Tudor Rickards

Creative Leadership Processes in Project Team Development: An Alternative to Tuckman's Stage Model

We propose that theories of project team development and of creativity can be integrated into a new conceptual framework. The framework proposes two structural barriers that bear on team performance, and modifies the well-established team development model of Tuckman. Creative leadership is suggested as an important means of breaching the barriers. Its differentiating feature seems to be its effectiveness in establishing protocols that sustain the creative efforts of team members. We have designated the protocols ‘benign structures’. Empirical evidence is provided from a range of studies of project teams in industrial settings.

Assessing and comparing the innovativeness and creative climate of firms

The innovativeness of eight manufacturing firms (or four matched pairs of firms) in Malaysia was measured and compared using certain criteria. Initially, we selected the four matched pairs of firms (each pair is comprise of a more innovative and a less innovative firm) from various manufacturing sectors based on whether or not the firms in each pair have implemented computerized manufacturing systems. Further assessments of the innovativeness of the firms were based on: changes/continuous improvements carried out; introduction and implementation of technologies (machines, processes, etc.); interactions of the firms with their external environments; and number of training programs organized by the firms to stimulate innovation and creativity among its employees. In addition to assessing the innovativeness of the firms, the creative climate questionnaire (CCQ) developed by Ekvall et al. was utilized to assess their creative climates. As expected, the results obtained demonstrate that the more innovative firms were found to have introduced more computerized systems and incremental and technological changes, to have more interactions with their external environments, to have organized more training programs aimed at encouraging creativity and innovation, and to have more creative climates when compared to the less innovative ones. The results of this study indicate that in order for a firm to be innovative, it needs to continuously implement many types of changes and technologies in response to environmental needs. Furthermore, the results also confirm in a different culture (i.e. a developing country) earlier Scandinavian studies which have been used to justify the international use of the Ekvalls CCQ. However, it appears that, although the CCQ is a good predictor of higher and lower innovative performance of firms, the instrument on its own is unable to indicate the extent of innovative strengths/weaknesses without using additional criteria or benchmarking.

Development of a Self‐Report Instrument for Exploring Team Factor, Leadership and Performance Relationships

Claims have been recently made for a seven-factor model that ndifferentiated performance levels in project teams. We have tested the model with results from a self-report inventory. Forty-four opportunities for data collection were taken and a total of 1103 useable inventories collected from participants across European, Asian and African locations. Teams reported on were predominantly work-related. All seven factors correlate as predicted with leadership and team-performance criteria. We report results supporting the original proposition that team effectiveness, including its creativity, can be interpreted as arising through leadership interventions of a transformational kind, which impact on a set of theoretically-derived team factors.

Creative Management: A Predicted Development from Research into Creativity and Management

A proposal is made for the establishment of a conceptual domain of Creative Management by fusion of two related bodies of knowledge, that of management studies and creativity. Through an examination of examples from around the world, we show how Creative Management is appearing in embryonic form as a global possibility, emerging from and enriching the predominantly American contributions of earlier stages. We suggest that such a development will take management studies forward from its historical trajectory, through the global convergence of organizational theories and practices. The proposed synthesis of creativity and management indicates the possibilities of a new stage in management incorporating humanistic, socio-technical and knowledge management components. Collectively, the conceptual shift is towards what we have labelled Toyotaoism, in acknowledgement of practices and theorizing developed from the integration of Western and Eastern belief systems and theories in action.

The Management of Innovation:: Recasting the Role of Creativity

Abstract This article examines difficulties arising from the deep-rooted assumption that the innovation process exists as a phenomenon incorporating two distinct and identifiable stages of creative discovery and subsequent implementation. An alternative perspective is proposed in which innovation is represented as the process whereby individuals enact new social procedures; creativity is the associated process in which the meanings of the enactments are discovered and labelled. Innovation treated in this manner occurs as the streams of human activities and ideas mutually interact. The starting, ending, and bounding of an innovation project are all parts of a unitary process of meaning-creation within social contexts. “Creative” thoughts and actions interact throughout the process. (“Creativity through the finishing line”; “implementation first and last”). Not least, such an interpretive model avoids the difficulties that have been encountered in attempts to treat innovation as a series of objective stages...

Creative team climate in an international accounting office: an exploratory study in Saudi Arabia

Conventional wisdom presumes that accounting professionals have little capability for creative thinking. An alternative view is that accountants display creativity when provided with organisational opportunities. This view has been tested in a comparative study of professionals drawn from similar educational backgrounds and allocated to consulting, audit and tax duties within the headquarters of a major international firm in Saudi Arabia. A benchmarking approach was adapted. Those professionals placed in the consulting department reported more positive climates and creative outputs. There was evidence that there was scope for increasing the creativity to organisational advantage within the audit, tax and related functions, through more transformational leadership interventions. In view of the educational similarities of the samples, it is concluded that any lack of creative performance within the audit and tax functions is not due to individual deficiencies. Team development and leadership interventions are suggested as promising means of addressing any “creativity gap” in audit and tax team processes.

The future of innovation research

Abstract: Innovation research will increasingly be oriented towards the challenges presented by environmental complexity and turbulence. More progress may be expected in understanding the relationships between creativity and innovation. Innovation will inform, and be informed by, related fields of theory-informed practice such as knowledge management. The speed of product turnover (the velocity issue) will strengthen the case for practitioner-researcher coalitions. The relationships between the roles of the innovation players, team factors, and outputs will receive more attention. The theoretical stance advocated by critical theorists may also make a contribution in challenging more conventional organizational views of innovation.

Towards the identification of situational barriers to creative behaviors: The development of a self‐report inventory

Abstract: Four clusters of obstacles have been obtained from the Jones Inventory of Barriers (JIB), a self‐report inventory designed to investigate barriers to individual creativity in organizational environments. The barriers have been modelled as strategic, values, perceptual, and self‐image factors. Statistical evidence is presented for the reliability and validity of the measure across convenience samples of English speaking respondents (N=364). Correlational patterns between the barriers and a battery of established tests of creativity are complex, but satisfactory, as the barriers were negatively correlated with the creativity measures. Significant differences in mean scores for some barriers were found across the sampled occupational groups, including graduate engineers, architects, and business graduates. The JIB offers promise in a range of diagnostic and personal development situations.

Brainstorming Revisited: A Question of Context

In its modern format, the technique of brainstorming can be traced to extensive efforts initiated in the 1940s by advertising executive Alex Osborn. His intention was to restructure meetings to overcome inhibitions that block idea generation. The operational mechanisms of the technique support two basic principles of deferral of judgment, and extended idea search. Benefits may extend beyond efficient idea generation, to contributions to team-building, and creative problem-solving performance. Many versions of the technique are known, including its individual, electronic, and non-interactive (nominal) modes. Experimental research has confirmed that nominal groups outperform those in interactive mode for quantity of ideas generated across a range of experimental conditions. The evidence on quality of ideas has been less conclusive. Situational factors have contributed to a lack of generalizibility of results. Field studies have reported a bias in favour of the interactive modes in some cultures, notably North America, and a bias for nominal modes in others. Brainstorming has found use as a supplement to other techniques, particularly as a component within a more comprehensive creative problem-solving structure. However, carefully researched field studies and comparative analyses have remained scarce to the present time. Within the confines of industrial practice, a combination of techniques often serves to overcome technique selection uncertainties. There is some evidence suggesting that less efficient modes of brainstorming may be associated with higher levels of participant satisfaction. Since the late 1980s, interest has grown in electronically supported brainstorming. Under laboratory conditions, nominal groups have been reconfirmed as outperforming interactive ones, although both modes seem outperformed under specified conditions by electronic support systems, which may represent a third modality of brainstorming. Explanations of the effectiveness reduction have been proposed in terms of production blocking, social loafing, and evaluation apprehension. Another explanation considers effectiveness to be multi-dimensional, and situationally dependent.

Rethinking creativity in the accounting profession: to be professional and creative

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate creativity within the context of a more regulated accounting functional area (audit and tax) and a less regulated non‐accounting functional area (consulting). Accordingly, this research aims at developing insights into how current cultural assumptions may have to change, if professional challenges requiring more creative behaviours are to be successfully addressed.Design/methodology/approach – Six literature‐derived hypotheses were formulated to be quantitatively tested using a self‐report inventory.Findings – The findings showed that the less regulated functional area reported higher scores on creativity, intrinsic motivation, creative team factors and transformational leadership. The findings suggested that such differences could not be explained by personal education/aptitude variations, and could be a consequence of more support for creative behaviours, a significantly different form of transformational leadership, and also weaker structural con...