WHAT MAKES PEOPLE CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE AT WORK?
Group 24 - What Makes People Creative and Innovative at Work: Literature Review
Claudia Blanco García (02000740)
Teams and Work Motivation in Organizations: University Ghent
1
, WHAT MAKES PEOPLE CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE AT WORK?
Introduction
Creativity and innovation in any organization are essential to its performance. “They are the
outcomes and products of attempts to develop and introduce new and improved ways of doing
things” (Anderson et al., 2014). While creativity is generally defined as the generation of original
and beneficial ideas, innovation is commonly viewed as the creation of new ideas and their
implementation (Amabile, 1996; Oldham & Cummings, 1996; Shalley & Zhou, 2008; West &
Farr, 1990). Essentially, due to the fact that creativity facilitates concept generation and
innovation emphasizes concept implementation, creativity is often viewed as the first step of
innovation. By enriching our understanding of creativity and innovation, business performance
can be improved and academic programs can be put in place. This article describes how
creativity and innovation can flourish in the design thinking process. Furthermore, it explains
which effect gender has on creativity and innovation. Moreover, it seeks to illustrate how job
characteristics and other contextual factors might influence creative and innovative thinking.
Design thinking
Design thinking is a process which enables us to discover innovative ways of solving
problems and find new ideas, according to Brown (2008) and Davis (2010). Both authors explain
the three main steps of design thinking: Inspiration, Ideation and Implementation. During the
inspiration phase, a multidisciplinary team tries to observe and define what the problems are.
“Cross-disciplinary collaborative teams are more likely to create innovative solutions [..] since
varying opinions and sources of expertise can lead to valuable insight”, according to Davis
(2010). The ideation phase uses brainstorming to generate ideas, followed by prototyping and
2
Group 24 - What Makes People Creative and Innovative at Work: Literature Review
Claudia Blanco García (02000740)
Teams and Work Motivation in Organizations: University Ghent
1
, WHAT MAKES PEOPLE CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE AT WORK?
Introduction
Creativity and innovation in any organization are essential to its performance. “They are the
outcomes and products of attempts to develop and introduce new and improved ways of doing
things” (Anderson et al., 2014). While creativity is generally defined as the generation of original
and beneficial ideas, innovation is commonly viewed as the creation of new ideas and their
implementation (Amabile, 1996; Oldham & Cummings, 1996; Shalley & Zhou, 2008; West &
Farr, 1990). Essentially, due to the fact that creativity facilitates concept generation and
innovation emphasizes concept implementation, creativity is often viewed as the first step of
innovation. By enriching our understanding of creativity and innovation, business performance
can be improved and academic programs can be put in place. This article describes how
creativity and innovation can flourish in the design thinking process. Furthermore, it explains
which effect gender has on creativity and innovation. Moreover, it seeks to illustrate how job
characteristics and other contextual factors might influence creative and innovative thinking.
Design thinking
Design thinking is a process which enables us to discover innovative ways of solving
problems and find new ideas, according to Brown (2008) and Davis (2010). Both authors explain
the three main steps of design thinking: Inspiration, Ideation and Implementation. During the
inspiration phase, a multidisciplinary team tries to observe and define what the problems are.
“Cross-disciplinary collaborative teams are more likely to create innovative solutions [..] since
varying opinions and sources of expertise can lead to valuable insight”, according to Davis
(2010). The ideation phase uses brainstorming to generate ideas, followed by prototyping and
2
