This document discusses creativity in the context of business organizations. It argues that to be creative, one needs originality of ideas, expertise, and motivation. The work environment also plays a significant role in fostering creativity. Specifically, the document outlines that a conducive work environment provides challenges that match employees' skills, freedom in goal-setting and work processes, and sufficient resources like time, money, and space to support creativity. Both individual creative abilities and a supportive work environment are needed to promote creativity in organizations.

1. PARADIGM, VOL. 3, NO. 2, JULY - DECEMBER, 1999, 18-23
The need for creativity hns been
1-ccognised by both ncademicimzs/
theorists nnd practicing
111mwgers alike. Many different
views nnd theories have been
presented by various people.
The author argues that though
it is difficuIt togiven holistic view
ofcreativity. To be creative, it is
suggested //znt one require
originality ofidens, expertisennd
motivation (inna drive or
passion). These three nre the
important ingredients of
creativity.
The a11thorf11rther suggests that
besides originality, expertiseand
motivation, the 'work
rnvironment' ofthe organisation
plays asignificant role in making
its people creative. It is proposed
that both individuals' creative
ability and conducive work
environment promotes creating
creativity.
Creating Creativity
DR MANJARI SRIVASTAVA*
Innovation and Creativity are buzzwords of today.In a recent
Sunday Times article, British Prime Minister Tony Blair
predicted that "the next century will be dominated by brains,
not brawn.... Creativity and knowledge will be the key tools".
What is creativity? The person who first conceptualised a
wheel must have been really creative. First poet, first painter,
first person to build a hut, first person to visualise the need
of numbers - these and many more firsts without which we
cannot even imagine our life today; all of them thought
innovatively and differently in their respective realms at
some point of time in the history of mankind.There are many
definitions of creativity, each emphasising a different facet.
CREATIVITY: AN OVERVIEW
In Guilford's (1967) view, creativity requires the use of
divergent thinking in addition to convergent thinking while
solving problems. Divergent thinking involves the use of
Lecturer, Sri Shingeri Sharda Institute of Management.

2. CREATING CREATIVITY 19
mechanisms which require the mind to make quantum leaps into the unknown as a result
of which relationships between seemingly dissimilar paradigms can be discerned.
Koestler's (1964) definition of creativity stresses on creativity as a process, i.e., seeking
relationships into unrelated areas and concepts - it is an exploration. It also involves a
period of incubation and suddenly getting struck by fresh ideas.
In the view of Barron (1969), creativity is reflected in"outputs" ofcreative effort. Creativity
is understood as discovery of something novel. If the output is novel and also useful or
valuable, then it is considered creative. Hence creativity is a combination of novelty and
functionality.
As Don Mackinnon emphasi8es, "Mere novelty of product is not sufficient, the product
must be adaptive to reality. It must serve to solve a problem, fit the needs of a given
situation and accomplish some recognisable goals. A third requirement is that the creative
product must be produced, i.e., developed, evaluated and communicated.
Maslow (1954), relates creativity with free expression of feelings, receptivity to ideas, care
for others, desire to grow and self-actualisation.
Torrance (1969) and Barron (1969) compared creative and non-creative persons in their
studies. They identified various personality traits and abilities of creative and non-creative
persons. Traits that are particular to creative persons are courage and independence, risk
taking, persistence, self-sufficiency, inquisitiveness, complexity, bizarre fantasy life but
also a contact with reality, independent judgement, uncommon solutions and ideas and
their ability to notice anomalies, issues, paradoxes, etc.
"The problem with creativity is that unless you have it, you don't miss it," says Holst's
Managing Director, Russell Chalmers. "Yet people know these days that it is fundamental
to business success". He makes the distinction between creativity and innovation.
Creativity, he says, "is the process which generates new, unexpected ideas." Innovation is
"the process that makes new, unexpected ideas useful".
Each of these facets of creativity still does not explain creativity in totality. Though we may
say that persons with original contribution, novel ideas resulting into usefulness are
creative but their creativity might be accidental or through a non-creative process. Take
the example of researchers. They discover something or the other simply by taking a
problem area and then applying to it the scientific methods. If we look at creativity by the
creative process instead of creative output, the dreamer would win for divergent thinking
of related remote ideas. Ifcreativity is looked at as certain characteristics of a person like
inquisitiveness, lack of inhibitions, receptivity, ideas flow, then the child is a champion.
Creativity, to my mind, comes in many forms; it is as varied as human abilities. One can
associate it with arts and think of it as the expression of highly original ideas; creativity
can be seen in creating new recipes for food, creating new games, dress and appearance,
etc. But when we relate creativity with the business world, we find that originality is not
enough. The challenge managers face today is to achieve creative solutions to the problem
and to think of new opportunities. To overcome the rigid, standardised technical system

3. 20 PARADIGM, VOL. 3, NO. 2, JULY - DECEMBER, 1999
and to respond to new challenges, there is a need of creative individuals who can cope up
with unexpected problems.
According to T.M. Amabile (1998), to be creative - originality as well as expertise and
motivation is required; that is, ideas should not only be original but they must also be
appropriate, useful and actionable.
CREATIVITY IN BUSINESS
In business, creativity means that the original idea must not only be appropriate, it should
also yield results. To have an original idea means that the person should have "creative
thinking skill". It should be reflected in how flexibly and imaginatively people approach
problems.
The other essential aspects of creativity in business organizations are expertise and
motivation. Expertise is concerned with knowledge, whether it is technical, procedural
and/or intellectual. It is related to everything that a person knows and can do in the
domain of his work. For example, a doctor's expertise includes proper diagnosis and
treatment for the ailment as well as his/her technical knowledge in the field of clinical
psychology, biology, chemistry, medicine and biotechnology. There should be properI
enough space for exploration and problem solving.
Creative thinking and expertise are although the major resource of creativity, the actual
creation of creativity depends upon the will to do, i.e., motivation. Motivation is the factor
that determines creativity.The person may be gifted with high intelligence, a facilitating
environment and excellent educational background, but if he lacks motivation to do things,
heI she cannot be creative. Another important aspect is that external rewards like money
do not play any significant role in creativity. The inner drive or passion has to be there to
solve the problems in creative ways.In view ofT.M Amabile (1998), this component called
intrinsic motivation is the one that can be most immediately influenced by the work
environment. One cannot ignore the importance of extrinsic motivators but many a times
people feel that they are being controlled by these kinds of motivators. In that case, external
motivators loose their significance. Unless the person has an internal desire to do, to take
challenge, to solve problems in a novel way, he/she cannot be creative.
It can be suggested that creative thinking ability, expertise and motivation are the
ingredients of creativity. If an individual is armed with these ingredients of creativity, the
person can be creative; he/she can produce original ideas, work upon it and make it
productive. But we are missing one thing and that important aspect/thing is the work
environment - the policies, work pattern, the orientation and the working style of the
people. The work environment plays a significant role in making its people creative.
WORK ENVIRONMENT AND CREATIVITY
Amabile (1998) has categorised the work environment into six categories which affect
creativity. They are challenge, freedom, resources, work-group, features, supervisory
encouragement and organisational support.

4. CREATING CREATIVITY 21
Challenge
To stimulate creativity, challenge lies in matching the job with the people.Once people are
placed on the job according to their skills and abilities and have intrinsic motivation, then
the results are satisfactory.This is a challenge to managers because a detailed information
is required about the employees and the nature of job. Getting such information is really
difficult, that is why (proper match between people and job is not found) one does not find
any improvement in the work place.
Freedom
Giving autonomy on task is another essential aspect of creativity.Creativity is reflected in
organisations if employees are free to set goals and goals should not be fluctuating.
Changing goals leads to disorientation. Besides, autonomy is required in all the activities
which leads to achieving that goal, i.e., freedom around process. The 'freedom around
process' is the most terrifying part because one does not know what is going to happen or
where it is going to lead. It takes an enormous amount of internal security to begin with the
spirit of adventure, the spirit ofdiscovery, the spirit ofcreativity. One becomes a trailblazer,
a pathfinder, opening new possibilities, new territories to reach one's goals. This freedom
also calls for judicious decision making and it provides intrinsic motivation to the
employees.Manifestation of such values may result in a step towards creating creativity.
Resources
Resources like time, money, physical space and setting affect creativity to a great extent.
Creativity takes time; it requires exploration and wandering. Time for incubation is also
an important part of creativity. Similarly, tight control on money may also restrict creativity.
Hence, organisations need to be open minded in distribution of time and money for the
projects to support creativity. The physical space and layout of the working place also
play its role in supporting a creativeeffort. A congested workspace and dull setting dampen
the spirit of employees, but yes, other resources and aspects have more significance in
supporting creativity than workspace and its layout.
Work Group Features
The nature of the work group is equally important in developing creativity. The group
members should be supportive and there should be cohesiveness. Along with that the
most significant aspect is that the group should be heterogeneous and not homogenous.
People belonging to different streams, cultural background, having diversified ideas
support creati·ity. A homogenous group may be easy to operate, their morale may be high
and they may reach the goal much faster than a heterogeneous group, but they may not be
creative. To have creativity, diversity of ideas is a must. But diversity is only the starting
point. The challenge is to have creative cooperation resulting into synergy. This synergy
calls for the motive of win/win, the skills of empathic communication and sharing the

5. 22 PARADIGM, VOL. 3, NO. 2, JULY - DECEMBER, 1999
team's goals. These synergic efforts provide intrinsic motivation of group members and
something new (or a new alternative) is created that was non-existent before.
Supervisory Encouragement
Encouragement has a key role to play in developing creativity. Though rnanagers are
mostly under pressure, yet they should encourage their employees for their efforts whether
successful or otherwise to foster creativity. An encouragement from a senior or leader sets
people in the right direction, they gain commitment to achieve the organisation's mission
and motivate them intrinsically to achieve the goal.
According to John Kotler (1980), the direction setting aspect of leadership doesn't produce
plans; it creates vision and strategies. These describe a business, technology or corporate
culture in terms of what it should become over the long term and articulate a feasible way
of achieving this goal. Warren Bannis and Burt Nanus (1978) proposed that the leaders
articulate and define what has been previously implicit or unsaid; then they invent images,
metaphors and models that provide a focus for new attention. By doing so, they consolidate
or challenge prevailing wisdom. In short, an essential factor in leadership is the capacity
to influence and organise meaning for members of the organization.
Managers may enhance creativity by building moral and intrinsic motivation through
their active involvement, cooperation and encouragement. Bums (1978) has distinguished
between transactional leaders who exchange money, jobs and security for compliance
and transformational leadP.rs who motivate others to strive for higher order goals rather
than merely short-term interest.
One can easily relate the connection between intrinsic motivation and transformational
leadership style. Managers who want to develop a successful creative organisation
should not only offer external rewards, they must practice transformational style of
leadership - serving as role models, staying with employees at odd hours and
encouraging collaboration and communication within the team. This certainly nurtures
creativity.
Organisational Support
Creativity is enhanced when there is overall support from the organisation. People are not
only encouraged by their seniors, but also their creative efforts are carried out without any
hassles and political interference. The environment has to be trustworthy and transparent
and the efforts collaborative. The culture oforganisation should be such where people get
praise and recognition for their efforts. A sense of mutual purpose and open communication
should be prevailing. Creating a value system, which emphasises "Creativity as Top
Priority," may encourage creativity.
Khandwala (1988) has proposed ten dimensions of environment that affect creativity.
These are stimulation, nurturance, relaxation, constructive feedback, learning
opportunities, diversity of viewpoints, freedom with accountability for excellence, creators

6. CREATING CREATIVITY 23
as role models, facilities for experimentation and norms of parent or boss figures.
Khandwala, in his research on creativity, found that creative environment and motivation
of employees are correlated.
CREATING CREATIVITY IN AN ORGANISATION
Thus, the most important thing is to build a culture which will foster creativity at all
stages and levels and in all processes within an organisation. It will certainly start at the
recruitment and selection stage. It is vital to get the people who have the nerve for
continuously challenging the status quo and ceaselessly developing better ways of doing
business.
But having creative ability is not an end in itself; it is an attribute that organisational
members must possess. The other related dimension, i.e., environment, is equally
significant. This environment is reflected in organisation's culture which should be capable
of accommodating the ambivalence inherent in creative work. For this, the organisation
must be willing to empower its people. Empowerment is often misunderstood. rt is not a
license to do your own thing. It is about harnessing all the resources of your people to
achieve the company's goals. Creative ideas may take time and money to bring to fruition,
but if properly implemented, they can be extremely profitable. They can even transform a
company and put it on a whole new trajectory of growth. The secret of this recipe lies in the
organisations' capability ofcreating creativity and making it the basic driving force for all
its efforts.
REFERENCES
Amabile, T.M., How to Kill Creativity, Harvard Business Review, September - October 1998.
Barron, Frank, Creative Person and Creative Process, New York: Holt, Phinchart & Winston, 1969.
Bennis, W. and Nanus, B., Lenders, New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
Burns, J., Leadership, New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
Guilford, J.P., The Nature of H11111an Intelligence, New York: McGraw Hill, 1967.
Khandwala, P.N., Fourth Eye, Wheeler & Co. Pvt. Ltd., Allahabad, 1988.
Koestler, Arthur, The Act of Creation, NYC: McMillan, 1964.
Kotler, John, What Leaders Really Do, Harvard Business Review, May - June 1980.
Levy, Mike, Power of Innovation, Quality Times, November 1998.
Mackinnon, D., In Search of Human Effectiveness: Identifying and Developing Creativity, Buffalo,
New York: Creativity Education Foundation, 1978.
Maslow, Abraham, Motivation and Personality, New York: Harper, 1954.
Torrance, Ellis Paul, Rewarding Creative Behaviour: Experiments in Classroom Creativity, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.