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COUNTRY REPORT –HUNGARY

prepared by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Csongrad County

Conduction of Online Survey and focus Group Interviews in Partner Countries /O1/

A. ACTIVITY INFORMATION

Report objective: To collect and analyse responses from the online survey conducted in the partner country

Time frame for online survey conduction /O1/:

February 2016

Deadline for submitting the report:

March 2016

B. REVIEW OF ONLINE SURVEY RESULTS

Please, provide a brief narrative summary of the online survey results in your country using the template format below.

1. Basic Report Information

1.1 Partner organization: Chamber of Commerce and Industry Csongrad County

1.2 Period of online survey conduction /O1/: February 2016

1.3 Number of completed surveys: 30

1.4 Number of represented organizations:21

1.5 Reporting date: 30/03/2016

The purpose of this country report is to describe and analyze the findings of the Online Survey and Focus Group in-depth interviews, conducted in Hungary, within the framework of the INNOSPARK project, financed by the Erasmus+ Programme. 30 representatives, both employers and employees working in the ICT sector filled in the Online Survey, and 6 persons have taken part in the in-depth interviews from both categories.

Data collection has been done via online platform in form of a questionnaire and via face to face meetings for the focus group interviews.

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The main areas covered by the current survey and in-depth focus group interviews are individual creativity, organizational creativity and innovation, creativity and innovation in action and creativity innovation and training. The focus group interviews provided further information on

how to get insight into the needs of fostering creative thinking in ICT industry

how to gather further information and ideas for real business cases, example practices and problematic situations which will be used for the development of creativity and innovation skills of our Toolkit

identifying barriers in front of boosting creative thinking and innovation skills

ideas on how to shape the Toolkit

2. Participant Details

2.1 Type of ICT companies / type of activity and number of employees – share in %/

The respondents 27% is working in a company where the number of employees is between 1-9, 43% of the respondents are working in a company employing 10-50 people, and 30% of the responses come from the biggest of SMEs, employing between 51-250 persons.

2.2 Profile of participants / current position and work experience – share in %/:

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Our aim was to ensure that the online survey is filled out by a wide spectrum of participants, ranging from ICT top managers/CEOs, to employees working within the field of ICT. 46% of the respondents are representing the employer and top managerial level (e.g. CEO, commercial director, managing director, operative director etc.), 30% of those filling in the survey are developers (software developers, junior and senior developers, R&D specialists ect). 7% are engineers (hardware engineer, software test automation engineer), and 17% are representing the Other category (programmer, advisor, specialist etc.).

60 % of the respondents are working for their current company for 1-5 years, 20% spent 6-10 years, and the remaining 20% spent more than 10 years in their current workplace. The majority of our sample, 31% have more than 20 years of work experience, 27% have between 11-20 years of experience, only 15% have between 6-10 and 27% of the respondents work for 1-5 years in total.

14; 46%

2; 7%

9; 30%

5; 17%

Participants’ details

Top managers/CEO

Engineers

Developpers

Other

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60%20%

20%

Number of years within the company

from 1 to 5

from 6 to 10

more than 10

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3. Individual Creativity

3.1 The aim of the first Chapter of our Online Survey, entitled “Individual Creativity”, was to discover whether the employees believe themselves to be creative at their workplace and to find out what factors do they think are most affecting their individual creativity.

Based on the answers received from the respondents, it is evident that creativity at work is a very important factor both for employees and employers. 70 % of the respondents strongly agreed and 30% agreed with the statement that creativity at work is important (0% was neutral, or disagreeing or strongly disagreeing).

9; 27%

5; 15%

9; 27%

10; 31%

Total number of years of work experience

from 1 to 5

from 6 to 10

from 11 to 20

more than 20

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The vast majority of the representatives of the ICT sector are very open to new challenges and are ready to face them (36,7% strongly agree, 53,3 % agree with the statement that they are not afraid of facing challenges at work, whereas only 6,7 % of the respondents are disagreeing, and 3,3 % considered their attitude towards the statement as neutral).

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The vast majority of the respondents are confident that they can perform creatively on many different tasks at work (B. 3.40 % strongly agree, 46, 7% agree, and only 13, 3% was neutral to the topic. 0% stated that they are disagreeing or strongly disagreeing) and that they demonstrate originality at their work (B. 4. 36, 7 % strongly agree, 36, 7% agree, 26,7% neutral and 0% disagreed or strongly disagreed).

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Most of the respondents are very open to perceiving problems, complaints and bottlenecks as opportunities rather than as issues, and none of them feels the opposite way round (B.5. 16,7% strongly agreed, 56,7 % agreed, 26,7 % was neutral. None of the respondents disagreed or

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strongly disagreed with the statement that problems, complaints, and bottlenecks are rather opportunities than issues.).

On the basis of the responses, it can be stated that the majority of people working in the ICT sector think that they are perceived by their colleagues as creative employees (B6. 20% strongly agree, 63,3% agree, 16,7 % neutral. 0% disagreed or strongly disagreed.).

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The attitude of the respondents towards the statement B. 7. “I avoid following procedures strictly by the rules” was not that homogeneous. 13.3 % strongly agreed, 43, 3% agreed, 23, 3 % was neutral, and 20% disagreed with the statement above.

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Most of the respondents see themselves as someone who knows exactly how to take advantage of certain situations. 6, 7% strongly agreed, 53, 3% agreed and 40 % was neutral to the statement B. 8. “I am astute person (I have the ability to see how to take advantage of a certain situation.).”None of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed.

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With the statement B.9. “I am versatile person and I can easily come up with innovative solutions, no matter the work field” 20% of the respondents strongly agreed, 60% agreed, whereas the 13,3% was neutral and 6, 7 % disagreed.

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The vast majority of the sample is looking for things in their environment to inspire them to find new interpretations of problems (B. 10. 20 % strongly agreed, 63, 3% agreed, 16, 7 % was neutral. 0% disagreed or strongly disagreed.). They are also perceiving their previous work experience as a factor increasing their creativity at work (B. 11. even 50% strongly agreed, 36, 7% agreed and only 6, 7% was neutral. None of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed.).

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We can conclude that the opinion of other work colleagues has a positive effect on the employees’ individual creativity (B. 12. 26, 7 % strongly agreed, 43, 3 % agreed, 26, 7 % was neutral, and 3,3 % disagreed.) and even if they do not have the resources to implement good

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ideas, they do not ignore them (B.13. “I ignore good ideas because I do not have the resources to implement them.” – 0% strongly agreed, only 10% agreed, 16,7 % was neutral, more than half of the respondents, 56, 7 % disagreed and 16,7 % felt that they strongly disagree.).

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Everyday routine impedes on the creativity of the employees only in limited amount, many of the respondents maintain their creativity despite their daily workload. B. 14. “Every day routine does not impede on my creativity.” – 6, 7 % strongly agreed, 46, 7% agreed, 23,3% was neutral, whereas only 16,7 % disagreed and 6,7% strongly disagreed.

Time pressure is an inhibiting factor for the individual creativity of the employees (B. 15. 40% agreed, 33, 3% was neutral and 26, 7% disagreed.)

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4. Organizational Creativity

4.1 The “Organizational Creativity & Innovation” part of the survey is dedicated to assessing if organizations implement creativity techniques and strategies that help to enhance creativity.

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Most of the respondents (53, 3 %) agree that their organization shares visions and goals clearly with all employees (13, 3 % strongly agree, 20 % disagree and 13, 3 % was neutral. 0% strongly disagreed), and almost everyone 96,7% agreed that that in the organization they set goals for innovation, that is new ideas for products, services and processes ( 50% strongly agreed, 46,7% agreed and only 3, 3% was neutral. None of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed.)

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The survey revealed that there is a tendency that the staff is involved in the decision making processes of the companies (23, 3 % strongly agreed, 46, 7% agreed, 16, 7% was neutral and 13, 3 % disagreed. None of the respondents strongly disagreed.

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In most of the situations, respondents feel that they can express their ideas freely (C. 4. 56, 7% strongly agree, 33, 3% agree, 6, 7 % neutral, 3, 3% disagree and 0% strongly disagree.).

Although the vast majority of the representatives of the ICT sector felt that they agree with the statement “My organization acts on new ideas providing the time and resources to develop and implement those ideas worth acting upon.”, some of them did not find it true for their own organization, and a relatively high percentage found this statement indifferent to their work (13, 3 % strongly agree, 53, 3 % agree, 23, 3 % neutral, 6, 7 % disagree and 3, 3% strongly disagree.).

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The numbers of neutral and agreeing respondents are almost the same in case of the statement “My organization encourages employees to keep looking anew at the way they approach their work.”, whereas the number of disagreeing responses is relatively low (C. 6. 13, 3 % strongly agree, 33,3 % agree, 40 % neutral, 6, 7% disagree and 6, 7 % strongly disagree).

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It is also clear from the responses given to C.7. that many organisations implement techniques for increasing the employees’ motivation and boosting their performance, so brainstorming, lateral thinking, mind-mapping and other motivation boosting

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techniques are not unknown to the respondents. The number of neutrals is also relatively high, and fortunately enough, the disagreeing respondents are representing the minority in this case (C. 7. 3, 3% strongly agree, 40% agree, 33,3 % neutral, 16, 7 % disagree and 6, 7% strongly disagree).

Answers given to C.8. can be rated as rather positive, as they show that more than 80% of the respondents feel that they are given a satistfying level of autonomy when performing different tasks at their workplaces (30% strongly agree, 53, 3% agree, 10% neutral and only 6, 7% is disagreeing).

Although the respondents experience this satsfying level of autonomy in their task performance, the general picture is not that promising when it comes to gathering employees’s opinion about alternative ways of working and what might be achieved by doing things differently (C. 9.) The answers are far from showing a homogenious picture, and can be considered as rather diverse, as the number of strongly agreeing and strongly disagreeing is basically the same, the number of agreeing and disagreeing is also approximately the same, and the number of those maintaining a neutral attitude towards the statement is also relatively high. This implies that ICT companies’ attitude towards employee’s opinion is not at all unified, and often they are not taken into consideration (13, 3 % strongly agree, 26, 7% agree, 23, 3 % neutral, 23, 3% disagree, and 13, 3% strongly disagree).

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Answers given to C. 10. and C. 11. show a very positive tendency that ICT organizations are to a great extent supporting both open communication amongst employees, and knowledge sharing via informal and formal meetings. (C. 10. “My organization supports open (frequent exchange of ideas etc.) communication amongst employees.” 30 % strongly agree, 50 % agree, 16, 7% neutral, 3, 3 % strongly disagree. C. 11. “My organization supports knowledge sharing (via formal/informal meetings, etc.) 46, 7% strongly agree, 46, 7 % agree, only 3, 3% disagree and 3, 3 % strongly disagree).

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Results also show that the organizations’ internal and external networks do contribute to the increased level of creativity at work (C. 12. 16, 7% strongly agree, 53, 3% agree, 20 % neutral, 6, 7% disagree and 3, 3% strongly disagree).

Risk taking is a crucial factor when we talk about innovation and creativity, as it is impossible to achieve innovation without taking the necessary amount of risk. In order to achieve good innovational results, creativity and risk taking must be encouraged within an organization, and for the best results, the possibility of failure must be tolerated, and seen as integral part of the learning process, leading towards successful innovation.

More than half of the respondents stated that their organizations tolerate a certain amount of risk-taking, and enabling them to learn from their own mistakes (C. 13. 13, 3% strongly agree. 40% agree, 36, 7% neutral, 6, 7% disagree and 3, 3% strongly disagree), but the number of neutrals is still rather high.

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The work setting is also a very important aspect affecting the creativity of the employees, so it is important to ensure that the office is well illuminated, relaxing, quiet and clear. All these are contributing to the creativity and innovation potential of those working there. The physical work environment of the respondents can be rated as good, as more than 70 % agreed that their work settings are supporting their creativity at work (C. 14. 20% strongly agreed, and 53, 3% agreed, 16, 7% was neutral, and only 10% disagreed. None of the respondents strongly disagreed).

Although team buildings, group workshops and trainings are crucial for enhancing team performance and creativity, only half of the respondents think that their organization pays proper attention to this way of team performance and creativity boosting (C. 15. 23, 3% strongly agreed, 26,7% agreed, 26, 7% was neutral, 16, 7% disagreed and 6, 7% strongly disagreed).

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5. Creativity and Innovation in Action

5.1 The Creativity and Innovation in Action part of our Survey aimed at exploring how creative thinking and innovation are applied at work, who are the persons within the organization responsible for ensuring a creative environment within the company, which tools, methods and approaches are used at ICT companies in order to enhance creativity and innovation.

Based on the results of our Survey, it is evident that in case of Hungarian ICT companies, creativity and innovation are most often applied for research, product and service development (84,8%), but also for finding new ideas (48, 5%) and for optimizing both company processes and individual work processes (33, 3% both). Creativity and innovation are barely used for HR (9, 1%), accounting and administration (6, 1%) and for well-being at work (12, 1%). Positively enough, Hungarian ICT companies are applying creativity and innovation at their everyday work without an exception (0% chose the option “Creativity and innovation are not used”).

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It is also clear from the responses provided, that in case of Hungarian ICT companies it is most often the management/CEO who gives creativity and innovation inputs and ideas (66, 7%), followed by the product and innovation development team (42, 4%), but the employees in production and other internal processes (30, 3%) are also very active in providing ideas for creativity and innovation. Those working within the human resource management (9, 1%) department and Public relation team (15, 2%) are the least active in providing creativity and innovation inputs and ideas.

In Hungarian ICT companies, creativity and innovation at workplace are most of all supported by the colleagues engaged in similar tasks (54, 5%), by the management (51, 5%) and by the interpersonal workplace atmosphere (48, 5 %). Motivation systems like bonus systems rewarding nem ideas, colleaugues dealing wiht other tasks or professional networks all are somewhere in the middle, receiving 24, 2% each of them.

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In Hungarian ICT companies, the most commonly used creativity and innovation approaches/tools/ methods are cooperation with clients (60, 6%), creativity techniques (e.g. brainstorming, mind-mapping) (54, 5%), cooperation between the sectors and departments within the organization (multi-disciplinary) (36, 4%) and cooperation with research organizations and universities (also 36, 4%). Open innovation, innovation bootcamps or intensive courses, ideation boxes for new ideas and initiatives are not that widespread.

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6. ,,Creativity and Innovation Training

6.1

Surprisingly enough, only 26, 7 % of the respondents received innovation and/or creativity

training at their workplaces. These took prevailingly the form of seminars and lectures

(72, 2%) or online or mobile training course or material. Learning by doing, tutoring,

mentoring and discussion and debates are also widely used. (36, 4 % each).

The most emphasized topics of the trainings were change management (38, 1%),

product/service innovation (28, 6%) idea management and idea generation (14,

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3% each). None of the respondents received training on open innovation,

crowdsourcing, operational innovation and innovation and foresight.

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Respondents would find useful to receive training on idea management and

product/service innovation (34, 5 % - 34, 5%), but they are also rather interested in being

trained in creativity techniques (27, 6%), design thinking (27, 6%), innovation culture

(20, 7%), change management (20, 7%), innovation and foresight (20, 7%) and

continuous innovation (20, 7%). There is a need from the respondents’ side to acquire

knowledge on those knowledge areas they have never ever been trained before (open innovation,

crowdsourcing, operational innovation and innovational foresight).

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The vast majority of the representatives of the Hungarian ICT sector think that e-learning is

the best learning approach for the ICT employees and employers (62, 1%), which is followed

by training in real work settings (48, 3%) and blended training (41, 4%). Traditional

classroom training and learning through games were rated as the least useful approaches for

acquiring new knowledge.

7. General summary of the results

5.1 I. Individual creativity Individual creativity is of vital importance for the survival of companies, as employees must be actively involved in their work, in order to productively generate new products, ideas and processes, which is a key factor influencing the competitiveness of the company on a given market. All relevant literature states that individual creativity is the basis for successful organizational creativity and innovativeness (Amabile et.al., Shalley and Gilson, 2004), that is why individual creativity was one of the areas our survey was most focused on. On the basis of the results of the online survey, it can be concluded that in Hungary, both employers and employees working in the ICT sector agree without any exception that creativity at work is important. It is very positive that the vast majority of the respondents are not intimidated by, and are ready to face challenges occurring during their everyday work. The majority of the literature has shown that creative people share a particular set of personality characteristics1. These people are self-confident (Cummings, Oldham,

1 Highly innovative and creative persons’ are characterized by "high valuation of esthetic qualities in experience, broad interests, attraction to complexity, high energy, independence of judgment, autonomy, intuition, self-

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1997:26), tolerant to ambiguity and intuitive, so it is absolutely positive that the vast majority of the respondents are confident that they can creatively perform many different tasks and that they demonstrate originality at carrying out their tasks at work, which is a clear sign of their self-confidence. Furthermore, their self-confidence is clearly demonstrated by the fact that in their opinion, they are perceived by their colleagues as creative employees, and that they claim to be very astute persons, knowing exactly how to take advantage of a certain situation. Even more than 80% of the respondents stated that they can easily come up with innovative solution, no matter the work field. A different way of approaching things is always a clear indicator of individual creativity, which can be seen in the fact that more than 70% of the respondents are perceiving problems, complaints and bottlenecks as opportunities, rather than as issues, which is a clear indicator of their creative attitude, and more than half of them are clearly avoiding following procedures strictly by the rules. Existing studies show that individual creativity is nurtured by three major factors: expertise, creative thinking skill, and intrinsic task motivation (Amabile, 1997; p. 42) the latter referring to the desire to work on something because that something is interesting, involving, exciting, or personally challenging. More than 70% of the sample stated that they do not ignore good ideas because they do not have the resources to implement them, which implies how task motivated they are, which is crucial in turning creative potential into actual creative ideas. The most important barriers to creativity and innovation of the employers and employees in the Hungarian ICT sector on the individual level are the time pressure and the everyday routine tasks. It is also important to add that the results of the conducted focus group in-depth interviews show that apart from the daily routine, the biggest barrier to creative thinking is of financial nature. It is very often the case that satisfying the clients’ needs bringing money to the company is higher in the hierarchy of importance than a hypothetically good, innovative and creative idea. Companies try to overcome this obstacle by applying for funds for carrying out and bringing into life their innovative and new, creative ideas. II. Organizational Creativity and Innovation Apart from individual creativity, which consist of, as we have seen previously, personality factors, cognitive factors and intrinsic motivation, the organizations’ climate is also a very important and determining factor for the general level of

confidence, ability to resolve antinomies or to accommodate apparently opposite or conflicting traits in one's self-concept, and a firm sense of self as creative" (Barron & Harrington, 1981, p. 453)

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creativity and innovation thereof. The organizational climate can both promote and inhibit the creativity and innovational skills of the employees. Factors promoting creativity and innovation at an organizational/environmental level are freedom, appropriate project management, sufficient resources, various

organizational characteristics, encouragement, recognition, sufficient time, challenge and pressure2.

On the other hand, factors inhibiting creativity and innovation on an organizational level are various organizational characteristics3 , constraint4, organizational disinterest manifested in a lack of organizational support, interest or faith in a project, poor project management, inappropriate evaluation or feedback system, unrealistic expectations, insufficient resources and time pressure, but also factors such as “overemphasis on the Status Quo”5, that is striving for constancy, and competition. a )Creativity boosting aspects of our Survey Making a parallel with the above factors, our study reveals that the vast majority of the representatives of Hungarian ICT companies, both employers and employees agree that they experience freedom in their workplaces to express their ideas, and they are given enough resources and time to develop and implement ideas worth acting upon. The level of autonomy in their task performance is also rated by the vast majority as satisfying (more than 80%), which is a clear indicator of freedom they experience in their workplace. It is also very positive that many organizational characteristics6 supporting creativity is present in Hungarian ICT sector, e.g. open communication amongst employees, frequent exchange of ideas , knowledge sharing. Approximately half of the respondents stated that a certain amount of justified risk-taking is tolerated in their companies, allowing at the same time the employees to learn from their mistakes. In this way, the lack of punitive measures in case of failure is very much

2 Amabile, T. M.(1988) A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations, Research in Organizational Behaviour, Vol. 10. pages 123-167. 3 „inappropriate reward system in the organization; excessive red tape; a corporate climate marked by a lack of cooperation across divisions and levels, little regard to innovation in general”, ibid., page 147. 4 „lack of freedom of deciding on what to do or how to accomplish the task, lack of sense of control over one’s own work and ideas.”Ibid., page 147. 5 „Reluctance of managers or co-workers to change their way of doing things, an unwillingness to take risks”. Ibid., page 148. 6 „A mechanism for considering new ideas, a corporate climate marked by cooperation and collaboration accross levels and divisions, an atmosphere where innovation is prized and failure is not fatal.” Ibid., page 147.

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contributing to the enhancement of creativity and innovation. This rate could be higher for better results (High percentage was neutral to this topic). A very high percentage, reaching even 97% stated that they set goals for innovation, new ideas for products, services and processes in their companies, visions and goals of the organizations are also to a great extent shared with the employees, which are clear indicators of appropriate project management.

b) Creativity and innovation inhibiting aspects of our Survey

It is apparent from the results of the survey, that in Hungarian ICT SMEs overemphasis of the Status Quo is a general problem, as many of the respondents agreed that their organization is not gathering any feedback or opinion about alternative ways of working and doing things differently, but are rather “safe and sound” with the old way of doing things, which inevitable sets obstacles to the implementation of new and creative ideas. Time pressure and the daily tasks, however, represent a big obstacle for the ICT sector’s creativity.

5.2 Further implications based on the results of the In-depth Focus Group Interviews

Needs of fostering creative thinking in the ICT sector in Hungary

The general impression gained after the conduction of the in-depth focus group

interviews was that basically all the respondents evaluated the level of creativity and

innovation as satisfying, and they emphasized that in a so quickly changing global

environment the ICT sector cannot survive without proper level of innovation and

creativity. They especially mentioned that the creativity of young employees is

outstanding and that they are full of new ideas, which is a great advantage to the

company.

In order to adjust to the changes, continuous adaptation is vital, quick response to

the changes in clients’ needs and changes in legislation is inevitable. For this reason,

Hungarian ICT companies are regularly attending/organizing different trainings to

be able to react properly to the changes. New ideas are positively accepted, and

provided there is enough money for its implementation and bringing to life. Many

of the respondents expressed that clients’ needs come first, as they are the primary

source of ensuring the financial security of the company, and that being the case, they

have priority over innovational ideas for the reasons mentioned. However, each

company aims at supporting creativity in many ways: e.g. they put ideation boxes

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into the offices, they have annual “best innovative idea” contest with money award

etc. Some of them mentioned that creativity is more easily handled and gives better

results in smaller groups, as the gathering and further developing of new ideas is

more feasible when there are not too many actors. They also expressed that

innovative and creative tasks are refreshing for the employees, as they enjoy creating

something new and valuable. This is the case not just for the developers and

designers, but also for the top managers.

Respondents also realize that competitive advantage cannot be achieved without

technological innovation, and the lack of open source for own developments is a big

problem. More frequent professional meet ups for sharing technological innovational

knowledge would be a solution, even more because innovative technology increases

the satisfaction of the employees, increases the inner efficiency and contributes to the

competitive advantage of the company.

Results of the conducted focus group interviews also show that ICT companies in

Hungary are very closely cooperating with universities, clusters, research centers and

even with concurring SMEs from the sector. They perceive these cooperations as an

advantage and use them in new product development, in employee recruitment

(newly graduated students) and implementation of joint projects.

Real business cases, example practices for creating the Toolkit

One of the respondent company, IKRON, had developed a software called INCA, which was

a great success and has been purchased by a Swiss company. They also had a very important

IP network management system development, which is now available and used in more than

20 countries. Their web-based enterprise resource planning system is one of the company’s

flagship products, used by a large number of Hungarian SMEs.

Our other respondent company, the Exicom, presented a real creativity success story, where

a small group of their employees, doing their daily work, found out how to block radio waves

and in this way, make eavesdropping impossible. They had their patent legalized, which

became a great success for the company.

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But there are also numerous smaller, yet significant innovative solutions that are directly

developed upon customers’ needs. It very often happens that it is the client who explains to

the ICT company what is lacking or which function shall be improved in order to meet the

needs of the everyday business life.

Obstacles and barriers in front of boosting creativity and innovation

Representatives of the Hungarian ICT sector taking part at the in-depth focus group

interviews all agreed that the basic and most important obstacle and barrier in front of

boosting creativity and innovation is the lack of financial resources. Most of the creativity

and innovation boosting possibilities, like attending conferences, seminars, or even reserving

a certain amount of time from the working hours for generating new ideas is money

consuming. They are aware of the importance of innovative ideas, but simply satisfying

clients’ needs always come first, as it brings money to the company. As a way of resolving

this contradictory situation, ICT companies see projects as a potential solution.

As the second most important factor inhibiting creativity and innovation was the lack of free

capacities, and that the employees are very often overwhelmed by their daily routine and

work obligations making profit for the company. Respondents also emphasized that

innovation and creativity, despite of these obstacles, are very strongly supported by the

managerial level, ensuring a bottom-up implementation of good ideas whenever possible.

Main actors of innovation and creativity promotion

Based on the results of the in-depth focus group interviews, the most important actors of

innovation and creativity boosting are managers from the inner side, and the customers from

the outside. Customers are constantly coming up with new requests that would satisfy their

needs more properly, more quickly, so they are providing ideas both for innovation and the

direction of product development. Afterwards, the developers “translate” their needs into

the language of IT and arrive at a quicker final product that satisfy customers’ needs to a

considerably greater extent than the previous one.

“It would be great if we could ensure the luxury of separating a certain number of working hours a

week for just sitting in a room xboxing, and chatting, brainstorming, giving a flow to new ideas, like

Google does, but our company is simply too small for affording it.”-said one of the

respondents/managers (number of employees approximately 50).

Concerning the innovation boosting factors, many of the respondents emphasized that

spontaneous brainstorming sessions are occurring regularly, where employees generate

new ideas. They also mentioned the importance of continuous learning, and knowledge

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development, mostly focusing on case studies and best practice examples, rather than on

theory, as the latter is changing extremely quickly.

Respondents agreed that the most important innovational and creativity skills are

individual learning, self-development, professional knowledge boosting of the developers,

openness, communication skills, technical knowledge and good ability to work in teams. It

is also very important to know the customers’ needs and the market environment, and quick

reaction and adaptation to the needs and changes.

Best learning approaches and contents for boosting creativity and innovation in the ICT

sector

Without any exceptions, all respondents expressed that case studies and best practice

examples are the most important parts the Toolkit shall contain. They are also interested in

seeing international models showing how a good, innovative idea generated market

expansion, and they are all giving priority to practical examples over theory, provided they

are applicable and educative.

The participants of the in-depth interview also agreed that they prefer seminars and

webinars, learning through doing, and small-group teaching approaches to conferences, as

conferences are to a great extent focused on so to say “banalities” and have low practical

value. For the developers, individual learning is also effective.

Bibliography:

Amabile, T. M. (1988). A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations.

Research in Organizational Behaviour, Vol 10. 123-167.

Amabile, T.M. (1997). Motivating Creativity In Organizations: On Doing What

You Love and Loving What You Do. California Management Review, 1, 22-57.

Barron. F. B.. & Harrington. D. M. 1981. Creativity, intelligence, and personality.

Annual Review of Psychology. 32: 439-476. Basadur. M..& Finkbeiner. C. T. 1985.

Measuring preference for ideation in creative problem solving training. Journal of

Applied Behavioral Science. 21: 37-49.

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Cummings, A. & Oldham, G. R. (1996). Enhancing Creativity: Managing Work

Contexts For The High Potential Employee. California Management Review, 1, 22-37.

Shalley, C. & Gilson, L. (2000). Matching Creativity Requirements And The Work

Environment. Academy of Management Journal, 2, 215-223.

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