation

Decline in productivity             Efficiency and productivity

Source: [Taris et al., 2017]

Employees who are engaged feel fulfilled, satisfied, happy, included, focused, have a positive attitude towards the organization, become its brand ambassadors, and perhaps most importantly - become generators of workplace innovation. There are some signals by which organizations may indicate employee engagement: the degree of 7ob involvement, the desire of employ- ees to stay in the organization in the long run, the effort to give their maximum, the effort to fully commit to work tasks and passion for work and business results. [Storey et al., 2008] Furthermore, the leaders of the organizations notice certain differences between engaged and non-engaged employees. Table 2.

Table 2. Key characteristics of engaged and non-engaged employees

Engaged employees	Non-engaged employees
Self-confidence Growth Innovation Commitment Originality Creativity	Lack of self-confidence Stagnation Status quo Disinterest Lack of originality Lack of creativity

Source: [Federman, 2009]

Numerous researches showed that engaged employees: [Marciano, 2010]

+ll these effects lead to a number of positive results on the business of the organization, but also on the employees themselves. Those are: [Lukić Nikolić, 2021]

• -    Lower rate of absence and

• -    Lower rate of errors and omissions in work;

• -    Less theft and embezzlement of employees;

• -    Less organizational conflicts;

• -    Less stress in entire organization;

• -    Higher level of knowledge exchange and cooperation in organization;

• -    Positive work atmosphere and better work ethic;

• -    Higher level of employee satisfaction;

• -    Loyalty and commitment of employees;

• -    Employees act as brand ambassadors of the organization;

• -    Growth of satisfaction of consumers and users of service;

• -    Better reputation of the organization;

• -    Higher level of innovations;

• -    Higher flexibility and agility;

• -    Higher level of productivity;

  turnover of employees;

  
  

  - Higher profitability.

  
  

  Leaders and managers have noticed that employee engagement is the key to innovation in organizations. Engaged employees give their best during the performance of their tasks, try to create new, improved ways to perform certain activities through cooperation and exchange of knowledge with colleagues, and try to improve the business of the entire organization. With their enthusiasm, engaged employees represent a significant source for creativity and innovation in the workplace. [Rao, 2016]

• 3.    Traditional and contemporary forms for collection innovative proposals of employees

  Intellectual capital represents one of the essential source of organization’s competitive advantage due to employee’s knowledge, skills and experience which have outmost importance for innovation process especially when employees are engaged in the same organization for longer period of time and possess specific (tacit) knowledge regarding business process and activities. [Lukić et al., 2019] +ddi-tionally, intellectual capital is one of the most important factors of development and competitiveness between national economies. The group of developed economies have the highest level of competitiveness measured by global index and they are dominant force in the segment of intellectual capital. Consequently, the outlook of future development should be based on advanced industry of products and services with higher level od added value which will result in measures that encourage development and innovations. [Kokeza & Paunović, 2021]

In 7ob advertisements there are no requirements such as "the employee must be innovative", "the employee's task is to generate innovations". Innovation is usually a self-initiated, desired, additional behavior of employees that is beyond the description of their work tasks. The process of innovation in the workplace itself implies the following phases: [Kaplan, 2019] (1) recognizing the problem and proposing ideas for its solution; (2) seeking support from the organization and associates who will participate in the implementation; (3) implementing innovation in practice and overcoming all obstacles that may appear. It is evident that for each of these phases it is essential that employees are truly engaged. First of all, when they recognize the existence of a problem, employees must be engaged and commited to the organization in order to be able to propose and come up with different ideas for solving it. This requires that employees truly love their 7ob, the organization in which they work, and that they have the will and desire to dedicate themselves to these additional activities that are not in their 7ob description. Engaged employees strive to initiate, motivate and engage other employees in order to reach the best possible solution that will be accepted and implemented.

In practice, it is common for many innovative activities to be risky and uncertain, which is why employees will be faced with many attempts and failures before they succeed in innovation. [Lukić, 2014] Having in mind the fact that organizations operate in a complex environment characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, dynamism and turbulence caused by various crisis situations, engaged employees and their innovations are supporting pillar for survival. [Lukić et al., 2020] Therefore, human resource management is a strategic activity that affects the creation of added value and long-term success, growth and development. [Kafadar & Jagan7ac, 2019] In order to survive and succeed on the market, organizations need employees who are ready for constant changes, who strive to acquire and exchange knowledge and cooperate with colleagues. [Lazarević & Lukić, 2018;

The knowledge, abilities and skills of employees need to be continuously developed and improved due to changes caused by technical and technological progress. In the process of developing the competencies of employees, a clear distinction should be made between the competencies of employees who are not on managerial positions and the competencies of managers. The 7ob of a manager is more focused on providing help and support to employees in order to achieve the goals of the organization.

In order to perform such tasks, managers must master key competencies, which relate to: effective methods of functioning of the organization, ability of written and oral communication, creative thinking, conflict resolution, assessment of personnel situation in the organization and career development. Managerial ability is observed from the aspect of continuous learning and through important determinants of its behavior such as: intuitiveness, self-confidence and creativity. The success of a manager depends on his ability to manage his personal skills, to possess knowledge and abilities to use new technologies, as well as to motivate and coordinate the work of employees. [Mirković, 2012]

Traditional form of collecting employee’s proposals realizes through "suggestion box" in which employees put sheets of paper with their proposals, ideas, suggestions and comments. However, the practice did not verified this kind of employee’s proposal collecting as efficient enough due to numerous imperfections such as: slow feedback, only few suggestions are really accepted due to the fact that they are not described and explained in details which make difficult discussion and making statistics regarding number of submitted, re7ected and accepted suggestions. +lso, deficciency of traditional form of employee’s proposal collection is impersonated in the fact that employees which submitted proposals do not often have feedback regarding processing and analysis of their proposals by relevant bodies.

Current period in which we are living and working, which is characterized with penetration and massive application of modern technological solutions, gave birth to new ways of employee’s proposals collection. One possible way is implementation of modern software solutions that make possible for employees to submit their proposals electronically and to follow their status online. Those solutions provide the opportunity for: commenting of submitting proposals, making additional questions, voting for proposals, defining priorities, chosing proposals which will be realized in practice and rewarding of employees whose proposals were accepted. [Lukić Nikolić, 2021]

and ecology, and can be a significant contribution to society as a whole. [Osto7ić et al., 2020]

4.    Conclusion

Innovations are desirable for every organization, regardless of its history, financial strength, number of employees, activity, size and market in which it operates. In practice, innovations emerge in any part of the organization and by any employee regardless of the position he/she is in. Engaged employees represent significant generators of innovations in the workplace. They have a real need and desire to constantly strive for innovations related to improving the quality of products and/or services, improving marketing activities, sales, servicing, overall customer experience and revenue growth. Truly engaged employees take a leading role in the innovation process, remain focused during the process of innovation implementation in the organization, remain persistent when they encounter difficulties, and by exchanging knowledge and experiences with other colleagues always endeavour to reach the best possible solution. +n organization that has a high level of innovativeness encourages employees at all positions and levels, by its