Enumerate whether Creativity and Innovation are mutually exclusive or mutually exhaustive.
In the present era of globalisation and advancement creativity and innovation has become a widely discussed issue. In this particular assignment the author has conducted an extensive research on creativity and innovation. However, before ushering towards the huge canvas of the conducted research, it is necessary to effectively define the terms creativity and innovation. It is also necessary to identify whether these two are same and whether they are mutually exclusive.
While searching for the definitions of creativity and innovation apart from the context of the classroom notes, the researcher has obtained some interesting results. Author focused on the topics as a means of defining problems,idea generation, eliminating perceived valued, brainstorming, equilateral thinking and creativity(Somech & Drach-Zahavy, 2013). However, the text clearly specifies that this is not the definition of creativity and innovation.
On the other end of the spectrum, author of the paper Intelligence, creativity and innovation have defined creativity as the procedure of generating useful and novel ideas; the text has not focused effectively over innovation(Squalli & Wilson, 2014).Nelson’s Organisational Behaviour which is a necessary text book for a core unit for the students of Federation University contains both creativity as well as innovation in its index. As specified in the index creativity is emphasized in pages 142, 153-154 and 155-157 while innovation is explained in the pages 30-33, 142, 188, 248 and finally in 298. In page number 143 the title of creativity is found to be in bold letter, however, here a discussion about creativity in the context of teams as well as individuals is discussed rather than clearly defining it. Finally a definition of creativity can be seen in the page 155 which specifies that creativity is simply a process induced by factors which may be individual as well as organisational and thereby gives rise to novel and useful ideas, products or both (Nelson & Quick, 2016).
At this point of research while the researcher was extensively emphasising on the undergraduate to post graduate course materials, it has been observed that there is no connection between creativity and innovation. At the same time no definition of innovation is available as well.
As it has been observed in the Fatimah’s personal website that creativity and innovation can be incorporated in the education system. As per Fatimah, alongside the other activities creative techniques for learning have been implemented in the classes. The teachers are being trained to become more innovative. The website explains that an innovative teacher or educator will always try to find out new ways through which the process of teaching could be made more effective and efficient(Fatimah’s Personal Website, 2017).
On an added notion authors have also explained creativity as a cognitive process through which ideas, commodities and concepts can be developed (Benedek, Jauk, Sommer, Arendasy, & Neubauer, 2014). In this definition discovery is considered as novel by the creator or may seem to be novel to the target audiences. The text also defines innovation simply as a new idea which is applied for the initiation or improvement of a process, service or product. The main distinctive feature of this text is it links innovation with entrepreneurship and leadership but not with creativity. Creativity is discussed only in the context of decision making activities. Ultimately a connection has been specified by researcher, as nurturing creativity and innovation amongst those who are surrounding an individual is as challenging as improving the person’s own creativity(Dawson & Andriopoulos, 2014).
As specified by researchers creativity is the process of producing novel and creative ideas in any dominion of human activity and it is also identified as the first step towards innovation.They have also shed light over the definition of creativity provided by Gurteens (1998). The discussion of them looks upon creativity as procedure of generating ideas and innovation as the process through which these ideas can be implied into action by shifting and refining them.
Recently Warby Parker has depicted the introduction of creativity in corporate culture and thereby it has achieved significant success as well. It has a devoted creative team within the enterprise that looks after the operations within the organisation. At the same time the team also arranges fun events, dinners and several other programmes(Dawson & Andriopoulos, 2014).
On the other hand creativity in a business context has also been defined as a process through which novel ideas can be generated (Somech & Drach-Zahavy, 2013). The author also stated that creativity is very crucial for innovation. If creativity is attached with the ideas then innovation will remain attached with the products and services. The value of creativity gets reduced if and only if it is considered without innovation(Yoshida, Sendjaya, Hirst, & Cooper, 2014). The creative ideas can be used to feed the pipeline of rigorous innovation and without creative ideas innovation can be considered as an engine without fuel. In a different way it can be stated that though creativity and innovation are two different processes they do rely on each other so as to yield effective results.
The 21st century skills have been divided into three broad categories and these are, creative thinking, collaborating and working creatively with the other people and implementation of innovation(Bateson, Bateson, & Martin, 2013). However, it is necessary to identify whether this is a new concept or it has existed for a while? So as to answer this particular question effectively a chronological review of the literature where innovation and creativity has been applied in business have been undertaken.
In the year 1997, the California Management Review published an article which was written by TeressaAmabile and in this article it was mentioned that, so as to achieve and sustain continuous growth in organisations innovation is crucially important(Amabile, 1997).
On the other hand, author published an article and opined that it is mandatory for the organisations to encourage their employees to become more creative and through this the organisation will be able to develop innovative products, procedures and services. The article also emphasised over the fact that the employees are required to be trained in a creative environment and at the same time the organisation should design its culture in a manner that it would support and encourage creativity. This article was published in The Leadership and Organisational Development Journal in the year 1999 and also in Team Performance Management: An International Journal in 2000, the title of the article was “Techniques to enhance creative thinking”(Roffe, 1999).
It has been observed that the Southwest Airlines also promotes a creative and innovative organisational culture. The key technique that the organisation applies is that it communicates the objectives and corporate vision of the company to all the employees and thereby encourages them to provide some additional feedback. This at the same time makes the employees to feel that they are a part of the business strategy making body. Through this strategy the company has achieved brilliant outcomes in its business(Dawson & Andriopoulos, 2014).
In the 2000, there were an article that stated that as with the emergence of globalisation there is a trend of increasing competition in the business environment, organisations are continuously trying to become innovation(Andriopoulos & Lowe, 2000). It has been observed in the context of both not-for-profits as well as profit based organisations. The article proceeded towards defining the term creative organisation as a business enterprise which accrues its income through the development of innovative and novel ideas, products, processes and services to mitigate the needs of the clients. Authors of this article also found that so as to obtain the appropriate solution the staff are required to be extensively creative and should be involved in the pursuit of innovation.
In the year 2002, Journal of Business Research published an article where they pointed out the fact that creativity can be considered as a resource to the organisation which possesses the potential to provide competitive edge to the organisation. The basic aim of the paper was to critically analyse the roles of teams as well as individuals in generating ideas as a non-separable part of the organisational creativity and innovation procedures(Martins & Terblanche, 2003). They also outlined the fact that encouraging the process of creativity at an individual level will give rise to improved creativity at the group or organisational level.
In the year 2003, The Leadership Quarterly published an article which emphasised on enhancing the creative activities within the work groups and the increased requirement for involving divergent thinking within the teams which will in turn make the teams more competitive in nature. Although, this paper enlightens the fact that divergent thinking is the speciality of an individual while the speciality of a team is embedded within convergent thinking(Jung, Chow, & Wu, 2003). Divergent thinking is a process which is mandatory for solving problems in a creative manner and hence teams are essentially required to get engaged deliberately in the process of divergent thinking. This as a result will make the teams more creative and this is not only good for the bottom line but also is a rewarding experience.
There is a paper that states the fact that the culture of an organisation can affect the creativity and innovation within the organisation. The research work of the author also brought out the fact that the organisations can be benefitted by designing and establishing a creative and innovative culture(Roffe, 1999). Therefore the human resources available within the organisation play a major role in facilitating the desired cultural change and thereby designing the initiatives of training.
In the year 2010 IBM conducted a survey which covered nearly 33 industries across 60 countries and questioned more than 1500 Chief Executive Officers. The feature of creativity has been identified as the most crucial quality of leadership in the next five years. The creative leadersencourages disruptive innovation, induce others to discard the out dated approaches and undertake balanced risk. This is quintessential for the success of an organisation in the presently prevailing unpredictable and complicated business environment. In other words creativity can be regarded as the raw material for innovation when innovation is implemented in a creative manner; however the companies are not ready to embrace these factors. Although an effective and efficient leader can fetch the rewards of the creativity, innovation and adaptability of an organisation. However, in order to do so the leaders should effectively maintain the necessary frameworks of risk management and strategic alignment.
The Harvard Business Review 2012, March edition published five articles based on creativity and innovation. The overall range of the themes of these articles were in an organisation a culture is needed that supports innovation and helps it to flourish in future, success is dependent over the technical innovation and human innovation, focus should always remain on rigorous creation, businesses are always required to support continuous innovation of products, management and processes. In other words, innovation is not only important for the organisations for maintaining their competitiveness but also for the employees who wish to feel satisfied with their jobs(Birdi, 2016).
In 2013, the Inside HR printed an article regarding the reinvention of human resource department of Google with new employees as well as new strategies of management. According to researchers, executives started to realiser the fact that continuous innovation cannot take place until or unless the firm makes a shift towards focusing on excellent people management. This can be simplified as innovations originate from people and innovation cannot be maximised until and unless the organisation becomes able to recruit and retain innovative employees. This is not sufficient on an added notion an innovative environment is also necessary(Davies, Jindal-Snape, Digby, Howe, Collier, & Hay, 2014). Google is a very famous organisation and is widely popular because of its workplace designing and promotions of collaborating activities. This is solely because it has realised the fact that continuous innovation is the result of three factors acting together, collaboration, discovery and fun.
Again the fourth issue of Inside HR in 2013 included an article which was named “6 talent management lessons from Silicon Valley”. These factors were considered to be essential for the organisations which were willing to innovate and move faster. The first and foremost factor is the productivity of the innovation supplants which is considered as the key goal of the workforce. It also emphasised over the recruitment procedures as 100 per cent of the innovation comes from the people associated with the organisation.The article also enlightened the fact that most of the firms are now realising why Silicon Valley is widely known for many years and this is because their innovation activities are increasing gradually with collaboration (Bateson, Bateson, & Martin, 2013).
In this particular year innovation and creativity kept on appearing in the various human resource magazines which are Inside HR and Human Resource Media. Author believed the fact that innovation is the compound effect of three materials, initiative, creation and passion. At the same point of time an organisation is also required where innovation is taking place continuously. As opined by author organisations always want their employees to be more innovative, agile and be able to mitigate problems in a way that nobody has seen before(Wyse & Ferrari, 2015). In order to do so the firms must encourage creativity. The author also clarified that creativity is simply a discipline and like all the other talents it can be learnt. The firms should also support the people within it for developing these skills. This has a positive impact over the development of the organisations for the HR practitioners.
Author stated the fact that young people looks at the world in a very creative way though in the education system creativity is not incorporated in an appropriate way. This is because the education system is so designed that it pursues the young people to go through tough examinations. Afterwards when they finish their education their natural potential of creativity gets suppressed (Davies, Jindal-Snape, Digby, Howe, Collier, & Hay, 2014). This specific view is supported by the researchers as they have conducted investigation regarding the implementation of deliberate thinking tools within the classrooms and also in tertiary education. As it has widely been accepted that creativity is quintessential in the modern competitive world it will certainly not be beneficial for an individual to forego the opportunity of developing creativity within the classrooms. Hence it can be stated that though there is not a high association between education and creativity, the authorities should certainly look after this fact and try to induce the association between these two.
As a student of master degree I have selected creativity and innovation as my elective subject. In this section I will shed light on why this particular topic is important.
The answer to this question can be provided in the following manner. I have conducted an extensive literature review while I was writing this report. Numerous journal articles, human resource and business magazines and books helped me to realise the fact that creativity and innovation is mandatory for the success of any organisation in the present competitive environment. In order to achieve success the organisations are required to hire people who are creative in nature and also possess the ability to innovate new ideas. At the same time I have also got acquainted about the fact that creativity and innovation is a skill that can be learned, hence it will also be beneficial to teach the subject in different graduate and undergraduate courses.
Moreover, I will also suggest that our education system does not incorporate creativity and innovation within itself. As a result the ability to think creatively gets diminished among the pupils. Hence I would recommend that one should try to accommodate and give way to creativity so that it can enter into the education system. Rather than teaching the students what the right answer will be, they should be given the opportunity to examine all the possible alternatives and then select the appropriate answer on their own.
The extensive literature survey that I have conducted for preparing this report, have helped me to a great extent. It has enriched my knowledgebase and I hope it will also assist me in my further career development.
Conclusion
Creativity and innovation are not just words; they play a crucial role in our daily life. Through a chronological research of the relevant journal articles, it has been proved how important these are for an organisation. Moreover, different definitions of creativity and innovation have also been discussed in the paper. On the other hand, the organisations are encouraged to enhance creativity among its people and try to recruit and retain creative people in it. However, it can be stated that the report has successfully covered the necessary requirements and hopefully it will be a helpful documentation based on creativity and innovation.
Amabile, T. M. (1997). Motivating creativity in organizations: On doing what you love and loving what you do. California management review, 40(1), 39-58.
Andriopoulos, C., & Lowe, A. (2000). Enhancing organisational creativity: the process of perpetual challenging. Management Decision, 38(1), 734-742.
Bateson, P., Bateson, P. P., & Martin, P. .. (2013). Play, playfulness, creativity and innovation. London: Cambridge University Press.
Benedek, M., Jauk, E., Sommer, M., Arendasy, M., & Neubauer, A. C. (2014). Intelligence, creativity, and cognitive control: The common and differential involvement of executive functions in intelligence and creativity. Intelligence, 46(1), 73-83.
Birdi, K. ( 2016). Creativity training. In Human Resource Management, Innovation and Performance. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Digby, R., Howe, A., Collier, C., & Hay, P. (2014). The roles and development needs of teachers to promote creativity: A systematic review of literature. Teaching and Teacher Education, 41(1), 34-41.
Dawson, P., & Andriopoulos, C. (2014). Managing change, creativity and innovation. London: Sage.
Fatimah’s Personal Website. (2017). languageacademy.utm. Retrieved August 21, 2017, from Creativity and Innovation in Teaching and Learning Supervision and Assessment: https://languageacademy.utm.my/fatima/innovation-and-creativity-in-teaching-and-learning-approach/
Jung, D. I., Chow, C., & Wu, A. (2003). The role of transformational leadership in enhancing organizational innovation: Hypotheses and some preliminary findings. The Leadership Quarterly, 14(4), 525-544.
Martins, E. C., & Terblanche, F. (2003). Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European journal of innovation management, 6(1), 64-74.
Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. C. (2016). Orgb. London: Nelson Education.
Roffe, I. (1999). Innovation and creativity in organisations: a review of the implications for training and development. Journal of European industrial training, 23(4/5), 224-241.
Somech, A., & Drach-Zahavy, A. (2013). Translating team creativity to innovation implementation: The role of team composition and climate for innovation. Journal of Management, 39(3), 684-708.
Somech, A., & Drach-Zahavy, A. (2013). Translating team creativity to innovation implementation: The role of team composition and climate for innovation. Journal of Management, 39(3), 684-708.
Squalli, J., & Wilson, K. (2014). Intelligence, creativity, and innovation. Intelligence, 46(1), 250-257.
Stone, M., & Woodcock, N. (2014). Interactive, direct and digital marketing: A future that depends on better use of business intelligence. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 8(1), 4-17.
Wyse, D., & Ferrari, A. (2015). Creativity and education: Comparing the national curricula of the states of the European Union and the United Kingdom. British Educational Research Journal, 41 (1), 30-47.
Yoshida, D. T., Sendjaya, S., Hirst, G., & Cooper, B. (2014). Does servant leadership foster creativity and innovation? A multi-level mediation study of identification and prototypicality. Journal of Business Research, 67(7), 1395-1404.
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