Reinventing an organization through its culture to drive business sustainability.

Abstract

South Africa has faced many challenges in recent years with regards to the supply and demand of water. A concerted effort is much needed from all contributing stakeholders in order to address issues threatening South Africa‟s water supply. Research and development plays an imperative role in creating new knowledge and methodologies through innovative projects. Sustainability of research organizations entails a multidimensional approach that focuses on people, profits and the environment encouraging higher productivity and the retention and attraction of skilled people. A core enabler of sustainability is innovation. A culture of innovation leverages the innovativeness of an organization by developing people and the organization. The objectives of this study were to determine the impact culture has on sustainability and to identify the building blocks of a culture of innovation. This was a cross – sectional study conducted among the whole population of 20 members of a research group. An online questionnaire with Likert type questions was used to conduct the survey. The mean analysis was used to determine the overall innovativeness of the organization as well to identify strengths and weakness of various factors. Correlation analysis was used to establish positive relationships between culture building blocks. It was found that the stability of sustainability can be achieved in individuals, the organization and the external environment by implementing a culture of innovation within the organization.