Which components does creativity consist of ?
- Expertise
- Creative thinking skills
- Motivation ( mainly intrinsic )
Expertise
Expertise encompasses everything that a person knows and can do in the broad domain of his or her work / knowledge
Creative thinking skills
capacity to put existing ideas together in new combinations
Why do creative thinking skills also depend on personality ?
- If one is more confident / has higher self esteem, one might feel more comfortable disagreeing with other or turning problems upside down
- Perseverance and incubation is of importance
Incubation
The ability to set aside difficult problems temporarily, work on something else, return with a fresh perspective
Motivation
- most important component
- determines how people will actually go about the task
–> if there is no motivation the other two components will go untapped
Extrinsic Motivation
doing something in order to get something desirable or avoid something painful
Why doesn’t Extrinsic Motivation necessarily enhance creativity ?
One is only motivated do the task because you feel bribed or controlled
but: Extrinsic Motivation doesn’t stop creativity
Intrinsic Motivation
Reflects a persons internal desire to do something out of passion and interest
–> enhances creativity, because one is more invested
Challenge
Managerial practice that can affect creativity
matching people with the right assignments (those that play to their expertise) so that they are more challenged
What problems can occur with ‘Challenge’ ?
This requires the manager to know detailed information about their employees which is time consuming
–> failing to do so meaning matching an employee with the most urgent tasks consequently kills creativity (shotgun wedding)
Freedom
Managerial practice that can affect creativity
Giving the employee the freedom to choose the way to approach the problem
–> heightens intrinsic motivation + sense of ownership
Which problems occur with ‘Freedom’ ?
- Changing the goals frequently / Failing to define the goal clearly
- granting autonomy in name only but in fact proscribing the process
Ressources
Managerial practice that can affect creativity
Time, money and space can either support or kill creativity
Which problems can occur with ‘Resources’ ?
- DEADLINES might have a more negative effect seen as creativity usually takes time
- keeping RESSOURCES (here: money) tight might push people to channel their creativity
Work-Group features
Managerial practice that can affect creativity
Manager must create a mutually supportive group with a diversity of perspectives (different expertise + creative thinking skills) and backgrounds
Members must:
- Share excitement over group goal
- Be willing to help teammates
- Recognize unique knowledge + perspective each member brings to the table
Which problems can occur with ‘Work group features’ ?
Usually managers assemble homogenous groups which kills creativity because these groups do little to enhance expertise + creative thinking skills
Homogenous teams
members have similar mindsets
–> their work usually lacks in creativity
Supervisory encouragement
Managerial practice that can affect creativity
Praising employees for their good work or encouraging them to do better when they fail from time to time
–> sustains the passion needed for intrinsic motivation
Which problems can occur with ‘Supervisory encouragement’ ?
Failing to acknowledge innovative efforts or greeting them with skepticism / critique / evaluation kills creativity
–> negativity bias
Organizational support
Managerial practice that can affect creativity
- Support from the entire organization
- mandating information / sharing / collaborating / ensuring political problems do not foster
Why is a good management of great importance when it comes to creativity ?
- Fostering creativity is in the hands of the manager
–> when creativity is killed one loses new ideas + energy and commitment of its people
Radical Innovation
An innovation that can
- change the structure of the market
- create new markets
- render existing products obsolete
–> important for long term growth
Incremental Innovation
concerns an existing product whose performance has been enhanced or upgraded
–> helps maximize returns on existing investments
Which wrong strategies do big companies usually use to stay competitive ?
- Monitoring + then acquiring startups
–> this way they are heavily dependent on others + often limited due to the often very high prices of the startup companies
- Setting up highly autonomous organizations with little supervision to come up with new ideas ( imitation of a startup )
–> lack of guidance
What is the ideal way for managements of big companies to govern in order to stay competitive ?
- stop predicting the course of the projects
- governing the projects to keep losses at an acceptable range
How do you make radical innovation work ?
- Access to sufficient RESSOURCES
- Detailed NEAR TERM PLAN including anticipated risks
- OPENNESS / flexibility / allowing adaption to new information particularly in the face of contradicting data
- RESEARCH parallel to development
METHODS AND TOOLS for radical innovation
- morphological box
- avoiding unproductive brainstorming
- quality function deployment
- cease tossing solutions that don’t fit within existing plan
Morphological box
Forcing one to consider alternative solutions
What does the STRUCTURE of the ORGANIZATION have to look like for radical innovation ?
- It has to be free of conventional management but integrated enough with the headquarters for a little guidance and funding
- separate units for incremental and radical innovation
How can COLLABORATION AND TEAMING help with radical innovation ?
A collaboration with external developers and potential consumers
- reduces uncertainty
- additional expertise is added
KPI
Key performance indicator
Evaluates the success of an organization / product / activity in which it engages
Gate-Focused Process
Consists of a linear management that focuses on a forward momentum
Development > Prototyping > Testing > Commercialisation
–> resists novelty
Efficiency oriented Practice
Consists of established goals and laid out stages where specific criteria have to be met for the project to be able to continue
Componential Theory
Creativity consists of 3 components
–> work environments have an impact on these components
Interactionist Perspective
Creativity is a complex interaction between the individual + his/her work situation at different levels of the organization
(Individual, Team or Organizational Level)
At an INDIVIDUAL LEVEL creativity is a result of :
- antedecent conditions
- way of thinking
- personality ( ex. self esteem )
At a TEAM LEVEL creativity is a result of :
- individual creative behaviour
- interaction between the group members
- group characteristics
At an ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL creativity is a result of:
Mix of individual and group creativity
Model of individual creative action
Ford
One either works creatively or habitually
This decision is influenced by 3 factors:
- -> sensemaking processes
- -> motivation
- -> knowledge and skills
Theorizing on Cultural differences
Eastern cultures:
Foster creativity as paternalistic control is more accepted
Western cultures:
Inhibit intrinsic group motivation thus creativity
Four-Factor Theory of Team climate
Innovation is enhanced when :
- Vision / Goal is understandable
- Team members are able to propose new ideas without being judged
- There is a stimulating debate of different possible solutions within the group
- Team members receive support for innovation
Ambidexterity Theory
Ability of a complex and adaptive system to manage and meet conflicting demands by engaging in fundamentally different activities
–> exploring new things while sticking to old things
Integrating the idea generation (creativity) & idea implementation (innovation) subfields
(Direction for future research)
It is necessary to merge these two fields in order to do be more creative
Need for theorizing and theory-driven studies
Direction for future research
- The theories now available concerning creativity are not sufficient
- numerous valuable empirical studies were published in recent years (creativity; innovation), but there is a need for a theoretical frame
Organization culture and facet-specific climates for creativity and innovation
(Direction for future research)
- linkages between organization and climate are unexplored
- unexplored how culture and climate act as facilitators and inhibitors of innovation
Innovation process research
Direction for future research
- more research is required here in order to fully understand how an organization builds up change in an organizational setting
Redress creativity and innovation maximization fallacy
Direction for future research
- there is a myth that all creativity is good and the more the better
–> false, more research required
5 Key domains of radical innovation
Includes:
- Processes
- Methods and Tools
- KPI’s and decision making
- Organization structure
- Teaming and collaboration
Directions for future Research
- Integrating the idea generation (creativity) & idea implementation (innovation) subfields
- Need for theorizing and theory-driven studies
- Organization culture and facet-specific climates for creativity and innovation
- Innovation process research
- Redress creativity and innovation maximization fallacy
What are the managerial practices that can affect creativity ?
- Challenge
- Freedom
- Ressources
- Work group features
- Supervisory encouragement
- Organizational support