Creativity and Innovation - Literature review Example

Creativity and Innovation Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name Date of Submission Executive Summary Creativity and innovation has become a trend in the business field. The report has indicated that innovation is used by companies as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Creativity and innovation help enables companies to respond to the market trends and competition, used as a unique selling point, as well as maximizing what a firm already has at its disposal. The report has also shown that, to become innovative, a company must cultivate the culture of innovativeness, which starts from the commitment of top level managers down to the employees. However, the education system also has a huge role in promoting creativity and innovation by imparting students with the creative knowledge and ideas that they can bring to businesses when they enter the job market. As such, the report concludes that education sector and the managers should endeavor to promote creativity and innovative culture to ensure the production of employees that would help drive businesses into success. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Concepts of Creativity & Innovation in Education Context 4 Concepts of Creativity & Innovation in Business Context 5 Application of Creativity and Innovation in Business 6 Application of Creativity and Innovation in Education 9 Personal Reflection 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Appendix 15 Introduction The environments in which organizations operate have become increasingly competitive. This applies to both for-profit and non-profit making organizations. Therefore, Matthews and Brueggemann (2015) suggest that, to compete effectively and stay in business, organizations are forced to cultivate the culture of creativity and innovativeness. Researchers, scholars and analysts are in consensus that no organization whatsoever can succeed in the present day marketplace without being innovative and creative, notes Horibe (2009). The aim of this report is fourfold. The first part of the report will deal with the nature of creativity and innovation in general, business and education context. The second part will described how creativity and innovation is applied in business context and the third part in education context. The fourth part of the report will be a description of personal reflection regarding creativity and innovation. Concepts of Creativity & Innovation in Education Context Creativity and innovation have been recognized as being a necessity that needs to be included in the curriculum, especially in primary schools. As such, this has resulted in the emergence in an attempt by different scholars in the education circles to define the term. The first definition for the term innovation that has influenced the thinking of other scholars is that developed by Torrance (1974). According to Torrance, creativity is the process of detecting a problem, looking for possible solutions to the problem, developing hypothesis, assessing and communication the outcome to others. The author proceeded to add that innovation involves generation of original ideas, a different viewpoint, and seeing new associations among ideas. Feldman, Cziksentmihalyi and Gardner (1994), however, define creativity as the ability to accomplish something extraordinary and new that is capable of changing a given field in a big way. In other words, the authors view creativity and innovation as the ability of an individual or organization to come up with something that can transform the world. Rhyammer and Brolin (1999) have a different view of what creativity and innovation entails. According to them, creativity is the extraordinary human thought and creation capability. Seltzer and Bentley (1999) took the definition of creativity and innovation a notch higher in education context by defining the concept of creativity as the ability of an individual to apply his/her knowledge and skills in ways that results in the realization of valued goals. To realize this, Seltzer and Bentley (1999) suggest that learners must possess four critical qualities that include: the ability to recognize problems, instead of relying on others to define them; capability to utilize acquired knowledge and skills to solves a problem; believing in learning as an incremental process which if repeated will produce positive outcome and the ability to focus on pursuing a target. Concepts of Creativity & Innovation in Business Context Creativity is recognized as a necessity for the success of any business. Accordingly, a variety of definitions has been developed that attempts to explain the concept in business context. Kaplan and Poole (2012) define innovation as the creation and introduction of new concept, idea or behavior that is new to a company. This includes the creation and implementation of new business practices and ways of doing business to ensure organizational success. In this respect, Kaplan and Poole note that innovation is the engine that drives organizational success as it helps differentiate a company from another. However, the authors argue that creativity and innovation go hand in hand in the sense that to gain from creativity, there is a need for innovation. Application of Creativity and Innovation in Business The business environment has become more competitive than ever before due to globalization and technological advancements. Several bodies of research have found that innovation and creativity is very critical to the success of businesses today. Firstly, Håkansson and Waluszewski (2007) argue that innovation and creativity is critical to businesses because it enable an organization respond effectively to the market trends. The market is very dynamic and experiences constant changes due to the changing needs and preferences of consumers, as well as macro-environmental changes. As such, to remain relevant and successful, a company must be able to respond to the changes by identifying the opportunities that might emerge in the future and the threats that needs to be minimized to ensure success. However, McKeown (2014) argues that such is only possible for businesses that foster creativity and innovation as part of their business culture. As competition gets stiffer in the marketplace, it is suggested that only creative and innovative businesses will remain relevant. In this respect, Matthews and Brueggemann (2015) noted that being innovative is an important thing for businesses because it helps a company stay ahead of its competitors because creativity and innovation allows such businesses to respond quickly to market trends, and technologies. Therefore, by being innovative and creative, a business is able to provide consistently high quality products and services to customers, thereby resulting in a sustainable competitive advantage. Ryhammar and Brolin (1999) reckon that innovation is critical to an organization as it enables a business maximize the use of what they already have in disposal. They reckon that innovation is not just about developing new services or products to sell to customers; rather it also requires focusing on existing business processes and practices to ensure enhanced efficiency, acquire new customers, minimize waste and cost and improve profitability. Besides, Horibe (2009) noted that being creative and innovating constantly the business practices places a business at a better position to attract and retain top-notch-staff. This is valuable as it provides a company with a sustainable business advantage. Additionally, creativity and innovation is important for firms as it can be used as a unique selling point for a company. To attract customers to a business, the firm must be able to add value to customers. Fortunately, Craft (1999) study has shown that customers mostly see innovation as a way of adding value to a company and its products. Therefore, if properly utilized, innovation can provide a business with a commercial advantage in highly saturated markets. Craft, Jeffrey and Leibling (2001) noted that customers are normally willing to pay more for a company that have a well-designed, innovative and novel services or products, instead of choosing cheaper, but poorly designed products or services of rival companies. Further, promoting creativity and innovation is important in an organization as it not only increases a firm’s market share, but also ensures increased commitment level from workers. However, creativity and innovation thrive in organizations where innovation is made part of the business culture. According to Ekvall (1996), promoting a culture of innovation and creativity starts with top management that must be open-minded and acknowledging that because the world is dynamic and keeps changing, an organization must also be innovative to keep up with the changes. Being open minded is critical as it fosters curiosity which in turn promotes innovation. Creating an innovating culture also requires that the management of an organization provide employees with ample time to experiment their ideas (Craft, 2001). Successful companies, such as Google, 3M, Samsung, Atlassian and Apple all promote creative and innovative culture by giving workers time to experiment their new ideas. Atlassan, for instance, promotes innovation by providing its workers time off for exploring new ideas and opportunities (Murray, 2015). Additionally, businesses can create innovative culture by encouraging risk taking. Risk taking is important in developing a creative and innovative culture since innovation is all about risk taking and experimenting things that others have never done. Besides, organizations can promote innovative culture by creating an environment of trust in the ideas that employees come up with that can be of benefit to a business. Google is a classical example of a firm that has applied creativity and innovation to achieve a competitive edge over its rivals in the industry. Although Google operates in a competitive technology, the firm has maintained a lead in the industry mainly due to the fact that the company fosters the culture of innovation and creativity (Savoia and Copeland, 2011). For instance, Google is the most used search engine in the world. To achieve and maintain this lead, the company has ensured that it responds to the changing needs of its customers by using innovative approaches to ensure that it designs an effective and user-friendly search engines and that the search engine has the features that users are looking for in a search engine (He, 2015). Additionally, to enhance the quality of its online services, Google introduced algorithms that update ads according to the needs of the advertisers, notes Teeter and Barksdale (2009). Application of Creativity and Innovation in Education As in business, creativity and innovation is a valuable resource in education. As the world continues to evolve, innovation and creativity is important to ensure that the existing education system keeps pace with the changes. Creativity is cited as an important thing that needs to be fostered in pupils in any education setting as it enable students to discover and create a framework for their lives. According to Craft, Jeffrey and Leibling (2001), promoting creativity and innovation in pupils across the education curriculum has the potential of enabling students ‘route-find’ in a variety of contexts in their lives. Tidd, and Bessant (2013) call the social implications of this as ‘creating entrepreneurial culture,’ he claims are a necessity if the society is to keep up with the changes happening in the world. As noted previously, organizations that intend hope to succeed in the present day competitive and dynamic landscape must cultivate a democratic culture that fosters innovation. However, education is seen to play a critical part in these endeavors. In this respect, Ekvall (1996) argues that fostering partnership and teamwork is critical in the education setup because it prepares students for work in businesses that desires to be creative and single-minded for them to be efficient and effective in their marketplace. In other words, Craft, Jeffrey and Leibling (2001) argue that fostering the culture of creativity in education curriculum is very important because it goes a long way in impacting the performance of the organizations in which they students would work after graduating. This is because students that have creative and innovative minds at schools end up becoming innovative even in their future career endeavors, that in turn results in the success of their ventures and those of the organizations they work. Fostering creativity and innovation in pupils is also critical because it prepares students to able to compete effectively in the job market. Today, companies are looking for top-notch talents that are capable of making organizations compete effectively in the market. However, this is only possible if colleges and universities foster innovative and creating thinking in their students. In fact, Craft, Jeffrey and Leibling (2001) study found that workers that were former students of colleges and universities that promote innovation and creativity do better at work than their counterparts from schools that do not promote innovation and creative thinking. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of creative and innovative students entering the job market. Personal Reflection Completing this assignment on creativity and innovation has been a valuable lesson to me as it has taught me a lot about the importance of innovation and creativity and why I need to foster it in my future endeavors. All the studies in both education and business environment are in agreement that creativity and innovation is critical to the success of any business. In particular, I have learned that innovation is an important source of sustainable business advantage. According to the literature, businesses succeed and survive only when they achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Unfortunately, no business can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage without cultivating a culture of creativity and innovation. For instance, completing this assignment have made me learn that giant companies such as Google have managed to maintain a lead in their industries of operation mainly because they promote a culture of creativity and innovation by allowing their employees to exploit their talents and come up with new ideas that are of benefit to the company. Therefore, based on the valuable lesson learned by completing this assignment, I intend to foster the culture of creativity and innovation in the organization that I will work for in the future by giving employees space and conducive environment where they can exploit their talents so that they can come up with innovative ideas. This include ensuring that viable ideas are promoted and funded as necessary to ensure the development of innovative and creative ideas that would help the firm I work for keep with the changing technologies and the needs of consumers in the market. Besides, completing this assignment has made me learn that educational institutions, just like companies have an important role in promoting creativity and innovation. In this regard, I have come to understand that colleges and universities should ensure that students are provided with an enabling environment that promotes creativity and innovation in their students as this has an effective of making such students become competitive in the job market and become innovative in their career endeavors. Therefore, as a human resource practitioner, it would be important that I partner with the institutions that promote creativity and innovation to help provide the organization that I work for obtain talents that are nurtured through creative and innovative thinking. Conclusion Creativity and innovation are no doubt important for the success of a business. The evidences provided by the researchers have indicated that creativity and innovation are not just a trend, but are a source of sustainable competitive advantage. As indicated in the discussion, giant firms, such as Google have managed to maintain a lead in their industries because they have cultivated innovative culture that has become their way of doing business. Unfortunately, studies have shown that there is a gap in the education system as far as producing students with creative and innovative minds is concerned. As such, there is an increased need for the education system to ensure that creative and innovating thinking is taught right from primary school levels to ensure the production of creative and innovative students with the skills and knowledge that is required in the job market. Additionally, businesses that intend to succeed in the rapidly changing marketplace must ensure that they make innovation part of their business culture; otherwise they would not survive. References Craft, A. (1999). Creative development in the early years: Implications of policy for practice. The Curriculum Journal, 10(1), 135-150. Craft, A. (2001). Creativity across the primary curriculum. London: Routledge. Craft, A, Jeffrey, B, Leibling, M. (2001). Creativity in education: current perspectives on policy and practice. London: Cassell. Ekvall, G. (1996). Organizational climate for creativity and innovation. European work and organizational psychology, 5, 105-123. Feldman, D.H, Czikszentmihalyi, M, & Gardner, H (1994). Changing the world, a framework for the study of creativity. London: Praeger Publishers. Håkansson, H., & Waluszewski, A. (2007). Knowledge and innovation in business and industry: the importance of using others. London: Routledge. He, L. (2015). Google's secrets of innovation: Empowering its employees. Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahe/2013/03/29/googles-secrets-of-innovation-empowering-its-employees/#74dba1317eb3 Horibe, F. (2009). Creating the innovation culture: Leveraging visionaries, dissenters and other useful troublemakers. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Kaplan, H. B., & Poole, M. S. (2012). Organizational innovation: Studies of program change in community agencies. London: Springer Science & Business Media. Matthews, C. H., & Brueggemann, R. (2015). Innovation and entrepreneurship: A competency framework. New York, NY: Routledge. McKeown, M. (2014). The innovation book: how to manage ideas and execution for outstanding results. Mason, OH: Pearson Education Limited. Murray, A. (2015). 50 most innovative companies. Fortune http://fortune.com/2015/12/02/50-most-innovative-companies/ Savoia, A., & Copeland, P. (2011). Entrepreneurial Inovation at Google . IEEE: Computer, 18(11), 7. Ryhammar, L. & Brolin, C. (1999). Creativity research: historical considerations and main lines of development. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 43(3), 259-273. Seltzer, K. & Bentley, T (1999). The creative age: knowledge and skills for the new economy. London: Demos. Teeter, R., & Barksdale, K. (2009). Google Sites and Chrome for dummies. Boston, MA: John Wiley & Sons. Tidd, J., & Bessant, J. (2013). Managing innovation. (5th Edition)  New York:  John Wiley & Sons. Torrance, E.P. (1974). Torrance tests of creative thinking. Lexington, MA: Ginn & Company (Xerox Corporation), Appendix Mind Map for Creativity and Innovation Read More