CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION R. Pellissier Department of Business Management, University of South Africa. F. SousaPresident, Apgico, INUAF, Loulé, Portugal.

1. R. Pellissier
Department of Business Management,
University of South Africa.
F. Sousa
President, Apgico, INUAF, Loulé, Portugal.

2. CONTENTS
• Setting the scene
• Research objectives
• Proposed model Creativity
• Applications
Organizational CPS
innovation

3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND DESIGN
3
• Development of a system to
enhance creativity in organizations
• Conceptual modeling
• Verification

4. INNOVATION
Definition:
‘ .. the intentional introduction and application
within a role, group or organization of ideas,
processes, products or procedures, new to the
relevant unit of adoption, designed to
significantly benefit the individual, the group,
organization or wider society’.
West and Farr (1990:109)
The implementation of innovation depends on:
•Creativity and entrepreneurship;
•Technology as knowledge through human
activity; and
•Knowledge obtained through processes or
systems.

5. CREATIVITY & INNOVATION
Creativity
‘ ..a process that results in novelty which is accepted as useful, tenable, or
satisfying by a significant group of others at some point in time’ (Stein,
1994)
Innovation
‘ ..the intentional introduction and application within a role, group or
organization of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new to the relevant
unit of adoption, designed to significantly benefit the individual, the group,
organization or wider society’ (West and Farr, 1990)
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Creativity
‘ .. cognitive and emotional processes taking place at the individual level’
(Sousa, 2007)
Innovation
‘The processes of implementation, relying on organizational communication
and power.’
‘ .. a social, spatially embedded, interactive learning process that cannot be
understood independently of its institutional and cultural context .’(Cooke,
Heidenreich, & Braczyk, 2004; Lundvall, 1992; Freeman, 1998).

6. CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Product, process, service innovation
Organizational innovation
architectural radical
Systems linkages
incremental modular
Components/core concepts
Creativity Entrepreneurship Innovation
Creative discovery. Seize opportunity. Commercial exploitation
Individual activity Group activity Redefine leadership,
processes, systems, culture,
meaning, organisation.
Organizational activity
6

7. BUILDING BLOCKS AND STEPS
Building blocks for innovation:
• Formally integrate innovation into the strategic management
agenda (thus innovation is managed, tracked and measured as a
core element of the organisation’s growth);
• Create conditions that allow dynamic innovation networks to
emerge and flourish and
• Take explicit steps to foster a culture of innovation by valuing ideas
and collectively overseeing risk.
(Barsh, Capozzi and Davidson, 2008)
Steps to advance innovation:
• Identify the type of innovation that can drive growth and strategic
objectives;
• Add innovation to the formal agenda at regular leadership
meetings;
• Set performance metrics and targets for innovation and
• Turn selected managers into innovation leaders.

8. CPS PROCESS
Cognitive training method for the development of critical and creative thinking abilities, represented
in the mental skills of data conceptualizing, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, as well as in the
process of gathering information through direct observation, experimentation or reflection.
Allows for the training of leadership and team work skills.
Uses a series of tools and structures with ill defined problems, the latter of which do not have a
single possible solution, or problems that have not produced satisfactory solutions using other
problem-solving methods.
Steps: problem finding, fact finding, problem definition, solution finding and decision
implementation.
Each of these steps has two moments:
•Divergent -the group tries to find the maximum possible number of alternatives;
•Convergent - only one alternative (or just a few) is selected.
The process continues until a system of organizational innovation is developed.
Other central aspects of organizational innovation (management control measures, knowledge
management, organizational communication and culture, and employee commitment) will be
addressed in this cycle, for instance the outcomes of the change process that will establish (if
successful), a different culture in the organization.
If successful, the model will allow for the creation of a culture of innovation within the organization,
including more and more of its constituents, as more development projects become profitable
innovations (Basadur & Patton, 1993).

9. CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING
Creativity as innovation
• As the product of that communication process, creativity appears
connected to what is perceived as new and useful by someone other than
its originator, or as the putting to use of an idea (Kanter, 1983), in the
domains of production, adoption, implementation, diffusion, or
commercialisation of creations (Kaufmann, 1993; Spence, 1994).
Problem solving
• Creativity relates to problem definition.
• Innovation relates to decision implementation requires a series of
problem definitions, in order to carry out a decision or an idea, thereby
making it difficult to separate these concepts at an organizational level.
• There is no difference between organizational creativity and innovation
(Basadur , 1998)
Innovation:
Creativity: Decision
Problem definition implementation

10. Management
MODEL FOR ORGANIZATION- requirements
WIDE INNOVATION
Problem finding
Identification of
existing theories in
use
Project
implementation
Perceptual maps
of creative
leaders
METRICS
COMMITMENT
Problem identification
COMUNICATION Managers and
KNOWLEDGE creative individuals
CULTURE
team up
Project teams
Problem solving

11. MODEL Management
(PERFORMANCE, KNOWLEDGE, COMMITMENT, requirements
CULTURE, COMMUNICATION )
CPS1 - Outer
CPS2i - Inner Identification of
existing theories in
use
Innovation
(Product/Process)
Problem finding
Solution implementation
Perceptual maps of
creative leaders
Formation of project
team & CPS training
Problem solving

12. The Outer Level (CPS1)
Step I – Problem Finding - is aimed at identifying the
CPS
existent problems in the organization. The first
action consists in a pre-consulting with the
administration, aiming at gaining its involvement, so
that the main problems may be identified. Next
comes the organizational diagnosis, in order to
assess the existent management support to a
creative climate in each organizational unit. The
next action is interviewing creative managers and
drawing their perceptual maps, to provide the
administration with a deeper understanding of the
identified problems. Finally, the designation of a
The Inner Level (CPS2)
first creative team (managers and employees), to
initiate the CPS procedures.
Step II – Problem Solving - is the implementation of the Step I – CPS Procedures - following Min Basadur’s
CPS methodology with the creative team. It consists problem solving approach: These consist of three distinct
of an initial action of training in CPS procedures, phases – problem definition, problem solving and
followed by the necessary work sessions, from
problem identification until the definition of an solution implementation, and eight actions: problem
action plan, within the framework defined by the finding, fact finding, problem definition, solution finding,
administration. solution evaluation, action planning, gaining acceptance
Step III – Solution Implementation - is the application of and taking action.
the action plan, made by other people than the CPS
team, to produce a specific innovation project. In
this stage more personnel is included into the Step II – Project Implementation - The project team will
process, giving way to the training of further teams implement the innovation plan drawn out of the decision
in CPS, in order to develop and maintain innovation chosen together with the administration, thus providing
sub-projects. opportunities to establish further project teams. This
Step IV – Model Evaluation – Solution implementation will way, a system of transformation of the individual and
proceed with the development of management
control measures, to evaluate the implications of team creativity into organizational innovation can be
each innovation project in the company’s established.
performance. Organizational culture and employee
commitment towards innovation will be subjected to
pre and post-assessment, using the organizational
climate survey and the creative leaders’
questionnaire. Also, the improvement in
organizational communication and knowledge will
be appreciated by qualitative evaluation,
interviewing the same leaders that were interviewed
in the first step, after a defined period of project
development.

13. MODEL REQUIREMENTS
13
• Top management commitment
• Innovation culture
• Relying on the organization’s
talented people
• Project teams follow a creative
problem solving approach

14. IMPLEMENTATION
CPS process
Data conceptualizing, analysis, synthesis and evaluation,
gathering information through direct observation, experimentation or
reflection.
Problem finding,
Fact finding,
Problem definition,
Solution finding and
Decision implementation.
Each of these steps has two moments:
11.Divergent, in which the group tries to find the maximum possible
number of alternatives;
12.Convergent, in which only one alternative (or just a few) is selected.
The process continues until a system of organizational innovation is
developed.

15. ORGANIZATIONAL DIAGNOSIS
Empenho no trabalho
Ambiente divertido
Abertura a ideias
Conflito e poder
al
ci
er g
om in
C ket s
e
ar õ
M laç nto
a e
st m
In e a o
a n ça s
Pl c ofe n t
on e s
C am m nto
Departamento
ab e e
Ac lag am
ce ion
Te vis
ro ra
Ap utu
tr
Es
2,5
2,0
1,5
1,0
,5
0,0
Mean

16. PERCEPTUAL MAPPING
16

17. CONCLUSION
As the creative problem solving tools have already demonstrated their
usefulness in finding solutions and helping organizations to improve,
what remains to be proved is the value of selecting and organizing
creative people in an organization, by giving them time, space,
knowledge and the opportunity to team up and direct their individual
creativity to the organizational problems.
The process of developing organizational creativity is complex and
not a linear one, with ups and downs, which can only give rise to a
culture of innovation with the management’s total commitment.
Future research will allow for testing of the model, in its wide
complexity, and will provide new insights into the process of
organizational creativity.