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Summary Managing Creativity (University of Amsterdam, 2022/2023)
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Summary of lectures and articles At the end, there are also 5 exam questions.
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Week 1: Introduction to creativity, team formation and diversityCreativity will be studied at three levels
● Individual creativity (is often linked to)
○ expertise
○ personality
○ motivation
● Group creativity
○ types of diversity
○ the right kind of (task) conflict
○ process management tools
■ e.g., ‘brainstorming’
● Organisational creativity
○ job design
○ feedback practices
○ reward structures
Article: Creativity, intelligence, and personality (Barron & Harrington, 1981)
Two definitions of creativity
● Creativity as a socially recognised achievement in which there are novel products
○ Inventions, theories, buildings, writings, paintings, films, laws, institutions, medical
treatments, etc.
● Creativity as an ability manifested by performance in critical trials in which individuals can
be compared on a (pre) defined scale (i.e., standards)
○ Tests, contests, etc.
Modes of thinking
● Divergent thinking (DT): search novel associations, combinations, or perspectives that may
be useful → related to intrinsic motivation, explores multiple possible solutions in order to
generate creative ideas
● Convergent thinking (CT): apply criteria, standards, and logics based on prior knowledge and
experience → related to extrinsic motivation
Modes of thinking and intelligence
● Divergent thinking (DT) has a positive effect on creativity, but…
○ Divergent thinking abilities are often field-specific
○ Divergent thinking tests often do not control for general intelligence
● Creative people often score high on intelligence tests
○ Creativity involves the ability or tendency to form numerous and unusual
associations. Unusual associations were positively correlated with rated creativity.
● Creative scientists tend to be more emotionally stable, venturesome, and self-assured than
the average individual, whereas creative artists and writers tend to be less stable, less
venturesome, and more guilt prone.
, ● “Divergent thinking in fact goes hand in glove with convergent thinking in every process that
results in a new idea”.
Composite Creative Personality scale
● Provide a good sense of creativity scales:
○ active, alert, ambitious, argumentative, artistic, assertive, capable, clear thinking,
clever, complicated, confident, curious, cynical, demanding, egotistical, energetic,
enthusiastic, hurried, idealistic, imaginative, impulsive, independent, individualistic,
ingenious, insightful, intelligent, interests wide, inventive, original, practical, quick,
rebellious, reflective, resourceful, self-confident, sensitive, sharp-wited,
spontaneous, unconventional, versatile and not conventional and not inhibited.
Article: How to kill creativity (Amabile, 1998)
Creative ideas
● To be creative, an idea must also be appropriate, useful and actionable. It must somehow
influence the way business gets done, by improving a product, for instance, or by opening up
a new way to approach a process.
Three components of creativity
● Creative thinking skills (how):
○ Flexibility and imagination in approaching problems (divergent thinking).
● Expertise (what):
○ Encompasses everything that a person knows and can do in the broad domain of his
or her work.
● Motivation (why):
○ Extrinsic: comes from outside a person. Makes the person do his/her job in order to
get something desirable or to avoid something painful.
○ the most common; money or competition (Hirst et. al.)
○ which doesn't stop people from being creative, sometimes it doesn’t help
either (bribe or control)
● Intrinsic: comes from passion and interest in a person’s internal desire to do
something. When people are intrinsically motivated, they engage in their work for
the challenge and enjoyment of it. The work itself is motivating.
,Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity
● People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, satisfaction,
and challenge of the work itself- and not by external pressures.
Managerial practices that influence creativity
● “intrinsic motivation can be increased considerably by even subtle changes in an
organisation's environment” (p.80)
○ Challenge
■ ↑ Match people with the right assignments
■ ↑ Perfect matches stretch their abilities
■ ↓ Give too little challenge (leads to boredom)
■ ↓ Give too much challenge (leads to loss of control)
○ Freedom
■ ↑ Give people autonomy concerning means (not ends)
■ ↑ Set specific, clear and stable strategic goals
■ ↓ Grant autonomy in name only
■ ↓ Fail to clearly define goals
■ ↓ Change goals frequently
○ Resources
■ ↑ Deadlines stimulate intrinsic motivation for acute challenges
■ ↑ Deadlines are not good for exploration or incubation
■ ↓ Give fake (distrust) and impossible deadlines (burnout)
■ ↓ Give too many resources (no effect) or too little (negative effect)
○ Work-group features
■ ↑ Diversity in perspectives and background
■ ↑ Shared excitement over the goal and willingness to help
■ ↑ Recognition of other team members’ skills
■ ↓ Just select on the basis of knowledge, not creating the right chemistry
■ ↓ Ignore attitudes towards other team members and different
problem-solving styles
○ Supervisory encouragement
■ ↑ Praise creative effort
■ ↑ Recognise creative work before commercial results
■ ↑ Highlight failure value to stimulate continuous experimentation
■ ↓ Watch out for negativity bias: people may think they look smart by
reacting critically
■ ↓ Watch out that culture of evaluation creates fear and extrinsic motivation
○ Organisational support
■ ↑ Emphasise values that creativity is priority
■ ↑ Mandate information sharing and collaboration
■ ↑ Solve festering political fights
■ ↓ Avoid using money to bribe people to come up with new ideas. It makes
them feel as if they are being controlled.
, Article: From Guilford to creative synergy: Opening the black box of team-level creativity
(Kurtzberg & Amabile, 2001)
Brainstorming
● Brainstorming: a process for generating creative ideas and solutions through intensive and
freewheeling group discussion.
○ Every participant is encouraged to think aloud and suggest as many ideas as
possible, no matter seemingly how outlandish or bizarre.
○ Analysis, discussion, or criticism of the aired ideas is allowed only when the
brainstorming session is over and the evaluation session begins.
Brainstorming challenges
Focus on two variables…
● Diversity: in characteristics of the team members
● Conflict: often arises in groups as they strive for creativity
○ Diversity and conflict are interrelated in that high levels of diversity among team
members can potentially cause conflicts through communication and co- ordination
difficulties.
Which types of group diversity affect creativity?
● There are many individual characteristics that can potentially affect a group’s processes and
performance:
○ Race and ethnic background, nationality, gender, age, personality, cultural values,
socioeconomic, educational, functional, and occupational background, industry
experience, organisational membership, and organisational and group tenure.
● Diversity in groups
○ On the one hand, diversity can aid the creative process by presenting a
heterogeneous set of perspectives for consideration.
○ On the other hand, diversity also can hinder group process by limiting common
understandings and shared experiences, or by creating such a divergence of ideas
and styles that detrimental conflict can result.
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