The influences on employee
creativity in the work environment
Mathijs van de Lindeloof
March 2009
The influences on employee creativity in the work environment
Mathijs van de Lindeloof s 1335421
Business Administration: Business Development
Supervisors from the University of Groningen:
First: dr. W.G. Biemans Second: dr. K.R.E. Huizingh
Supervisors from The Creativity Company:
Mr. G. Hafkamp
Mrs. M. Henderson
Preface
A period of hard work, joy and discovery lies behind me. The final work of my master Business Development at the University of Groningen is finished. The goal of this thesis was to develop the content and design of a service that enhances employee creativity in a business context. For the last 7 months I conducted this research at The Creativity Company in Rotterdam.
I would like to thank The Creativity Company for the opportunity to write my thesis at their office and use their expertise in the realm of creativity and innovation. A special thanks to Guy Hafkamp, Marjanne Henderson, Emma Tilanus and Michiel Skevofilax which have been of great help and made the time I spent at The Creativity Company and in Rotterdam a real pleasure.
Secondly a word of appreciation to my supervisor Wim Biemans for his comments and pleasant meetings in Groningen during my graduation. Also I thank my second supervisor Eelko Huizingh for his contribution in the process.
Last but not least, I would like to thanks my family and friends for their support during my time as a student and in the time of my graduation. Especially my girlfriend and my parents deserve a special recognition for their support and encouragement.
Thank you all.
Rotterdam, March 2009
Mathijs van de Lindeloof
Executive summary
This thesis researched the influences on employee creativity in order to develop a new service for The Creativity Company. They experienced that organizational members who had
creativity training, were not applying the learned skills in their work. To improve the training effect and offer a service which enhances employee creativity The Creativity Company gave the following research question:
To what extent can employee creativity be influenced and how can a service contribute to the enhancement of employee creativity within the working context?
A literature study on employee creativity was done and interviews were held to have an illustration of creativity in practice.
First the effect of creativity was examined. Creativity training is effective and has a positive effect on creative thinking skills and behaviour towards creativity. Important factors that provide a lasting effect in an organization, are the climate and supervisory. Both need to be supportive to enhance employee creativity. Training an employee and place him back in an unsupportive work environment is like putting a carefully cultivated palm tree in the arctic.
Climate is a derivative from the organizational culture. Climate is the situational context, depending on social others, which is experienced or perceived by individuals and affects the organizational processes. The climate factors that have the most effect on climate are challenge, flexibility and risk-taking, interpersonal exchange, intellectual stimulation, top management support and positive supervisor relations. Because climate emerges out of the social interaction of members of an organization, these social others are important for creativity.
Social others can influence the most effective climate factors in various ways. For instance,
co-workers can act as a role model, provide a role identity to an employee, provide other
insights through diversity, socialize for a comfortable and safe climate and provide feedback
and support.
Non-work relations, such as family and friends, can influence the climate by giving support.
Their support can provide other insights. Although non-work support plays a role in employee creativity, it is hard to influence by management and therefore excluded from the service content.
Supervisory is the most potent factor in influencing climate. The supervisor can support employee creativity by giving idea, work and social support. Herein he can design teams and jobs in such a way that it stimulates the creative behaviour. He can allocate resources to enhance employee creativity. Autonomy and challenge play a significant role in job design.
Supportive and non-controlling behaviour also is essential for the facilitation of creative behaviour.
Through the expertise that the supervisor possesses or should possess, he can manage relationships well and earns his credibility as a leader. In this role he must evaluate his subordinates on their performance. Herein he must give developmental feedback, so the employees can improve their performance. It is important to give positively formulated feedback in an informational style.
The physical work environment does also have its effect on the climate and can facilitate employee creativity. By design the office space such in a way that employees can meet and exchange information in an informal way. The space must provide in solitary and communal working spaces, because the creative process demands moments like that. Managers should focus on the spatial preconditions that enable creativity.
The service must teach, motivate and change behaviour. Therefore, feedback on the trainees’
actions is necessary. The types of training that are congruent to the service are coaching, role playing and behaviour modelling. But showing the relations between social others’ behaviour and employee creativity is essential as well. Others forms of training are appropriate to teach these relations, like lecture style instruction. A combination between types of training is the best for the service.
Important in the design of the service is the anchorage of the training effect. This could be
achieved by coaching, discussion meeting between employees and management, and split the
training in blocks to increase the fit between work and training.
To teach, motivate and change behaviour with the service, it should be given to the vast majority of the employees plus management. The training can be based on the training
‘Creative Thinking’ that is already offered by The Creativity Company. Some alterations are necessary to enhance employee creativity.
Beforehand, a meeting should be arranged between management and employees to set the goals for training. The management should be aware of what is learned and how the employees could be supported.
In the training the influences on employee creativity must be made clear. During and beyond the training, the manager should receive coaching to ensure that he learns how to support his subordinates in their creative efforts. The training should entail role playing and behaviour modelling. The Creativity Company can include externals to help.
Afterwards the trainees must meet again to set up rules of conduct and compose a vision to change their office space. In this way everybody stays committed to the training objectives and stimulates each other.
Thus, a programme should be developed based on the training ‘Creative Thinking’. The
programme must contain a meeting before the training and afterwards. Besides that, it must
contain coaching for the supervisor during the training and afterwards. In this way, the
programme is most likely to enhance employee creativity.
Index
Preface ... 3
Executive summary ... 4
1 Introduction ... 9
1.1 The Creativity Company ...9
1.2 Management problem...9
1.3 Creativity ...10
1.4 Creativity training ...11
1.4.1 Transfer of training ...13
1.4.2 Relapse prevention ...14
1.5 Climate ...14
1.7 Supervisor...15
1.6 Co-workers ...16
1.8 Non-work support ...16
1.9 Physical work environment ...16
1.10 Purpose of the study...17
2 Methodology ... 19
2.1 Literature research ...19
2.2 Interviews ...19
2.2.1 Alteration interview scheme ...20
3 Climate ... 21
3.1 Culture and climate ...21
3.2 Measuring climate...22
3.2.1 Situational Outlook Questionnaire ...22
3.2.2 KEYS: Assessing the work environment for creativity ...23
3.3 Climate and creativity ...23
3.4 Conclusion...25
4 Social work environment ... 26
4.1 Motivation ...26
4.2 Co-workers ...26
4.2.1 Role identity ...26
4.2.2 Role model ...27
4.2.3 Diversity ...27
4.2.4 Interaction ...28
4.2.5 Feedback...29
4.2.6 Support ...30
4.2.7 Conclusion ...31
4.3 Supervisor...32
4.3.1 Expertise ...32
4.3.2 Support ...33
4.3.3 Leader member exchange...35
4.3.4 Evaluation and feedback ...35
4.3.5 Conclusion ...37
4.4 Non-work support ...38
5 Physical work environment... 40
5.1 Place and space ...40
5.2 Elements of space for creativity ...41
5.3 Density ...41
5.4 Conclusion...42
6 Interviews versus literature ... 43
6.1 Support ...43
6.2 Leader member exchange and expertise ...45
6.3 Feedback...45
6.4 Effect of training...46
6.5 Conclusion...46
7 Service design ... 47
7.1 Type of service ...47
7.2 Types of training...47
7.3 Training effect ...48
7.3.1 Anchoring the training effect ...49
7.4 Conclusion...49
8 Conclusion... 51
8.1 Social others and space ...51
8.2 The service...52
9 Recommendations ... 56
References... 57
Appendix A... 62
Appendix B ... 64
Appendix C... 65
1 Introduction
1.1 The Creativity Company
In today’s world companies are under increasing competitive pressure to maintain market share, enhance product range, improve efficiency and reduce costs (Flynn et al, 2003). One way for companies to achieve this is through innovation. Because creativity is considered as the seed of all innovation (Amabile et al, 1996), it becomes increasingly important to organizations. This development gives way to the existence of companies who specialize in creativity and innovation. The Creativity Company is such a company. The Creativity Company offers advice, workshops and training in the realm of creativity in a business environment. Their goal is to provide services to organizations which enable them to effectively use their own creativity to realize their renewal. Occasionally The Creativity Company asks support from external partners in providing their services, like actors and
‘visual thinkers’.
1.2 Management problem
The Creativity Company wants to offer companies a service which helps them to enhance the creative output of their employees. At the moment The Creativity Company has a portfolio of several services concerning creativity and innovation. One is a training that focuses on teaching employees creative thinking skills. The training contains a presentation on the background of creativity and various techniques one could use to develop creative skills.
Afterwards the participants have the ability to get acquainted with these techniques. Whether the participant will skill himself in the creative techniques, is dependent on the interest which the training brings about. So the impact the training has on the employee’s creative output is mainly dependent on the employee itself. This results in different effects of the training.
When The Creativity Company gives the training on creative thinking skills, people often react positively and think that they should do more with creative thinking skills. Both managers of departments and employees react in a similar way. But due to the intensity and the length (half to one day) of this training nothing is done in the aftermath. The majority of the participants do not become motivated to actively use creative thinking skills in their work.
To involve a whole department in the use of creative thinking skills and become more
creative, a more intense training must be developed. Participants must be motivated and
supported to use creative skills in their work environment. The members of a whole
department could create such an atmosphere. Thus The Creativity Company thinks there is demand for a service that enhances the creative output of employees within a department.
Although this is a feeling based on what participants said about their acquaintance with creative thinking skills. They were positive and felt that they should do more with creativity.
If The Creativity Company wants to improve the results of their training they must find out which factors influence employees and accordingly influence them with a new to develop service. It is important to know what differences there are between literature and practice. The differences in that are important for the content of the service. The Creativity Company asked to investigate in which ways employee creativity can be influenced and how a service can contribute to that in order to enhance the employee’s creative output within the working context is realized. The main question is as follows:
To what extent can employee creativity be influenced and how can a service contribute to the enhancement of employee creativity within the working context?
In order to conduct this research with an open view, the type of service is not yet defined.
1.3 Creativity
The concept of creativity plays a central role in this paper. For a better understanding of what is meant with creativity, this is explained in the next paragraph.
Creativity can and does apply in any domain of life, but not every domain must be infused with creativity on a regular basis to exist (Feist, 1998). It was more seen as something that artists did or lonely inventors in a shed in their backyard. But over the years, creativity has become more popular in the context of business. In the rate in which our world is changing at the moment, the demand for creativity is likely to increase. In every profession wherein thinking is required, creativity is important for success (Sternberg and Lubart, 1996).
Creativity can be applied in the solving of problems and in the development of new products, services or processes. These applications of creativity must be clear, because creativity is more linked with the latter, while the solving of problems is just as interesting.
“Innovate or die”, as innovation researcher Henry Chesbrough once said, represents the urge
for companies to innovate. More companies see the value of innovation for their
competitiveness. Creativity is an important source of competitive strength for organizations
(Shalley, 1995). It is the seed of all innovation (Amabile et al, 1996). All innovation starts with a creative idea that gets developed beyond its initial state and put into practice as a new product, service or process. Creative input provides companies with options that can help react to all sorts of changes in its environment. Creativity makes it possible to see changes in the market and adapt to these, hereby a company should be prepared to take risks.
For more than 30 years most creativity researchers are unanimous about the definition of creativity (Feist, 1998). The definition is ‘the production of novel and useful ideas in any domain’ (Amabile, 1988; Woodman et al, 1993). As can be derived from this definition, creativity must be seen as a process. The word useful reflects the congruence with the organizational goals and the value of the idea for the organization in the short or long term (Oldham and Cummings, 1997). The term novel is subject of discussion. In Kaufman’s opinion (2003) the novelty criterion is far from clear. In strict literature sense novelty means something that has not been done before. This kind has been referred to as objective creativity. But novelty depends on its context, i.e. the person. Creativity is not always something that has never happened before. Therefore creativity must be seen as the process wherein someone could produce an idea that is new to him but might not be for the society as a whole. This is called subjective novelty (Kaufman, 2003).
Novelty is very broad and can be in product, process, service delivery etcetera. However, creativity does not exist without newness; new and useful are interconnected. The outcome must have value for the company in such a way that it can compete with its competitors. The question remains how much newness an idea must have to add value. Therefore this research aims at the goal that creativity must add value for a company, regardless of the level of newness.
That is why the following definition is used in this research. Creativity is the process whereby knowledge, thoughts and inspiration are translated in new perspectives, solutions, ideas and concepts that deliver added value to the context wherein they originate.
1.4 Creativity training
For this research it is important what creativity training entails and what effect it has on employees. Consequently it is essential to know how the effect of creativity training can be maintained within an organization. The following paragraphs give answers to these questions.
The creative output of an entire company, the organizational creativity, stems from the
creativity at individual and group level. For an organization to become more creative, it
should enhance the employee creativity (Woodman et al, 1993). With that in mind, it is important for a company to invest in employee creativity.
A company can use several strategies to enhance the creativity of employees. One way is to select people on high creative potential when hiring (Oldham and Cummings, 1997). A second manner to achieve this is to introduce idea capture schemes or set up a reward system.
Another popular approach is to enhance creativity by improving the usage of thinking techniques such as brainstorming (Birdi, 2004; Wang and Horng, 2002). Although effective solutions in their own right, the combination of these three is the most effective approach to bring out the creative potential of employees (Oldham and Cummings, 1997). An increasing number of companies sensed the need for training courses designed to enhance employee creativity (Wang and Horng, 2002).
Creativity training has been developed for many occupations ranging from marketing, management, administration to medicine and engineering (Scott et al, 2004). Next to that, there are different training courses that can be given to employees in order to enhance creativity. Creative problem solving (CPS) training forms the basis for the training courses given by The Creativity Company. Noller (1979) gives a definition of CPS by defining each of the containing words: creative, problem and solving. Problem is ‘any situation which presents a challenge, offers an opportunity, or is a concern to you’. By solving Noller means
‘devising ways to answer or to meet or satisfy the problem, adapting yourself to the situation or adapting the situation to yourself’. Creative problem solving is a process for approaching a problem in an imaginative way resulting in effective action (Noller, 1979, p. 4-5), i.e. a framework organizing specific tools to help design and develop new and useful outcomes (Isaksen et al, 2000). These techniques are taught in CPS training. CPS is applicable at both individual and group level. Brainstorming is an example of a group problem solving technique.
It should be noted that the term training and CPS training are used interchangeably in this research.
The effect of CPS training courses on the employee has been investigated (e.g. Basadur et al,
1982; Birdi, 2004; Burke and Baldwin, 1999; Puccio et al, 2006; Rose and Lin, 1984; Wang
and Horng, 2002). Wang and Horng (2002) did a research on the effect of CPS training with
R&D workers. Their results show that such training does affect the employees’ performance
Effects that were not observed among workers who did not participated in the research.
Basadur et al (1982) also found evidence that training affects the creative behaviour of employees. However, the effects found in both these studies were short-term effects.
Birdi (2004) and Rose and Lin (1984) both investigated the long term effect of training courses. Birdi (2004) evaluated the long-term impact of creativity training workshops and concluded that, as a result of training, both idea generation and implementation improved.
Moreover the employees’ knowledge of creativity and attitudes towards it were also positively influenced by training. Rose and Lin (1984) performed a meta-analysis of studies on the effectiveness of training programs. They found that there is a moderate to large long- term effect on the creativity of employees. So training does affect the creative behaviour in the long run as well.
Thus, assuming that these training courses are comparable with the training The Creativity Company offers to its clients, it does affect the creative performance of employees. CPS training has effect on creativity, but there can be limitations on the impact of creativity training on employees, such as poor managerial support and a work environment that does not support creativity and innovation (Birdi, 2004; Burke and Baldwin, 1999).
1.4.1 Transfer of training
The study of Birdi (2004) highlights the need for effective creativity training programs that develops the knowledge and motivation of the participants. The previous section described that a training course affects the knowledge of the employee about creativity. But there is a clear difference between knowing what to do and doing it. There must occur a so-called transfer of training. An employee should be sufficiently motivated through training courses to transfer the acquired knowledge and skills to its work (Burke and Baldwin, 1999). A transfer could be enhanced for example by using examples of organizational problems, making action plans to help employees engage more systematically with later innovation processes or public discussion on strategies to overcome barriers to skill application (Burke and Baldwin, 1999).
But the training itself should not be the sole instrument that motivates the employee to apply
the training content in its work environment. The work environment is a critical factor in
whether trainees shall apply their skills on the job (Baldwin and Ford, 1988; Burke and
Baldwin, 1999; Tracey et al, 1995). Birdi (2004) states that poor managerial support and
unfavourable departmental climate for innovation play a significant role in the impact and
application of creativity training with regard to the effect on idea implementation. Returning
trained employees to an environment that is averse to change, restricts the impact of training in the long run. To put it boldly, “(…) it would be like taking a carefully cultivated palm tree and planting it in the middle of the Arctic (Birdi, 2004).”
1.4.2 Relapse prevention
Employees, who attend a training course and return to an unsupportive environment, have a significant chance to relapse. However, some of such employees can manage and show skill application through relapse prevention (RP). This is a self-management technique that originates from treating addictive behaviours like alcohol and drug use (Burke and Baldwin, 1999). But not everyone possesses such self-management skills to prevent from slipping back into the old way of doing things. Relapse prevention training and the creation of a supportive transfer climate are two factors that may help to enhance the transfer of training. Burke and Baldwin (1999) investigated the interaction between the two and found that there is less need for RP tools as the transfer climate becomes more supportive. In supportive climates no transfer intervention may even be optimal. The study supports the thought that the employees’
context is important, especially in the post-training period.
1.5 Climate
The preceding paragraphs described creativity, creativity training and the effect and transfer of such training. In conclusion, the climate and the supervisor are the most important influences when it comes to creative behaviour of employees. Therefore, this research focuses on these two influences. The next session describes climate and after that the supervisor is discussed.
Mumford et al (2002) point out that creative work is contextualized. If creative ideas are to be turned into innovative products, companies must take the context of creative work into account. Not only in the initial idea generation phase, but also in the subsequent development and implementation of the idea. Another research that emphasizes the importance of context is a global research on innovation and growth conducted by Davis (2000). One of the insights of his survey was the importance of creating the context and environment for innovation.
“Even with all our modern tools and technology, at the heart of all innovations are people
using their creative capacities to develop new ideas. However, the motivation we feel to do
this depends on our perception of how acceptable it is in the situations we work in; the
working environment or climate has a significant effect (Davis, 2000, p. 18).”
To realize the full creative potential of every employee, one needs to create nurturing surroundings (Oldham and Cummings, 1997). These surroundings are called the climate.
Climate is held to be domain referenced (Hunter et al, 2007). This research handles about climate in the domain of creativity and innovation; the climate for creativity and innovation.
Climate is reflected in people’s perceptions of, or beliefs about, environmental attributes shaping expectations about outcomes, contingencies, requirements, and interactions in the work environment (Hunter et al, 2007). Climate is about what people experience at work on a daily basis (Isaksen and Akkermans, 2007), the way they see and perceive the behaviours of their supervisor and colleagues.
Climate acts its role by influencing organizational processes such as problem solving, decision making, communication, motivation, processes of learning and so on. In this manner climate becomes a modifying force that enlarges or reduces effects of investments or operations in the organization (Ekval and Ryhammer, 1999), for instance training of employees. Because of this effect that climate has on creativity, it is important to investigate in this research.
There are different levels to look at climate. At the personal level it is called individual psychological climate. The next level is group or team climate. The most aggregated level is organizational climate (Isaksen and Akkermans, 2007). This research focuses on employee creativity and therefore focuses on the perceptions of individuals; how a person sees his team and organization.
1.7 Supervisor
Besides organizational climate, training transfer also depends on supervisory support.
Supervisors can encourage, discourage or even prohibit application of new skills and knowledge in the work environment (Tannenbaum and Yukl, 1992). Leaders are a key variable in the creation of a supportive transfer climate. They can insure that trainees have the opportunity to use what they have learned (Baldwin and Ford, 1988). Deliberately or not, leaders are already creating a climate for their subordinates (Shalley and Gilson, 2004).
Regardless of the workplace transfer of training course content, leadership plays an active role. In order for creativity to occur, leaders need to foster, encourage and support creativity.
The role of leaders is to ensure that the work environment and the human resource practices,
like rewards, goals and expected evaluations, are such that creativity can occur (Shalley and
Gilson, 2004). Leadership behaviour is generally the most immediate and potent force on
organizational climate (Amabile et al, 2004). So leadership influences employee creativity in a direct manner and in an indirect manner via climate.
1.6 Co-workers
Much of the work in an organization involves groups or teams. Therefore social others, besides the supervisor, form an important part of the context of the employee. A working climate emerges out of the interactions that members of a team or group have with each other.
First co-workers are mentioned, other social others are discussed later on.
Individuals in the direct and indirect work context of the employee can be typed as co- workers. Direct co-workers are the individuals that have work-related contact with the employee in the primary work unit, such as a team or department. The indirect co-workers are the work-related contacts that are outside the primary work unit (Madjar, 2005). The employee could meet these randomly in the workplace. For example at the coffee machine. In this research the focus lies on the direct co-workers of the employee, because they have the greatest impact on the employee’s creativity (Madjar, 2008).
1.8 Non-work support
Much of the research on social determinants of employee creativity has focused on the individuals surrounding the employee in the workplace. But besides these persons there are non-work sources, like family and friends, who provide support for creativity. Madjar et al (2002) studied the contribution of support from individuals both inside and outside the organization to employees’ creative performance at work. Their findings are consistent with earlier work from other scholars on the subject of support. Work and non-work sources of support are significantly related to the creative performance of the employee. Non-work support especially affects the performance of the employee with low creative personality characteristics. A higher degree of support by family and/or friends correlates with a higher creative performance of the employee. So support from outside the work environment is definitely a factor that should be taken into account.
1.9 Physical work environment
The aforementioned considers the psychological or social climate in which employees can be
stimulated in creative performance. But the physical work environment is a factor in the
creative performance of the employee as well (Moultrie et al, 2007; West and Wind, 2007). In
comparison with the psychological climate there is much less academic attention for the
design of workspaces and its influence on employee creativity. Since the Hawthorne studies of Mayo (1932) it is clear that the design of the workspace is important. The same counts for designing the workspace for creativity and innovation (Moultrie et al, 2007).
The design of the workspace shows the intention of the organization towards its employees.
SEI, an American company, discovered that a company could embody their culture in the workspace itself (West and Wind, 2007). The design of the work environment can make team work easier and motivate people to be creative (Moultrie et al, 2007). There are many examples of office designs from innovative companies that are successful, like Google, Lego, McLaren Mercedes, Pixar Animations and Red Bull. To emphasize the importance, Ron Dennis, CEO of McLaren Mercedes and Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, even hired specialized design architects to create a stimulating work environment for their employees.
1.10 Purpose of the study
According to the studies CPS training has effect on the creative performance of employees and their attitudes towards creativity. Only this effect has its limitations when the employee is not stimulated to perform creative behaviour. Motivation is an important factor that can be stimulated by the training content, but mainly by the work environment of the employee in the aftermath of the training course. Poor managerial support and an unsupportive work environment conduce to the relapse to old thinking patterns.
The goal of this research is to develop the content and design of a service that enhances employee creativity in a business context. It is therefore important to understand how different factors influence the employee’s creativity. These factors can then be taught in the training course to create a supportive climate for creativity and innovation, which will provide more transfer of training and less relapse.
The previous review of literature showed that two factors are important for enhancing the
creativity of employees, namely the supervisor and the work environment. To get a complete
picture, all factors that are related to the supervisor and work environment will be considered
in this research. Influences like co-workers, the physical environment and non-work support
will also be included in the research.
This leads to the following research questions:
- To what extent and how does the organizational climate for creativity affect employee creativity?
- To what extent and how does supervisor behaviour influence employee creativity?
- What kind of service is most appropriate to enhance employee creativity effectively?
- How can the training effect be anchored in the organization?
To summarize the aforementioned, the purpose of this study is presented in figure 1.
Figure 1: Purpose of the literature study Organizational
climate
Employee creativity
Supervisor behaviour Non-work support
Physical work
environment
Co-workers
2 Methodology
This research focuses on the development of a program for the enhancement of employee creativity in an organizational context. A literature research was necessary for the content of such a program and data from the market for the design of the program.
2.1 Literature research
For the content of the program much knowledge was needed on employee creativity and the drivers behind it. The data collection began with the articles on creativity that were provided in the master program Business Development. The work of Amabile et al (1996) and Woodman, et al (1993) about organizational creativity formed the basis for the extensive search for literature via the databases Business Source Premier and Academic Search Premier.
The references of the studies were used to acquire more articles on creativity in a business context.
Next to articles books on creativity were used for the literature research. One book written by Zhou and Shalley (2008) called The Handbook of Organizational Creativity proved to be very helpful in finding information on all drivers behind creativity.
Another source of information about creativity in practice was the research of members of Trompenaars Hampden-Turner and Het Financieele Dagblad, Peter ten Hoopen and Marleen Janssen Groesbeek. Their findings are published in a book called ‘Oh, wat zijn we creatief!’.
The questionnaires to employees is one part of the publication. The other part are interviews with managers, entrepreneurs and artists about creativity in the Netherlands and some interviewees describe examples of applying creativity in their work.
2.2 Interviews
The data collected in the interviews is focused on the design of the program and an illustration management of creativity in practice. In the literature research it was found that managers have direct and indirect influence on employee creativity. Therefore in depth face-to-face interviews were held with managers who had supervision over a team or department. Another selection criteria was the different sectors where the managers worked. Creativity can be applied broadly in business, both for problem solving and product, process or service development. Different application of creativity could lead to other management practices.
The contacts for interviews were found in the network of The Creativity Company. Via
interviewees contacts other managers were found available for an interview as well. In total 4
managers were interviewed who worked in 4 different sectors. The sectors are
telecommunication, interim-management, sports products and training/consultancy. The latter had more knowledge about and experience in the design of training programme, so more emphasize was placed on questions concerning the service’s design because he can be seen as an expert.
Effect was a separate issue that is central to training. It is difficult to sustain the effect of a training in practice, so I asked how managers cope with this. This issue became clear in the last interview, so the additional question to the other managers was sent by e-mail.
For the interviews a structured questionnaire with open questions was used for a reliable interview result. This was done to establish a standard situation in every interview with the application of an interview scheme. Every manager was asked the same questions in the same order. The questions asked where on different subjects; organizational creativity, training of employees and themselves, the working climate and their opinion about the specific design of the program in terms of time, effort and money. These questions were derived from the literature research.
All the interviews were taped after asking permission from the interviewees to ensure a good processing of the answers.
2.2.1 Alteration interview scheme
After the first interview the questionnaire was altered. It was experienced that some of the
questions were not contributing to the information need of the interview. Other were to
specifically aimed at a form of creativity which caused guiding of the interviewee into
specific answers. Questions were deleted or altered and the order in which they were asked
was made more logical. Furthermore, the introduction was formulated in a different manner,
because the purpose of the interview was not fully expressed in the first interview. It was
emphasized more that the interview was about collecting information from the manager’s
perspective and experience. Questions about the design of the training were already well
understood and stayed unaltered.
3 Climate
This chapter is the beginning of a closer look at influencing factors of employee creativity. In the introduction climate and supervisory are mentioned as the most important factors that influence creative behaviour. This section focuses on climate and the most effective climate factors that influence creativity.
Climate affects the performance and well-being of employees by influencing processes in the organization. Organizational processes such as problem solving, decision making, communicating and coordinating, the individual processes of learning and creating, and levels of motivation and commitment can all be affected by climate (Isaksen and Lauer, 2002). It is important to understand climate because of the fact that climate is highly influential when it comes to performance and change in an organization.
3.1 Culture and climate
Organizational culture and climate are closely related concepts. Both concepts are connected with the context of the employee, but the difference between them must be clear.
According to Denison (1996) the distinction between climate and culture is quite clear.
Climate refers to a situation and its link to thoughts, feelings and behaviours of members of the organization. Thus a climate is temporal, subjective and often subject to direct manipulation by people with power and influence. In contrast, culture refers to an evolved context, is rooted in history, collectively held and sufficiently complex to resist many attempts at direct manipulation. The situation may be embedded in the evolved context.
Ekvall (1991) makes a similar differentiation of culture and climate. Both conclude that
climate is what members of an organization experience and culture is what the organization
values. The relationship between culture and climate is expressed in the fact that culture
provides the foundation for patterns of behaviour that can be more readily observed, described
and changed. Together with other factors, like management, organizational size and structure,
these patterns form the basis for the establishment of climate within an organization. Thus
climate is a derivative from the organizational culture. Like Tidd et al (2005) put it, it is the
way of doing things in a company. Thus climate is the situational context, depending on
social others, which is experienced or perceived by individuals and affects the organizational
processes. Therefore, this research focuses on climate, because this is easier to influence than culture. A service or training can never change the culture of an organization, however it is possible to change climate.
3.2 Measuring climate
Over the last decades various instruments are developed to measure the organizational climate for creativity. The Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ) of Isaksen et al (1999), KEYS:
Assessing the Climate for Creativity (KEYS) of Amabile et al (1996) and the Team Climate Inventory (TCI) of Anderson and West (1996), prove to be the most likely models useful in accounting for environmental influences on creativity (Hunter et al, 2007). However, TCI focuses on team or group level analysis. Mathisen and Einarsen (2004) state in their review of climate inventories, that it may not be suitable to measure climate at team level. People who work together on a day-to-day basis will develop a common understanding of the work environment. This information suggests that group membership is not an adequate condition for aggregating climate scores. The climate can be perceived very differently within a group.
Moreover, this research focuses on what the perception of a member is on its team and organization. Hence, only the SOQ and KEYS are described further.
Another reason not to choose TCI is the fact that it focuses at team level climate. This research attempts to describe how a person sees its organization, not only his team. The other instruments provide in this research need.
The SOQ and KEYS are the only climate assessing instruments that embed impeding factors, like conflict (SOQ) and workload pressure (KEYS). This fact is of importance because it improves their quality, because others place stronger emphasis on promoting factors. Both instruments prove to be effective in measuring the creative climate in organizations (Hunter et al, 2007; Mathisen and Einarsen, 2004). Therefore the SOQ and KEYS are preferable for measuring and discussed in the next section.
3.2.1 Situational Outlook Questionnaire
Isaksen, Lauer, Ekvall and Britz (2001) developed a method for assessing the climate for creativity and innovation, called Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ) 1 . The SOQ originates from the Creative Climate Questionnaire (CCQ), which grew out of a research programme in Sweden during the 1980s concerning organizational conditions that foster or hinder creativity and innovation (Ekvall, 1996). The CCQ was designed to measure these
1
The Situational Outlook Questionnaire is the translation into English of the Creative Climate Questionnaire
organizational conditions. Ekvall (1996) demonstrated his method in one of his studies by assessing the climate for ‘stagnated’ and ‘innovative’ organizations. Organizations were labelled ‘innovative’ when they had the ability to bring novel products or services to the marketplace quickly and were commercially successful overall. Companies whereby this was not the case or experienced it to be extremely difficult, received the label ‘stagnated’. The score of the stagnated and innovative organization were clear and significantly different on the dimensions which were designed to measure the creative climate. These dimensions have been found to effectively discriminate the degree to which a climate supports creativity.
Ekvall and other scholars performed studies to extent and validate the SOQ (Ekvall, 1996;
Ekvall, 1997; Isaksen, 2007a; Isaksen and Lauer, 2002; Isaksen et al, 2000). The nine dimensions (see Appendix A) that are used for measuring the creative climate are derived from these studies. What these studies show as well, is the multi-level usefulness of the SOQ.
On every level of climate (individual, team and organizational) the SOQ is applicable.
3.2.2 KEYS: Assessing the work environment for creativity
Amabile et al (1996) based their componential model on theory and focused on the individual work environment. This model assesses the perceptions of the work environment for creativity using eight so-called KEYS Environment scales (see Appendix B). These scales are derived from five contextual components; encouragement of creativity, autonomy or freedom, resources, pressures and organizational impediments to creativity. It measures employees’
perceptions of their work environment on several levels, including organizational and group level. The perceptions of actual creativity and productivity are assessed as well. KEYS enables a throughout evaluation of employees’ perceptions of the work environment and the relationship between those perceptions with the actual creativity and productivity. This makes the KEYS model to a useful instrument (Mathisen and Einarsen, 2004).
However, KEYS is in need of an update. The SOQ is validated with peer-reviews and in organizational settings and therefore up-to-date, for KEYS this is less the case. More research on the model is necessary to revise and improve it (Mathisen and Einarsen, 2004).
3.3 Climate and creativity
A recent review of 42 studies on climate assessing instruments of Hunter et al (2007) used effect size (Cohen’s delta statistic (Δ) 2 ) to measure the strength of the relationship between the creative dimensions and creative achievement (see Appendix C). Another study of
2
