Organizational Creativity Entrepreneurship and Innovation - Essay Example

Organizational creativity entrepreneurship and innovation: Why is creativity and innovation important to Company A? Creativity and innovation is very important for company A and this can be understood from the company’s case study. The nature of business in company A is one that requires creativity and innovations from time to time. “Organizational creativity is a function of creative output of individuals and groups within a given context (e.g. culture, climate, resources, and external environment). Inputs are transformed through creative behavior and the creative situation, dependent on social and contextual enablers and constraints (e.g. management attitudes, values and climate)” (Pauline, n.d, P. 1). Company A primarily functions as a drug testing research centre, therefore, the business requires scientific approach. There has been an increased competition in the last two years in this industry and, thus, if creativity and innovation is not adopted at the appropriate time then the competitors will surpass company A. Creativity and innovation in Company A is governed by some factors, which are mainly, a vision to create new products and services in order to capture new markets, adopting a systematic process in order to boost creativity, focusing on the present customer needs as well as future demands. Innovation is based on strong leadership skill in company A. “Reward and recognition system for teams that take measured risks and experiment” (Creativity and Innovation in Business, 2011, P. 35). Creativity and innovation in company A is needed in order to generate new ideas, which is very important for surviving competition and pushing the business over new boundaries. “The focus of group creativity research has been on comparing the group ideation process with individual ideation” (Thompson, et al. 2006, P. 75). Creativity and innovation is essential for them to achieve greater business orientation and for the generation of new and scientifically refined ideas, which are important for the success of company A. Recognizing the importance of these two aspects, company A has created creativity club and book clubs, in order to introduce new ideas to induce innovation. Thus, in turn, has led to the company’s new research of drug testing on humans apart form race horses and grey hounds. “For example, using ratings by employees of the overall innovation of their own R&D laboratories, Paolillo and Brown (1978) found positive cor- relations for innovation with autonomy, information flow, creativity, re- wards, and training” (Richard, et al. n.d, P.14). Therefore, Company A has transformed itself from a small enterprise consisting of six employees to an organization which has been taken over by Quotient Bio research Ltd and has a turnover of more than 10 million pounds and is now, a part of the World doping agency. 2 How can creativity and innovation be stimulated, supported and sustained: If the organizations have to step up to the mark of organizational revolutions happening in the 21st century, the only thing that can help in serving the purpose is facilitating creativity and innovation. For simulating, supporting and sustaining the organizational creativity and innovation and entrepreneurship, the main role is assigned to leadership and human resource management and development section. But the current system lacks such efficient ideas needed for promotion. Researching from the psychological perceptive, emphasizing on individual characteristics, cognitive and social processes, we can define creativity as the generation of original and useful ideas. On the other hand, innovation is the exploitation of the creative ideas, from sociological, economical and organizational perspectives. There are many theories supporting creativity, some of which are: Psychodynamic theory: This approach refers to the ideas arising from unconscious thoughts of individuals and later relating to conscious matters by various processes. According to physiologist Sigmund Freud, creativity arises from tension between conscious reality and unconscious drives. This theory was later supported by different studies. It was later extended to psychoanalytic studies. However, Gestalt, a psychoanalyst, suggested that creative ideas result from various insights and not by any unconscious thoughts. According to him, new ideas or thoughts come as a solution to new problems. Poincare, a scientist stressed on the unconscious thoughts. He believed that creative ideas are generated only as a sudden process and there should be definite study based on that. Walla’s modified theory proposes that creative ideas come from the analysis and evaluation of the present problems. Psychometric approach: This approach states that creativity is generated from the sheer intelligence of genius individuals. Unlike the earlier theory, it involves extraordinary process and brilliant people. Social personality approach: Here, the creativity researches focused on improvement of personal characteristics and motivational variables to work as a determinant for creativity. Cognitive: The modern thinking starts from the cognitive approaches, which emphasize on creative thinking and development of advanced problem solving techniques. This approach investigates the mental representation and process underlying the creative thinking and various ways of enhancing mental thinking. Pragmatic approaches: It is the continuation of cognitive approach, which involves training in creative thinking process. It involves brainstorming and lateral thinking techniques for creative problem solving. (Morris, n.d). All these theories aid to the development of creative ideas leading to innovations. Theories can be used for practical purposes for developing new ideas, which would lead the organization in the path of progression. Various factors that enhance and support creativity and innovations are: “Openness to new ideas Creating an organizational environment to facilitate creative thinking Investment from board to enhance the process Reconstruction of organizational structure Strong communication channels” (Martins & Martins, 2002). 3. How important was the appointment of the new CE to the process? The appointment of the new CE in company A, has been the most important factor that led to the development of this business from a small organization to one of the most prominent organizations in the recent years. The CE becoming a part of company A in year 2001 was a very important process and played a crucial role in the expansion of this organization. There are mainly two types of leadership strategies, which are, creative leadership and authentic leadership. Authentic leadership implies the leadership, which is characterized by high insight into the company’s vision and high initiative skills. Authentic leaders are integral to the organization and they exert pressure for the optimum growth of the company. The creative leadership can in turn, be divided into two parts, which are, transactional and transformational leadership. The leadership style, which has to be chosen, depends on the organization’s goals and objectives. (Avolio, et al. 2004). “Transactional leadership is not long term. It is short term. The key word here is transactions! The leader does not expect any "return business" with the people he is dealing with. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, is a very different kind of leadership. It takes into account the motivation and the situation of the followers and subordinates. It primes up people for repeat business and continuous improvements” (Rasing, 2011). Taking the case of company A, it is necessary to understand that its development started once it had been relieved form the oppressive management to the appointment of the new CE, who encouraged creativity and innovation in the company. Thus, this generated new ideas and the company’s growth increased under his modern and refined leadership skills where he led the organization as a whole team and focused on team development. The new CE has been able to generate staff motivation and enthusiasm by making use of a variety of formal as well as informal techniques; this expresses his leadership skills. His appointment has been a boost for the development of the company and he acts as a true leader with increasing motivation among workers, generating new ideas to sustain competition, developing new clubs, initiating special and focused meetings and incorporating new business goals and objectives. The excellent leadership skills demonstrated by him, have been the reason why the takeover of the firm led to generate a turnover of 10 million pounds for them. 4, Why is effective communication so important to changing organizational culture: In the current situation of business organization, it is important that communication among different sections of the organizations is sound enough to convey information essential for them. All the sections must be well aware of the various strategies and goals of the company. From workers to different professionals to senior managers, everyone should work as team for the well being of the company, for this, there needs to be sufficient communication channel available. Various policies are adopted by the company to facilitate sharing and communication among different sections in order to ensure involvement from all levels. For the effective implementation of creative ideas and innovations, there should be effective participation from all the concerned individuals; this calls for a provision for sharing the ideas of all individuals without any partiality. Keeping these facts in mind, the company has designed the creativity club and innovation club for free exchange of ideas. Creative club consists of 18 members comprising of volunteers from each section, they meet on monthly or bimonthly basis, to discuss about various matters regarding the different sections. Various issues relating to the company and new ideas for its development are identified and discussed in these meetings. All sorts of predicaments are identified and their solutions are evolved. Boards of directors utilize these meetings to focus on various strategies which require creativity. The implementation of different ideas and various techniques to enhance creativity are discussed at the innovation clubs. The club facilitates all the people working in the company to participate and they can convey their ideas any day, during the lunchtime. These clubs allow the workers to work on real time problems of the organization. As a first step, one of the managers has used the finger-painting technique to solve the communication problem, which succeeded in all levels of the organization. Like this, many other techniques can be used to facilitate communication among the members of the organization. As the transformation of creative ideas to performance depends mainly on communication and shared perception between all levels of the organization, there should be a shared and overall understanding of current problems and strategies the organization deals with. All the sections should work for a common goal. At the present stage, main thing that lacks is the shared meaning or understanding. (Communicating within the Organization, n.d). 5. Why is it important to replace senior managers who block change? It is important to reconstruct the organizational structure in order to facilitate the emergence of creativity and innovation among all levels of the organization. At the present stage, there is a certain hindrance at the managerial level, which directly and indirectly affects the progress of the company. So the first change should be made at the managerial level. Senior managers, who are against new ideas and creativity, should be replaced, because it is the managers who mostly influence the other members. This change in the managerial level to enhance creativity and innovation can directly magnify the creativity at the lower levels. Also, these new managers can bring new ideas to the organization, which can not only lift the lower sections’ performance, but also encourage board to invest more on the company matters. This will later lead to the creation of an environment that will facilitate creativity and innovation simultaneously. It is very important to embrace this change, as positive changes in an organization should grow on a daily basis. When senior managers become the people who resist positive changes in an organization by not providing a platform for creativity and innovation, then their replacement is essential, keeping in mind the overall development of the company. Even this case study shows the replacement of the old management by the new CE who with his enhanced vision has helped in the development of company A. Senior managers need to be positive thinking and such managers do not need any replacement. “The company may also need to replace managers because they are too closely tied to former ways of doing business” (Sethi, 1998, P.148). Reference List Avolio., et al. 2004. Authentic Leadership Model. [Online] emerald insight. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/0250230505001.png [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Creativity and Innovation in Business, 2011. [Online] Creativity Innovation eBookAvailable, P.35 at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=019HURmzyy8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=creativity+and+innovation+in+business&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Communicating within the Organization, n.d. [Online] Bizmove. Available at: http://www.bizmove.com/skills/m8m.htm [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Martins, E. & Martins, N., 2002. An organizational culture model to Promote creativity and innovation. [Online] Journal of Industrial Psychology. Available at: http://www.sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/viewFile/71/69 [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Morris, W., n.d. A Survey of Organizational Creativity. [Online] A Survey of Organizational Creativity. Available at: http://www.jpb.com/creative/OrganisationalCreativityMorris.pdf [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Pauline., n.d. Climate for creativity and innovation. Loewenberger, P. 1 Rasing, M., 2011. The Difference between Transactional and Transformational Leadership. [Online] Ezinearticles. Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difference-Between-Transactional-and-Transformational-Leadership&id=3710880 [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Richard, w., et al. n.d. Toward a theory of organizational creativity. p.14 Sethi., 1998. Organizational Transformation Through Business Process Reengineering: Applying Lessons Learned. [Online] Pearson Education India, P.148 Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Z4XM2V0ywhEC&pg=PA148&dq=Why+is+it+important+to+replace+senior+managers+who+block+change&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Why%20is%20it%20important%20to%20replace%20senior%20managers%20who%20block%20change&f=false [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Thompson, LL., et al. 2006. Creativity and innovation in organizational teams. [Online] Routledge, P.75 Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=SmEbJlX17gMC&pg=PA75&dq=the+importance+of+creativity+innovation+in+a+scientific+organization&hl=en#v=onepage&q=the%20importance%20of%20creativity%20innovation%20in%20a%20scientific%20organization&f=false [Accessed 8 April 2011]. Read More