The impact of innovations on organizational performance: A case study of National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Kampala

Abstract

The study was aimed at examining the effect of new innovations on organizational performance. Key objectives included; assessing the quality of new innovations currently being implemented in NWSC, assessing the quality of organizational performance, assessing the relationship between organizational innovations and organizational performance. Using a descriptive methodology, respondents were requested to identify a number of innovations that have taken place in NWSC and the key factors known to be associated with organizational performance. These were rated on a five point scale and respondents were requested to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement on functionality of innovations. Correlation analysis was performed to establish the significance of the relationship between organizational innovations and organizational performance.

Study results have indicated that NWSC has good innovations. Such as: 100- Days programme, increased customer focus & stakeholder engagement, increased managerial autonomy/decentralization/empowerment, outsourcing non core activities and competition to drive performance, improved communication, operations and feedback systems among others. It has also been established that NWSC’s ambition for continuous innovations has enabled it gain more value. Ability to implement effectively the aforementioned initiatives is not only an enhancer to improved customer satisfaction but also an ingredient to better financial performance. Key recommendations included; aligning reward strategies to various innovations of employees instead of making a generalization, commitment to re-align organizational innovations to overall organizational strategy, continuous audit, M & E department should be strengthened to assess the achievement of various organizational goals and objectives having a bearing to performance