Creativity in Organisations: Suppressing the Individual

Organisations are seeking greater creativity as a means of realising performance improvements. Creativity is often associated with unpredictable inspiration found with artists and musicians. When creativity is mentioned in organisational contexts, it is a specific type of creativity. Managers do not want tool makers to paint pictures or sculpture in work time. They want people to make improvements to the organisation; anything else would not be adding value.

Proctor (2010) remarks that creativity is problematic to define as it is multi-faceted. In his review of definitions, two definitional themes emerge. Firstly some definitions focus on the individual and a process of personal discovery. Secondly, that creativity tests assumptions, attempts to recognise new patterns or connections to develop novel ideas or approaches.

According to Jeremy Dean (2010) creativity “…provides a framework, language, guidelines, and set of easy-to-use tools for understanding challenges, generating ideas, and transforming promising ideas into action.” This clearly directs attention to making changes and improvements of some form. Thus, creativity in the organisational context has little to do with the individual or personal discovery. Creativity approaches are driven by context and goal; the context of business and the goals of improvement to that business.

Approaches are developed to fit specifically with the organisational context and tend to focus on group idea generation. The education system is similarly goal directed and reinforces individuals need to fit, or conform, to social context and norms. Such approaches are hostile to creativity of the individual. The education system could be responsible for our acceptance of approaches to creativity in organisations which don’t align with our individual creative needs (Dean 2010).

It is not surprising that organisations look to their managers and employees to keep the company competitive and profitable. Having and interest in your own and the company’s future should provide some intrinsic impetus and openness to seeking new ideas. However, in organisations it is possible that tools and techniques used to stimulate creativity are actually subduing it. Such approaches override the individual aspects of creativity in favour of directed rationality. In this way, the use of creativity approaches is open to criticism similar to Dean’s (2010) of the education system.

The influence of our education system and primacy of rationality means some creative approaches in organisations appear childish or a joke. If we aim to encourage alternative approaches to creativity, more aligned with the disparate needs of individuals, greater explanation of tools and techniques is needed. Without sufficient explanation of theories, perspectives and worldviews underpinning approaches, individuals will not be given the opportunity to question and change their own perspectives. Furthermore, those using tools and techniques need appropriate feedback. Without different ideas and requirements around creativity, they will not be able to develop new approaches. Such feedback is necessary if creativity is going to be encouraged in a manner which better recognises individual differences and organisational diversity.

Attempting to encourage creativity is important for both organisational and individual well-being. Giving people the opportunity to input and work with ideas in an open environment is wholly beneficial. With regards to creative approaches used in organisations, individuals’ particular creative lubricants and how diversity is addressed needs further thought.

For those subject to creative processes in organisations:

• Be active and listen to others
• Question trainers, presenters etc. about the theoretical underpinnings of approaches used
• Reflect on your own creativity and be able to articulate it if asked
• Give alternatives and try and assess them using critical thinking

References:

Dean, J. , Unusual Thinking Styles Increase Creativity, [Online], Pearson Education, Available from: <http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/05/unusual-thinking-styles-increase-creativity.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PsychologyBlog+%28PsyBlog%29&gt; [04/05/2011].

Proctor, T. 2010, Creative Problem Solving for Managers: Developing Skills for Decision Making and Innovation, Routledge

© 2011