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1 – 10 of over 9000Frederik Hertel and Michelle Wicmandy
According to Mumford et al. (2018), case studies illustrating creative-problem solving at work is lacking. To help fill this gap, this study aims to show how metaphorical…
Abstract
Purpose
According to Mumford et al. (2018), case studies illustrating creative-problem solving at work is lacking. To help fill this gap, this study aims to show how metaphorical creativity was integrated in the realm of everyday creativity to form a new soap that solves a cleaning crew's challenge.
Design/methodology/approach
Participatory observation was the qualitative methodology used to conduct this study. The cleaning team understood they were the research participants under investigation in the food plant. Participatory observation favored an efficient and flexible process for the cleaners to demonstrate their experiential knowledge while the researchers documented the cleaners' routine cleaning practices and challenges. Directly observing and analyzing the cleaners' everyday creative acts inferred face validity. This ensured to a degree that the study was effective at exploring everyday creativity.
Findings
Following Finke's Geneplore model in creative cognition (Birdsell, 2019), the consultant shifted between cycles of analogical reasoning in the generative process with exploratory processes to test hypothesis and tailor his thinking. Through this process, the consultant leveraged everyday creativity to develop a small innovation of foaming a non-foaming soap. The foaming process changed the soap's chemistry, enabling the cleaners to remove the spot quickly, accelerating the cleaning process.
Research limitations/implications
According to Mumford et al. (2018), case studies illustrating creative-problem solving at work are lacking. In this study, we aim to show how metaphorical creativity was integrated into the realm of everyday creativity to form a new soap that solves an industrial cleaning crew's challenge. To fully understand the variety of metaphorical creativity more qualitative cases need to be analyzed and qualitative research is needed to grasp the scale of metaphorical creativity in everyday creativity.
Practical implications
The findings gleaned from this study are beneficial to help organizations solve problems. Viewing problems metaphorically in everyday creativity involves unconventional thinking. When confronted with a challenge that seems impossible to solve, employees should approach the problem from a different angle. Sometimes, a small, innovative act can solve problems that appear hopeless, similar to the Columbus Principle. After all, a challenge is only simple once you know how to pull it off – the triumph is having the courage to try something new and succeeding. With practice, metaphorical creativity is a skill that one can develop. This could e.g. be viewing old problems through a new lens. Applying a new approach may reveal an unconventional solution.
Originality/value
According to Mumford et al. (2018), case studies illustrating creative-problem solving at work are lacking. To help fill this gap, this study aims to show how metaphorical creativity was integrated into the realm of everyday creativity to form a new soap that solves a cleaning crew's challenge.
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Drawing on ethnographic research in selection of urban households in Providence County, Rhode Island, the purpose of this paper is to define uncertainty as an everyday experience…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on ethnographic research in selection of urban households in Providence County, Rhode Island, the purpose of this paper is to define uncertainty as an everyday experience embedded in material and social worlds and explore the relationship of uncertainty to creative improvisation and well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
This research was anthropological and ethnographic, drawing on an everyday material culture approach to the home. Participant observation and interviews began in April 2015 and ended in April 2016. The data presented in derived from interview transcripts, field notes and photography.
Findings
Responses to uncertainty are embedded in habits and practices that help sustain well-being. During uncertain periods marked by transition, change and disappointment, participants draw on domestic practices as well as narrative frameworks to foster stability. Security, well-being, uncertainty, and improvisation emerge as an important intersection in everyday life.
Originality/value
This paper offers a perspective on uncertainty at the intimate level of the home, helping nuance the difference between collective creative improvisation and the economic expectation of individual adaptability.
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Higher education institutions (HEIs) frequently overlook the importance of encouraging creative thinking in students. A review of the prevailing practices in a fully online…
Abstract
Purpose
Higher education institutions (HEIs) frequently overlook the importance of encouraging creative thinking in students. A review of the prevailing practices in a fully online tertiary distance education (DE) institution revealed a lack of learning activities that foster creativity. The study aims to find out whether the creative collaborative group project is a feasible, effective and acceptable learning activity for fostering creativity in students of a fully online graduate-level DE course.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven groups of five to six graduate students each had five weeks to conceptualize, prepare and deliver a creative collaborative group project on lifelong learning using key concepts learned from the course.
Findings
All groups submitted well-crafted creative projects within the given time frame. Reflections on their experience positively correlated with known outcomes associated with creative skills. Students valued the experience and had a better understanding of the concepts. These support the feasibility, effectiveness and acceptability of the project for fostering creativity in a fully online DE institution.
Research limitations/implications
The feasibility, effectiveness and acceptability may vary in different contexts; future iterations in the same and/or other courses are recommended.
Practical implications
The creative collaborative group project is a feasible, effective and acceptable strategy for fostering creativity in online distance education.
Social implications
Creativity can be enhanced through appropriate online collaborative learning activities.
Originality/value
The study adds to the body of literature on the use of creative collaborative group projects to foster creativity in HEIs.
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Employees’ creativity competency is indeed an unstable, but powerful tool in any development and enhancement of business in creative industry. To understand employee’ assumptions…
Abstract
Purpose
Employees’ creativity competency is indeed an unstable, but powerful tool in any development and enhancement of business in creative industry. To understand employee’ assumptions on creativity is crucial for creative industry in recruiting creative personnel, developing organizational creativity training programmes as well as nurturing a creative organization. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper aims to explore some basic assumptions of creativity competency by analysing literatures and creative employees’ feedback from a pilot study. This paper is neither going to define creativity accurately nor measuring employees’ creative outcomes for creative organizations, but rather to understand some basic assumptions of creativity competency in order to trigger further studies in organizational studies.
Findings
A pilot investigation has been done to investigate employees’ assumptions of creativity competency, and their expectation of the design of organizational creativity training programmes. The findings of this investigation have contributed to furthering the discussion and development in organizational studies and professional training programmes in creative industry.
Originality/value
Creativity and its training is getting important in developing learning organization nowadays. This paper is a study of the assumptions of employees in creative industry. This fundamental understanding of their assumption is essential for developing organization training and learning models in the future.
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Omar Durrah, Kamaal Allil, Moaz Gharib and Souzan Hannawi
This empirical study aims to explore the impact of two facets of organizational pride (namely, emotional and attitudinal) on employee creativity in petrochemical companies in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This empirical study aims to explore the impact of two facets of organizational pride (namely, emotional and attitudinal) on employee creativity in petrochemical companies in the Sultanate of Oman.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a simple random sample technique, data were collected using a questionnaire from 278 respondents working in five major petrochemical organizations operating in Oman. Data were examined using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings revealed that attitudinal organizational pride is the only dimension of organizational pride that has a direct significant positive effect on creativity, while emotional pride does not affect creativity.
Research limitations/implications
The current study is considered among the pioneering studies in its contextual field. However, despite its importance, it has several limitations. First, this study is limited to the petrochemical sector. Second, the study is limited to two variables: organizational pride and creativity. Last, this study examined creativity as one variable.
Practical implications
Attitudinal organizational pride directly affects employee creativity. Petrochemical managers should consider and enhance attitudinal organizational pride.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature investigating the attitudinal and emotional aspects as facets of organizational pride in relation to employee creativity, and it is the first to do so in the context of the Sultanate of Oman.
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Discusses the virtues of creativity as the first part of a processenabling companies to outperform their competitors. Considers fivetechniques for stimulating creativity, with…
Abstract
Discusses the virtues of creativity as the first part of a process enabling companies to outperform their competitors. Considers five techniques for stimulating creativity, with examples of applications of each: lateral thinking, metaphoric thinking, positive thinking, association trigger, and capturing and interpreting dreams. Surmises that creative thinking relies on practice and the right environment as well as education in techniques.
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