ORGANIZATIONAL

LEADERSHIP & INDIVIDUAL

TOWARDS CREATIVITY.
TOPIC 8
 LINKING CREATIVITY,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION
 Definition of creativity (Bessant & Tidd, 2007)
“Creativity is the making & communicating of
meaningful new connections to help us think of many
possibilities; to help us think and experience in varied
ways and using different points of view; to help us think
of new and unusual possibilities; and to guide us in
generating and selecting alternatives. These new
connections & possibilities must result in something of
value for the individual, group, organization, or society”
 CREATIVE AT WORK VS CREATIVE
JOB
 Creative at work is essentially down to an
individual choice between routine & novel.
Based on the belief that one has the ability to
produce productive creative outcomes. Getting
supports from managers and co-workers.
 Creative job is the thought to be creative in
design, development and advertising.
 FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A
CREATIVE ORGANIZATION (FIGURE 4.1)
 This factors interact to either encourage or to
constraint innovation & entrepreneurship.
1. Personality: Personality characteristics, cognitive
abilities & behavioral associated with individual
creativity.
2. Process of creative thinking: various stages &
strategies
3. Environmental factors: climate & culture
 ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

PROCESS OF
PERSONALITY CREATIVE THINKING
PERSONALITY: PROMOTING INDIVIDUAL
CREATIVITY
 Typical characteristics of an entrepreneur:
1. Seek to identify new opportunities and ways to profit
from change.
2. Pursue opportunities with discipline & focus on a limited
number of projects, rather than opportunistically
chasing every option.
3. Focus on action & execution rather than endless
analysis.
4. Energize network on relationships, exploiting the
expertise and resources of others, while helping others
to achieve their own goals.
 PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS….
 Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and
behavioral response patterns of an individual.
 Each of us is made up of various physical, vital, and mental parts.
There is our physical body and its organs, muscles, etc; the vital being
with its sensations, emotions and feelings, and the mental part with its
thoughts, memories, reasoning power, beliefs, etc.
 Somewhere between our emotions and our thought processing lie our
attitudes -- our emotional perceptions about ourselves, others, and life
itself. Attitudes generally express positively and negatively.
 E.g.; when I have good feelings towards my work or co-worker, my attitude
is positive. When I feel reluctant to do certain things that are necessary, or
show hostility towards certain individuals, then my attitude is negative.
 Interestingly, if we can identify a bad attitude and make the effort to
change it, life will quickly cooperate with that effort, bringing luck into
our lives. Consider this true-life incident:
 PERSONALITY: CONT…
 A salesperson was intimidated about meeting a very large
customer. He felt that the effort was a waste of time since the
company was too large to penetrate. As a result, he was
unable to secure that or any other sale with the large client.
 However, a number of months later, he changed his attitude
about working with such large accounts. The very next day, he
was stunned when out of the blue that very same large
customer, who earlier turned him down, placed a huge order!
 As we see, if we change our attitudes, life has a funny way of
responding to those efforts. We call this phenomenon a "life
response." When we change our attitudes, or otherwise elevate
our consciousness, life quickly responds with instances of sudden
good fortune.
 COGNITIVE ABILITIES.
 Cognitive abilities are the brain-based skills we need to
carry out any task from the simplest to the most complex.
 They have more to do with the mechanisms of how we learn,
remember, problem-solve, and pay attention rather than
with any actual knowledge.
 Any task can be broken down into the different cognitive
skills or functions needed to complete that task successfully.
For instance, answering the telephone involves at least: per-
ception (hearing the ring tone), decision taking (answering or
not), motor skill (lifting the receiver), language skills (talking
and understanding language), social skills (interpreting tone
of voice and interacting properly with another
human being).
KEY CATEGORIES OF COGNITIVE SKILLS

 Here are the core areas of cognitive skills, all of which can be
targeted and strengthened :

 Processing Speed: This is the speed at which your brain

processes information. Faster processing speed means more
efficient thinking and learning.

 Auditory Processing: This is the ability to analyze, blend and

segment sounds. It's also known as phonemic awareness.
Surprisingly, auditory processing is crucial not just for speaking,
but also for reading and spelling. This is because when you read,
you need to be able to identify the individual and blended sounds
that make each word unique and recognizable.

 Visual Processing: This is the ability to perceive, analyze and

think in visual images. Visual processing is imperative for reading,
remembering, walking, driving, playing sports and literally
thousands of other tasks you do every day.
 CONT….
 Long-Term Memory: This is the "library" of facts and knowledge you have
accumulated in the past.

 Short-Term Memory: Also called working memory, this skill handles the
dynamic job of keeping at the forefront of your mind the information you
need to complete immediate and short-term tasks.

 Logic and Reasoning: This is the ability to reason, form concepts, and solve
problems using unfamiliar information or new procedures. It enables you to
create correlations, solve problems, plan ahead and draw conclusions.

 Attention Skills: There are three types of attention skills. Sustained Attention
is the ability to stay focused and on-task for a period of time. Selective
Attention is the ability to quickly sort through incoming information and stay
focused on one thing in spite of distractions. Divided Attention is the ability to
multi-task.
 COGNITIVE ABILITIES NECESSARY FOR
CREATIVITY & INNOVATION
 Information acquisition and dissemination, capture info
from wide range of sources, requiring attention and
perception.
 Intelligence, ability to interpret, process and manipulate
info
 Sense making, giving meaning to info
 Unlearning, the process of reducing/eliminating pre-
existing routines/behavior, including discarding info
 Implementation & improvisation, independent behavior,
experimentation during product development/process
improvement.
 KIRTON ADAPTER-INNOVATOR (KAI)
SCALE

 A psychometric approach for assessing

creativity of individuals
 Assesses different dimensions of creativity,

including originality, attention to detail &

reliance on rules.
 It seeks to differentiate adaptive from
innovative styles.
 CREATIVITY TEST
http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/creativity
test
 ADAPTIVE VS INNOVATIVE STYLES

 Adaptors
 Produce a sufficiency ideas based closely on existing
problem but stretching the solution. Help to improve &
do better.
 Innovators
 Reconstruct the problem, challenge the assumptions,
emerge with much less expected solutions. Less concern
with doing things better than with doing things
differently.
 CREATIVE STYLES

 Can be developed through physical development &

training.
 It can be encouraged by paying attention to the
climate for creativity, working environment, project &
challenges they faced & system and technique used
to support them at work.
 BIOGRAPHICAL EVENT ASSOCIATED
WITH INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS.
 Background.
 Family & ethnic background/religion.
 Majority of entrepreneurs have self-employed or professional parent.
 Parent act as a role model and may provide support for self-employment.
 Ethnic Cultural values may somehow could promote entrepreneurship culture among its
members.
 But, not significant relationship between family, ethnic and religious background and
probability of success of the venture,.
 Psychological profile.
 Majority of entrepreneur have internal locus of control and high needs of
achievement/n-Ach.
 Internal locus of control - Individual believes that his/her behaviour/outcome
is guided by his/her personal decisions and efforts.
 Males tend to be more internal than females
 As people get older they tend to become more internal
 People higher up in organisational structures tend to be more internal (Mamlin,
Harris, & Case, 2001)
CHARACTERISTIC OF A PERSON WITH A
HIGH N-ACH

 Entrepreneur is motivated by a high need for

achievement.
 Likessituations where it is possible to take personal
responsibility for finding solution to problems.
 Has a tendency to set challenging but realistic
personal goals and to take calculated risk.
 Needs concrete feedback on personal performance
 CONT…

 Formal education & early work experience.

 Self employed & SME managers tend to be under
educated (necessity-drive entrepreneurship).
 Opportunity-driven entrepreneurship tend to be more
educated (technical entrepreneur).
 Working experience build the skills to see opportunities
among technical entrepreneur.
 “Know How” to “Know Who” is gained from working
field.
Figure 4.2: Factors influencing the
creation of a new venture.
 PROCESSES: STRATEGIES & STAGES OF
CREATIVITY

 A pathway towards some solution or outcome.

1. Understanding the opportunity.
2. Generating ideas.
3. Planning for action.
 UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITY

 Opportunity or problem includes a systematic

effort to define, construct or formulate a
problem.
 3 components:

1. Opportunity construction
2. Exploring data
3. Framing problems
 UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITY

1. Opportunity construction
 A broad statement of a goal that can be
constructed as broad, brief & beneficial. The
opportunity describes basic area of need or
challenge of which the problem solver’s efforts
will be focused
2. Exploring data
 Generating and answering of questions to bring
out key data info, impressions, observations,
feelings etc.
 UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITY

3. Framing problems
 Effectively worded problem statement
invite varied and novel options. Applied to
assist strategic decision making/problem
solving. Management team has considered
varied unique opportunities and explored
a variety of data to better understand
their market, competitor and internal S &
W.
 TOOLS & TECHNIQUE TO SUPPORT A BETTER
UNDERSTANDING OF PROBLEMS/OPPORTUNITIES

 For example: in quality management we used Pareto

Analysis, Mind mapping and Cause & effect
analysis.
 Pareto analysis look at prioritize area that need to
be improved, (20/80).
 Cause & effect analysis search the root cause of the
particular problem.
 Another technique is mind mapping
EXAMPLE OF PARETO ANALYSIS
EXAMPLE OF CAUSE & EFFECT ANALYSIS
 GENERATING IDEAS

 Generating of of options in answer to an open-

ended statement of the problem.
 During the generating phase, the person/group
produce many options (fluent thinking), a variety of
possible options (flexible thinking) or a number of
detailed options (elaborative thinking).
 Brainstorming is the widely known tool to assist
groups in generating ideas.
 GENERATING IDEAS

 Specific methods of encouraging alternatives ideas:

Example: Problem is delay to repair
1. Temporarily remove/suspend current objectives. *suspend
increase profit, added service quality
2. Reverse objectives *reverse increase profit to customer 1st.
3. Exaggerate/overstate the problem *overschedule & poor
time management
4. Distort/alter the cause & effect * cause=poor time
management, effect=delay to repair, alter to
cause=little knowledge
5. Generate random input *random ideas
6. Use a metaphor/comparison *comparison with competitor
system/process
 PLANNING FOR ACTION

 Includes 2 components:
1. Developing solutions
 Promising options are analyzed, refined or developed
and compressed them if there are many options
 If there are only a few, the challenge is to strengthen
each of the options.
 Prioritize a number of possible options
 Selection of new ideas
 Prepare for marketplace and acceptance from key
stakeholders.
 PLANNING FOR ACTION

2. Building acceptance
- Searching potential sources of assistance to help prepare
an alternative for improved acceptance and value.
- How??? By developing a business plan
 To attract external funding
 Formal agreement between founders regarding the future
development of the venture.
 Avoid arguments concerning responsibilities and rewards
 Translate ambiguous goal into more explicit operational
needs
 CRITERIA FOR GOOD BUSINESS PLAN

 The entrepreneurs personality

 The entrepreneurs experience
 Characteristic of the product
 Characteristic of the market
 Financial factors

 Critical junctures in developing new venture:

1. Opportunity recognition
2. Entrepreneurial commitment
3. Venture credibility
 ENVIRONMENT: CREATING A CLIMATE
FOR INNOVATION
 Environmental factors that contribute to stifling
innovation:
1. Dominance of restrictive vertical relationships
2. Poor lateral communication
3. Limited tools and resources
4. Top down dictates
5. Formal, restricted vehicles for change
6. Reinforcing a culture of inferiority
7. Unfocused innovative activity
8. Unsupported accounting practices
 All of these related to culture
 WHAT IS CULTURE, VALUES, RITUALS,
HEROES, SYMBOLS?
 Culture - Pattern of shared values, beliefs and agreed
norms which shared behavior = the way we do things =
software of the mind*innovative culture
 Values – general beliefs that function to define what is
right or wrong = general preference*strong value in
safety
 Rituals/formalities – reinforced overtime and forming
traditions*the way greetings and initial social exchange
during meetings.
 Symbols – word. Gestures, pictures or objects that
convey meaning to a particular group that share
common culture.
 RESEARCH ON CULTURE

 Process vs result orientation

 Employee vs job

 Parochial/narrow minded vs professional

 Open vs closed system

 Loose vs tight control

 Normative/bureaucratic vs pragmatic/realistic

*culture cannot be changed directly but we can

change the process, structure & guide to behavior.
 CLIMATE VS CULTURE

 Climate is more observable at the surface level

within the organization, more amenable to
change & improvement efforts
 Culture is deeper and more enduring values,
norms and belief in organization.
 YOUR OPINION?

 Write your opinion regarding UUM climate that

encourage & discourage your innovativeness.
 Write in ½ page essay format

 Submit 15 minutes before class end.

THE END…..