Nowadays, organizations operate in a volatile environment. In order to survive and
grow, organisations have to be entrepreneurial. However, most people in
organisations do not seem to act entrepreneurially. Why is this so? What can
universities do to inculcate an entrepreneurial mindset in their students so that they
can become good corporate entrepreneurs when they join the work force in the
future?
In analyzing why employees do not act entrepreneurially, we need to look at organizational
environment and the individual. Morris (1998) provides a framework to analyze obstacles to
innovations by segmenting them into six categories1.
Systems
Reward systems in many companies promote conservative behaviors. Kerr (1975) states that
Management by Objectives approach often fails to specify goals that are tough to quantify and this
leads to behaviors such as interpersonal relations and creativity being not formally rewarded.2 As
such, many entrepreneurial activities go unrewarded, and thus discourage innovation. Furthermore,
budgeting systems do not have flexibility for unplanned projects, making it difficult for employees to
obtain resources.
