Methods to Improve Creativity and Innovation (original) (raw)
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Enhancing creative thinking within organisations
Management Decision, 1998
Creative problem solving (CPS) and innovation are very important to companies who want to gain flexibility and competitive advantage. This article describes how an organisation can enhance its creativity by developing a creative culture within the company. In addition, the paper discusses group creative problem solving. A creativity continuum is presented which describes three different types of techniques ‐ paradigm preserving, paradigm stretching and paradigm breaking. It is important to know which type of technique should be chosen for a particular type of situation. Paradigm preserving techniques are deemed to be more comfortable but less innovative whereas paradigm breaking techniques encourage participants to develop highly novel ideas. They can, however, be uncomfortable to use and should therefore not be utilised by the unwary. This article describes six different CPS techniques ‐ two paradigm preserving, two paradigm stretching and two paradigm breaking techniques.
Creativity and problem solving in the development of organizational innovation
Spatial and Organizational …, 2009
This research focuses on creativity and innovation management in organizations. We present a model of intervention that aims at establishing a culture of organizational innovation through the internal development of individual and team creativity focusing on problem solving. ...
Managing the creative process in organizations
1991
This chapter discusses how creative behavior can be increased and managed in organizations. Variables associated with nurturing creative activity are identified. The chapter first presents a theoretical model of organizational creativity, and then discusses empirical research on the model as it is applied. Finally, the chapter discusses future applications and tests of the model. THE BASIC MODEL Organizational creative behavior can be defined as a three-stage process of problem-finding, problem-solving, and solution implementation activity. This process is identified as a complete process of creative problem solving. What is meant by a complete process of creative problem solving is that it is based on two central, fundamental concepts. First, it has distinct stages. It separates problem finding from problem solving and solution implementation. The second important feature of the process is that within each of the three critical stages, there is a common, fundamental, miniprocess. This is a sequential two-step thinking process called ideation-evaluation. Ideation is defined as idea generation without evaluation (putting aside the judgment capability). This is the diverging aspect of the two-step process. Evaluation is the reverse. It is defined as the application
1995
In an increasingly complex and changing business environment, creativity is becoming recognized as a critical success factor for organizations. The identification of attitudes towards creativity and the subsequent development of creative thinking are important mechanisms for organizations to encourage creativity across ail empioyees. Empioyee attitudes towards creativity can indicate their potential for behaving in a creative manner and organizations that can incorporate creativity into their organizational culture can further encourage creative thinking. This research extended previous research by Basadur and Hausdorf (1995) which identified three new divergent thinking attitudes related to organizational creativity: Valuing New Ideas, Creative Individual Stereotypes, and Too Busy for New Ideas. Three expanded and improved scales emerged. Reliabilities (internal consistency) were increased significantly for each scale. The scales remained independent of each other. Confirmatory factor analysis provided further evidence that the new set of items in each scale cluster together and relate to the underlying contract significantly. Future steps toward reliability validity and test-retest reliability are identified. It takes a hundred new ideas to come up with one that works, so who has the time? Creative people think outside the normal boundaries. (R) The business environment doesn't encourage the use of creativity. (R) New ideas result in new solutions. Not enough new ideas is the reason we are behind. Generating new ideas expands the mind. Creative people are always looking for another rule to break. Old problems can be solved with new ideas. Creative people are ahead of their time. (R) One good idea is worth the time it takes to generate a hundred bad ones. Creative people wear unique glasses. Creative people are usually very humorous. Outsiders have the best ideas. Creative people become standup comedians. You shouldn't prejudge your new ideas. A germ of an idea can lead to a big idea. Creative people are flaky. Creative people are not responsible. Most ideas we try are not really new. Creative people generate a lot of ideas. (R) New ideas are easily killed. New ideas always take more time. If everyone is thinking, then no one is doing. We need more people who are creative in business. Creative people can prevent us solving the wrong problem. (R) New ideas create more new ideas. One new idea can save a life. Creative people are more effective in solving problems. (R) New ideas almost always take too much time. We'll get left behind unless we spend some time on new ideas. We really need creative people. Manufacturing people should be creative. Management should be more creative. New ideas always take too much time. • items that were retained from the original scales of the Basadur and Hausdorf (1995) study.
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.
Creative problem solving method in organizational innovation
The Shift to the Entrepreneurial Society: A Built Economy in Education, Sustainability and Regulation, 2012
This research focuses on the development of entrepreneurship projects, using the creative problem solving (CPS) methodology and aims at demonstrating its effectiveness in improving team commitment to entrepreneurship projects. The design follows an adaptation of the 8-step process of Basadur's problem solving approach (Basadur, 1997), into a 5-step procedure, consisting of fact finding, problem definition, solution finding and action planning. These steps are carried out in two four-hour sessions, using specific techniques that link creative people and management in order to develop a plan of action, thus initiating a system of transformation of the individual and team creativity into organizational innovation. Forty M.A. students, organized in four groups (two in art education and two in tourist entrepreneurship) were submitted to a pre-post test regarding team commitment, prior and after two 4-hour problem solving sessions, following one objective provided by the course director. At the end of the sessions they were also required to fill in a form where they were asked to express their evaluation of the method. Each project designed is now under 2 implementation, and each group is registering all the necessary data to allow for the following up of the project. Results indicated an improvement in individual attitude towards emotional team commitment, during CPS sessions, as well as positive evaluations of the method. The possibilities of making a joint project, using the CPS method, were also demonstrated. Further research is expected once the projects are carried away and more teams involve in the construction of original entrepreneurship projects.
An investigation of the theoretical links between creativity and innovation in organizations
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022
Déclaration de divulgation : L'auteur n'a pas connaissance de quelconque financement qui pourrait affecter l'objectivité de cette étude. Conflit d'intérêts : L'auteur ne signale aucun conflit d'intérêts. Pour citer cet article : LAMDAGHRI. Z & BENABDELHADI .A (2022) « An investigation of the theoretical links between creativity and innovation in organizations » ,
Using Individual Creativity to Improve the Performance of large Organisations
Au Gsb E Journal, 2008
This study details a process that uses a well defined problem to elicit potential solutions from people working in the organisation who have knowledge of the problem area. The results are compared with two other projects that used a similar process and another project that used the methodology associated with Appreciative Inquiry. The results show that for the three projects that used a similar process, the number of ideas generated per person ranged between 1.33 and 1.53. Whereas for the project that used Appreciative Inquiry the number of ideas generated per person was 2.3. The average value of the savings from the ideas of each project ranged between £3.44 and £5.4K These studies provide support for the theory that all people are creative problem-solvers given the opportunity to become active participants (Kirton 2003). Furthermore to make use of this creativity in an organisation, managers have to provide a setting that will support and motivate individuals to focus their potential on a target of organisationl importance. To gain maximum effect, the problem needs careful definition and the size of the problem-solving group as large as individual capability allows.
Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1982
The effects of training in a multistage "complete process of creative problem solving" on attitudes and behaviors of individuals were assessed both immediately after training and return to work. A controlled field "true" experiment was conducted within an engineering department doing applied research in a large industrial organization. Multiple methods and measures were employed on trained (n = 16), placebo (n = 16), and nonplacebo (n = 13) groups. The process trained addressed three critical stages: problem finding, problem solving, and solution implementation, each containing a fundamental diverging-converging two-step process called "ideation-evaluation." The main findings strongly suggest the training resulted in significant, systematically measurable effects both immediately after training and 2 weeks later at work. The trained participants were significantly higher in preference for ideation in problem solving, practice of ideation in both problem finding and problem solving, and performance in problem finding. The data give rise to speculation that there may exist differing "optimum ideation-evaluation ratios" for each of the problem finding, problem solving, and solution implementation stages. These ratios may also differ by field of endeavor. A survey of the literature shows that creativity research has taken three distinctly different directions. First has been the identification approach; that is, can we develop cognitive and personality tests capable of identifying relatively more-or-less creative people? Guilford's work (1967) is among the best known in the cognitive realm and MacKinnon's (1962) in the personality realm. Dunnette (1976), Gough (1976), Roe (1976), and Torrance (1972) provide comprehensive reviews of this identification movement. A second research direction has been the study of organizational factors; that is, can we determine what factors in an organization tend to inhibit or nurture creativity? Baker, Sweeney, Langmeyer, and Reprint requests should be sent to Min Basadur,