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CREATIVE-LEARNING INNOVATION CYCLE – CLIC:

Work motivation and organizational creativity

by

Vincent NASSAR (PhD)

Professor Institute for Entrepreneurship and Management

HES-SO Valais Wallis

Supervisor: Prof. Christopher TUCCI

Co-supervisor: Prof. Ron SANCHEZ

October 04, 2012

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

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COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

WHY do certain leaders’ management of organizational resources encourage creative people engaged in New Product Development (NPD) to achieve high performance, on time, while other leaders’ practices foster frustration and delays?

Research Question

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Brief Abstract of my PhD

Research Grant

I. Paper 1: CLIC Conceptual Model (Literature Review)

II. Paper 2: Data sources via Action Research:

III: Paper 3. Lab Experiment

Dr. Albert GAIDE, CEO Swiss Aeronautical Industries

Group (SAIG)

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

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Creativity in Organizations is the production of both novel (i.e., original, unexpected) and useful ideas concerning products, services, processes, or procedures in the frame of open-ended tasks (Sternberg & Lubart, 2008;

Amabile, 1983, 1988, 1996).

Creativity of individuals is only the starting point for innovation (Amabile, 1996; Amabile et al., 1996; Amabile, 1997).

Leadership for Creativity is those “local leaders” of the teams who direct and evaluate their work, facilitate or impede their access to resources and

information, and touch their engagement with tasks and with other people in multiple and different ways that affect their perception of the work environment, and subsequently their creativity components – mainly motivation (Amabile, et al., 2004).

Innovation: Creative ideas become innovations when they are successfully implemented at the individual, group, or organization level (Amabile, 1996; 1997; Anderson & King, 1993; Mumford & Gustafson, 1988).

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

Definitions

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Controversial Challenges for Creative People

Creative people engaged in NPD need to directly experience personal confrontations with sources of problems, opportunities, and threats like changes in environmental conditions or needs of demanding customers to trigger their action thresholds so they can pay attention to innovative ideas (Van De Ven, 1996).

(1) Environmental changes (i.e. acquisitions, joint ventures, getting global, etc.) cause (2) delays on NPD launching dates – Sources of stress (Van De Ven, 1986) The (3) outcome of creative efforts is uncertain so it is an additional source of stress (Mumford, 2000). (1) + (2) + (3) = important stressful factors

Creative people need to be under moderate stressful conditions and be allocated sufficient time and resources to make decisions (Janis, 1985).

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

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The Phenomenon of Flow in Firms Wrestling to Accelerate their NPD Processes in a

Changing Work Environment

Definition of flow in work situation2 : It is “a short-term peak experience at work that is characterized by absorption, work enjoyment and intrinsic work motivation”.

(1) Csikszentmihalyi; 1996 (2) Bakker, 2005.

Vigilance and discretion will lead people to feel that they are in the state of Flow1

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

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Analogies and Differences between Sanchez’s (2001; 2005) Proposals for Managing Individuals’ Learning and Amabile’s

(1997) Proposals for Managing Individuals’ Creativity Components

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

New knowledge

& Creative

output

Cyclical

permeation of the

created new

knowledge

Intrinsic Motivation

Principle of

Creativity

Feedback from

commercialization

process

Amabile = No Yes No

Sanchez = Yes No No

.

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Fe

ed

s

Le

ad

er

sh

ip

fo

r C

re

at

iv

it

y

Individuals

Creative-Learning Process

Emergence of New

Knowledge

Individuals

Creative-Learning Process

State of Flow

Org

an

izati

on

bo

un

dari

es

Org

an

izatio

n b

ou

nd

arie

s

Individuals’ Creativity

Components

Components of Work

Environment

Commercialization Process

Feed

back

Needs &

Opportunities

Organizational Process Innovation

“C

LIC

”

Cre

ati

ve

-Learn

ing

In

no

vati

on

Cycle

Leadership for creativity should manage the components of the work environment in a way to decrease distractions and maintain moderate stressful conditions so their creative people reach the state of flow; the latter work situation resulting in high creativity performances.

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Planning

Managerial Practices of Communication Channels and Time Management of

Creative people to enhance their state Flow at Work and to accelerate NPD processes

VOC

Sales, Mrktng,

Tech Supprt

ENGRNG

Development “T” Time

Molders & Vendors

Fully understand the complexity of the process to achieve the goal, then assign the completion date for the project

Careful Extension of “T”

Commercialization

New creative ideas for innovations satisfying VOC & ORG

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II. Realizations: Emerging Theory & Roadmap for Leadership for Creativity

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

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Managerial Practices within the Creative-Learning Innovation Cycle “CLIC” to

Enhance the State of Flow and to Accelerate the NPD Process

Market Needs, Current Performance, and Future Goals

Organization Borders

Creative-Learning Process

Creative Peoples’ Creativity

Components

Emergence of

New Knowledge

III. Commercialization Work Enjoyment

5. Engineers touch their

performance

I. Planning Absorption

1. Engineers direct communication with VOC in // to Marketing & Sales

II. Development Intrinsic Motivation

2. Engineers direct communication with all persons who interact with the product & bring meaning to it

3. Managerial attention to engineers & Rational Time allowance

II. Development Intrinsic Motivation 4. Customer integration mainly during testing

Organization Borders

State of Flow

State of Flow

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Emerging Theory: Priorities of Organizational Resource Allowance to Enhance Creativity

Organizational Resources

Sta

te o

f F

low

&

Cre

ati

vit

y P

erf

orm

an

ce

1. Engineers direct

communication with VOC in //

to Marketing & Sales

2. Engineers direct communication with all

persons who interact with the product & bring meaning to it

3. Managerial attention to engineers &

Rational Time allowance

4. Customer integration during testing phase

5. Engineers touch their performance

I. P

lan

nin

g

II. D

evelo

pm

en

t III. C

om

merc

ializati

on

PS: Adding more resources above a “threshold of sufficiency” will not be

beneficial for creativity (Amabile1998a; Csikszentmihalyi,

1997).

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Last Word

People used to live to work

Nowadays, people work to live

Let people ENJOY work to SAVOR life!

Ra & D?

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY – Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation

Vincent NASSAR (PhD) Professor

Institute for Entrepreneurship and Management HES-SO Valais Wallis

vincent.nassar@hevs.ch

Mobile :41 79 385 28 17