Creativity, Innovation and Design Assignment 1
‘Successful creativity, innovation and design thinking activities within organizations are dependent on the work of individual employees only’
Introduction
The standard definition of creativity is bipartite (Runco & Jaeger, 2012) and envelops both novelty and utility. It is often thought of as the antecedent of innovation (Litchfield, RC, 2017). Innovation can then be aptly defined as the successful implementation of said creativity (Amabile et al., 1996, p.1155). The ideas cannot become fruitful without applying these processes to suit organisational needs (Hughes et al., 2018, p.551). Design thinking is the set of processes that are engaged, particularly in experiential Organisational Cultures, to solve problems with a focus on the end-user. These three concepts are widely attributed to the work of individuals. Most literature concerning creativity densely focusses on the individual aspects of creativity (Parjanen, S, 2012) and neglects to consider the collective creativity which feeds into collective innovation and design thinking. Firms in the current social, technological and political climate need to emphasise creativity, innovation and design thinking at at an overarching organisational level to achieve competitive advantage. There are both physical and non-physical aspects of the organisational environment that can be enhanced in order to facilitate organisational creativity, innovation and design thinking. As will be discussed, these environmental factors play a more sustainable role than to merely hire workers whom rate high on creativity.
Social-Organisational Work Environment
The social-organisational work environment plays a distinguishing role in the promotion of creativity, innovation and design thinking. At the centre of this idea is the knowledge worker whom may possess, or can be induced to create novel and useful ideas through the implementation of various socio-organisational factors (Dul et al., 2011). These individual creatives can also be referred to as the “creative class”. The umbrella term of socio-organisational work environment can be dissected further into culture and leadership style; and diversity and collaboration. Dul et al. (2011) suggests that these elements of the work environment can extrinsically motivate knowledge workers and induce creativity.
Leadership Style: Transformational Leadership
Becoming increasingly crucial to facilitate employee and organisational innovative efforts is the inherent Organisational Culture and the Leadership Styles adopted throughout each tier of management (Jamiu & Ndubuisi, 2017). Transformational Leadership is heralded to be particularly effective in enhancing organisational innovation. Bass (1985), defines a transformational leader as one who inspires their subordinates, who is dynamic, proactive and can lead subordinates beyond their own self-interests (Khalili, 2016), but rather towards a collective good. These leaders hav...
