Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Brigita Janiunaite et al.
place on <strong>the</strong> basis <strong>of</strong> corporate values’. This definition encompasses <strong>the</strong> stability and dynamism <strong>of</strong>
innovative culture, as it points out that shared values should be directed towards modernisation and
development i.e. should be a source <strong>of</strong> progress ra<strong>the</strong>r than backwardness. Jucevicius (2007) defines
‘innovative culture’ as <strong>the</strong> entirety <strong>of</strong> unique culture values, which are characteristic <strong>of</strong> every society
and organization as well as enables innovative activity specific for that social formation. Schuler
(2003) relates innovative culture to <strong>the</strong> understanding <strong>of</strong> creative potential and creation <strong>of</strong> creative
process support. Sutton (2001) suggests using simple enough explanation that organization’s
innovative culture manifests when organization’s employees are encouraged to experiment and to
implement innovations toge<strong>the</strong>r with organization’s managers, who support <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong> ideas’
incentives. The given spectrum <strong>of</strong> definitions <strong>of</strong> innovative culture concept enables stating that, in
general, organization’s innovative culture can be understood as <strong>the</strong> entirety <strong>of</strong> characteristics <strong>of</strong>
organization culture that enables its innovative activity.
So do <strong>the</strong>se characteristics comprise innovative culture <strong>of</strong> an organization? Referring to <strong>the</strong>
description <strong>of</strong> features <strong>of</strong> organization’s innovative culture by different authors (Rose, 2004; Tidd,
Bessant and Pavitt, 2005), it is possible to note that most authors distinguish <strong>the</strong> following
characteristics: orientation to flexibility, cooperation, teamwork, streng<strong>the</strong>ning <strong>of</strong> trust among
organization’s members, openness to changes, new ideas, inducement <strong>of</strong> creativity, risk tolerance
and orientation to learning. From existing literature on <strong>the</strong> innovation process, management <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
innovation process, and open innovation, <strong>the</strong>oretically relevant characteristics <strong>of</strong> innovative culture
can be derived (Dombrowski et al., 2007). It is possible to note that most authors distinguish <strong>the</strong>
following characteristics: orientation to flexibility, cooperation, and teamwork, streng<strong>the</strong>ning <strong>of</strong> trust
among organization’s members, openness to changes, new ideas, and inducement <strong>of</strong> creativity, risk
tolerance and orientation to learning. Dombrowski et al. (2007) presented eight elements <strong>of</strong> innovative
culture <strong>of</strong> organization: innovative mission and vision statements, democratic, lateral communication,
collaboration, safe spaces, flexibility, boundary spanning, incentives, and leadership.
Thus smaller, more specific characteristics become constituent elements and features <strong>of</strong> more
general characteristics; for example, collaboration and team-work are characteristic <strong>of</strong> ‘networking’
etc. In this article innovative culture is defined as entirety <strong>of</strong> values, viewpoints, principles and o<strong>the</strong>r
elements, which enables innovative activity at an organization. Basically such organizations refer to
<strong>the</strong> following main characteristics <strong>of</strong> innovative culture (Jucevicius, 2008):
orientation to flexibility and mobility;
orientation to networking;
orientation to learning;
tolerance <strong>of</strong> risk, uncertainties and changes.
Innovative culture may be characterized by both universal and specific to every social
milieu/organization characteristics, attitudes, <strong>the</strong> models <strong>of</strong> performance. A more detailed discussion
about <strong>the</strong> universal and specific nature <strong>of</strong> innovative culture may be found in o<strong>the</strong>r publications
(Janiunaite, 2010; Jucevicius, 2010).
To summarize <strong>the</strong> constituent parts <strong>of</strong> innovative culture that have been distinguished by different
scholars, it may be noted that, to a large extent, <strong>the</strong>y relate <strong>the</strong> organizational culture favourable for
innovations to issues <strong>of</strong> democracy in an organization and a workplace: decentralization, openness,
transparency, high level <strong>of</strong> communication, etc. Still, <strong>the</strong> most important accent is on learning in an
organization as a precondition for <strong>the</strong> innovative culture and innovations as its results; organizational
learning also determines <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> innovative culture in an organization. For this reason,
this paper refers to organizational learning as a precondition for innovations in different types <strong>of</strong>
organizations.
3. Organizational learning
Innovative processes are inextricable from organizational and individual learning, as individual and
collective learning in organizations empowers attracting and using <strong>the</strong> most recent knowledge.
With reference to learning in an organization, <strong>the</strong> following concepts are frequently employed:
learning organization and organizational learning. However, <strong>the</strong>y are not <strong>the</strong> same. Armstrong (2005)
defines <strong>the</strong> differences between <strong>the</strong>m drawing on <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>of</strong> organizational learning. First <strong>of</strong> all, he
draws on Argyris (1992) that organizations do not learn <strong>the</strong>mselves – it is individual members who
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