Dagmar Caganova

Dagmar Cagáňová is an Assoc. Prof. in Industrial Management, the 1^st Vice Director, and Vice Director for strategic development and international relationships at the Institute of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava. Her professional interests lie in Human Resource Management, Intercultural and Knowledge Management, Mobility and Smart Cities and Gender Diversity. She is a tutor on PhD study programmes in Intercultural Management and has participated in numerous EU research programmes. To date she has published around 200 academic papers and has over 200 quotations.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER SESSION:

Title: A Look at Innovation in Industrial Enterprises in Relation to Inter-cultural Management

Scope: In the present economic environment, industrial enterprises have learned that innovation is one of the most important factors for growth. Innovation is a learning process for any enterprise and by perusing innovation enterprises can discover and implement new ways to use their existing technology. By innovating, organizations can operate more efficiently and effectively and have a better chance to align their business and strategic goals. Staying competitive is one of the premier goals for an enterprise and they look for different ways for sharing ideas and doing innovation within their organization to achieve that goal. Individuals and employees should find time to think about new products and services and discuss ideas and develop concepts and take their enterprise a step closer towards innovation. At the same time organizations can use different approaches like establishing a dedicated full-time team, or organizing short and intense innovation workshops, or arranging to have frequent innovation time for their employees to take the enterprise towards the path of innovation.

A major concern which arises within an organization also persisting globally in every enterprise, is how the application of these innovative solutions reaching down the hierarchy as they need to come from the top management. To combat such concerns and be effective, management needs to be cross-culturally sound and diverse and it also requires them to be collaborative and have an open communication among themselves and within the organization. Lot of affect is put in place by the management to innovate to meet the complex needs of the customer, stakeholders, their employees and eventually the overall society. This indicates a need to better understand the cultural differences of employees, customers, stakeholders and the top management itself along with their innovating styles which can enable or hinder the innovation in an enterprise.