Recruiting and Selecting Leaders for Innovation

Abstract

The problem. As organizations strive to compete in their respective markets during this time of economic recovery, human resource (HR) professionals are progressively being tasked with recruiting and selecting innovative talent to help keep their organizations ahead. This is especially true when it comes to innovative organizational leaders as they are increasingly difficult to source and select into an organization. The solution.There are a variety of strategies HR professionals should consider to ensure that their organization is able to compete for innovative leaders. In this review, we discuss several approaches for identifying and selecting innovative candidates into an organization, including best practices for organizations of all sizes and budgets. Updated recruiting strategies, behavioral assessments, behaviorally based interviews and innovationtargeted succession planning are discussed. Stakeholders. This article is relevant to HR and HRD professionals who are engaged in defining or executing the recruitment and selection strategy in their organization. It will be especially important for those involved with recruiting mid-to high-level innovative leaders and professionals.

Leveraging Technology to Develop Creative Leadership Capacity

“…McEntire and Greene-Shortridge (in press) indicate that many of today’s organizations strive to remain competitive by recruiting and selecting creative individuals. The authors also suggest that because these practices are difficult, succession planning may be a more efficient option.…”

“…Succession planning was once only practical for large organizations, but with the advent of software designed to help businesses engage in this activity, organizations can now more easily circumvent traditional barriers, such as limited resources, and engage in a succession planning program (Rothwell, 2011). Many different software solutions can aid the succession planning processes identified by McEntire and Greene-Shortridge (in press). First, many software packages dedicated to succession planning can store information regarding a desired leader profile.…”

“…In summary, organizations strive to remain competitive by developing creative and innovative leadership capacity. The focus is often on finding and recruiting external talent, but sometimes an internal focus may be more profitable (McEntire & Greene-Shortridge, in press). Succession planning is a common approach for developing leadership capacities, and software designed to make this task easier and more effective represents a viable tool for organizations with the goal of increasing both creative and innovative leadership capacity.…”

Setting the stage for innovation: towards a conceptual model of the HR-innovation link

“…Concerning the IN phase, previous studies also highlight the importance of recruitment and selection in improving an organisation's innovative capacity (Arad et al, 1997;de Leede and Looise, 2005;Jiménez-Jiménez and Sanz-Valle, 2008;McEntire and Greene-Shortridge, 2011). Thus, HR practitioners need to be skilled at selecting and recruiting individuals who are interested in and capable of working with development and innovations, which requires strategies that govern the operative work of recruiting and selecting creative employees.…”

Creativity & Innovation: Four Key Issues from a Literature Review

“…The technology-based tools used regarding this need are simulations, e-mentoring, multisource feedback, social media and succession planning programs. An interesting article regarding leadership has been released by McEntire and Greene-Shortridge (2011). This is about the recruiting process of innovative candidates into an organization.…”