chapter 6 creativity in the workplace

8/8/2019 Chapter 6 Creativity in the Workplace

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CREATIVITY IN THEWORKPLACE


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Introduction

Organizations that are creative appear to do well inthe rapidly changing world. These creativeorganizations are finding new ways in doing things.

Now and then these organizations come out with newproducts or modified and improved on existingproducts that gain acceptance by the buyers.

As a consequence of these developments thesecreative organizations are able to sustain theircompetitive positions.

No organization can remain competitive without newideas. Whenever an organization makes anychanges, it is actually expressing those new ideas.


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Introduction..

It may be a new product or service, a newmanagement concept, or a new procedure forworking together in the organization.

Ideas can come from within or from outside theorganization.

However it is the internal generation of ideas thatbring about dramatic changes in an organization.This creation of novel (new, unusual) ideas is knownas creativity.

These creative ideas may meet the perceived needsor respond to opportunities in the externalenvironment e.g. new market opportunities.


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Techniques used by organizations to

spur internal creativity

1. Increase diversity within the organization- The workforce in organizations is diverse i.e. making up ofdifferent types of people who have different backgrounds andcultures, with different skills, experience and knowledge.

- When there is a problem these different groups of people willbe able to provide different ideas and ways to solve theproblem.

-These diverse ideas enable the management to know ofdifferent possible ways to solve a problem. Some of the ideasmay be good and the managers are to evaluate each of them

and then select the one that can best solve the problem. Newand better ideas for example, can help the organization tomake better quality services or products, or better ways ofdoing things (i.e. becoming more efficient in doing things andthere is cost saving).


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2. Make sure employees have plenty of

opportunities to interact with people different from

themselves

-There must be less formal rules and regulations that restrictpeople to confine themselves to formal groups all the time.

- This means that there are few levels in the organization

structure and that will bring the people closer to each other

- As a result of this closeness, the people can face each other

and interact more often and exchange information and shareideas. From these sharing and learning of experiences and

knowledge of things, that new ideas are created.


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3. Give employees time and freedom for

experimentations

- When an organization changes to become less formal and

have less control on its employees in their performance of theirwork, the employees can play a more dynamics role in the

team or department. They are given the opportunity to

exercise their discretion and responsibility and ability to

achieve an outcome or meet a goal. The employees are

encouraged to take care of problems by working with one

another and as a consequence they generate better or newideas in completing their tasks.


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4. Support risk taking and making mistakes

- The top people in the organization must provide the necessary

support and encouragement to get their people to taking the

risks to experiment and to learn for their mistakes. It is thelearning from the mistakes that enable the employees to

generate new ideas and bring about improvement in the

process of making thing


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5. Giving everyone time to think up new ideas.

- In many large organizations, creative departments are set up tocreate changes for adoption in other departments. These are usuallythe staff departments such as research and development,

engineering, design and systems analysis.-These departments are flexible in their ways of doing things in orderto enable new ideas and technique of doing things to be created. Forexample, in Nokia, it sets up the Nokia Ventures Organization (NVO)with the purpose to initiate, test and develop new ideas that gobeyond Nokias existing technologies and may be implemented orused by any other parts of the Nokia Company.

-In other organizations they develop venture teams. These teamsare given separate location and facilities so that they are notrestricted by procedures of the organization. Companies that createsuch venture teams are: Exxon, 3M, Monsanto, Levi-Strauss, IBMand General Electric. Some companies give different names to suchventure teams, for example, skunkworks, action teams, new-venturefund, and idea champions.


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6. Support risk taking and making mistakes

- The top people in the organization must provide the necessary

support and encouragement to get their people to taking the

risks to experiment and to learn for their mistakes. It is thelearning from the mistakes that enable the employees to

generate new ideas and bring about improvement in the

process of making thing


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Negative aspects of employees and

hindrance to creativity

Employees may refuse to be involved in the

creative process because they may be afraid

of failure or scared to appear silly or they are

afraid to abandon old mindsets Employees can become resistant to changes

in organization. Some of them would

sabotage changes, while some just wait and

see.


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Organizational Characteristics thatOrganizational Characteristics that

Support Creativity and InnovationSupport Creativity and Innovation

Risk taking is

acceptable to

management

New ideas and

new ways ofdoing things are

welcomed

Information is

free flowing

Employees

have access to

knowledgesources

Good ideas are

supported byexecutive

patrons

Innovators are

rewarded


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Creating a Creative ClimateCreating a Creative Climate

MotivationMotivation ChallengeChallenge

EmpowermentEmpowerment

FunFun

FreedomFreedom TimeTime

SupportSupport


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Creating a Creative ClimateCreating a Creative Climate

DynamismDynamism EnergyEnergy

OpennessOpenness

DebateDebate

and Dialogand Dialog

ExperimentationExperimentation TrustTrust

RiskRisk

chapter 6 creativity in the workplace

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