Factors influencing Factors influencing creativity and creativity and

innovation--- creativityinnovation--- creativity

Prince Kumar

Definitions (Amabile et al 1996)

• Creativity is defined as • Production of novel and useful ideas in any domain• SEE ORDER IN DISORDER

• Innovation is defined as • Successful implementation of creative ideas in any organisation• Creativity of individuals and teams is the starting point for

innovation• Creativity and innovation are important

• Life is becoming increasingly complex, fast and changing at a faster pace

• Allows adaptation, maintain flexibility and is part of decision making

• Creativity requires originality and flexibility• Contributes to physical and psychological health and optimal

functioning

Factors influencing creativity• Factors

• Individual level• Group and organisational level

Category of factors

Factors (Based on Amabile et al 1996)

Motivation Organisational motivation to innovate is the basic orientation towards innovation and supports for creativity and innovation

Resources Everything that an organisation has to aid work in domain targeted for innovation including training

Management practices

Refers to allowance of freedom in conduct of work, provision of challenging and interesting work, specification of clear strategic goals, formation of work teams with diverse skills and perspectives, focus on technology and reward and incentive structures

Group characteristics

Norms, group cohesiveness, size , diversity, roles, task characteristics, and problem solving approaches used

Factors affecting creativityCategory Factors (Amabile et al 1996)Organisational encouragement

Encouraging of risk taking and idea generation at all levelsFair supportive evaluation of new ideas, Reward and recognition of creativity, collaborative idea flow and participatory decision making

Supervisory encouragement

Goal clarity and clarity of problem definition, open interactions, support for team work and ideas,

Work group encouragement

Diversity of team members background, mutual openness to ideas, constructive challenging of ideas, shared commitment

Autonomy Autonomy in day to day conduct of work, sense of ownership and control over work and ideas

Resources Adequacy of allocation indicating importance, time

Pressures Excessive work load pressure, challenge due to intrinsic nature

Organisational impediments

Internal strife, conservatism, rigid and formal management structures

Factors at individual level• Age –

• creativity decreases with age unless individual is intentionally creative

• Intelligence- • certain level required for certain measures of creativity only.

• Personality- • high valuation of aesthetic qualities in experiences, interests,

attraction to complexity, independence of judgment, autonomy, intuition , self confidence, ability to resolve conflicting traits in self and belief that self is creative

• Dispositions- • high level of intrinsic motivation, follow intrinsic interests, free

from evaluations and constraints• Capabilities

• Insight is a result of integration of previously learned behaviors• potential

Processes influencing creativity• Associative process is involved in divergent thinking and

problem solving• Cognitive flexibility-process by which obvious patterns of

thinking are discarded and new higher order rules are adopted

• Intrinsic motivation –process where people feel motivated by interest, challenge and satisfaction of work itself

• Creative thinking is capacity to put existing ideas in new combinations and is facilitated by diversity of experience and learning

• Divergent thinking –process by which one extrapolates many possible answers to an initial stimulus or target data

• Intuition of flash intelligence- flash of a recognition that problem is solved

• Flow- when person is fully immersed in what is being done and has a feeling of energized focus, shows full involvement and success and excludes other stimuli

Pressures or impediments

• Two types-alpha and beta• Alpha is objective• Beta is based on individuals interpretations

• Positive pressures• freedom, autonomy, good role models and resources

(including time), encouragement specifically for originality, freedom from criticism, and “norms in which innovation is prized and failure not fatal”

• Inhibiting pressures• lack of respect (specifically for originality), red tape,

constraint, lack of autonomy and resources, inappropriate norms, project management, feedback, time pressure, competition, and unrealistic expectations

Resources influencing creativity

• Time • Original ideas are remote with respect to

original problem• Creative ideas require time for incubation

Demographic factors

• Birth order• Middle born children are more creative

• family size• Number of siblings• Interval among siblings• Family and school atmosphere

• Large families have authoritarian structures• Freedom and autonomy facilitates creativity

Process of creativity• Every neural circuit can compute specific

information and also produce novel combinations • More integrative the neural structure more

combinational novelty can occur• Appropriateness is a function of higher order

structures that assess a complex and changing set of rules or values implicit in persons culture. This generates a selection process which selects the appropriate idea out of many

• Four types of creativity based on types of structures and processing modes

Impediments to business creativity (Amabile 1998)

• Business creativity-requires both originality and appropriateness

• Six set of factors impede business creativity• Challenge—match work to persons capabilities• Freedom- autonomy to choose process not ends• Resources-appropriate time and money• Work group features—mutually supportive with diversity

of perspectives and backgrounds• Supervisory support—in form of extrinsic rewards, praise,

foster collaboration, communication • Organisational support- leaders who put in place systems

and processes which support creativity-support failures

Intrinsic motivation

CREATIVITY

ExpertiseCreative thinking skills

THANKS