Concept of Creativity and Innovation

Question: Describe about the concept of creativity. Answer: Concept of creativity The creativity of an organization needs to be enhanced for achieving the competitive advantage (Parjanen 2012). The creative atmosphere of the organization fosters the employees to suggest innovative ideas and procedures to the organization. There are significant benefits to the organization in terms of creative work atmosphere and creative employees (Anderson PotoÄ nik and Zhou 2014). The generation of new ideas benefits the organization by process improvements or venturing into new business areas that are more profitable. An organization derives benefit from the feedback from various stakeholders regarding the details of the market place (Anderson PotoÄ nik and Zhou 2014). The organizations are benefitted from inducing creativity within the employees (West 2015). The organizations engage in encouraging the people to determine new market niches within the market and design suitable products that meet the consumer preferences (West 2015). The creative inputs from the em ployees would lead to cost-effective improvements as well as efficiency. The executives should take active steps in harnessing the creativity of the employees and to create an innovative work environment (Florida 2014). The leaders of the organization should influence and transform the organization in a better way. They should search for alternative work process that employs more innovative and creative process (Florida 2014). The leaders should devise innovative solutions that challenge the present thinking pattern (West 2015). They should consider the fact that the workplace consists of different people coming from different cultural backgrounds (Moran Abramson and Moran 2014). The innovation policy should formulate in such a manner that it is suitable for all the sections of the employees (Florida 2014). There is a need of greater collaboration and the encouragement of creative ideas. The leaders or executives should aim at better understanding of the composition of the human resources (Birkinshaw and Duke 2013). They should be aware of the energies, strengths, weakness, passion and other attributes of the employees. The employees should be given enough time and opportunity to brainstorm new ideas (Davenport 2013). The leaders should understand that it is difficult to have creative ideas in a time constrained, high pressure and high stress environment. Objectives of innovative strategy The innovation strategy should include incorporating changes both within the organization as well as outside the organization (Hammond Keeney and Raiffa 2015). The external stakeholders consist of suppliers, customers, vendors and others, who can be a good source of creative ideas. The internal communication systems should be strengthened so that there is an increased level of creativity in the organization (Hammond Keeney and Raiffa 2015). The employees should be encouraged for bringing in new ideas and creative concepts and adequate value should be given to them for incorporating innovative ideas (Hammond Keeney and Raiffa 2015). The employees should be challenged to think in a different manner and hence find suitable solutions to the various problems of the organization. The employees should be given sufficient space to utilize their own judgment (Buirge 2013). The organizational environment should encourage openness, transparency and sufficient freedom of speech to the employees. The different levels of employees should be brought together so that they can work together on same projects, thereby fostering creative ideas from a number of people (Hammond Keeney and Raiffa 2015). The creative employees usually crave challenges and accomplishments and like to stimulate their minds for delivering superior performance (Fullan 2014). The broad objectives of the innovative strategy of the organization are as follows- Encourage creative ideas from the employees and appreciate them Stimulate the minds of the employees Keep the employees intellectually engaged Minimize the unnecessary obstacles of the employees Key Innovative Strategies The companies should aim for creative ideas both from inside the organization as well as outside the organization (Carmeli Gelbard and Reiterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Palmon 2013). The organizations should listen carefully to the ideas of the customers and observe their particular behavioral aspects. The ideas behind the customer feedback have a great potential of becoming relevant at the marketplace. The organization must be open to gather and respond to the ideas of their customers (Carmeli Gelbard and Reiterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Palmon 2013). The company should avail the creative solutions readily available in the market. The creative solutions or the creative tactics of other organizations through legal channels should be utilized for incorporating creativity in the own organization (Siemens 2014). This approach is helpful for quick solution to a particular problem. The companies usually engage in outside collaboration with other stakeholders, which give them high sales volume from new products (E ccles Perkins and Serafeim 2012). For example, one company was looking for food packaging options, which are sterile. They partnered with polymer and paper companies, along with the manufacturers of hospital sterilization equipments so that they can develop their required packaging designs (Carmeli Gelbard and Reiterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Palmon 2013). The companies can partner with other related organizations so that they can gain maximum benefit from the association. The company can look for experts in a wide variety of domains for potential technologies and innovative ideas. The organizational leaders should enhance the internal creativity of the organization (Jia et al. 2014). The leaders should boost creativity within the organization and should design creative approaches for implementation in the organization (Jia et al. 2014). The following factors should be kept in mind for the implementation of creative ideas in the workplace. They are discussed below (Jia et al. 2014)- Leadership and strategic fit- The clear communication regarding the vision, mission and goals of the company would enable the employees to devise their own creative approaches of achieving them (Hackman and Johnson 2013). The employees should understand their role and should think strategically to achieve the goals of the organization. The clear direction of the company would help them to gather a lot if innovative ideas towards the goals (Hackman and Johnson 2013). An effective and transparent communication strategy would enable understanding of the goals as well as challenges, creating business knowledge, celebration of the creative approaches and recognition of the success. The supportive leadership behavior would enable the senior managers to demonstrate commitment towards innovative ideas (Hackman and Johnson 2013). The supportive managers would reward the innovation by promotion practices, which would lead to the empowerment of their teams. The legal and the financial aspects s hould also be kept in mind before the formulation of innovation strategies (Hackman and Johnson 2013). Motivation and reward- The leaders should produce a work environment in which the employees are given sufficient space and liberty to perform at their best abilities (Gerhart and Fang 2015). The work environment, job profile and the organizational policies should inspire and motivate the employees to work in a creative manner (Gerhart and Fang 2015). The positive organizational culture, good industrial relations, smart incentive policy and proper appraisal systems influence the employees to perform better by adopting innovative means (Gerhart and Fang 2015). The reward systems should be properly designed so that it encourages the employees to offer creative solutions to the workplace issues and problems (Gerhart and Fang 2015). For example, the concept of team rewards encourages the employees to share ideas between the peers. The organizations should take of motivation tactics as the reward system brings in motivation to the employees. Organizational design- The organizational business strategy should be taken in consideration while formulating creative strategies for the organization (Schlesinger and Doyle 2015). The inappropriate business strategies act as barrier to creativity. The bureaucratic and not so flexible organizational strategy negatively affects the formation of creative solutions (Schlesinger and Doyle 2015). The structural changes including corporate restructuring, outsourcing may also have a negative impact on the creativity of the organization. The organizational design should be such that there is increased team building and various team review activities. The physical space in the office should be designed in such a manner so that it encourages good opportunities for group debate (Schlesinger and Doyle 2015). This would foster the generation of new ideas from the discussion of a number of people. Some innovative ideas can be applied to the organizations such as planning of open offices and relax ed places, which would encourage the employees to engage in small talks and discuss their individual ideas together (Schlesinger and Doyle 2015). Capability- The organization should have the right employees at the right place. The company should undertake correct recruitment strategy, which identifies the people with high creative skills (Chamorro-Premuzic 2013). The candidates should be thoroughly judged during the recruitment and selection process, which ensures they have a fairly good flow of innovative ideas (Chamorro-Premuzic 2013). The training sessions of the company should be appropriate so that it addresses the innovation practices of the organization. There should be personal development plans for the employees like mentoring, coaching, learning groups and other creative opportunities for learning and sharing the out of the box ideas (Chamorro-Premuzic 2013). The organizations should produce networking opportunities and innovative internal ideas. Culture- The organizational culture is an important factor for accelerating the creativity of the employees (Halim et al. 2014). The creativity can be improved by significant level of risk taking, trust in management and the promotion of continuous learning opportunities. The risk management strategies should allow the employees to feel confident and can concentrate well in their jobs (Halim et al. 2014). The diversity in an organization helps to inculcate the creative sparks in the people of the workplace (Halim et al. 2014). They invent different ways of thinking or different approaches to a common problem. The organization should also maintain good relationships with the external stakeholders in order to keep the communication channels open (Halim et al. 2014). The more information would lead to more creative ideas for the employees. Knowledge and information management- There should be capable information systems that allow the employees to save information and share information (Anderson PotoÄ nik and Zhou 2014). This helps the employees to devise creative solutions towards a problem by looking at the information about the other areas of the organization. The employees are also able to enhance the intellectual capacity and improve the same by the adoption of various perspectives. The information systems allow the organization to look outside the boundaries of the organization (Anderson PotoÄ nik and Zhou 2014). The outside sources of information include market intelligence data. The information sources of the organization look for access and storing of the market intelligence data (Parjanen 2012). The potential problems or future course of action can be identified from these data. There should be an internal two way communication process, which includes the smooth passage of information between th e front line staffs and the decision makers. The customers should have clear access point to the company where they can feed their creative ideas (Anderson PotoÄ nik and Zhou 2014). There should be proper internal information as well as communication processes so that the front line staffs become aware of the importance of the passing the customer insights to the organization (West 2015). Components of a good innovation strategy An innovation strategy should provide true inspiration to the stakeholders and should demonstrate the future condition of the company (Halim et al. 2014). The opportunities formulated in the innovation strategy should provide sufficient input and customize the overall corporate strategy (West 2015). The creative ideas should be utilized in such a way that it reaps the maximum potential benefit. The innovation strategy should be ambitious in nature and should provide a strong basis to be in the forefront of the competition (Birkinshaw and Duke 2013). The concerned organization should beat the competition and make new spaces for themselves in the market (West 2015). The innovation strategy should aim to position the company in a higher rank. The innovative strategy should be of high value and high ambition. It should help the organization to create value addition (Halim et al. 2014). The organization should be shown clear benefits from the adoption of the innovative policy. The innovative policy should be formulated in such a way that it serves the desired purpose as well as it is cost effective in nature (Buirge 2013). The cost benefit analysis should be performed in order to assess the potential benefits of the innovation strategy. The innovative strategy should be specific to the time period in which it is developed (Buirge 2013). The strategy should be up to the mark and should be above the market standards (West 2015). The strategy needs to explore the possible developments in the market and the circumstances while defining the most lucrative market opportunities (Birkinshaw and Duke 2013). The innovative strategy should be adaptive in nature and should be customized over time (West 2015). The learning should be encouraged and sufficient amount of time should be dedicated to the strategies (Buirge 2013). Financial aspect of innovation plan The innovation expenditure comprises of the current expenditure practices as well as investment options for future expenditure. The acquisition of machinery and equipment is necessary for the purpose of innovation (Birkinshaw and Duke 2013). The acquisition of technological advancements is also required for sustaining the innovative practices (Birkinshaw and Duke 2013). The changes in the new processes, new work flows, changes in the production patterns, quality control and others require considerable amount of finances to sustain (Birkinshaw and Duke 2013). The arrangement for the introduction of new services, distribution and production process need the financial support. The market research activities, recruitment of suitable manpower, launch advertisement and others require significant amount of funds (Birkinshaw and Duke 2013). The financial planning should be done that satisfies the best interest of the organization as well as foster an environment of innovation. Conclusion There is a high degree of competition in todays world. The organizations are surviving in an environment that is characterized by cut throat competition, high level of uncertainty and the increasing need to develop unique products and services. It is important for the organization to constantly drive innovation and sustaining change in the organization. The creative environment of the organization has many benefits and a dynamic workplace is the dream of most of the employees. The innovative strategy should have certain objectives and aims before they are implemented in the system. There is a need to keep the employees intellectually engaged and to stimulate the minds of the employees with fresh tasks. The employees should be constantly motivated to perform better by offering innovative ideas to the organization, which would be beneficial for the organization. The innovative ideas often help the organization to solve some of the crucial problems. The innovative strategy should consis t of the leadership and strategic fit, motivation and reward, organizational design, capability, culture, knowledge and information management and others. The organization should involve all the stakeholders in driving innovation and change in the workplace. The employees, vendors, clients, business partners, suppliers and others should contribute equally towards the organizational innovation. The components of a good innovation strategy are discussed. 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