Marmara University

Business Administration

Creativity at work

Preapred by : Beyza ONAT

Burak AVCI

Maud van den BERSSELAAR

What is creativity?

Creativity is tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives or possibilities.

Creativity is ability to come up with ideas that are new, surprising and valuable.

(http://storyality.wordpress.com/)

Creativity and Cognition

These types are based on the type of novelty possessed by

the product of the creative process:

• P-novelty: the product is fundamentally novel “with respect to the individual mind which

had the idea.”

• H-novelty: the product is fundamentally novel “with respect to the whole of human history.”

Boden notes that an alternative definition of creativity might further require that the value of

the significance of the idea be recognised but does not state her position on this issue. She

goes on to note that:

• “H-creativity is a historical category ... [depending on] shared knowledge and shifting

intellectual fashions, loyalties and jealousies, finances and health religion and politics,

communications and information storage, trade and technology, and even storm, fire and

flood.”

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• Therefore, “there can be no psychological explanation of H-creativity as such. Indeed, there

can be no systematic explanation of it at all.”

Three Components of Creativity

According to Amabile (1998), individual creativity is classified by three components:

expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation.

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Creativity and Concepts

What makes people creative?

Easily bored

Risk takers

Colour outside the lines

Think with their heart.

Makes lots of mıstakes

Hate the rules

Work independently

Change their mind a lot

Have a reputation for eccentricity

Dream big

(www.surfimages.com)

Group Creativity

One such technique, brainstorming, has been widely used for over 50 years, especially in

work organizations (Osborn, 1957). It is in fact the mantra for companies such as IDEO,

arguably the best design firm in the world (Hargadon & Sutton, 1997). The claim is that

brainstorming instructions improve group creativity because they address issues of evaluation

apprehension and social loafing. To lower such apprehension and loafing, individuals are

specifically encouraged to emphasize quantity of ideas and more importantly, they are

specifically instructed not to criticize their own or others’ ideas. Rather, they are encouraged

to freewheel as well as to build upon and elaborate others’ ideas. Given the emphasis on

harmony, most researchers have assumed that conflict, especially anything resembling.

criticism, reduces group creativity. Thus, there has been considerable emphasis on the

elimination of such criticism and the concerns about evaluation that accompany it. As such,

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the specific instruction not to criticize one’s own or others’ ideas is central to the

brainstorming technique.

Social Factors

(www.scielo.cl)

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Basic Elements In The Process of Creativity

1.Delineating the problem

• Not going to search for a solution unless you see a problem or an opportunity.

• Concern over global warming.

• Need creative solutions and very soon.

• Need to consider all the possible areas of study and impacts.

2.Developing knowledge base

• Need well-developed information.

• Gathered by intelligent folks.

3.Synthesis

• Putting elements together.

• Many different impacts all around the world.

• May seem unconnected but creative people can pull together the elements and see the

relationships.

4.Withholding judgment

• Making judgments will stop the creative process.

• Suspend judgment for a time.

• People with strong opinions have tendency to make premature decisions.

• People need to set aside their preconceptions.

• A mind is like a parachute.

• It works best when it is open.

Definition of Creativity

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- Ability to come up with ideas that are new, surprising and valuable.

- Associated fields – artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, philosophy, arts etc.

- Not a special faculty but is an aspect of general intelligence.

- Eg. Picasso’s drawings, Einstein’s works, inventions, discoveries etc.

How to be creative

- Come up with many ideas. Than discard useless ones.

- “Assumptions – breaking process”

Discard the preconceived assumptions.

Attempt a new approach

- Elements of chance

Distinguishing creativity and Innovation

- Creativity is referred to the act of producing new and novel ideas.

- While innovation is referred to the act of producing a new and novel idea and the idea is

applied in some specific context.

- Creativity is starting point for innovation

- Former necessary but not sufficient a lone.

Creativity models

- Wallas model

4 stages (Process of creativity)

1. Delineating the problem. – Preparation

We define the problem, need, or desire, and gather any information the solution or

response needs, and set up criteria.

(Gathering information / identify and explore the problem.)

2. Developing knowledge base. – Incubation

We step back from the problem and let our minds contemplate and work it through.

Like preparation, incubation can last minutes, weeks, even years.

(Setting the problem aside.)

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3. Synthesis (putting the elements together). – Illumination

Ideas arise from the mind to provide the basis of a creative response. These ideas can

be pieces of the whole or the whole itself, i.e, seeing the entire concept or entity all at

once. Unlike the other stages, illumination is often very brief, involving a tremendous

rush of insights within a few minutes or hours.

(Seeing the solution.)

4. Withholding judgment during process. – Verification

The final stage, one carries out activities to demonstrate whether or not what emerged

in illumination satisfies the need and the criteria defined in the preparation stage.

(Refining the idea. And give feedback to al the previous steps.)

(https://criticalcompanions.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/art-therapy-model1.jpg)

- Geneplore model

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Generative phase : - one constructs mental representations called pre-inventive

structures, having various properties that promote creative discovery.

Exploratory phase : - These properties are then exploited during an exploratory phase

in which one seeks to interpret the pre-inventive structures in meaningful ways.

( http://www.redchurch.com/quantum/img/GeneploreModel01.jpg )

Three forms of creativity

- Combinational Creativity

- Exploratory Creativity

- Transformational Creativity

Amabile, (1998)

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According to Amabile (1998), individual creativity is classified by three components: expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation.

Managers can influence these components-for better and worse-through workplace practices and conditions.

Creativity at work

Creativity is important to organizations.

Creative contributions can help organizations become more efficient and more responsive to opportunities,

help organizations adapt to change, grow and compete in the global market.

Some level of creativity is needed in almost any job

Specifically, creativity influences innovation implementation.

Innovation defined

Innovation is the implementation of new ideas at the individual, group or organizational level

Creativity versus Innivation

Between creativity and innovation (Amabile et al., 1996, Anderson et al. 2004) there are differences.

Innovation can be seen as a successful implementation of creativity and something that produces economic value, whereas creativity has to do with idea production (Scott & Bruce, 1994).

Creativity is limited to idea generation alone, or concerns an individual’s own pleasurable experience, when, for example, performing arts (Anderson et al. 2004, Miron et al. 2004).

Therefore, it can be argued that every innovation requires creativity, but creativity does not necessarily lead to innovation.

Creativity defined

Creativity is the development of ideas about products, practices, services, or procedures that are novel and potentially useful to the organization.

Creativity at work

Employee innovativeness covers a broader range of behaviors than creativity.

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a micro-level approach: focused on assessing what contributes to an employee’s tendency to generate innovative ideas that eventually lead to innovations.

Macro-level approach: focused on assessing the factors of organization that leads the innovations.

Organizational creativity is dependent on the creativity of the group, which in turn is dependent on individual creativity.

Actual new processes and products

i.e. innovations reflect these creative efforts.

Innovation

Innovation emphasizes a more complex process and it refers to an activity whose aim is to develop, carry, react to and modify ideas.

Innovation should not only described with the intentional act of generating new ideas, but also with the “introduction and application” of new ideas, all aimed at “improving organizational performance.”

Innivation theorists describe the innovation process as being composed of two main phases: “initiation” and “implementation.”

(Production of idea & implementation of idea)

HUMAN WASHING MACHINE

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It might sound like a futuristic invention but Sanyo presented it’s washing machine for humans way back in 1970s.

Motivation to company and environment

As you know Japanese economy is the one of the strongest economy in the world. In such kind of strong economies human labor is much more expensive than any other countries.

Forty years ago a company named Sanyo presented a machine which automatically cleans dries and massages people.

And this company was supported by government a lot .Let’s see why?

In early 1970’s Japanese government tried to bring nurses from Thailand and Philippines because of high wages of Japanese nurses in Japan. Nurses who were taking care of elderlys wages was multiple of Thailand’s.

Against this situation Japanese nurses tried to be lobby and force government. And they successfully lobbied against foreign labor. They managed to bring some laws which were limiting rent of the foreign workers.

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The situation was so critic. Some mainstream politicians have even suggested exporting some of japan elders to that countries. But that idea has never won much popular support.

Therefore very expensive wages were not the only problem. Also Japanese woman were against staying at home and looking after elders all the time. If you think about Japanese growing average age you can see it was making problem bigger and bigger.

As a result Sanyo’s new machine was like a diamond both elders and government. Of course for the owners of the company!

About the machine and what it does

-Cleaning

-Massage

-Drying

-Adjusting Temperature

Of course it’s main quest is cleaning. But this wonderful machine can massage , can dry after bath and can help the body adjusting temperature.

This machine is like 2 meters tall and the bather had to use a ladder to get in. It takes 15 minutes for all process.

First five minutes pre-rinse cycle , spraying the bather with jets of hot water. After that three minute massage – bath begins. The soothing massage is supposed to stimulate blood circulation while cleaning your body.

A two minutes rinse process following and finally five minutes drying program in which warm air blasted the user while machine trying to kill bacterias.

It is the most hygienic way of bath in the world.

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USAGE

Unfortunately the Sanyo’s Ultrasonic bath never made it into our homes but the Japanese company did release HIRB , a compact washing machine for humans , used in elderly homes.

Some reasons are below

-Huge energy using

-Huge costs

-Size of the machine

Think about every use of machine. Cleaning , drying, massaging. This compact machine uses so much energy. And the cost of machine is so high. No one except riches can easily afford this machine.

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GOOD SIDES OF THE MACHINE

Globality

First of all we can think this machine globally. Because like Japanese average age ratio also in lots of European countries average age is rising unstoppably. If you can manage to cut down the price of the human washing machine it would be very usefull in the future

Water Saving

Second and maybe the most important feature of the machine is saving water. As you know nova days lots of countries suffering from lack of water. And every day we are throwing away tons of water by wrong usage of it.

While this machine helps elders people doing their jobs by their own and protect their privacy it also uses just enough water. So it is also helping protecting envoirement and future.

When talking about other beneficals of machine we should split to two part.

-Benefits for Elders

-Benefits for Youngers

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Benefits for Elders

By helps of human washing machine elderly people can wash themselves without getting help from another person. It is also very important for their psychology. Because elder people do not want to be load to their children or relatives. This makes them comfortable. By this way they can protect their privacy and self-reliance.

Also human washing machine cleans every part of the body very hygienically. It is impossible for any nurse to do this perfectly as machine does.

Benefits for Younger

For younger people like businessman and woman time is the most important thing. Without massage and drying it only takes 7 minutes to take shower with fully body cleaned.

Of course you are again using water at maximum benefit.

Therefore you take shower effortlessly and without time wasting.

Result

All in all this human washing machine has its own benefits and difficulties. Maybe one day if companies manage to produce it with cheap and useful materials and lower its size everybody can purchase one of it. In that way we can see human washing machines in every house.

Today it sounds like science – fiction films just like once upon a time what people think about phones without cables.

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References :

Marcus Pearce , Boden and Beyond: The Creative Mind and its Reception in the Academic Community.

Charlan J.Nemeth, Bernard Personnaz, Marie Personnaz, Jack A.GoncaloThe liberating role of conflict in group creativity: A study in two countries (2004)

www.scielo.cl

http://storyality.wordpress.com/

https://criticalcompanions.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/art-therapy-model1.jpg

http://www.redchurch.com/quantum/img/GeneploreModel01.jpg

http://www.jpb.com/pictures/ipm_cartoon.jpg )

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