Creative Problem-Solving Process Styles, Cognitive Work Demands, and Organizational Adaptability (original) (raw)

Creative problem solving style and cognitive work demands

Senior level managers have a stronger preference for conceptualization than lower level employees who have a stronger preference for implementation. Differences in creative problem solving style were also discovered among occupations, reflecting different cognitive demands of the work environment.

Adapting Creative Problem Solving to an Organizational Context: A Study of its Effectiveness with a Student Population

Owing to company time restrictions and concentration on project development, we began to reduce the duration of creative problem solving (CPS) sessions, and to give more emphasis to the action planning stage. Several changes in our CPS protocol, as well as in its duration, begged the question as to whether these changes were jeopardizing efficacy. To examine this question, six groups of ten university students, working under two different CPS protocols (a five-step method and a four-step method), and three control groups (using no CPS method), were given the same objective and similar conditions. This exploratory experiment compared group performance by change in team commitment, divergent thinking preferences, productivity and the participants’ evaluation of the different methods. Results show that the CPS methods were both effective in changing participants’ perspectives regarding divergent thinking and team commitment. In the control groups, however, there were no changes as a consequence of the sessions. Results also suggest that the same problem-solving effectiveness can be attained in a shorter time than that traditionally used, and without prior training in CPS. These findings open the door to developing new problem-solving techniques and team work processes, and to more efficient organizational creativity and innovation methodologies.

Linking problem-solving style and creative organizational climate: An exploratory interactionist study

IJCPS-International Journal of Creativity and …, 2011

People, organizations, and societies benefit when there is an appropriate fit between individuals and their environments (e.g. Chatman, 1989; Kristof, 1996; Shalley, Zhou & Oldham, 2004). This is particularly true for producing organizational innovation. Little is known about the relationship between style preferences (as the people aspect) and climates for creativity. This study aims to tie these two constructs together by taking an interactionist approach. Two assessment approaches were taken. Best and worst-case climates were assessed by administering two short forms of the Situational Outlook Questionnaire in which 213 individuals identified specific best and worst-case work experiences and then responded to the nine dimensions of creative climate. Problem-solving style was measured by VIEW: An Assessment of Problem Solving Style. The findings of this research confirmed that significant differences between best (most desired/ most likely to fit) and worst (least desired/a most likely misfit) workplace climates exist. It also suggests that problem-solving styles make a difference for some of the dimensions of creative climate. A number of implications were presented for those who lead and manage for innovation.

Adaptors and Innovators in Large Organizations: Does Cognitive Style Characterize Actual Behavior of Employees at Work? An Exploratory Study

Psychological Reports, 1989

This study explores empirically the relationship between employees' cognitive preferences for different styles of creative problem-solving, as measured by the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI), and their actual behavior in relation to organizational change in a large industrial setting. The hypothesis that overt creativity, problem solving and decision-making behavior is modified in a large industrial setting (even though the underlying cognitive style preference remains intact) in a way that is predictable and observable, is supported and replicated across three work groups. The research design produces a matrix with cognitive style and actual behavior as its axes, constructed using the inventory, together with colleagues' ratings of behavior based on items from the same inventory. Implications for research into the situational influences affecting overt creative problem-solving behavior of individuals at work and organizational change and development are discussed.

Thinking Creatively at Work: Organization Influences on Creative Problem Solving

The Journal of Creative Behavior, 1997

In this article, we consider how peoples' creative problem solving efforts are influenced by characteristics of the organizations in which they work. We begin examining the situations which call for creative problem solving a t work. We then consider the kinds of processes people must apply to solve these problems. Additionally, we describe certain organizational variables that might help or hinder effective application of these processes.' S o m e conclusions are drawn concerning how these variables act to influence creative problem solving a t work. The implications of these observations for future research are discussed. lNTRODUfllON

Understanding individual problem-solving style: A key to learning and applying creative problem solving

Learning and Individual Differences, 2008

More than five decades of research and development have focused on making the Creative Problem Solving process and tools accessible across a wide range of ages and contexts. Recent evidence indicates that when individuals, in both school and corporate settings, understand their own style of problem solving, they are able to learn and apply process tools more effectively, and when teams appreciate the styles of their individual members, their problem solving efforts are enhanced. We summarize recent studies and report new data supporting the conclusion that individual style differences provide an important key to understanding the interaction of person, process, product, and press when managing change.

IMPROVED RELIABILITY AND RESEARCH APPLICATIONS OF THE CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING PROFILE (CPSP)

The Creative Problem Solving Profile (CPSP) is an instrument designed to measure an individual’s preferred creative style in terms of two bipolar dimensions: the apprehension of knowledge and utilization of knowledge. These two dimensions are related to a staged process of applied creativity, and preferred cognitive state differences in each stage. We review and expand the theory underlying the CPSP and report a program of significant continuous improvement of the psychometric properties of the CPSP since it was first introduced. We provide evidence that the current instrument enjoys excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Finally, we suggest avenues for future research building upon the concept of cognitive problem solving style in the fields of group diversity and group conflict using an instrument that directly maps individuals’ cognitive problem solving style onto the creative problem solving process.

Cognitive problem solving style as related to person-vocation fit and person-organizational hierarchy level of fit

This paper reports an empirical study of person-vocation fit and person-organizational hierarchy level fit based on the construct, cognitive fit. Cognitive fit refers to the degree of match between an individual’s cognitive style of problem solving and the style demanded by the work context. Based on the analysis of 3,942 completed Creative Problem Solving Profile inventories over a broad cross section of organizations, the results support the argument that certain occupations, or vocations, do tend to favor specific cognitive problem solving styles. Additionally, the results offer evidence that the cognitive styles favored or demanded by organizations change as one’s career advances into higher levels of the organizational hierarchy. In particular the results showed that the ratio of Conceptualization cognitive style to Implementation cognitive style of organizational members increases at increasingly higher organizational hierarchical levels. These findings also lend support to re...