Developing Individual and Organizational Creativity - Case Study Example

Case Study: Developing individual and organizational creativity Case Study: Developing individual and organizational creativity Introduction One of the elements that have been shown to be dependent on the level of individual and organizational creativity is innovation. This is a broad and complicated process that continuously demands several factors to contribute to the accomplishment of the organization (Mumford 2012, p. 106). On the other hand, creativity has been shown to fill in one gaping hole, which is the urgent requirement to correspond and develop new idea and information. In this case, as indicated by Faulkner (1994: 426), knowledge refers to encompass a wide range of elements which constitute knowledge, expertise skills and information. In this paper, the set of mechanisms towards being creative and innovative both in the capacity as individuals as well as the general form of the organization will be analyzed in the organization whose activities and performances I am very much aware of and well conversed with. This include those that the organization opted to put into practicality as well as those that individuals within the organization and other users chose to use so as to enhance inventiveness during both the processes of planning and expansion. Creativity and innovation are highly vital components within an organization since they help the management to come up with unique ideas that help in the improvement of productivity and hence the level of services provided. As such, it assists the organization in maintaining its competitive advantage among other competitors (Dace 1989, pp 4-13). Application of Creativity and Innovation Before I joined college I served as a volunteer at the Doctors without borders or the medecis san Frontieres (MSF) organization. I had been posted to work within the African countries that included Malawi where there are still numerous health problems in addition to high poverty levels that make it difficult for a large population in the different countries to access proper medical care. The Medecin Sans Frontiers is a nonprofit private international organization that helps people who are in need of the greatest emergency delivery of medical services across the world. It is because they are mostly affected by conflicts, disasters, epidemics and are excluded from the basic healthcare services. It is mainly made up of doctors and other workers in the health sector. However, it is also open to other professionals who are capable of offering their services to ensure that the organization’s mission and vision are realized. So as the organization is able to achieve its aims, the top managers require that all of its members honor and follow the principles that are laid down as follows: They are expected that in relation to the activities of Medecins Sans frontiers, they should provide aid to groups of people that are in agony, to those fatalities of both natural and artificial disasters as well as the victims of armed conflicts. All these activities should be doe irrespective of their political convictions, race, religion, or creed. They should always observe neutrality and universality in the name of providing ethical medical services as envisioned by Medecisn Sans Frontieres. They should also consider the right to humanitarian assistance in order to provide the full and unhindered freedom I the performance of various exercises and functions as claimed by the organization. Members are required to observe and undertake their ethical and professional codes of conduct at all times. This makes sure that they are able to uphold total independence from different kinds of powers, which may be presented from the political, religious and economic sectors. As volunteers, each of the members is faced with the task of undertaking the dangers and threats of the missions they are expected to perform. Thus, they are not expected to make claims either for themselves or for their assigns for any kind of compensation except for those which the organization is in a position to afford. With these, it is clear that the organization attempts to achieve creativity and innovative practices through the application of good practices that revolve around flexibility and responsibility of members (Medecins sans Frontieres 2014, pp. 1-5). Commonly, it can be considered to operate as an open system today. This is I the sense that it takes inputs that include people, money and resources from the exterior environment. It then transforms them through the process of people interaction, technology as well as other processes into yields, which are in the form of products. Subsequently, quality and usefulness of these products is measured through their levels of receptivity within the market. At doctors without borders this was done through the monitoring of how effective the external environment was towards these products. The interaction between customers and clients was judged with regard to the products and services that were offered within the organization. Activities of the Medecins sans frontiers organization The organization provides medical aid in the areas that it is needed most. It is set up to provide affordable health care services especially to the less fortunate within the society. They also make it highly accessible by setting their stations and healthcare facilities within some of the remotest areas. This is also made possible through their development of mobile clinics. At the center of the services provided by the MSF is the need to provide high quality medical services to the people who need it most. One of its founding principles involves the need to always speak out on all the necessary and relevant issues. The MSF is always ready to speak out on any given issue in a public way in case the situation requires this. It may include the neglect on a particular group, severe medical consequences from the actions of certain military or political activities or efforts or the lack of enough efforts from an international group to respond to an emergency. Moreover, there were numerous advocacy programs performed by MSF in boardrooms and capitals all over the world. They make a lot of efforts to combat policies which are likely to restrict the access of important medicines and healthcare to those who need it (Medecins sans frontiers 2014, p. 2). How things were done to enhance creativity and innovation At the organization of doctors without borders, most of the activities performed towards the provision of healthcare were done with the aim of rediscovering purpose, meaning and identity. They included the use of different methods such as public statements, op-ed articles, and different posts on the organization’s Facebook, twitter or Tumblr pages as well as various media appearances through which the word on a particular issue could be communicated. The leadership and management made efforts to ensure that most of the employees working within the organization made use of a set of mechanisms that offered the organization the ability to have their creative journey enriched to the highest levels. Some of the most common activities included the establishment of different experimentation techniques to ensure that they came up with new and unique methods of providing healthcare, enhanced communications among the different departments as well as always being ready to learn, which formed the greatest kind of reflection of creativity within the organization. Some of the activities in which the organization is engaged in to help them develop their level of creativity and innovation include their efforts towards being independent, neutral and impartial. In this way, the organization makes an effort to provide high quality medical care to all the people who need it first as their major priority. It achieves this by not promoting the agenda of any particular country, religious faith, political affiliation, or racial group. Therefore, it communicates its background, history and capabilities to all the parties involved within a particular situation so that it is able to gain access and reach all the populations in need. The management at the organization put learning at the core of its activities (West 2002, p. 181). This included the incorporation of processes that were used by the organization to apply information acquired from previous happenings to help them adjust to upcoming actions in a better way. On a regular basis, the employees were enrolled in training programs that enabled them to improve their knowledge in the different academic areas that were highly relevant to their provision of services. These especially related to the medical personnel who were engaged in extra trainings to upgrade their skills as well as to be able to refresh their memories on the different procedures. Employees also attended several seminar sessions that provided information about efficient relationships and work activities within an organization to enhance creativity and innovation. With these healthy relationships were constantly built and developed within the organization that was largely diverse. They subsequently, ensured that ideas were shared constantly and in conducive environments that led to their proper implementation. In addition, a lot of freedom was provided to the members and employees who were given the opportunity to conduct extensive research for knowledge. This was done both through the availability of opportunities for them to have learning sessions as well as through the conduct of numerous experimentations. In particular, the management at the doctors without borders established mechanisms through which feedbacks could be received in appropriate ways. At MSF, secure feedback loops were established among those who design, develop and the consumer. It was done through the performance of research methods that made use of different elements such as the use of questionnaires among members, researchers and the community. The method contributed significantly towards the detection of fresh concepts and the establishment of innovative issues through a number of experimentations. This was performed hand in hand with the development of proper communication methods, which were also made known to most of us as the employees through engagement in training sessions. Owing to this, most of the original outcomes of the different activities performed at MSF were considered to be a result of the interior channels of communication at the company. In addition to this, the other part of the learning process which was used at the organization was product testing. This included the testing of different new products and procedures. It was mainly applied during research where a particular product could not be introduced without being tested. These included vaccines as well as other medications that were offered to patients. Other administrative procedures were also put to the test before they were promptly applied to contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of services provided. Factors and Activities that inhibited creativity and innovation at MSF Despite the numerous efforts that were put to ensure that the creative and innovative processes at the organization were either maintained or improved, there were also additional activities that inhibited the enhancement of creativity. For instance, the total nature of independence upheld by the organization set it aside from most of the organizations and corporations that were important in performing comparative activities. Thus, most of the members and leaders were not in a position to interact easily and freely with other organizations to identify the creative and innovative factors that made them unique. This sidelining aspect tended to limit the capacity of the organization to perform competitively within the healthcare industry. In addition, individual creativity and the encouragement of an entrepreneurial concept were not actively performed hence the lack of flexibility I relation to the involvement of individual activities. In addition to this, the organization also made a lot of emphasis on the observation of best practices, which instead of enhancing the level of creativity and innovation since they tended to act as a discouragement against optimum arrangements that always changed as other circumstances changed as well (Medecins Sans Frontieres 2014, p. 1-5). Individual and Organizational efforts towards creativity and innovation at MSF In this respect my personal behavior and that of other individuals who worked at the organization greatly influenced the support towards innovation and creativity. They were all encompassed within the ability of individuals to uphold the organizational culture and thus included the actions of managers and leaders. As individuals, most of the employees made a lot of efforts to bring about creativity by being able to communicate those elements that are potentially creative in order to fuel the innovative capacity of the organization (OECD 1982, p. 106). Individual creativity It is a common practice that old products are replaced by the new ones and those new ideas will always be introduced to substitute the old ones. All these are as a result of creativity, which acts as the identifying factors through which the ways things are done undergo change. It serves as the driving force for entrepreneurship at all levels. With this, profits and overall success are anticipated through the early innovation of products and services. In order for a corporation to become successful and maintain or improve its position within a competitive market, it is important that a passive image of innovation is placed on the scenario upon which it is placed and centered on the individual as the innovator. In particular, as is indicated by Ford and Gioia (1995), those who are in search of the highest level of creativeness have conventionally been attentive on the single and lone innovator who achieves it through invention. This is mainly outlined and related to the view that is centered on a single person to reveal its usefulness. However, it is known that even the most innovative and inventive person is a team that is disguised in the form of an individual according to Kelley and Littman (2001, p 80). The fact that there can be a lone genius usually distracts most individuals from making a more constructive center on the cause of vision that bears a high level of potential. This lies in the entire organization as the collective creativity of people who are working together as a team. With this, most of the members working at MSF made as much effort as possible to remove these barriers and obstacles that have been found to hinder creativity within the organization. It is in the way that most of them developed positive interaction skills and the way they also embodied the spirit of teamwork that enhanced their level of participation and contribution in the different essential areas. It is because of this strategy that the idea of the lone inventor was considered a myth at the MSF (Rawlins & Rawlins 2006, p 43). Organizational creativity Creative organizations are always complex, political, social and technological systems. It is important that the leadership in various organizations is able to make good application of their skills to appreciate varied kinds of knowledge presented at the individual, team and organizational levels in a simultaneous way. This enables them to make proper identification of the creative outlets and the most appropriate ways to implement them through the relevant set of mechanisms. The MSF was thus reflected as a creative organization due to the ability of its top leadership to create a proper balances in the integration of two most important and central offerings. They include the autonomy for entrepreneurship and the creativity achieved at individual levels. It is because the creativity within an organization is mainly associated with the link between the risky balance that is brought out by essential factors such as compromise, complexity and the choices made within the organization. External creativity and Innovation measures Besides those that worked within the organization, other people from the outside areas also contributed to the creative and innovative activities that led to the success of the organization. Since Doctors without borders is a nonprofit organization, most of the employees are placed on voluntary services. For this reason, different people have devised creative ways through which they raise money for Doctors without borders. It is through such fundraising activities that it becomes possible for the teams within the organization to provide emergency medical care to the men, women and children who are affected by instances of malnutrition, disease outbreaks, armed conflicts, tsunamis and earthquakes in areas where they are the sole providers of urgent medical treatment. Although the creativity and innovation within an organization is not an individual sport, there are those efforts made by individuals that can create significant change in the way some of these organizations perform their activities. Doing things more differently It is because of this that if I got the opportunity to go back to the organization or to do things in a completely different way to enhance creativity, I would ensure that I am more involved in the activities and take part in a more active way. One of the ways through which I could get this done is by highly participating in team work to bring about change. Mainly, I would not concentrate on the aspect of my individual contribution to the organization. I would ensure that I engage in the sharing of ideas with other colleagues as much as possible. In addition, I would offer myself more in any field possible to make certain that the services provided help to realize the aims and objectives of the organization in a better way. This would include giving more time in research activities that do not require a lot of skills or expertise in addition to the offering of my voluntary services in many other areas when required. With this, the association with more people as well as taking part in many other varied activities could have led to a higher level of invention which in turn could have led to the significant contribution to the creative and innovative activities of the organization. As a result, the activities within the organization could have been improved leading to customer satisfaction hence the attainment of most of the goals and objectives of the organization in terms of retaining a competitive position. This is because, although individual efforts play a vital role in the contribution of the creativity and innovative aspect within an organization, it is only when individual efforts are brought together through sharing that they are able to create a positive impact in relation to the activities of the organization (Morgan 1997, p 65). Conclusion The MSF organization is reputably known all across the world due to its exemplary provision of quality healthcare especially among populations that are disadvantaged by certain unforeseen circumstances such as calamities and famine. Among the organizations that provide healthcare, they have been found to offer exemplary services that always act as a benchmark for the others. This has been linked to the numerous efforts made towards being innovative and enhancing the level of quality health always offered. The management has for a long time combined important elements such as creativity, experimentation, learning and internal communications to achieve this However, there is still need to make further improvements and involve both the individual and corporate in different ways to achieve success Bibliography Dace, R., 1989. “Japanese new product development”. Quarterly Review of Marketing. Vol. 14 (2): pp. 4-13. 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