Managerial Effectiveness Managing the Self and Others

Chapter 4 : Creativity in Management

+Defining Creativity

+Importance of Being Creative

+Developing Creativity

+Enhancing Creativity

Chapter Summary

Creativity is the process of creating something novel and appropriate. It is the ability to create or bring into existence an idea. Creative ability is the ability of a person to use new approaches and methods to create a novel idea. Many people use creativity and innovation synonymously. However, while creativity means bringing an idea into existence, innovation is about putting the idea into practice. Creativity is the source of innovation.

Innovation can be revolutionary or evolutionary. A revolutionary innovation is a path-breaking one whereas evolutionary innovation is an improvement or extension of the existing ideas. Creative people are very curious, sensitive, adventurous, risk taking, imaginative, and independent in thinking and judgment. They are visionaries and are persistent in their efforts and take unconventional paths.

Creative people may also exhibit symptoms of anxiety, nervousness, and depression. Creativity is also affected by the fluency, flexibility, and originality inherent in an individual. Creative thinking involves the exploring, inventing, selecting, and implementing. The exploring stage involves identifying alternative courses of action. The inventing stage involves identifying techniques and methods to help in creative thinking. The selection stage involves analysis of ideas and information.

The implementation stage involves selecting the best idea and implementing it. A review must be made after the implementation. Creativity gives an organization a competitive advantage and a unique identity over its rivals. Nevertheless, creativity in organizations can exist only with supportive environments. An organization that has a creative culture can nurture new ideas, diverse thoughts, and encourage risk taking nature.

Managers usually have well defined responsibilities, duties, powers. So it can be difficult for them to be creative. They can be creative in framing management policies, in team building, making plans, etc. Some of the barriers to creative thinking are fear, anxiety, pessimism, stress, and environment. The creative thinking ability can be stunted due to fear of failure, fear of humiliation, fear of risk taking, etc.

Many people believe that creativity is inborn and cannot be developed. But by identifying and overcoming the barriers, creativity can be developed in an individual. In order to develop creativity, a creative and encouraging work environment has to be created.

Apart from overcoming the barriers, managers can use certain tools and techniques to develop creative thinking in organizations. There are various techniques for creative thinking like brainstorming, attribute changing technique, morphological analysis, and synectics. Creative thinking can be stimulated using lateral thinking, the Delphi technique, and mind mapping. 

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