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8/2/2019 Isabel Martinez

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Creativ

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MsC Glo

Department of

ity in distributed teGlobal Design

- Executive Summary -

ra Isabel Martnez Domnguez

bal Innovation Management 2011/20

esign, Manufacture and Engineering Man

January 2011

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INDEX

ABSTRACT: .............................................................................................................................................. 3

1. Introduction: creativity in a globalized context. ........................... ....................... ........................... ... 3

2. Virtual Teams, degree of virtuality and creativity. ....................... ......................... ............................ 4

3. The effect of the team composition on creativity: Knowledge, skills, capabilities and personality

issues. ..................................................................................................................................................... 5

4. The effects of communication on creativity. ....................... ............................ ................... .............. 6

5. Technology effect and main role in creativity and distributed teams. ............................ ................... 7

6. The creativity process in VT......................................... ............................ ................... .................... 10

7. Conclusion: creativity and the crowds. ........................ ............................ ................... .................... 11

8. References ........................... ...................... ............................ ................... ............................ ......... 12


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ABSTRACT:

In recent times, the ways of working and collaborating have changed significantly.Due to the technology revolution and globalization, the focus has shifted to virtual teams whom, with

greater creativity can perform more and better to come up with innovative products. The

new Information and Technology Communications (ITCs) have had a strong influence on these changes.

Creativity seems to reach its peak when supported by an appropriate design process, a supportive

environment and abundant resources. The focus of our attention and therefore the purpose of this

reflection is to study creativity in virtual groups, incorporating contributions of academic papers, relating

and integrating them into a practical framework that facilitates innovative design and management in a

virtual environment.

1. Introduction: creativity in a globalized context.There have been many different approaches, definitions and contributions about the meaning of

creativity offered by a wide range of authors. Hence, creativity has generally been identified with a

variety of concepts, some of them are:

- Divergent thinking.

- Fluency: ability to provide a big amount of ideas.

- Flexibility: ability to generate wide variety of ideas.

- Originality: capacity to suggest rare ideas.

- Elaboration: ability to develop the ideas of others.

Probably, the most extended and accepted idea of creativity is the one suggested by Amabile,

T.M. (1996), who said that creativity is the ability to develop new useful ideas.

Anyway, the first studies on creativity date back at least to 1869, when Galton published his

Hereditary Genius (Simonton, D.K., 2003). He pointed that the most important factor in order to

achieve creativity is the natural ability to be creative. He also understood creativity as an individual

experience. He was not alone in this approach, as lots of different authors assured that creativity is

conducted in an individual way. But the truth is that on most occasions, creative ideas are generated

when two or more people are working together, indeed there are thousands of successful projects

around the world where the idea generation was conducted within a group of people.

The individual approach of creativity can be understood since team working importance has yet

started to take off in the last two decades. Moreover, during the last ten years we have witnessed one

of the most important events of recent history, which is nothing but the world globalization.

Almost ten years ago, virtual teams were almost imaginary; however, the current contexts pace

is being pushed by globalization and we are experimenting, day by day , a transformation process into a

more collaborative and interactive atmosphere, were creativity plays a fundamental role. There are two

factors that we must consider here, one is that, most, if not all collaborative work these days includes


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some element of virtual work, and second is that the world is increasingly demanding innovation, and

creativity is a critical element to take into account.

As a consequence, it is of interest considering the factors that impact on high levels of creativity when

the work is conducted collaboratively, not only within a group framework but also within a group which

is separated physically and needs the ICTs to connect and deliver their tasks.

2. Virtual Teams, degree of virtuality and creativity.A virtual team is a group of people who are geographically dispersed, although they may be in the

same building, working with a purpose and common goals using Information Technology and

Communications as regular tools within their work environment and relationship connections. The

communication and contact means are fundamentally technological: synchronous or asynchronous, andseldom have face-to-face encounters.

Nevertheless, there are as many definitions of the virtual team concept as authors writing about

the topic. Moreover, there is a vast relevant literature about the different degrees of virtuality, and its

subsequent discussion, but this is not the scope of the report.

Virtual team features highlight the high difficulty to generate team spirit; consequently trust and a

high degree of collaboration are necessary to achieve a good performance. Three barriers characterized

this hurdle:

1. Time: people work and collaborate at different times and days and when they do at the same

time, they can do so from different time zones.

2. Space: the place where people work may be near or remote: in the same office, building or in

different cities and countries.

3. Culture: it involves the use of different types of relationships as a result of the diversity of

languages, nationalities, educations, religions, economies, and so on.

Within the context of the present report, we can argue how the level of team virtuality affects the

creativity performance, and some important questions are raised:

- Do virtual teams in asynchronous conditions have a creativity performancedisadvantage compared to allocated teams?

- How can virtual teams move from a problem-centric position to add value in thecreativity process?

- How can virtual teams be made more real in the pursuit of creativity?- If complex creative work requires face-to-face interaction, how virtual teams can

overcome this problem?

- Is the team creativity influenced by the creativity of the member and thecomposition of the team?


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3. The effect of the team composition on creativity: Knowledge, skills,capabilities and personality issues.

The effectiveness of a creative team in a virtual environment is initially limited by their knowledge,

skills and capabilities, both in an individual level and collective level. It is therefore important to identify

which of these talents are critical, in terms of the tasks to be completed and objectives of the group.

The critical talents for the best performance within a virtual environment are grouped (Blackburn, R.

et al., 2003) on one side, those talents needed at the individual level and on the other, at a team level.

The person who will work in a virtual environment must be prepared to deal with situations in which

he will work with certain grade of autonomy and as consequence, must excel the use of information

technology and communications tools, be sensitive to cultural differences and comprise a willingness to

collaborate.

Thus, an effective should have the capability of:

- Self-management: manifested in its ability to be self-sufficient, often being its own leaderand coach because his work might be done quite often in isolation as a result of the

geographical and time zones, being proactive, looking for information and communication

with other members when necessary.

- Communication: Choosing the more appropriate means of exchanging information,clarifying misunderstandings, including those caused by cultural differences.

- Trust: It is important to build trust, based on common interests with others, responsivenessand dependency bonds.

- Cultural sensitivity: in order to understand and realize the cultural differences and detectand manage potential conflicts.

- Management of technology: because it is necessary to be agile in the use of informationtechnology and communication tools, the willingness to learn new tools and their use in

new ways of working is desired.

Virtual teams must also develop talents that enhance the strengths of its members, through

setting objectives, agreeing on standards, solving problems and conflicts together, balancing workloads

and encouraging learning. Then, a virtual team must be effective in:

- Establish goals and roles: clarity in the process and setting goals and roles is critical to thesuccess of a team. Reaching agreement, initial understanding on what is intended, as well as

the role of each member is crucial to avoid misunderstandings and later conflicts.


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- Establish rules: it is necessary to develop a code of conduct expressed in a set ofrules. Establishing commitments regarding deadlines and modes of

communication. Defining files and version recording policies and prioritizing tasks.

- Solve problems and resolve conflicts: the group should be empowered to solve complexproblems through negotiation processes developing mechanisms for early detection of

potential conflicts.

- Learning: it is important to achieve a safe and stimulating environment to enable learningparticipation from each other.

- Build relationships: the construction of social relationships and joint learning experiencescontribute significantly to the strength of the group.

3.1 How a virtual leader can enhance Ideas and promote creativity?

The virtual environment generated within a distributed team is an opportunity to define the

traditional approach of leadership, adapting it from a face-to-face version to a virtual mode.

Under this approach, the virtual leader would carry activities such as assigning roles, creating

opinion, communicating rules, motivating and encouraging participation as well as building trust

and providing feedback to each of the members.

Kayworth, T.R. et al. (2000) conducted an investigation to determine what factors contribute

in a more effective leadership in virtual environments. This research takes into account the

cultural and global dimension of teams working in different countries. Initially, they detected

the main challenges that virtual teams face and they are classified in four different areas:communications, culture, logistics and technology.

In any case, as concluded by Kimball, L. (1997) in her lecture on the management of virtual

teams, the job of the virtual team leader is to help the team to understand their virtual nature,

and above all, to create ways of viewing the teams work.

4. The effects of communication on creativity.Communication plays a vital role in creating new ideas. Also when the work environment are

virtual groups, where common rules are not fully defined. People involved in a creativity process need to

integrate information from many sources and exchange a lot of knowledge and proposals. The raw

materials are the ideas, and although they initially arise from a person, they require adequate support

for their growth. An idea cannot be developed, refined, tested and implemented without effective

communication between team members. Good communication is the basis for the interaction between

productive members. Teams are information processors because they code, store and retrieve

information. Through discussion and interaction between team members, ideas can be improved as a

result of the team members different perspectives.


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In the development of innovative products, the key is not so much about individual brilliance as

the complex interactions within the team. It is in this dynamic process where communication is

manifested as a key component of the creative effectiveness of a team. Communication on time is

essential, so that each of the members has access to the information and perspectives of different team

members. The following aspects of communication must be adequately addressed within virtual teams

for an effective creativity process (DeSanctis, G., 1999):

- Volume and efficiency: The volume tends to increase while reducing its effectiveness.- Understanding of the real message: it is slower and heavily influenced by social context.- Tasks: Some tasks, such as consensus, are less effective in the virtual teams.

Other aspects that influence on creativity are the frequency and centralization of the communication

Leenders, R. T., et al. J. 2003):

- Frequency of communication is a key variable widely studied by authors. It is one of the theexplanatory variables of performance of teams creativity. There are two issues regarding

the frequency of the communication: one is distraction of the people when communication

becomes time consuming and causes overflow, originating the second issue: blocking

creativity. Thus, both low and high levels of communication may damage the performance

of the group creativity (King, N. and Anderson, N., 1990).

- The centralization of communication makes difficult not only the effective spreading ofideas but also all the needed time to develop each members work and contribution.

Amabile,T. (1983) emphasizes the need for a sufficient level of autonomy and discretion for

the optimal development of creativity. Teams with less centralized communication are moredistributed, regarding roles, and its components are more involved in the pursuit of creative

solutions.

5. Technology effect and main role in creativity and distributedteams.

The Information and Communication Technologies and especially Internet have made possible

the virtual collaboration behind the creativity process. Nowadays, we count with a vast set of tools, with

big potential to support creative processes, but they are still scattered and not completely integrated inthe process. The purpose of this paragraph is not describing them because it is out of the scope, but only

mentioning the most significant types of applications and their role within the creative process in

distributed Teams.

As an initial matter, it is basic to considerate what tools the team members know and what their

depth of knowledge is, at least in the early stages of the work. It is important to outline here that the

technology must not be an obstacle, and therefore it is essential to overcome any kind of difficulties

when those arise because technology tools are to facilitate the performance of any activity instead of

constraining it.


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In general, we can say that the available technology tools for are very useful when it comes to

exchange of information, express an opinion or make suggestions within a distributed team and

enhances creativity among the members. The biggest weakness found might be the capacity of the

technology to transmit agreement or disagreement attitudes and resolve conflicts and negotiate

consensus. The tools can be sorted according to their role in the creativity process.

1. Specific tools supporting tasks in some phases of the process, in particular those thatsupport the generation of ideas.

2. Generic tools that facilitate the team management and allow a good and coherentperformance throughout the creative process.

Tools for generating ideas:

They facilitate the idea generation mechanisms proposed by Boden, M. A. (1994): association, analogy,

exploration and transformation.

1. Brainstorming tools. At an early stage, they support the random generation of a big amount ofideas, later evaluated and refined.

2. Visualization. They facilitate the sketches of an initial conception of an idea. The images can

express and communicate meanings difficult to express in words.

3. TRIZ. It is a heuristic-based methodology with remarkable effectiveness. It provides an algorithmic

approach to the process of creative transformation.

Generic tools that help creativity:

1. Communication. Tools used to satisfy the need to communicate effectively throughout the process: e-

mail, phone, voice in Internet, etc.

2. Project management. Tools that help maintain boundaries and assure the alignment with the general

plan. Schedule and track critical milestones and phases, especially when it is essential to move forward,

must attend time multitasking.

3. Knowledge Management. Most of the ideas do not start from zero but are based on previous work, soit is very important to store and provide access to relevant documents. On the other hand, knowledge is

often widely distributed within and outside the organization, which implies the necessity of having a tool

to help identify where it is documented.

4. Collaboration. The tools that facilitate collaborative environments are fundamental to all virtual

creative work, especially when it is necessary to integrate the interdependent efforts of each one of the

team members.


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Some tools examplars

IDEA

GENERATIONBrain storming

Visualization and

mind mapping

- Online blackboards

(http://www.scriblink.co

m/)

- Online Post-its

blackboard

(http://linoit.com)

-Xmind

-Google Plus

GENERIC TOOLS

Communication Email

Skype


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Project

Management Gantt Project

.

6. The creativity process in VT.The creative process is the center of attention when we want to maximize creativity within

distributed teams so it must be described and understood. However, we cant understand how a team

creates if we dont observe the interdependence of the process with the evolution of other activities.

Nemiro, J. E. (2002) has studied the creative process in Virtual Teams and he proposes a four-stage

process: idea generation, development, finalization and evaluation. Therefore this proposal provides,

the life cycle of an idea, from the moment it is generated until its final evaluation. Only the successful

ideas run through the complete cycle, leaving in the way the ideas that are being abandoned for several

reasons. On the other hand the activities of each stage are not exclusive and any ideas might be

evaluated before the end of its development.

The idea generation phase starts with an idea proposed by someone in the group using any

creative technique. The tools used in the communication of ideas are varied: e-mail, teleconferencing,

telephone, fax, content management, databases, etc. Even face to face when necessary. At this point, it

is worth to mention that face-to-face idea generation does not appear to be an advantage on the virtual

generation, and although the socialization with the other team members is appreciated, is not so

advisable regarding the quality and quantity of ideas produced. This can be explained because people

feel freer, have more time and are less influenced by other members when the proposal of ideas is a

virtual way.

In the development phase the idea spreads among all team members, exchanging drafts,

clarifications, revisions, etc. Here, it is very important the ability to file and follow up because facilitates

future review over the creativity process and offers the possibility to extend participation to other

members when it is necessary to access to different knowledge or points views. This record and file

documentation during the development of an idea, will help in the construction of patterns, guidelines

and templates which can apply to subsequent similar situations.

During the finalization stage, the ideas are finally completely defined with the latest changes,

solutions and agreements made prior to the implementation of ideas. In this phase, the interactive


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communications become more intense, it may even be necessary to use face-to-face to resolve

blockages and reach agreements in case of divergence among team members. It is important to

establish a time frame that limits the completion of this phase.

Finally, during the evaluation phase, team members formally evaluate the idea together from

different approaches and perspectives, observing strengths and weaknesses on the idea developed.

The creative process described by Nemiro. J.E. (2002), begins with the generation of an idea,

however, a missing common denominator in the creative process on other different theories of

creativity is the identification of a stage of preparation of the idea. It is imperative, from the point of

view that this phase considers the process of identifying and understanding the problem, seeking

information and exploring alternatives to be discussed with peers. Shneiderman, B. (2000),

differentiates two activities at the preparation stage: collect and relate, which also completes with other

two: to create and donate, finally completing the process of creativity which he called GENEX:

- Collect: learn from previous work- Relate: consult with peers and experts.- Create: explore, combine, discover and evaluate possible solutions.- Donate: distribute and disseminate the results.

7. Conclusion: creativity and the crowds.To sum up, throughout the report we have seen how asynchronous conditions not necessarily

have a bad influence in creativity, but all the opposite. Based on our projects experience, it even helped

in the number of ideas and diversity of them, having a considerable bigger amount of them (24 ideas in

asynchronous against 7 ideas in synchronous project)

Teams can remove the problem of the lack of a face-to-face situation using the available

technologies, but it is necessary to mention here the importance of getting to know the different tools.

Here, the depth of knowledge sometimes must be very advanced, but some others knowing the basic

features of it, is enough to get by. Thanks to ITCs then, virtual teams are moving from a problem-centric

position, where people tries to avoid and feels uncomfortable, towards a more relaxed position, where

even people feel comfortable collaborating with globalized distributed teams. We can say that once thehurdle of using information technologies and media is overcome, the learning curve for each of the

components of the distributed team stretches.

In the pursuit of creativity, indeed is necessary to feel belonging to the team that is, creating a

team spirit. Here, the personality issues of each of the components, as well as a good team management

are crucial to succeed. Sometimes, it is even necessary to recreate a collocated space, where all the

components of the team can have the felling of being closer, and a good example of this is the

synchronous project. Due to high complexity in design, sometimes a face-to-face is needed, but when


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this is impossible, we must use the available technologies and set up videoconferences, which bring the

team together.

Finally, last but not least we need to realize that the team creativity is influenced by the

creativity of its members, for good and for bad. Different backgrounds as well as a diverse culture make

big impact in the creativity, sometimes helping to create more and better ideas, and sometimes blocking

creativity due to different points of view of the same topic. Here communication becomes an issue. If

there is no communication enough some of the parts can take some features for granted, whilst if there

is an excess of communication, team members can feel overwhelmed and sometimes cant lose the

whole picture of the project. In this situation, the figure of a leader among the group will help to lead

the team to a successful situation, helping the members using the technology tools available, and

therefore he or she must be the one who really must excel the leverage of technology and management

tools.

8. ReferencesAmabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Simonton, D. K. (2003). Creative cultures, nations, and civilizations: Strategies and results. In P.

B. Paulus & B. A. Nijstad (Eds.), Group creativity: Innovation through collaboration (pp.304325).

New York: Oxford University Press.

Blackburn, R., Furst, S. y Rosen, B. (2003). Building a winning virtual team: KSAs, Selection,

Training and Evaluation. En Virtual Teams That Work. Creating Conditions for Virtual Team

Effectiveness. Gibson, C. y Cohen, S. (eds). Jossey-Bass.

Kayworth, T. R., Leidner, D. E., and Mora-Tavarez, M. Leadership Effectiveness in Global Virtual

Teams, Working Paper, Baylor University, 2000.

Kimball, L. (1997). Managing Virtual Teams Text of presentation for Team Strategies Conference

Toronto

DeSanctis, G., and Monge, P. Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations. Organization

Science, 1999, 10(6), 693703.

Leenders, R. T., van Engelen, J., & Kratzer, J. 2003. Virtuality, communication, and new product

team creativity: A social network perspective. Journal of

Engineering and Technology Management.

King, N.; Anderson, N. (1990): Innovation in working groups. En M. West; Farr, J. (Eds).


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Boden,M. A. (1994). What is creativity? In M. A. Boden (Ed.), Dimensions of creativity

(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)

Nemiro, J. E. (2002). The creative process in virtual teams. Creativity Research Journal, 14 (1)

Shneiderman, B. Creating creativity: User interfaces for supporting innovation. ACM

Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 7, 1 (Mar. 2000), 114138.

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