1. Living Creative Thought Matters:An Exploration of Creativity within the Management and Business Departmentat Skidmore College
Sophie Cohen
Thesis Advisor: Laura Finnerty Paul
Department of Management and Business
2010

2. What is Creativity?
Creativity is a purposeful activity, or set of activities, that produces valuable products, services, processes, or ideas that are better or new. (Degraff & Lawrence, 2002)
Numerous definitions with vastly different meanings
Scholars have made an attempt to integrate the different theories and research on creativity to create a single definition
Person, process, or product
Something new at the core

3. Importance of Creativity:Academic Perspective
reduce college drop out rates
improve student motivation
avoid boredom
resolve personal conflict
cope with increasing consumer choice
accept complexity and ambiguity
make independent judgments
use leisure time constructively
adjust to the rapid development of new knowledge

4. Importance of Creativity:Business Perspective
Inventive and flexible
Original solutions to an increasing number of problems
Essential for business's long-term survival
One of business's greatest challenges in terms of both survival and profitability

5. Existing Research on Creativity
Characteristics Associated with Creativity:
Creativity Formation:
Individual
Group
Organizational
Benefits of Creativity:
Academic
Economic
Societal

6. More Research is Needed
While creativity measures have been conducted in many disciplines, undergraduate business departments have been under researched
Creativity in business education provides a creative environment that simulate those that students are likely to encounter post-college
Considering creativity is critical in nearly all aspect of business, creativity should be considered a crucial dimension of business courses

7. Purpose of this Study
"The concept of creativity itself points to a moment that does not yet exist when something hidden will be revealed, a plan realized, a quandary resolved through an imaginative approach. Creativity threatens the status quo and so entails risk
-Executive Summary of Skidmores Strategic Plan
How can Skidmore College better prepare students for the business environment post-graduation?
Identify the character differences between Management and Business students and those studying Studio Art
Better recognize the creative talent within the Skidmore College business department

8. Overview of Methodology
Survey resulting in quantitative research
Tolerance of Ambiguity
Self-Monitoring
Learning Style
Risk Taking
Creativity experiment resulting in qualitative research
Alternative Uses Test

9. Method: Survey
55 undergraduate students at Skidmore College
20 Management and Business students
27 Studio Art students
6 Other
60% female, 40% male.

10. Method: Creativity Experiment
42 undergraduate students at Skidmore College
8 groups of undergraduate students at Skidmore College
9 Studio Art students
33 Management and Business students
The gender of each student was not reported; however, future research should question if gender effects the results of the experiment.

11. Results: Tolerance of Ambiguity
Hypothesis 1 not supported
Minor differences between Studio Art and Business Management majors
Significant distinctions between gender

12. Results: Self Monitoring
Hypothesis 2 not supported
Minor differences between Studio Art and Management and Business students
Significant differences between genders.

13. Results: Learning Style Inventory

14. Results: Risk Taking
Hypothesis 4 not supported
Moderate-risk takers
Studio Art:
1 low risk taker
7 cautious
12 moderate-risk takers
8 are high-risk takers
Management and Business:
7 cautious
15 moderate-risk takers
3 high-risk takers.

15. Results: Alternative Uses Test
Hypothesis 5 was supported
Individual: 13.4 possible uses for a brick
Group: 24 possible uses for a brick

16. To Summarize
Management and Business students and Studio Art students at Skidmore College are equally creative.
Skidmore students create a greater number of ideas (fluency), and more diverse ideas (flexibility), when working in teams, rather than individually.

17. Steps to Fostering Creativity in the Classroom
The question we must ask ourselves as an institution is how can Skidmore College better foster creativity in the academic environment?
Allowing time for creative thinking
Rewarding creative ideas and products
Encouraging sensible risks
Allowing mistakes
Imagining other viewpoints
Encouraging explorations of the environment
Questioning assumptions
Refraining from evaluation or judging
Fostering cooperation rather than competition
Offering free rather than restricted choices
Encouraging dissent and diversity

18. Conclusion
This study offers a perspective on creativity that can prove highly beneficial to the Skidmore community, particularly within the Management and Business department
Furthermore, this study addresses a significant gap in the scholarly literature on creativity
This exploration of creativity suggests that Skidmores business students are equally creative to other disciplines
Furthermore, this study suggests that Skidmore students are more successful when working in groups