Spiritual Model of Humanity (2): Innovation and the CEO

Abstract

This paper applies the spiritual model of humanity to the offer explanation of innovation in organizations as paralleling ‘normal’ and ‘paradigm’ classifications of Thomas Kuhn. It is argued that innovation is about changes to ideas adopted in mind. That for all ideas there are those obvious, and those that form the base on the ideas of the person, referred to as their ideology, but in a far more significant sense than the ideology of Adam Smith or Marx, ideology meant as the foundation of the ideas drawn from the culture that person accepts and adopts as their fundamental ideas. Within an organization, a paradigm is thus defined the fundamental base of ideas that are accepted as the way a profession is managed, with paradigm being those ideas accepted and applied as being the strategy of the profession, typically defining divisions, thus sales, operations, administration, HR, etc., all are accepted as having a fundamental framework of ideas, defined as the paradigm, typically expected to be implemented in the organization. The first section of the paper summarizes the background science, drawn largely form the first paper in the series. Then examines what happens when we encounter ideas inconsistent with our current way of thinking? For example, ideas if adopted have the capacity to adversely alter status and income, or if the ideas not offered by an acknowledged prestigious source, or the ideas not immediately ‘fitting’ into our pre-existing set of ideas on ‘how things get done’ … We reject them. From the analysis there emerges two types of innovation, normal, involving changes within a given fundamental ideology, and paradigm changes involving changes to the fundamental ideology where everything within the discipline changes. It demands effort to pause, and ask: If better ideas adopted, will it result in greater work life success and fulfillment, and argues that the people delegated the task of ‘making it happen’, referred to a head down people, can only be realistically expected to deliver changes within a paradigm. A paradigm is the strategic framework within which a division is managed. Hence any challenge to the paradigm being applied in any division is an aspect of the strategic responsibility of the CEO. The CEO is the only heads up person in the organization, it is part of their job to judge if a challenge to the strategic thinking in the organization, or some division, is appropriate. The paper also proposes that due the failure of social science, human resources has only enjoyed normal innovation, delivering incremental gains, and it is only now with the emergence of the spiritual model of humanity that the fundamental science is able to link the organizational strategy to daily staff conduct. Without this depth of understanding a paradigm change in HR was not possible. In providing practical solutions to the significant social questions, questions, the spiritual model of humanity again proves its flexibility and its robust intellectual strength as the correct science of humanity.