Ensuring a Creative and Innovative Workforce - Essay Example

?Ensuring a creative and innovative workforce “Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people. Imagination rules the world” Napoleon Bonaparte Introduction: Creative imagination has been one of the crucial elements of all human endeavors, since time immemorial. The use of creativity leads to innovation which in turn creates unexpected returns, and hence has been widely used as a crucial and inevitable element to foster and enhance organizational performance. In this information age, it is highly recommended that leaders and managers encourage their workforce to constantly create and innovate, by harnessing the intellectual and social capital. The recent shift from industrial to knowledge economies has been rapid and abrupt, leading to a series of novel discoveries and innovation in various fields across all sectors of the economy, thereby drastically increasing the significance of creating and developing a highly creative workforce. The fact that innovation is the key to human survival, has been reasserted over the years, with a wide range of creative and innovative ideas being generated and applied for human consumption. Companies today rate creativity and innovation as highly essential pre-requisite of strategies, designed to achieve their organizational goals. Various challenges can be overcome and addressed through sheer creativity, which are faced by the 21st century, such as global warming and sustainable economic development to name a few. Organizational creativity is one of the most promising issues, which is now being probed by managers and leaders, and its relevance and significance is acknowledged by the emergence in the recent decades. Definitions: Creativity is defined as the development of novel and useful ideas (Hemlin et al., in Mumford, 2011). According to Plucker et al., (2004) the term creativity is defined as "...the interaction among aptitude, process, and environment by which an individual or group produces a perceptible product that is both novel and useful as defined within a social context". According to Ford (1995) "Creativity is a context specific, subjective judgment of the novelty and value of an outcome of an individual's or a collective's behavior (West, 1997, Pp. 2). Innovation in generic terms refers to the development and application of novel ideas, products or services, or technologies in an organization. According to Van de Ven (1986) the process of innovation is defined as "the development and implementation of new ideas by people who over time engage in transactions with others within an institutional context. This definition is sufficiently general to apply to a wide variety of technical, product, process, and administrative kinds of innovations. From a managerial viewpoint, to understand the process of innovation is to understand the factors that facilitate and inhibit the development of innovations" (Sisaye, 2001, Pp. 105). In a nutshell, the concept of creativity entails the application of a mental as well as a social process which is fuelled by an insight regarding the future demands and requirements of consumers, and generating ideas and concepts in response to the meet the requirements of the same. Innovation on the other hand, refers to the successful application of the said ideas and concepts with a view to generate profitable outcomes. In order to successfully create and develop innovative products and ideas, it is essential for the management to hire and recruit a highly creative workforce and develop a highly productive workforce by encouraging creativity and innovation within organizations. Significance and relevance of the concepts as applied to organizations: Creativity is the first step or foundation of innovation, which can be achieved through the successful implementation of the creative ideas generated by the talented workforce. Innovation is one of the crucial and inevitable elements of organizational success, more so in the highly advanced society, which is practically driven by sheer innovation and creativity. It is only through creativity and innovation that organizations can hope to sustain their competitive positioning in the market, and ensure long-term sustainability. An innovative and creative workforce is hence a pre-requisite for corporate success (Thompson, Choi, 2006). The corporate world today is hardly static, is driven by constant creativity and innovation. Some of the most renowned multinational organizations such as Apple, Google, IBM, Toyota, P&G etc among others, bear testimony to the fact that creativity and innovation are the key driving force in the information age, and no firm can hope to withstand competition by delivering same / redundant products and services. Firms, which indulge in delivering creative and innovative products and services, on the other hand, have consistently outshined their rivals, thus reinforcing the relative significance of the concepts (Andriopoulos, Dawson, 2009). Organizations can be better equipped to face the challenges of the future, through a creative and innovative workforce. As established through various definitions, mentioned above, creativity precedes innovation. In the corporate world, regardless of their sector or ownership type, lack of creativity can lead to stagnation leading to an eventual failure of the firm / organization to adapt to change and meet consumer expectations. However, regardless of the significance of creativity and innovation in an organizational workforce, it cannot be achieved overnight and requires a conscious effort on the part of the management and leaders. Innovation cannot be achieved in a vacuum, and it requires a conscious effort on the part of the management and leaders of the organizations to ensure that the employees / workers are afforded adequate freedom, power and incentives to innovate and create novel ideas. Creativity can only flourish in organizations which encourage and support the development of new and innovative ideas (Morris et al., 2010; Cushman, King, 2001). Creativity thrives in organizations which encourage the development of new ideas and the generation of novel concepts. It requires the leaders and managers to create appropriate environments whereby the employees are constantly encouraged and motivated to participate in organizational activities, and the personnel are inspired to create and sustain innovative workplaces. The organizations which do not respond to changes and which are not open to creativity and innovation tend to stifle creativity, thus eliminating their chances for survival in this highly competitive corporate world (Light, 2005). The role of managers has changed significantly today, and their task is not to merely manage the organizations but to encourage change, and ensure the development of a sustainable environment which inspires the employees and the workforce to continuously participate in creativity and novel ideas. In order to ensure the development of such an environment, the management must ensure the establishment of effective channels of communication. This is because creativity can be fostered in an environment where there is effective interchange and interaction between the employees. Creativity and innovation requires the deployment of a model which encompasses the organizational goals and objectives and provides a platform for the development of effective inter and intra-organizational relationship, fosters creative makeup of employees i.e., their cognitive styles, abilities, knowledge, personality, etc., and encouraging working in teams (Kaufman, Sternberg, 2010; Davila et al., 2007). Creativity and the application of innovative ideas has long been recognized and acknowledged as key contributors to organizational success. Hence managers and leaders must take active steps in developing a creative workforce. In order to create a creative workforce, the management must ensure that employee orientation is conducted periodically for every new employee, whereby they are familiarized with the policies and goals of the organizations and the expectations and contributions required of them. The managers must encourage free exchange of dialogs and communication between the employees and provide a free environment for sharing of ideas and discussing issues relevant to them. This includes, discussion on challenges faced by them, encouraging their participation in group discussions and allowing them the liberty to voice their opinions and differences on issues relevant to them etc. The managers must stress the significance of taking risks and set ground rules or limits of risk taking, so that the employees are encouraged to take risks, innovate and yet avoid unnecessary wastage and loss to the organizations (Davila et al., 2007). Theoretical Perspective: Agency Theory The various concerns and assumptions with regard to the manner in which organizations and employees behave, operate and function are described by the agency theory. This theory address concerns with regard to problems faced between two parties i.e. the agent and the principal. The principal is involved in delegating responsibilities and the authority to take decisions to the agent, while the agent in turn is required to execute the orders of the principal and is in possession of vital information i.e., the manner in which s/he entails to execute the authority entrusted to him/her. This leads to the creation of friction between the two, and any failure to communicate or interact with each other might lead to failure to achieve the overall organizational goal (Eisenhardt, 1989). The principal can avoid the creation of such problem by developing and implementing appropriate control systems, and giving incentives to the agent, to motivate them to perform to their optimum levels. With regard to an organizational setting, the principal i.e. the managers / leaders can develop an effective incentive system to motivate and inspire the agent, i.e. the employees / workforce to perform to the best of their capabilities and generate creative ideas for the betterment of the organization (Chow et al., 1999). The assumptions regarding creativity and innovation are derived from the theory of social psychology of creativity (Amabile, 1996) which refers to the interaction between social and environmental factors and its association and impact on the personal characteristics and cognitive abilities of individuals. It has been observed that creativity can be fostered and developed through the inclusion of three key elements such as development of skills relevant to one’s scope of duties / field of work; skills relevant to creativity; and intrinsic task motivation. According to Amabile (1996) motivation to perform one’s task plays a key role in fostering creativity within employees. This is because the motivation to perform ones’ task helps the employees in overcoming and eliminating their shortcomings, and help in awakening their dormant creativity skills. Thus a high level of individual motivation results in high level of creativity among them. Other contextual theories: Other contextual theories of organizational creativity such as the componential model of creativity, helps in developing creativity and innovation in organizations. The theory states that organizational creativity can be encouraged through three key factors, which include: motivation to innovate; provision of adequate resources to encourage innovation; and application and development of favorable management practices that foster such innovation. Employees can be motivated to innovate by allowing them adequate freedom to take decisions and risks. This helps them in gaining a sense of ownership and control thus liberating their creative ideas. Furthermore framing of organizational policies such as offering reward and recognition for creativity, encourages the employees to participate actively in such projects and leads to development of innovative ideas (Amabile, 1996). Conclusion: In general terms, the concept of creativity and innovation are described and referred to as the ability and potential of employees to generate creative and innovative ideas. The description is apt, to a large extent, but involves active participation of the management in encouraging and fostering such creativity. The organizations’ workforce is considered as its creative capital is a valuable resource, which helps in sustaining the firms’ competitive positioning in the market for a long-term. History indicates that organizations which tend to innovate and develop creative ideas, tend to cope with the highly dynamic external environment, in a better manner as compared to their rivals. Change is inevitable in this information age, and the competitive landscape is dominated and led by organizations which are highly innovative and creative, thus the development of a creative workforce is the key tool to survive in the market. References: Amabile,T.M., Conti, R.., Coon, H.., Lazenby, J.., Herron, M.(1996): Assessing the work environment for creativity. In: Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 39, No. 5, p. 1154. Andriopoulos, C., Dawson, P., (2009). Managing change, creativity and innovation, SAGE Publication, Pp. 76-78 Chow, C. W., Shields, M. D., Wu, A., (1999). The importance of national culture in the design of and preference for management controls for multinational operations. In: Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol.24, p.441. Cushman, D. P., King, S. S., (2001). Excellence in communicating organizational strategy, SUNY Publication, Pp. 230-235 Eisenhardt, K. M (1989): Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review. In: The Academy of Management Review, Jan 1989, Vol.14, p. 57. Ford, (1995) in West, M. A., (1997). Developing creativity in organizations, Wiley-Blackwell Publication, Pp. 2 Hemlin et al., (2004) and Plucker et al., (2004) in Mumford, M. D., (2011). Handbook of Organizational Creativity, Academic Press, Pp. 272 Kaufman, J. C., Sternberg, R. J., (2010). The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge University Press, Pp. 155-160 Light, P. C., (2005). 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