COVER SHEET

Candidate Number: 23005

Degree Programme: Masters in Management

Course Code: MG488

Assessment Title: Discuss how organizations

can design and implement practices that promote
creativity.

Name of Class Teacher: Emma Soane

Word Count: 1,956

 Candidate Number : 23005

Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

A lot of research has been done to understand the subject of creativity in

organizations. The basis of most research is to understand why some individuals or

groups of people are better than others at creating novel and useful ideas, processes,

services or products. (Amabile, 1996) defines creativity as the production of ideas that

are both novel and useful. As per George (2007), the production of such novel and

useful ideas is the foundation of achieving a sustained competitive advantage. The

essay inquires the components that generate creativity in an organization, and

suggests that intrinsic task motivation is the most important factor. Further, the essay

looks at three companies, Airbnb, IDEO and Adobe. These practical examples help us

understand the effects of managerial practices on creativity.

Creativity and its relation to the organizational social environment

The focus of this essay is on the organization and how it can be a place where

creativity is promoted. However, we must not forget that the generation of creativity

is a function of each individual in the organization. Amabiles (2013) working paper

suggests that creativity has three within individual components, i.e. Domain Relevant

Skills, Creatively-Relevant Processes and Task Motivation and one component

outside the individual, i.e. The Social Environment. These four aspects form the

Componential Theory of Creativity (Amabile, 2013). Domain Relevant Skills are a

mix of knowledge, expertise, techniques, skills, intellect and talent, which are in the

problem solvers domain. Creatively Relevant Processes are a persons way of

thinking. They can be characteristics like independence, risk taking, taking new

perspectives and a disciplined work style. Here, Task Motivation refers to the kind

that is intrinsic in nature and suggests that an inner passion helps better solving

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Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

problems at hand than do external rewards. Her initial research (Amabile, 1998) has

resulted in the Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity (IMPC), which claims

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. The final

factor, which is outside of the individual, is the work environment. The social

environment surrounding an individual combines the extrinsic motivators that

undermine intrinsic motivation with a number of other factors that stimulate or

obstruct intrinsic motivation and creativity. The essay assesses the environmental

factors that affect creativity of individuals.

Intrinsic Motivation and its role in inducing creativity

Following on from this stream of research, it is understood that Domain Relevant

Skills and Creatively-Relevant Processes are considered to be more difficult to

implement (Amabile, 1998), than the subtle changes in the environment that can

significantly alleviate Intrinsic Task Motivation. Scholars like Janssen & Van Yperen

(2004) and Shin & Zhou (2003) have also validated the claim that intrinsic motivation

elicits higher levels of creativity. Thus, the essay will go on to argue that for

organizations, it is important to understand how intrinsic motivation can be nurtured

in the individual by way of organizational practices and its environment, as a method

of promoting creativity.

Amabiles (1998) article delves into the links between managerial practices that affect

the environment and creativity. She categorizes creativity inducing managerial

practices into six i.e. 1) challenging the individual; 2) freedom or autonomy for the

individual; 3) access to resources like time and money; 4) work group features; 5)

supervisory encouragement; and 6) the support of the entire organization. The scope

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Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

of this paper does not allow for an in-depth research into each of these categories and

hence, practical examples will be used that relate to some of them. The motive is to

explain how certain practices can have an affect on the environment of an

organization. Subsequently we can understand how this affects intrinsic motivation.

Airbnb

One organization that is deemed to have a social environment that is conducive to

creativity is Airbnb. Founder of Airbnb, Brian Cheskys recent article states,

Never assume you cant do something. Push yourself to redefine the boundaries.

(Chesky, 2017). The leader of the organization explains to new hires that they have

been brought in the organization to bring about new perspectives and change.

Cheskys attempt is to create a participative environment for his employees from day

one. As per Amabile (1998), you have to make conscious efforts to support

creativity. So although it is interesting to understand the organizations environment

above; Cheskys focus on actively attending to the preservation of such a social

environment is more thought provoking. Chesky states, You are here to change

things. If we didnt want anything to change, you would not be here. It can be seen

as an attempt to challenge the individual to be creative and making it explicit that

employees have the freedom to explore novel ideas to create change. The emphasis is

on the fact that each individual should adhere to these norms and the organization as a

whole is supportive of them. The social environment is one where employees are

comfortable in exploring novelty. They are more interested and challenged by their

work, which brings about a sense of intrinsic motivation within them. Cheskys

behaviour can be seen as a form of supervisory encouragement aimed at

intrinsically motivating employees. (Amabile, 1988 and Sternberg et al 1997) suggest

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Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

that cultures that encourage employees to take risks are the ones where the

achievement of creativity is enhanced. According to prospect theory (Kahneman and

Tversky, 1979), people strongly prefer to avoid losses than acquire gains, i.e. they are

loss averse. Airbnbs social environment seems like one that supports and encourages

employees to be less loss averse. Therefore we can suggest that creating and

preserving a less risk-averse social environment is a form of organizational support

that challenges employees, which increases their intrinsic motivation (according to

IMPC). Managers can learn from this illustration and create social environments that

are less risk averse. This can be achieved by continuously engraining in the employee

that it is safe to take risks in the creative process.

IDEO

In her 1998 article, Amabile proposes that certain organizational practices are capable

of generating creativity. The following example almost perfectly illustrates how an

organization can do that. IDEO, an international design and consulting firm, pride

themself on their organizations helping behaviour. Brand (1998) suggests that

working environments can have an effect on encouraging creativity. He defines

innovative cultures as those that support divergence and learning, and supportive

cultures as those that provide empowerment and care. As the following stream of

evidence will show, IDEO is a mix of both innovative and supportive cultures.

The CEO of the company Tim Brown, says in the creative process, help is

something you often dont know you need until its there in from of you (Amabile et

al, 2014). Contrary to many organizations, there are no barriers to help in IDEO. This

means that low-level people are encouraged to approach the people at the top for help

and more importantly vice-versa. The norms of reciprocity do not apply in IDEO as

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Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

they have made conscious efforts to remove the feeling of indebtedness that comes

from helping co-workers. When new projects are taken up, designers are expected to

assume that they will require help from outside. The aspect of looking for help is

embedded in their work processes to such an extent that teams deem it irresponsible

to not ask for help they know exists outside. IDEO has encouraged helping by way of

introducing slack in the organization. Providing a certain amount of slack in an

employees schedule makes them more accessible to helping others. It allows people

to engage with each other in ways that would otherwise not be possible.

Amabile (1998) says that groups that are willing to help their teammates when needed

are more conducive to creativity. She goes on to argue, Information sharing and

collaboration heighten peoples enjoyment of work and thus increases their intrinsic

motivation(Amabile, 1998:8). When the culture of the organization is inclined

towards helping each other, it can be said that, employees will be more willing to take

on challenging work that intrinsically motivates them. Taking up better quality work

will also increase their interest in the work itself, which again increases their intrinsic

motivation. Using the IMPC, we can say that, the creation of a helping culture assists

in alleviating employee task (intrinsic) motivation. IDEO has fostered managerial

practices like work group features and organizational support that promote

creativity. The creation of slack in the organizational environment and the

development of a culture where helping is encouraged helps improve the creative

process. Managers can adopt these strategies and use them to promote creativity

within their own organizations.

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 Candidate Number : 23005

Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

ADOBE

The next example will help us understand how an organization can create a creativity

inducing social environment by providing autonomy to its employees. Adobe

describes itself as having created an autonomous environment in which creativity can

thrive (Tilt, 2017). A crucial aspect of the way they operate is that they do not micro-

manage employees. They promote employees to be challenged with projects and

problems from day one and give them ownership and responsibility. The companys

vice president, Mark Randall, says that they have created a culture of experimenting

(Fisher, 2016). An article about the culture at Adobe outlines that the company

provided endless opportunities for employees to be creative (Tilt, 2017). However, a

showcase for Mark Randall in this respect is the award winning Kickbox program

he launched. This programme is instrumental to understand how important autonomy

is for Adobe. Under this programme, any member of staff at Adobe can request a red

cardboard box called kickbox. This box comes with a $1,000 pre-paid credit card that

is supposed to help them explore their ideas (Zhang, 2015). The company understands

the importance of giving employees freedom in exploring their ideas. An employee

from adobe suggests that providing a credit card not only removes the bureaucracy

involved in pursuing creativity but also shows the employee that organization is

willing to place trust in them and that failure is okay (Fisher, 2016).

Amabile (1998) describes the organizational practice of providing freedom to

employees as one that affects creativity. According to the paper, employees must be

given autonomy in terms of the means they use to achieve the ends. Adobe can be

seen to promote a social environment where employees feel like they can experiment.

By providing the employees means to explore their ideas, the company has provided

them autonomy in the way they create novel and useful ideas. A seminal paper on

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 Candidate Number : 23005

Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

motivation by Ryan and Deci (2000) has empirically proved that employee autonomy

has a big influence on intrinsic motivation. As autonomy is connected to intrinsic

motivation, using the IMPC we can say that the motivation derived from autonomy

results in creativity. The provision of autonomy has been shown to improve the

creative process. This illustration can help managers understand how and what kind of

autonomy needs to be provided to employees in order to encourage creativity.

Conclusion

The examples of Airbnb, IDEO and Adobe have all shown that managers can adopt

certain practices that have an effect of the organizations social environment. We can

also see how the social environment turns out to be one of the most important factors

in determining an employees level of intrinsic motivation. It has already established

that high levels of intrinsic motivation are conducive to creativity. The companies

mentioned in this essay have made an example of how it is possible to influence

employee intrinsic motivation by tweaking the social environment of the employee.

Organizations can learn from examples such as these to understand that fostering

creativity is in the hands of managers. Bringing about a change in the social

environment of an organization requires commitment on the part of managers, since it

calls for a change in the culture of the organization.

WORD COUNT: 1956

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Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

References

Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Amabile, T. M. (1998) "How to Kill Creativity." Harvard Business Review

76, no. 5 (SeptemberOctober 1998): 7687.

Amabile, Teresa M. (2012) "Componential Theory of Creativity." Harvard

Business School Working Paper, No. 12-096, April 2012.

Amabile, Teresa, Colin M. Fisher, and Julianna Pillemer. (2014) "IDEO's

Culture of Helping." Harvard Business Review 92, nos. 1-2 (January

February 2014): 5461.

Anne Fisher. (2016). How Adobe Sparks Innovation by Paying People to

Fail. Available: http://fortune.com/2016/04/05/adobe-innovation-risk-

failure/. Last accessed 3rd March 2017.

Brand, A. (1998), Knowledge management and innovation at 3M,

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https://medium.com/@bchesky/sunday-night-series-white-walls-

81ce0cef3eea#.vmqtlyrn5. Last accessed 3rd March 2017.

George, J. M. (2007). Creativity in Organizations. The academy of

management annals, 1(1), 439-477.

Janssen, O., & Van Yperen, N. W. (2004). Employees' goal orientations, the

quality of leader-member exchange, and the outcomes of job performance

and job satisfaction. Academy of management journal, 47(3), 368-384.

Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of

Decision under Risk, Econometrica. Vol. 47 (2), 263-292.

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Discuss how organizations can design and implement practices that promote creativity.

Maggie Zhang. (2015). Adobe Kickbox Gives Employees $1000 Credit Cards

And Freedom to Pursue Ideas. Available:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mzhang/2015/08/19/adobe-kickbox-

gives-employees-1000-credit-cards-and-freedom-to-pursue-

ideas/#52cc05e64b0f. Last accessed 3rd March 2017.

Monique Tilt. (2017). Adobes Award Winning Company Culture . Available:

https://inside.6q.io/adobes-award-winning-company-culture/. Last

accessed 3rd March 2017.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the

facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being,

American psychologist, 55(1), 68

Shin, S. J., & Zhou, J. (2003). Transformational leadership, conservation,

and creativity: Evidence from Korea, Academy of management Journal,

46(6), 703-714.

Sternberg, R.J., OHara, L.A., and Lubart, T.I. (1997), Creativity as

investment, California Management Review, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 8-21

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