Why do you think employees do not act

entrepreneurially in organizations?
Both organizational factors and environmental conditions play an integral role in enabling
corporate entrepreneurship1. When employees do not exhibit the type of entrepreneurial
behavior that is desired in the organization, it is important to examine the factor and/or
condition that is hindering corporate entrepreneurship. As organizational factors are more
controllable by organizations, this paper focuses on four of such factors, namely
Organizational Structure, Rewards, Culture and Management Support.
A bureaucratic organizational structure can impede corporate entrepreneurship in two ways. A
bureaucratic structure erects perceived barriers for corporate entrepreneurship activities. In
other words, employees narrow their focus solely onto their existing job performance and
ignore the companys overall progress2. Also, while the availability of information is one of the
hygiene factors for innovation, bureaucracy hinders the transmission of relevant information
within organization3. Hence, a bureaucratic structure may result in employees not acting
entrepreneurially in organizations.
Absence of an effective rewards system may also be a cause of employees not
demonstrating corporate entrepreneurship. Although corporate entrepreneurs may not place
much emphasis on monetary rewards, some form of reward system must be in place for
innovation to sustain4. Corporate entrepreneurs are often driven by rewards that are derived
from results, such as profit sharing and recognition 5. The lack of these rewards may thus
discourage employees from acting entrepreneurially.
Another factor would be organizational culture. To inculcate corporate entrepreneurship in the
organization, two conditions must to be fulfilled. Firstly, the organizational culture has to be
pervasive enough for the entire organization to share the same set of values and beliefs 6.
However, the strong presence of organizational culture on its own does not suffice. The
element of entrepreneurship and innovation has to be inherent in the strong culture. The
absence of either which would shackle the employees from acting entrepreneurially in the
organization.
The last factor is management support. Management support comes in two forms: tangible
and intangible support. Tangible support refers to the resources that the management grants
to the employees to develop and implement new ideas. Intangible support refers to
managements encouragement to employees to take calculated risk and management having
reasonable tolerance for failure 7. Without these, employees may fear taking on new projects
and/or may not have the resources to execute corporate entrepreneurship.

Apart from the four factors, the characteristics of the individual employee are also a key to
corporate entrepreneurship8. Without characteristics such as risk taking propensity,
employees may not act entrepreneurially even if the four factors are present 9. Hence, it is
imperative that organizations selects employee who possess the relevant person-organization
fit during recruitment, like what companies such as South-west Airline are doing.

2) What can universities do to develop their students to

be entrepreneurial managers of the future?
There is an increasing number of corporations desiring for entrepreneurial managers 10. Since
most students first come across the concept of corporate entrepreneurship in their tertiary
education, the onus now lies with universities to produce graduates that meet the industrys
need. Universities thus have to devise methods to expose and instill corporate
entrepreneurship in their students. This can be attained via this framework: Opening Hearts,
Opening Minds and Opening Doors.
Opening Hearts The characteristics of the employee will determine the level of corporate
entrepreneurship that he exhibits in the organization. These characteristics can be converted
to those, which are required of entrepreneurial managers. This can be achieved by creating a
safe environment for the students to take risks and be tolerant of mistakes, traits that are
embodied by entrepreneurial managers. An example would be the new system by the
National University of Singapore to exclude freshmens academic performance from their
cumulative grade point11. Such initiative thus fosters the students to exemplify the
characteristics needed for corporate entrepreneurship.
Opening Minds Universities possess the obligation to impart relevant corporate
entrepreneurship knowledge to its students. At the most basic level, modules on
entrepreneurial management can be carefully crafted to provide students the technical knowhows regarding entrepreneurial management. At a more advanced level, universities can
integrate these fundamental entrepreneurial management concepts into other disciplines. For
example, Brown University offers a program, which aims to incorporate entrepreneurship into
engineering12. By doing so, students from different fields of study, not just those from strategic
management, would possess some forms of entrepreneurial management knowledge.
Opening Doors Universities need to provide the avenue for their students to have a real
taste of entrepreneurial management. After all, entrepreneurial management is not simply
theory but rather a skill that needs to be applied and honed in reality. Therefore, universities
can collaborate with firms that have an interest in innovation and corporate entrepreneurship,
and provide opportunities for their students. An example would be the entrepreneurship
internship program, in San Diego State University, which connects students to corporations

that preach corporate entrepreneurship13. Such partnership would expose the students to the
actual entrepreneurial management and allow them to accumulate valuable experience.
(997 words)

References

Christensen, K.S. (2005) Enabling Intrapreneurship: The Case of a Knowledge-Intensive Industrial Company. European Journal of
Innovation Management, 8 (3): 305-322.

Scheepers, M.J., Hough, J. and Bloom, J.Z. (2008) Nurturing the Corporate Entrepreneurship, 12 (3): 50-75

Chaka, C.T. (2006) Factors that Promote Corporate Entrepreneurship within the First Rand Bank.

Srivastava, N. and Agrawal, A. (2010) Factors Supporting Corporate Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Study, 14 (3): 163-171

Christensen, K.S. (2005) Enabling Intrapreneurship: The Case of a Knowledge-Intensive Industrial Company. European Journal of
Innovation Management, 8 (3): 305-322.

Christensen, K.S. (2005) Enabling Intrapreneurship: The Case of a Knowledge-Intensive Industrial Company. European Journal of
Innovation Management, 8 (3): 305-322.

Srivastava, N. and Agrawal, A. (2010) Factors Supporting Corporate Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Study, 14 (3): 163-171

Mokaya, S.O. (2012) Corporate Entrepreneurship and Organizational Performance Theoretical Perspectives, Approaches and Outcomes,
1 (4): 133-143

Chaka, C.T. (2006) Factors that Promote Corporate Entrepreneurship within the First Rand Bank.

10

Thornberry, N.E. (2003) Corporate Entrepreneurship: Teaching Managers to be Entrepreneurs, 22 (4): 329-344

11

Ong, H. H. (2014, Jan 23). NUS rolls out 'grade-free' system for its freshmen. Retrieved September 23, 2014 from
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/nus-rolls-out-grade-free-system-its-freshmen-20140123

12

Retrieved September 23, 2014 from http://www.brown.edu/academics/gradschool/programs/innovation-management-andentrepreneurship-engineering

13

Retrieved September 23, 2014 from http://lavincenter.sdsu.edu/programs/Internships/