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EDITORIAL Creativity: The Slumbering Giant
W
hy should creativity be considered a slumbering giant? The idea has emerged as a result of work reported in a recent book.1 The point is that many disciplines regard creativity with suspicion, although those disciplines could be advanced if creativity were to awaken the consciousness of the practitioners. Many people trained in a scientific discipline dismiss creativity as `crazy' or perhaps somewhat less offensively `subjective'. This is a kind of `taming' of an idea that otherwise might bring about radical changes. For scientists, it would be the need to accept that discovery processes fall outside the remit of the scientific method. By accepting and reinterpreting `subjectivity' and `craziness', discovery processes might flourish far more. To be sure, the classical methods of scientific method can still come into play. What also comes into play is the human side of discovery processes such as intuition. A few great scientists such as Pasteur have been willing to acknowledge that discovery is at first a highly personal business. Similar liberating consequences would follow the wider recognition that the dominant respect for rationality has ended up with a `taming' of human emotions and even ethical beliefs. A display of emotion can be quickly dismissed as irrational, for example. The implications of these ideas are becoming better known under rubrics such as post modernism. The postmodern movement is also suffering from the same sort of `taming' and ridicule from those clinging to modernist views of rationality. Creativity, when considered as a means of breaking out of pre-conceived assumptions, could yet prove to be a slumbering giant that will bring produce some movement away from the excesses of extreme rationalism.
The Contents of this Issue This issue begins with an article by Richardson and Nigam, challenging the assumption that new technology needs to be accompanied by job losses. The case study outlines how # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
social considerations can connect with a programme of technological change. Ekvall and Arvonen continue their extended project into the personal characteristics that impact on the change process. Jacob Eisenberg has a related theme, in considering the link between culture, creativity and innovation. W. Tomic investigates where teachers get their ideas from. This extends a topic that has been covered in these pages for managers and engineers, but not for educators. JonChao Hong concentrates on developing technological creativity in project work. Tony Proctor, another regular contributor, suggests that creativity in marketing deserves further attention. Finally, Bill Hollins reveals that a number of successful companies engage in extremely long-term planning exercises, often following techniques such as brainstorming. The book of the quarter is very careful report of global corporations. However, we had considerable difficulty selecting this over the two quite different works, also reviewed in this issue One, by Peter Senge and his team, is likely to be of considerable practitioner interest, as a follow-up to the best-selling book by Senge, the Fifth Discipline. The second, A Beautiful Mind, is a biography of a great mathematician. It offers an account of the processes of creative genius and the consequences of an extended period of mental illness. All three would have been strong candidates for book of the quarter, in earlier issues of the journal.
Heartfelt Thanks We could not finish this editorial without a word of thanks to many people who contribute to the production of Creativity and Innovation Management. We cannot express adequately or appreciation for the support we receive in many different ways from our publishers at Blackwells. Our editorial panel supplies ideas, guidance, articles, and access to their personal networks of potential
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authors. Like our editorial panel, our authors offer their contributions unpaid, and accept the requests from generally anonymous reviewers in good grace. Above all, we thank our readers without whose subscriptions the journal would expire. A thousand thanks to you all.
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Note 1. It is the title of chapter two in Rickards, T., (1999) Creativity and the management of change, Oxford: Blackwells.
Tudor Rickards and Susan Moger
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New Technology Introduction and Implementation: The Case of Paging Technology in the Ratlam Division of Indian Railways Pikay Richardson and Ajit Nigam Concomitant to the liberalisation policy and market reforms in India has been the issue of declining budgetary support for public sector organisations. Hitherto, Indian Railways, the biggest publicly-owned enterprise, has largely been supported by the exchequer. Since the early 1990s, however, the Railways has had to operate increasingly as a commercial rather than a social organisation. One of the ways of improving efficiency is to introduce efficiencyenhancing technologies. This paper is a case study of the introduction of paging technology to the Ratlam Division of Indian Railways. It describes the process of planning and implementation, the HRM implications of the adoption and how the process was successfully managed. It aims at shedding further light on the nature and the processes whereby technologies eventually gain company recognition and acceptance.
Technology Adoption and Employment
T
he labour-saving nature of technological change that generates improvement in labour productivity has led to concern in many quarters. Indeed, fear of technology is not new, dating back to ancient times. Early industrial man feared the machine for encroaching upon his domain of skilful employment. This concern has became heightened in recent decades. Interestingly, this has no place in neo-classical economics. Neo-classical theory treats technical progress as exogenous to economic provision. According to the theory, the prices of labour and capital will ensure a balance of supply and demand for both factors in the long run. Technological progress is not taken into consideration as a possible cause of unemployment for which, according to the theory, only endogenous determinants can be responsible. Even where labour-saving technical change is introduced into the analysis, technological unemployment is considered to be a temporary and irregular problem, which is compensated by other mechanisms (OECD 1996, Vivarelli 1995). Although most mainstream economists subscribe to this view and reject any suggestion # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
that technical progress is a possible cause of unemployment, international agencies started to express concerns from the early 1980s at the likely unemployment deepening effect of new technology in third world countries which had been largely passive recipients of such technologies. As has been shown elsewhere (for example Ansal et al. 1999), the optimistic conclusion of neo-classical theory regarding the impact of new technology on employment is inconsistent with the realities in developing countries, at least in the short run. On the other hand, some initial studies (Fransman, 1984, Jacobson 1985) illustrated how adoption of new technology by East Asian producers of machine tools helped them to increase their market shares in world markets and with it the level of employment in the machine tool industries. There seems to be need for a more extensive study of the effect of new technology adoption on employment in developing countries, as this has so far received little attention by researchers.
Technical progress and unemployment
Issues of Rationale and Implementation Many of the problems with the introduction
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of new technology in organisations arise from poor management of the implementation process. More often than not, a ``top-down'' strategy, accompanied by workers sense of mistrust and inequity lead to disastrous or sub-optimal results. On the contrary, a participatory change strategy, coupled with good user training and confidence-building do contribute to successful adoption (Mirvis et al 1991). That technology is a powerful force that drives organisational change is axiomatic. As shown by many researchers (for example Braverman, 1974 and Shaiken, 1988) technology can have a bearing on the shape and layers of hierarchy in companies, on the centralisation or decentralisation of responsibilities and on the strategies and competitiveness of enterprises. Although as noted elsewhere (Braverman, 1974; Hirschhorn 1984; Long 1987; Shaiken 1988), technology is a prime force that drives organisational behaviour, the extent to which this is achieved in an organisation may be less than expected (Bowen 1986). Indeed the lack of a properly planned and executed implementation strategy leads to under-achievement of the full potential of the system (Nolan et al. 1984). Even where careful planning and implementation is undertaken, a rapidly changing exogenous economic environment may adversely affect the course and direction of the change. Mirvis et al. (1991) identified four factors that need careful consideration in the adoption of any new technology in an organisation. These are a) a technology strategy and plan. This relates to the type, rationale, capability and the implementation b) the method of introduction. This relates to issues of training support, employment security, health and safety and redundancies. c) user attitudes and experiences. This is with regard to issues of receptivity of the new technology and a clear understanding of the costs and benefits d) organisational culture. Certain cultures are less amenable than others and may not augur well for the adoption. Also a ``top-down'' management culture may engender more hostility from workers who may see the introduction as adversarial. Mirvis et al. (1991) have considered the introduction of new technology into an organisation as a process of innovation. In this wise, the process involves a search for an appropriate technology, followed by implementation in the organisation, its adoption, leading, if it works, to the desired goal. Of course, the
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schematic diagram of figure 1 is not meant to indicate that each stage is a logical outcome of the previous (Mirvis 1983, Richardson 1997). In reality, each stage is a risky step and can pose difficulties for the organisation But once a successful implementation of the chosen technology is achieved, the programme can be replicated in other parts of the organisation (Zaltman et al. 1973, Eveland 1979, Tornatzky et al. 1983).
Source: Developed from Mirvis et al. (1991)
Figure 1. The Technology Innovation Process The starting point for the process of new technology introduction into an organisation is a recognition of the need for change. The need for change may be due to the identification of a ``performance gap'' between actual and desired results (March and Simon 1958, Rogers 1962). This gap may be precipitated by political imperatives (as in the case of Indian railways, for example), social change, benchmarking against rivals or missed market opportunities. The existence of a performance gap compels management to consider what technology and strategies are necessary to improve bottom line results. More often than
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not, the search for and the choice of a technology to deal with an identified gap is other than ordered, analytical and rational (Mirvis et al. 1992). It can be fraught with problems, and careful analysis of the inherent issues is absolutely essential for achieving success. A great deal of literature on technology diffusion has concentrated on the success or failure of products (Rothwell et al. 1974; Voss, 1985; Globe et al. 1973; Rubenstein et al. 1976). When it comes to ``implementation'' rather than ``diffusion'', the term is used for cases of intra-organizational adoption, development and use of technologies (Voss 1985; Fleck 1994; Voss 1988). Put differently, ``implementation'' is the process of getting technologies to work as commercially successful operating systems. Here the implicit assumption is that the implementing party is introducing technology which has not been developed by the party itself. Leonard-Barton (1988, 1991) identified three critical factors that threaten successful implementation, namely issues between the technology and (a) a clear knowledge of the technical requirements for implementation, (b) the system through which the technology is delivered to users and (c) the user organisations performance criteria. Hirschhorn (1984) in his work on the introduction of computers into organisations has shown that the quality of a company's technology planning and implementation goes a long way toward determining success. It has been shown that where those involved or affected by the new technology are first made to understand the need for it and to perceive it as a solution to problems, there is less chance of outright rejection of resistance to the change (Majchrzak 1988, Walton and Vittori 1983). It is therefore important that management communicates to those involved the benefits and address the concerns of job security, health and safety and training and development requirements.
The Railways of India The Railways of India is the principal mode of transport for both passengers and freight. It connects people and places in this huge country, thereby constituting an important national integrating and unifying force. Indian Railways (IR) by any standard is a gigantic system. From very modest beginnings in 1853, when the first train journey of 34km was done, IR has grown into a vast network 7100 stations with a route kilometrage of over 62,000km and a fleet of over 8,000 locomotives. It is the largest railway
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system under single management in the world and India's largest commercial venture. It employs over 1.6 million people and transports over 13 million people every single day. For a huge country with nearly 1000 million people, IR constitutes the lifeblood of the economy. Although these absolute figures are impressive, IR's performance relative to other large railway networks as gauged by most indicators is poor. It lacks best practice in several critical areas and this feeds through into poor performance. It has been known and accepted that IR is seriously overmanned. Labour productivity has been low for several years. Indeed low labour productivity has been the norm over the years. Any thought of employment reductions has been spurned by politicians as politically damaging. So that, while the need to reduce employment levels is seen as economically sensible, the political will has never been found. Or perhaps rather more the case, the need to reduce employment and improve productivity has never really existed as the Government has always picked up the bills. This is a position which is not unusual in a developing country context. Since mid-1991, however, new economic policies introduced by the Rao administration has placed immense pressure on IR to reduce cost and improve efficiency and productivity. In the wake of declining budgetary support, it has become imperative that the railways functions as a commercial undertaking and not merely as a public utility service. As a result of a conscious effort to reduce the apparent over-manning, the employment level has been reduced from its 1991 peak by over 300,000. But the speed of employment reduction, mostly by natural wastage, has been slow and palliative. Since 1985, when a new Corporate Plan 1985±2000 came into force, efforts have gone on to meet the goals of increased efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues for dividend payments and investment. In certain areas, some progress has been made, but in others reality has further diverged from hope. The total freight movement for fiscal 1997±98 amounted to some 429 million tonnes of originating freight, a figure which although upward was below target. Passenger traffic, however, declined in the middle of the 1980s and recovered only slightly by the end of the decade (see Table 1). The number of passengers originating was 4153 million in fiscal 1996, a mere 8 percent rise on the 1980 figure. In terms of passenger-kilometres, however, the 1996 figure of 357 billion represents a 71 percent rise over 1980 and is much more on target.
A vast rail network
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Table 1. Indices of Growth of Traffic Output and Inputs (1950±51=100) Traffic Output Indices Year
1960±61 1984±85 1990±91 1992±92 1992±93 1996±97
Investment Input Indices
Freight Traffic (NTKms)
Passenger Traffic (Non Suburban Passenger Kms)
Wagon Capacity
Passenger Coaches
Route Kms.
Running Track
Tractive Effort of Locos
199 413 550 582 585 635
110 304 394 419 400 468
152 263 278 286 285 257
154 212 219 225 231 229
105 115 116 117 117 117
107 130 133 133 134 136
144 201 192 194 194 201
Source: Indian Railways
While output growth may be desirable from a business standpoint, it is rather the extent to which resources are used efficiently that is more important when dealing with economic development. Although developing a gigantic railway system may be desirable, it is the opportunity cost of capital that is of real concern to the policy maker. It is for this reason that outputs must be related to inputs. Table 1 shows indices of growth of traffic output and inputs. A comparison of the growth of outputs to that of inputs indicates that the productivity of assets (or investments) grew steadily in the 1960±96 period. For example, in the area of freight carriage, freight volumes increased by nearly 400% as against a figure of 169% for wagon capacity, implying increased utilisation of the assets. Even more noteworthy is the increase in the utilisation of passenger coaches, the number of which increased by only 162% against a growth in passenger traffic of over 400% in the number of non-suburban passengers alone. It must be pointed out, however, that in some cases the increase in the number of passengers has not been desirable as this had led to cramped and unhygienic and sometimes unsafe travel. While the trends in the rates of asset utilisation indicated above are impressive, they fall far short of the level achieved by IR peers elsewhere. Comparative figures for 1991, for example, indicate that freight wagon productivity (tonne-km/wagon)was a mere 742 thousand compared to 2959 thousand for China and 5934 thousand for Russia. IR also trails in other indicators like traffic units per line-kilometre and labour productivity. It is a
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combination of these poor comparative indicator and the increasing commercial mandate impose on IR that has called for more investment in labour-saving and efficiencyenhancing technologies to reduce cost and improve the bottom line. The growth in the size of the enterprise over the years has meant that employment in the railways increased steadily reaching a peak of 1.654 million in fiscal 1991. Not surprisingly, the proportion of employment in total costs increased substantially and currently stands at nearly 60 percent. And although substantial investments in productivity enhancing equipment were made in the 1980s, these did not translate into proportionate rises in labour productivity. By the mid 1980s, it was generally felt that the railways was seriously over-manned. Over the 1960±96 period, labour productivity rose three times against a rise of 23 times in labour costs. But there was little by way of political will on the part of successive governments to do anything about it. Any attempt at retrenchment without actions to mitigate its social impact would be political suicide for any government. Not surprisingly, no manpower strategy was formulated and none was implemented. It was business as usual as long as the general exchequer picked up the bill at the end of the year. All this was to change, however, onwards of 1991, after the election of Prime Minister Narasihma Rao. Far-reaching economic reforms were undertaken to open the Indian economy to foreign competition and participation. This has exposed the inefficiencies in the economy and called for substantial
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Table 2. Trends in Employment Costs and Productivity Year
1950±51 1960±61 1970±71 1980±81 1990±91 1992±93 1996±97
No of Staff (000)
Cost (Rs. in million)
Average Annual Cost Per Employee
Net Tonne-km Per Employee (000)
913.6 1,157.0 1,374.2 1,572.2 1,651.8 1,649.0 1,583.6
1,138 2,052 4,599 13,167 51,663 65,903 105,745
1,263 1,799 3,398 8,435 31,878 40,520 66,776
19.4 62.5 80.6 93.9 142.2 153.3 175.3
Source: Indian Railways
improvements in the running of both public and private sector organisations. Having faced the reality that one of the main reasons for the economic malaise of the country has been the unsatisfactory financial performance of its public sector, the government set about to restructure the public sector to make it more commercial in outlook and operation. It has become necessary for the Railways to break with the past and operate as a commercial undertaking and not merely as a public utility service. The need to eliminate non-essential expenditures, increase operational efficiency, conserve energy, raise manpower productivity and thereby cut costs has, therefore, become imperative. In is in this light that the plan to introduce paging technology in the Ratlam division on a pilot basis is to be seen.
The Ratlam Division Ratlam is one of the main line Division on the Mumbai-Delhi route of the Western Regional Zone of Indian Railways and in this respect plays a vital role in this high density network. It operates in three states, MadyaPradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, and consists of 1339.07 km of broad gauge track and 842.13 km of medium gauge track. The Division employs 18,848 people, holds 139 diesel locomotives and 344 coaches and runs on average 101 passenger and mail express trains per day. The average originating passengers were 92261 per day in 1997±98. Revenue earnings of the division have shown an upward trend. During 1998±99 (up to Sept. 98) the Division earned Rs. 1154.7 millions, which was 10% up on the previous year. Similar growth was achieved in freight movement in the same period. Total
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freight movement increased from 1.48 million tonnes to 1.63 million tonnes in the same period. The most important category of staff is the ``running staff'', which comprises drivers, guards, assistant drivers and drivers' assistants. Running staff are also the most critical, from the point of view of the safe running of trains. The running staff work on a pattern different from other employees as they are required to perform duties on an uncertain schedule. This is especially true for the crew who work goods trains, as these run based on availability of path in-between passenger trains. The running staff are therefore ``called to run trains'' rather than having a fixed duty hours. They are however given rests inbetween duties on a prescribed manner. The means of communication with the running staff during ``off duty'' times is therefore very important for both the divisional administration and the running staff. In most stations, running staff are not provided with any means of communication. Traditionally, running staff are summoned either through ``call boys'' or by asking the staff to present themselves after completion of their due rest period. Such an arrangement leads to inefficiency on account of wastage of the most critical and expensive manpower on the one hand and, on the other, to unnecessary stress on the drivers, as they have to report to the station to check up on duty (of which there may be none) after completion of their rest period. This system by its nature requires more crew man-days and has several drawbacks:
Restructuring the public sector
In this traditional system for summoning drivers, a ``call boy'' would visit the driver's house with a written instruction indicating when he (the driver) is required
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to report to the station lobby for the train for which he has been booked. Call boys' movements are restricted to within 3.5kms radius of the lobby, as they travel either on foot or by bicycle. Call boys, therefore, have to be sent sufficiently in advance of the estimated departure of the train. The running staff who stay beyond this range of 3.5kms are not covered by the call boys' service. They are required to report to the lobby either after completion of 16 hours rest or check up by telephone on when to report for duty. When the running staff have been called at the specific time, but the train is been delayed for whatever reason, the crew still have to wait for the delayed train, resulting in pre-departure wastage of man-hours and overtime payments. Once a driver has been summoned by a call boy and reports for duty at the stipulated time, he has to wait in the lobby, even if the train he is going to drive is delayed. For those drivers who live beyond a 3.5km radius, it is imperative for them to report for duty and wait, regardless of the when their train will arrive. This wait can be long and stressful and leads to frustration. The train lobby is not a comfortable place to wait and the fact that a driver has no opportunity to leave the lobby can be painful. There are no reliable studies to calculate the loss to the Railways on account of the stress suffered by drivers and also on account of pre-departure detentions. A rough estimate of the cost of pre-departure detentions of one division reveals that there is a direct loss of about Rs 30 million per year. This extrapolated over other divisions, indicates a loss which is substantial in relation to corporate profits
The New Order: Introduction of the Paging System in Ratlam With a view to making optimum use of the running staff, and also to reducing the predeparture detentions, overtime payments and stress, Western Railways introduced an in-house paging service in its Ratlam Division, which was commissioned in December 1997. The scheme envisaged the following: . the setting up of a transmitter equipment
in the lobby of the Station.
. the issuance of one pager equipment to
each driver before he goes ``on-duty''.
. the transmission of a paged message to a
driver, indicating the time he needs to report for duty and details of his journey.
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. the transmission of up-dated information
to a driver, should a delay in the arrival of the train occur for whatever reason. . the surrender of the paging equipment to the station at each time of ``signing off'' from duty. . the making of call boys redundant (staff reduction). Provision of pagers would ensure that the running staff were free from the requirement to remain at home after completion of 16 hours of ``rest'', as they could carry their pagers with them. (hitherto, drivers were required to remain at home after completion of their rest period, so that they could be contacted by call boys if needed; if a driver was not found at his residence when a call boy was sent, he was liable for disciplinary action.) The approximate cost of the entire paging installation was Rs350,000 and covered the paging transmitter and other accessories, plus the cost of each pager, at Rs. 6,000. In Ratlam, 130 pagers were acquired, sufficient for the total running staff of 656. The installation covered a range of 20kms and for a place like Ratlam, it covered all the running staff including those living beyond 3.5kms from the station. Even if there were some staff beyond 20 kms, that would not constitute a problem, as the range could easily be increased either by placing the transmitter at a higher height or by using a repeater. With this system, the Division would be able to control the pre-departure detentions, reduce wastage of manpower and achieve a better utilisation of crew and cut down on unnecessary overtime payments.
Implementation The conception and implementation of the paging system was undertaken in December 1997 by the then Chief Personnel Officer, Mr A. K. Chopra, and the Divisional Railways Manager, Mr S. S. Godbole. Meetings were set up at the outset by senior management with all drivers, assistant drivers, union representatives, call boys and signals and telecommunications staff regarding introduction and implementation procedures. As might be expected, concerns were expressed by the call boys and the Unions regarding the motives of management and possible redundancies Drivers were not opposed to the system but were apprehensive about their ability to get to grips with the workings of the technology. Also call boys were fearful that the adoption of the paging system would make them redundant in an area where alternative jobs were hard to come by. The
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biggest opposition, however, came from the two Unions, who refused totally to agree to any suggestion to ``surrender'' the posts of the call boys. In order for this pilot system to get off the ground, management had no alternative but to assure the Unions that no jobs would be lost. This promise had to be underwritten by the General Manager of the Western Region himself. Assurances by the Divisional Railways Manager (DRM) and the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) of the Ratlam Division were not enough. Management was acutely aware that had this guarantee not been given, the issue would have become a political issue, even to the extent of becoming a matter for parliamentary debate (the Railways is a powerful political entity in India). The system would have been suspended and might never have taken off. Management therefore provided assurances that although call boys would not be needed for their traditional jobs any longer, they would not face compulsory redundancies but would be retrained and redeployed in other parts of the organisation. The benefits to the Railways should the pilot scheme prove successful and the publicity and praise that the Division and its employees would enjoy were communicated very strongly and effectively to all stake holders. With these assurances, management was able to get all stake holders on board, although reluctantly on the part of some of them.
Evaluation That the paging system was technically superior and operationally more efficient is without question. However, there was no initial wholehearted support across the stakeholders. As part of the plan, it was decided that some evaluation of the system should be undertaken one year after the introduction of the system. To this end, video interviews were conducted with the various players to ascertain their views on the operation of the system, with regard to operational efficiency, cost savings and individual attitudes and lessons learnt. The views of management were succinctly provided by the current divisional railway manager, Mr Mathur. He was of the view that the system had led to better access to drivers as when they were required. While it was too early to quantify the cost savings due to the substantial reduction in drivers' waiting times, he was confident that substantial savings on overtime payments to drivers had been achieved, even in view of the fact that call boys were still on the books of the organisation.
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The call boys themselves were indifferent to the system, for as long as they were still employed in the organisation. The job itself was quite tedious and inflexible and any other job of similar or enhanced pay was welcome. Two union leaders on interview felt satisfied that there was no ``surrender'' of call boys posts, but felt that management could have done a better job regarding informing stake holders of the costs and benefits of the new system. They complained that there were still unresolved concerns when the system was started and that such concerns could have been avoided. To them the system was introduced too hurriedly and therefore provided not enough time for digestion and assimilation of the costs and benefits. The initial anxieties, and with them, lack of full co-operation at the onset, could have been prevented. The position of the drivers and assistant drivers, who with the call boys, were those directly affected, was interesting. Hitherto, drivers needed to stay at home (so that they could be contacted by call boys) or report to the Railways station lobby after their rest period. This official requirement restricted their movements. With a pager, they could actually leave home and be round and about and still be contactable. Also, the wearing of pagers on their belts, constituted some sort of status symbol for them, as the pagers indicated how important they were to their employers The only difficulty lay in the fact that pagers tended to be a one-way communication gadget, so that if a paged driver had a good reason to refuse to show up for duty, the only way he could inform management at the station was to go and look for a payphone to respond. Perhaps the next step should be some efficient two-way system. By its very nature, any review has got the inevitability of some adverse comment. But having considered all the facts, it was clear that, overall, the pilot scheme had worked well and achieved the purpose for which it was set up. Efficiency and effectiveness in the utilisation of drivers' time had improved and overtime costs have fallen substantially. The downside was that although the new technology should, as one would expect, lead to a reduction in manning levels, this was not possible, due to a promise of ``no redundancies'', that the unions extracted from management at the outset. The success of Ratlam be can easily replicated in other IR divisions, but considering the sensitivity and political nature of redundancies in India, it is doubtful if the adoption of the system will make any significant contribution to the IR's cherished
Lack of stakeholder support
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hope of reducing the high level of overmanning in the industry. Having said that, it is true to say that retraining and re-deployment of call boys will cut the level of new recruitment and thereby still help the manpower reduction exercise.
Conclusions and Lessons The case of the introduction of paging technology in the Ratlam Division of Indian Railways illustrates issues regarding the need to improve operational efficiency and labour productivity through the implementation of an efficiency-enhancing technology, the concomitant obsolescence of certain jobs, the difficulties of achieving acceptance of the new technology and the need to carefully manage the implementation for optimum results. Aware of the fact that the various stakeholders had differing interests, management took pains to educate all involved of the benefits of the new technology and to assure them of plans to mitigate the effects on those likely to be adversely affected. In the end management, had to assure continued employment for those whose jobs were to become redundant as a result of the implementation. Concerns about drivers' ability to handle their new equipment were allayed by several briefing sessions, which highlighted the benefits to them with regard to the easing of their jobs and, of no less importance, the enhancement of their own social standing (the pagers became status symbols). One year after the introduction, the process was judged a resounding success after an evaluation based on personal interviews with all concerned. The success of the Ratlam case and the way the process was managed have implications for the replication of the system in other divisions of IR and also for similar adoption in other organisations. Unfortunately, although call boys' jobs will become obviously redundant, it is unlikely that any significant job reduction will be achieved in the organisation, as agreement for implementation will depend on management not ``surrendering'' any posts. All the same, the use of the technology, which is going to be replicated in other divisions, will lead to net cost reduction and improved efficiency.
References Ansal, H. et al. (1999) New Technologies and Employment: Industry and Firm Level Evidence from Turkey, New Technology, Work and Employment, 14, 2
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Bowen, W. (1986) The Puny Payoff from office Computers, Fortune, 113 (11). Braverman, H. (1974) Labour and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, New York: Monthly Review Press. Eveland, J. (1979) Issues in Using the Concept of ``adoption of Innovations'', Journal of Technology Transfer, 4. Fleck, J. (1994) Learning by Trying: The Implementation of configurational technology, Research Policy, 23. Fransman, M. (1984) Some Hypothesis Regarding Indigenous Technical Capability and the Case of Machine Production in Hong Kong, in Fransman, M. and King, K. (eds), Technological Capability and the Third World, London: Macmillan. Globe, S. et al. (1973) Key Factors and Events in the Innovation Process, Research Management, 16. Hirschhorn, L. (1984) Beyond Mechanisation, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jacobson, S. (1985) Technical Change and Technology Policy: The Case of Numerically Controlled Lathes in Argentina, Korea and Taiwan, World Development, 13, No 1. Leonard-Barton, D. (1988) Implementation as Mutual Adaptation of Technology and Organisation, Research Policy, 17. Leonard-Barton, D. (1991) The Role of Process Innovation and Adaptation in Strategic Technological Capability, International Journal of Technology Management, 6. Long, R. (1987) New Office Information technology: Human and Managerial Implications, London: Croom Helm. Majchrzak, A. (1988) The Human Side of Factory Automation, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. March, J. and Simon, H. (1958) Organisations, New York: Wiley. Mirvis, P. (1983) Assessing the Process and Progress of Organisational Change Programs, in Seashore, S. et al. (eds) Assessing organisational Change: A Guide to Methods, Measures and Practices, NY: Wiley. Mirvis, P. et al. (1991) The Implementation and Adoption of New Technology in Organisations: The Impact on Work, People and Culture, Human Resource Management, Spring, 30, No 1. Nolan, Norton & Co (1984) The Economics of Computing in the Advanced Stages ± Parts I±V, Lexington, MA. OECD (1996) Technology, productivity and Job Creation, OECD V1 (Paris) and V2 Richardson, P. (1997) Business Success, Marketing and the Engineer, Engineering Science and Education Journal, 6, No 4. Rogers, E. (1962) Diffusion of Innovations, NY: The Free Press. Rothwell, R. et al. (1974) SAPPHO Updated ± Project SAPPHO phase II, Research Policy, 3. Rubenstein, A. et al. (1976) Factors Influencing Innovation Success at the Project Level, Research Management, 9. Shaiken, H. (1988) Work Transformed: Automation and Labour in the Computer Age, Lexington: Lexington Books. Tornatzky, L. et al. (1983) The Process of Technological Innovation: Reviewing the Literature, National Science Foundation.
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Vivarelli, M. (1985) The Economics of Technology and Employment: theory and Empirical Evidence (Aldershot, Edward Elgar). Voss, C. (1985) Determinants of Success in the Development of Applications Software, Journal of Production and Innovation Management, 2. Voss, C. (1988) Implementation: A Key Issue in Manufacturing Technology ± The Need for a Field of Study, Research Policy, 17. Walton, R. and Vittori, W. (1983) New Information Technology: Organisational Problem or Opportunity?, Office: Technology and People, 1. Zaltman, G. et al. (1973) Innovations and Organisations, New York: Wiley.
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Dr Pikay Richardson is Lecturer in Economics and Director of the India Research and Development Unit at the Manchester Business School, and Professor Ajit Nigam is Professor of Human Resource Management at the Railway Staff College, Vadodara, India.
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Effective Leadership Style: Both Universal and Contingent? Jouko Arvonen and GoÈran Ekvall More than 2,000 employees from different types of private and public organizations in Sweden and USA rated their managers with regard to actual and appropriate leadership style and the operation demands in the departments the managers were responsible for. Three aspects of these domains were measured, namely change, employees and production. The manager's competence was also rated and used as a criteria for effectiveness. The results revealed that the subordinates do not experience much adjustment between actual leadership behavior and situational demands, but correlations between appropriate leadership style and organizational demands show that they observe a need for such adjustments. There are substantial correlations between rated actual leadership style and competence across situations. However, ANOVAs revealed some interaction effects of style and situation on competence for production-oriented leadership behavior. The results are viewed as support of the thesis that effective leadership is mainly universal. Keywords: Leadership, CPE-model, situation, change, effectiveness, competence.
Introduction Universality theories
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he field of leadership style theory harbors two opposing positions concerning the generality of effective leadership. The one states that there is one universal leadership style that is effective in all kinds of situations. The other standpoint claims that effective leadership style is contingent on the characteristics of the leadership situation (see Vroom, 1976; Bass, 1990; Yukl, 1994). The most salient advocates of the first view are Blake and Mouton (1964, 1985) with their Managerial Grid model and Misumi with the PM Leadership Theory (Misumi, 1989). Fiedler (1967, 1971) is ascribed pioneership concerning the contingency theory. Researchers in the contingency line whose theories have been broadly applied in leadership development programs are Hersey and Blanchard with Situational Leadership Theory (1969, 1982) and Reddin with his 3-D Theory (1970). The spokesmen of the universality and the contingency theories have however one thing in common; they describe leadership behavior in the two broad dimensions emanating from the Ohio (Fleishman, 1953; Fleishman & Harris, 1962; Kerr & Schriesheim, 1974) and Michigan (Likert,
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1961, 1967) leadership research programs; orientation towards employees and relations and towards production, task and structure. The standpoint of the universality theories is that that the leaders who are high in both relation- and task-orientation are effective. According to Blake and Mouton the `highhigh' (9,9 style), i.e., high in concern for production and high in concern for people is effective management behavior in all kinds of situations. They called this 9,9 leadership `team management'. Parallel and independent to `high-high' studies in western countries there are also studies in Japanese organizations. Misumi formulated the PM Leadership Theory and conducted large scale empirical research in Japanese organizations. The scales used in PM-studies (production and maintenance) are mainly based on Ohio scales and the theory parallels to Blake and Mouton's concept of `team management' (Misumi & Peterson, 1985; Misumi, 1989). The theoretical standpoint of Blake and Mouton was that team management is not just an addition of the two types of behavior, but integration and synthesis of the two dimensions, expressing qualitatively different aspects in leaders' behavior (Blake & Mouton, 1981, 1982a, 1982b). According to Misumi the # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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`high-high' behavior could also be seen as an interaction between two behaviors where the one facilitates the other (Misumi, 1989). This means that, say pressure from the leader, is not experienced as pressure in a negative sense when it is combined with consideration. Rather the followers will experience pressure and demands more positively and be motivated. The situational theorists go in another direction, i.e., the best leadership is dependent on the situational contingencies (Tannenbaum & Schmidt, 1958). The Situational Leadership Theory regards the maturity of the followers as the crucial situational factor (Hersey & Blanchard, 1982, 1982a, 1982b). This theory takes into consideration the shortcomings of the earlier Ohio-studies where situational factors often moderated results. Many studies indicated that leadership had hardly any effect in groups with strong intrinsic motivation and that in groups where tasks were standardized, decision making centralized, and formalized routines were applied the more task oriented leadership was to be preferred (Schriesheim, House, & Kerr, 1976; Filley & House, 1969; Bass, 1990). However, the empirical results supporting Hersey and Blanchard's theory are not strong. The theoretical construction of the maturity level, the measuring instrument (LEAD) and reports of the managers themselves are criticized (Graeff, 1983; Blake & Mouton, 1981, 1982a; Bass, 1990; Andersen, 1994). Fiedler's theory diverges from other contingency theories in its conception of the adaptation between leadership and situation (Fiedler, 1967, 1971). Whereas the others assume that the effective leader adapts the leadership behavior to the situational requirements, Fiedler states that this is not possible due to personality stability. The leader has to adapt the situation to his/her personality and style or find a suitable situation. The theory assumes a close connection of personality to leadership style. The leader's need-structure is defined in terms of task and relations orientations. The connection is operationalized with the LPC-test, which is the instrument used in all studies by Fiedler and his research group. This test is a weak point in Fiedler's research. Its construct validity is unclear (Bass, 1990; Yukl, 1994). Does it measure leadership style, social distance, cognitive complexity, motive-hierarchy or personal values? (Bass, 1990). The research body based on Fiedler's theory is extensive, but the empirical results do not lend unambiguous support to the theory. In several studies the predicted relationships have not
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appeared and even contradictory relations have been found (Bass, 1990). However, Smith and Peterson (1988) notice that metaanalyses indicate that ``the balance of evidence favors Fiedler's predictions'', but they make reservations for dependencies between style and one of the situational dimensions in the model, which ``may spuriously support predictions''. One reason why the theoretical and empirical contradictions concerning the universalitycontingency issue are unsolved might be the lack of a typology of situations and situational demands that would allow relevant comparisons between studies. A broad variety of situational aspects and operationalizations have been applied, such as the maturity of subordinates, the power position of the leader, type of company, number of subordinates, organizational structure, task structure, the leaders' relationship with subordinates, business line, function, hierarchical level etc. There is need of a meta-model that can describe the demands in leadership in all kinds of situations in a uniform way (cf. Burns & Stalker, 1961; Thurley & Wirdenius, 1973; Katz & Kahn, 1978). A similar problem is the effectiveness concept and the wide differences in effectiveness criteria used; the manager's career development, motivation and commitment in the subordinate group, degree of goal attainment, profit, productivity, market shares, number of innovations, customer satisfaction, quality etc. (Thurley & Wirdenius, 1973; Yukl 1994; Hogan, Curphy, & Hogan, 1994). Either objective measures or ratings by superiors, subordinates or colleagues are applied as criteria. Ratings of perceived effectiveness, are most common. Studies indicate that there are significant correlations between objective and subjective measurements of effectiveness (Hogan, Curphy, & Hogan 1994). The choice of criterion makes the complication. Different criteria may be contradictive, for example a raise in productivity may lower quality. Effects may be short in time or long; profit can be raised in the short run at the expense of sacrificing long term development (Yukl, 1994). The fact that only two dimensions are included in the leader behavior repertoire is also a restriction. Thus the two factor model itself lends a very narrow perspective to leadership behavior (cf. Yukl, 1994). Companies and organizations are facing an environment containing global competition, variable customer needs and restructuring necessities (Peters & Waterman, 1982; Nanus & Bennis, 1985; Roberts, 1985) and increased
Narrow perspective of leadership
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utilizing of human resources (Formbrun, Tichy, & Devanna, 1984; Hendry & Pettigrew, 1990; Storey, 1992). The new business environment will require new management abilities concerning development, creativity, and radical innovation. In the CPE-model (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1991) change-oriented management behavior is included as a dimension. Studies indicate that this dimension is perhaps the most important for effectiveness in organizations (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1994). The need of mobilizing human resources in organizations focuses on transformative leadership (Burns, 1978). The research by Bass (Bass, 1985; Bass & Avolio, 1994) indicates that the dimensions of transformative leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) correlate significantly with satisfaction with the leader and with effectiveness across different situations. There seems to be a rather high correspondence between some of these transformative dimensions and the dimension of consideration in the Ohio studies.
Research Question In an earlier study (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1994) three broad situational variables were applied (branch, function and managerial level) as assumed moderators of the relationships between leadership styles and rated proficiency of the managers. The results did not reveal any significant interaction effects, however. Some leadership profiles (patterns of three leader behavior dimensions) were associated with high proficiency ratings independent of branch, function and level and some had low ratings wherever they appeared. The results thus did not fit a contingency model. But that conclusion is of course valid only for the kind of broad situational aspects studied. Even if some leadership profiles work well in general and some do less well, there could still be space for some contingency inside the best profiles or the worst profiles. ``Even if all the three leadership style dimensions generally make positive contributions to the success of the practiced leadership and even if some combinations of them (profiles) are generally better than others, there is still scope for variations within the generally preferred style, variations that may be contingent upon situations of more restricted kinds'' (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1994) This statement was a hypothesis in need of proof. There certainly exist situational variables of local and restricted importance, that could create contingencies. Companies within the same branch or departments within the
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same function may differ with respect to goals, strategies, structure etc., differences that may require some variation in the required leadership style, even if the same leadership is effective in the different contexts. The present study was designed to test this assumption of both universality and situational contingency.
Method Subjects In total 2,109 employees from industrial companies, supermarkets, private and public service organizations in Sweden and USA rated their immediate manager's leadership behavior styles and competence as well as the operation-requirements and the required leadership style in regard to the goals, strategies and tasks; 1,863 belonged to Swedish organizations and 246 to US organizations. The total number of managers rated was 314. The data originate from the application of a leader development program in Sweden and USA. In the Swedish sample about 65 percent of respondents are employees and managers in a major supermarket chain. All employees and managers were included in the survey in each of the supermarkets. In the departments (about 12 in each supermarket) all subordinates rated their immediate manager, and the middle managers rated the top managers. In the other organizations in the Swedish sample mainly managers at a higher level and members of the top management teams were included. These organizations were quite large, mainly private companies in the industrial sector. In these and in the other companies all subordinates rated the manager. The US sample comes from a leader development program at a management training institute. The participants who joined the program came from different companies. Subordinates rated the managers before the program started. Data in both the US and Swedish samples were collected in 1994 and 1995. All managers in the actual survey have been given an individual feed-back report on their management style.
Instruments The questions on leadership behavior styles operationalize the CPE-model (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1991, 1994). The model covers three dimensions; change/development centered, production/task/structure centered and employee/relations centered leadership behavior. This questionnaire was answered
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twice. First with the instruction to describe the actual behavior style of the manager and the second time to estimate the most appropriate behavior style in regard to the organizational requirements. Each dimension index included five items: Change/Development index (alpha = .87) offers ideas about new and different ways of doing things pushes for growth initiates new projects experiments with new ways of doing things gives thoughts and plans about the future Production/Task/Structure index (alpha = .84) plans carefully is very exacting about plans being followed gives clear instructions is controlling in his/her supervision of the work makes a point of following rules and principles Employee/Relations index (alpha = .82) shows regard for the subordinates as individuals is considerate allows his/her subordinates to decide trusts his/her subordinates is friendly The questionnaire on operation demands includes three indexes, covering change/ development, structure and employee/relations. The respondent has to estimate the importance of those requirements with respect to the goals and the kind of work done in the organization unit, that the studied manager is in charge of. There are five items in each index: Change/development requirements (alpha = .73) new ways of carrying out tasks are tested employees contribute to radical changes in performing tasks work is continuously reorganized new products or services are developed improvements are continuously carried out Structure requirements (alpha = .84) employees are punctual with working hours work is done according to a fixed schedule daily routines are strictly followed work instructions are followed in detail work is accurately controlled Employee development and relations requirements (alpha = .71) employees are able to work in teams employees encourage each other's performance tasks are stimulating for the employees
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employees have possibilities for personal development employees continuously develop their competence The manager's competence was covered by a 7 item index, that requests the subordinate to rate the degree to which the manager's competence comes up to the requirements of the management position. The index included items measuring competence of the leader in dimensions that Bass (1990) described as interpersonal-, socio emotional-, task-, technical-, and creative competence of the leader. Although the items refer to all these domains of competence, the inter-correlations between them are rather high. The following items are included: Competence of the manager (alpha = .84) capability to manage people; administrative ability; attention to efficiency; capability to think ahead; practical experience about the business; knowledge about the business; knowledge about the customers of the company. This index is in the present study conceived as a measure of the efficiency of the manager as a leader, as perceived by the subordinates. In their review of leadership research Hogan, Curphy, and Hogan (1994) state that the best evaluation of leaders' effectiveness is in terms of actual performance of their units, but that such data are often difficult to obtain or badly contaminated by external factors. They therefore conclude that the best alternative might be to ask subordinates, peers or supervisors to evaluate a leader. They however find that the research results justify a preference for subordinates as raters: ``These findings provide strong support for the use of subordinates' evaluations of managerial effectiveness''.
Results If the managers adjust their leadership styles to situational demands the correlations between the subordinates' descriptions of the managers' behavior styles and their ratings of the operational demands should reflect the degree of adjustment going on (see Table 1). The correlation coefficients are in two rows strongest in the cells that contingency theory predicts and they are statistically significant on the .001 level in all three rows, strongest for Production-orientation and weakest for Employee-orientation. But the correlations are weak, even if they are statistically significant due to the large number of observations. Subordinates do not seem to perceive much
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adjustment between leadership behavior and situational demands on the part of their managers. Table 1. Correlations between Subordinates' Ratings of the Manager's Leadership Style and Operation Demands
Actual leadership style Change Production Employee
Operation demands Change Production Employee
.20*** .07** .06**
±.04 .25*** .03
.11*** .02 .08***
* = p50.05, ** = p50.01, *** = p50.001.
The subordinates might perceive a need of leadership adjustment to situational demands to a higher degree than they experience it in the actual behavior of their managers. The results presented in Table 2 lend support to such an assumption by showing correlations between estimated appropriate style and organizational demands. Table 2. Correlations between Subordinates' Estimates of Appropriate Leadership Style and Operation Demands Operation demands Appropriate Change Production Employee leadership style Change Production Employee
Correlating style and competence
.50*** .27*** .31***
.16*** .69*** .28***
.37*** .26*** .42***
* = p5 0.05, ** = p5 0.01, *** = p50.001.
The correlations in the crucial cells are here substantial, implying that the subordinates observe a need for an adaptation of the leadership to the situational demands. It should be noticed that the strongest correlation appears for the productional task/structure oriented leadership style and the weakest for employee/relations orientation ± the same
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tendency as in Table 1. This congruence might indicate that the adjustments that have been realized have occurred where they are most required. A second pattern to notice in Table 2 are the signs of more general relations between ideal style dimensions and demands; positive, statistically significant correlations for each of the style dimensions with each of the situational demands dimensions. Two hypotheses can be derived from Table 2. (a) The significant correlations between each of the ideal style dimensions and operation demands in all three aspects might indicate the existence of generally positive correlations between leadership style and leadership effectiveness; managers with strong style orientations tend to be more efficient than those who have weak style orientations, independent of the demand level of the situation. (b) As subordinates perceive needs for adaptations between leadership style and operation demands (the strongest correlations in the ``crucial cells''), there should be some positive effects of a correspondence between leadership style and situational demands in those cases where it occurs. It might therefore be assumed, that measures of excellent, effective leadership indicate high scores when there is adjustment.
Table 3. Correlations between the Subordinates' ratings of the Manager's ladership Style and his/her competence Actual leadership style Change Production Employee
Competence of the manager .50*** .55*** .52***
* = p50.05, ** = p50.01, *** = p50.001.
There are significant, substantial correlations between leadership style and competence. These two concepts are clearly linked in the subordinates' perceptions. Explicit leader behavior tends to be conceived as leader competence notwithstanding differences in operation demands. There is however ample scope of other influences on competency than leadership style as the variance in competence here is explained to 46 percent by style (multiple correlations R = .68, R2 = .46). The rest is not just error variance. Situation, more
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precisely the interaction between leadership style and operation demands, may be one of the influencing factors. Tables 4±6 show the mean scores on the competence index in cross-tables for groups of ratings on the three leadership style dimensions and the corresponding operation demands variables. On the indexes both on leadership style and operation demands the total group of respondents was split into 3 subgroups according to the 25-50-25 percent distribution. The number of completed questionnaires for all the indexes vary between 1,772 and 1,798. Whether the demands of the situation are low, moderate or high, the high change and development style is associated with the strongest competence score and the low style with the weakest. The main effect in the ANOVA for leadership style is very strong. The interaction effect is weak and does not reach statistical significance. The tendency to interaction is confined to the high style (see Table 4).
demanding the situation is. It seems that both a general effect and a situation specific effect are operating where production/task/structure leadership style orientation is concerned. High orientation has in all situations better competence scores than low, but the difference becomes larger the higher the demand level.
Table 5. Production/Task/Structure Interaction. Mean Scores on the Competence Rating Index, and Number of Observations. Scale from 0 to 3. Answers from 1,782 subordinates Operation demands Actual leadership style
Low
Moderate
High
High
2.17 (76) 2.11 (229) 1.82 (135)
2.31 (228) 2.05 (423) 1.59 (178)
2.43 (215) 1.97 (209) 1.23 (89)
Moderate Table 4. Change/Development Interaction. Mean Scores on the Competence Rating Index, and Number of Observations. Scale from 0 to 3. Answers from 1,772 subordinates
Actual leadership style
Operation demands Low Moderate High
High
2.23 (58)
2.31 (245)
2.44 (169)
Moderate
2.00 (210)
2.05 (540)
2.07 (201)
Low
1.52 (90)
1.61 (189)
1.53 (70)
ANOVA: Style F = 270.2, p = .000. Demands F = 4.5, p = .011. Interaction F = 1.9, p = .106.
To a large extent the pattern in Table 5 is very similar to that in Table 4. The high style leaders have the strongest scores and the low style leaders the weakest on all three demand levels. But here we find a clear interaction effect, showing that the high style leaders have better ratings on competence, the more demanding the situation is, while the low style leaders have worse ratings the more
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ANOVA: Style F = 303.6, p = .000. Demands F = 10.3, p = .000. Interaction F = 24.1, p = .000.
The main effect for leadership behavior style is strong even in the employee dimension (see Table 6). High style leaders get the strongest competence scores independent of demand level and low style leaders get the weakest scores. But there is also an interaction effect, not strong but statistically significant. It seems as if two principles are in action with employee/relations leadership orientation as with production/task/structure orientation but to a much lesser degree. The interaction is confined to the low style.
Discussion The study attacks the controversial and sometimes dogmatically treated issue of universality versus contingency concerning effective leadership style by assuming a both-and resolution. Earlier reserach in CPE-model (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1994) supported the universality theory and could not prove any interaction between leadership style and situation. However, it could be suspected, that there might be some space left for
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Table 6. Employee/Relations Interaction. Mean Scores on the Competence Rating Index, and Number of Observations. Scale from 0 to 3. Answers from 1,798 subordinates Operation demands Actual leadership style
Low
Moderate
High
High
2.28 (100) 2.03 (304) 1.64 (122)
2.34 (214) 2.10 (423) 1.67 (172)
2.33 (149) 2.06 (217) 1.43 (97)
Moderate Low
ANOVA: Style F = 243.0, p = .000. Demands F = 3.8, p = .021. Interaction F = 3.3, p = .010.
interaction between style and more local, restricted situation aspects than the broad ones applied (business line, hierarchical level and function). In the present study situation was therefore defined as demands in relation to the operations on the local level, i.e. the organization unit the manager is responsible for. In order to be liberal to the contingency view we formulated the operation demands within the same domains as the applied CPEmodel describes leadership style ± change/ development, production/structure, and people/relations. The study differs from other studies in the field by this kind of local and focused definition and operationalization of the situation and by the introduction of a changedimension in leadership behavior style besides the two traditional dimensions of production/task/structure and employee/ relations. The substantial correlations found here between the appropriate style dimensions and the corresponding operation demands show that the subordinates are aware of a need of adaptation between leadership style and situational demands. But they do not experience any strong tendencies to such adaptations in the actual leadership behavior of the managers. The contingency theory of leadership as goal and expectation, as a normative theory, is supported by the results, while the realization of the theoretical propositions is more in doubt in the present sample. The introduction of the competence/ efficiency index into the analysis brings more direct information on the universality ±
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contingency issue. The managers with stronger leadership orientations in all three dimensions tend to be perceived by their subordinates as more competent/efficient than those managers with lower style orientations. The correlations are substantial on all three dimensions. Leadership style and competence/efficiency are linked in the total sample, which includes managers from situations with varying operation demands. The variation in competence/efficiency is explained by leadership style to about 45 percent. This speaks in favor of universally effective leadership styles. There remains however about 30 percent variation (when error variance is deducted) within which interaction effects of style and situation demands can operate. The cross Tables (4±6) and ANOVAs reveal that (in accordance with the correlations, Table 3) the high leadership style, on each demand level, shows the largest competence scores and the low leadership style shows the weakest score, which supports a universality view of effective leadership. The existence of some contingency inside a universally best (or worst) leadership style seems however to be exposed in the data, most clearly with Production/Task/Structure. The highly production oriented leaders are in all demand situations rated as the most competent but somewhat more so when the demands are high and the importance of this kind of leadership behavior is more evident. The low production oriented leaders generally get the weakest competence ratings, but there is a large decline in situations where the demands are high and the lack of that kind of leadership behavior more salient. A tentative extension of these empirical data could be the conclusion that high production oriented leadership style is even more effective the stronger the demand of structure in the operations and the low production oriented leadership style is even more impeding the stronger the demand of structure. This last kind of inference assumes that the subordinates' ratings of the managers' leadership behavior and competence and the operation demands are reasonably valid and that the measure of competence reflects the efficiency of the manager as a leader. When we treat the data collected on the individual (subordinate) level as valid for the department (leadership and demands) level, it is assumed that the variance within ratios is small, i.e. that the subordinates agree fairly well in their ratings of the same manager and the same situation (Ostroff, 1993). Accepting these assumptions we may draw some conclusions from the empirical data that support
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our basic hypothesis of both generality and contingency in effective leadership. There are substantial correlations between the leadership styles of the managers and their efficiency as leaders, independent of situational demands. Effective leadership thus requires marked behavior orientations towards all three types of behavior, namely change, production, and employee orientation. Managers high in these leadership style aspects are on the average much more efficient than managers who are low. Thus the proposition of the universally efficient `high-high', actually `high-high-high', leadership style is supported (cf. Blake & Mouton, 1964, 1985; Bass, 1985; Misumi, 1989; Ekvall & Arvonen, 1994). There exists an obvious interaction between production oriented leadership style and situational demands of structure. Even if high production oriented leadership is more effective in all situations than low production oriented, the high style managers are somewhat more efficient in situations with strong demands for structure than in situations with low demands and the low style managers are less effective in situations with strong demands for structure than in situations with low demands. The research findings concerning the structure dimension have often been inconsistent due to the moderating effect of the task, degree of formalization, and production technology (Schriesheim, House, & Kerr, 1976; Filley & House, 1969; Bass, 1990). The findings in the present study support the research indicating the importance of structuring management behavior in situations where short term effects are stressed (Misumi, 1989), motivational level of subordinates is rather low (Hersey & Blanchard, 1982; Misumi, 1989), tasks are routine and standardized (Fiedler, 1971). This can also be argued from the open systems point of view. Mechanistic rather than organic structure breeds extrinsic motivation and undermines the self-confidence and makes the subordinates dependent on the formalized system and structuring supervision (Burns & Stalker, 1961; Hall, 1977; Mills, 1983; Sherman & Smith, 1984; Schaubroeck, Ganster, Sime, & Ditman, 1993). Our hypothesis of some contingency besides the universal effects is thus supported concerning the production / structure oriented leadership style. The efficiency of both change and employee oriented leadership behavior seems mostly to be independent of the situation as measured here. On change orientation the interaction does not reach statistical significance. On employee orientation there is however a significant effect, but the differences in the
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mean values are rather small. The general effect of consideration, i.e. employee oriented behavior, is documented by a large number of studies (Fleishman, 1967; Likert, 1967; Bass, 1990). Usually the effects on satisfaction are strong and on effectiveness moderate. The hypothesis of both universality and contingency for the change and employee leadership dimensions is given only weak support in the present study. If there exist interactions they might, in any case, be slight. Considering the limitations of the study and the assumptions it rests on, these generalized conclusions should however be taken as hypotheses to be tested on other samples and with other kinds of operationalizations of the constructs.
References Andersen, J.A. (1994) Ledelse og effektivitet (Leadership and effectiveness). Lund: University Press. (Doctoral Dissertation). Bass, B.M. (1985) Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York, NY: Free Press. Bass, B.M. (1990) Bass & Stogdill's handbook of leadership (3rd ed) New York, NY: Free Press. Bass, B.M. and Avolio, B.A. (1994) Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bennis, W. and Nanus, B. (1985) The strategies of taking charge. New York, NY: Harper and Row. Blake, R. and Mouton, J. (1964) The managerial grid. Houston, TX: Gulf Publ. Blake, R.R. and Mouton, J.S. (1981) Management by grid principles or situationalism: Which? Group and Organization Studies, 6, 439±455. Blake, R.R. and Mouton, J.S. (1982a) Comparative analysis of situationalism and 9,9 management by principle. Organizational Dynamics, 10, 20±43. Blake, R. R. and Mouton, J.S. (1982b) Theory and research for developing a science of leadership. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 18, 275±291. Blake, R. and Mouton, J. (1985) The managerial grid III: The key to leadership excellence. Houston, TX: Gulf Publ. Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M. (1961) The management of innovation. London: Tavistock. Burns, J.M. (1978) Leadership. New York, NY: Harper and Row. Ekvall, G. and Arvonen, J. (1991) Change centered leadership. An extension of the two-dimensional model. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 7, 17±26. Ekvall, G. and Arvonen, J. (1994) Leadership profiles, situation and effectiveness. Creativity and Innovation Management, 3, 139±161. Fiedler, F.E. (1967) A theory of leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Fiedler, F.E. (1971) Leadership. New York, NY: General Learning Press. Filley, A.C. and House, R.J. (1969) Managerial processes and organizational behavior (2nd ed.). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
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Fleishman, E. A. (1953) The description of supervisory behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 37, 1±6. Fleishman, E. A. (Ed.) (1967) Studies in personnel and industrial psychology. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press. Fleishman, E. A. and Harris, E. F. (1962) Patterns of leadership behavior related to employee grievances and turnover. Personnel Psychology, 15, 43±56. Formbrun, C., Tichy, N. and Devanna, M. (1984) Strategic human resource management. New York, NY: Wiley. Graeff, C. L. (1983) The situational leadership theory: A critical view. Academy of Management Review, 8, 285±291. Hall, R. H. (1977) Organizations: Structure and process. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Hendry, C. and Pettigrew, A. (1990) Human resource management: An agenda for the 1990s. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1, 17±43. Hersey, B. and Blanchard, K. (1969) Management of organizational behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Hersey, B. and Blanchard, K. (1982a) Management of organizational behavior (4th ed). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1982b) Leadership style: Attitudes and behaviors. Training and Development Journal, 36, 50±52. Hogan, R., Curphy, G. J. and Hogan, J. (1994) What we know about leadership. Effectiveness and personality. American Psychologist, 49, 493±504. Katz, D. and Kahn, R. (1978) The social psychology of organizations (2nd ed). New York, NY: Wiley. Kerr, S. and Schriesheim, C. (1974) Consideration, initiating structure, and organizational criteria ± an update of Corman's review. Personnel Psychology, 27, 555±568. Likert, R. (1961) New patterns of management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Likert, R. (1967) The human organization. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Mills, P. K. (1983) Self management: Its control and relationship to other organizational properties. Academy of Management Review, 8, 445±453. Misumi, J. (1989) Research on leadership and group decision in Japanese organisations. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 38, 321±336.
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Misumi, J. and Peterson, P. (1985) The performancemaintenance (PM) theory of leadership: Review of Japanese research program. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30, 198±223. Ostroff, C. (1993) Comparing correctional based data on individual-level and aggregated data. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 569±582. Peters, T. and Waterman, R. Jr. (1982) In search of excellence. New York, NY: Harper and Row. Reddin, W. J. (1970) Managerial effectiveness. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Roberts, N. C. (1985) Transforming leadership: A process of collective action. Human Relations, 38, 1023±1046. Schaubroeck, J., Ganster, D. C., Sime, W. E. and Ditman, D. (1993) A field experiment testing supervisory role clarification. Personnel Psychology, 46, 1±25. Schriesheim, C., House, R. and Kerr, S. (1976) Leader initiating structure. A reconciliation of discrepant research results and some empirical tests. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 15, 279±321. Sherman, J. D. and Smith, H. I. (1984) The influence of organizational structure on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Academy of Management Journal, 27, 877±885. Smith, P. B. and Peterson, M. F. (1988) Leadership, organizations and culture. London: Sage. Storey, J. (1992) Developments in the management of human resources. Oxford: Blackwell. Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W. H. (1958) How to choose a leadership pattern. Harvard Business Review, 36, 95±101. Thurley, K. and Wirdenius, H. (1973) Supervision: A reappraisal. London: Heinemann. Vroom, V. H. (1976) Leadership. In M. D. Dunnette (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 1527±1552). Chicago, IL: Rand Mcnally. Yukl, G. (1994) Leadership in organizations. London: Prentice Hall.
Jouko Arvonen is a Faculty Member at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden, and GoÈran Ekvall is Emeritus Professor, the University of Lund.
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How Individualism-Collectivism Moderates the Effects of Rewards on Creativity and Innovation: A Comparative Review of Practices in Japan and the US Jacob Eisenberg Recent research has shown that the relationship between rewards and creative performance is complex: while rewards increase creativity in some situations, they are detrimental to creative performance in others. The present paper explores the role of cross-cultural differences in moderating some effects of rewards on creativity and innovation. I focus on individualismcollectivism and its related differences in motivation, cognition and emotion. I then propose five ways in which differences in I-C between Japan and the US moderate the effects of incentives on creative performance and innovation in these nations. Specifically, I claim that organizations in individualistic and collectivist cultures differ on: Effects of rewards on intrinsic motivation, effects of in-group versus out-group controlled rewards, effects of group vs. individual based incentives, reactions to in-group and out-group competition, and the effects of members' identification with the organization on their innovation efforts. The notion of `congruence' is offered as a theoretical framework for explaining the proposed ideas. Recommendations and implications of these prepositions for management of creativity in a cross-cultural work force are discussed.
T
he last two decades of research have shown that the effects of rewards on creative performance are anything but simple or straightforward. The traditional stance of behavioral scientists that rewarding a behavior would result in its increase under most circumstances has been challenged theoretically as well as in a growing body of empirical work (Amabile, 1983; Deci & Ryan, 1985). These and other researchers argued that creativity has special characteristics distinguishing it from other mental behaviors, specifically, relying more heavily on intrinsic motivation. Rewards, continues the argument, are extrinsic motivators that often undermine intrinsic motivations and subsequently may undermine creative performance. However, some scholars (most notably, Eisenberger & Cameron, 1996) were not convinced by this rationale and claimed that, in general, rewards do increase creative behavior. Only in certain specific conditions, # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
such as when rewards are too salient and distract one's attention from the task or when they are not performance contingent, rewards may be detrimental to creative performance. One strategy researchers used in attempting to resolve the contradictory empirical evidence has been to look for moderators and mediators whose presence determine the effects rewards have on creative performance. Presently, research has identified several possible moderating and mediating factors of the effects of rewards on creativity. These factors include task complexity, participant's age, pressure level experienced by participants, and presence of others while performing (Utman, 1997). In the organizational level, Chen, Ford, and Farris (1999), who studied attitudes of R&D scientists in US companies toward several reward types used in their companies, found that gender and country of birth (US vs. foreign born) interacted with type of reward to affect perceived organizational
Contradictory empirical evidence
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benefits of rewards.1 Since R&D scientists are often expected to display creativity and innovation in their work, these findings may suggest that gender and birth place would moderate the effects of rewards on organizational creative performance as well. In the present paper I look at the role of yet another moderating variable: culture, or more specifically, the Individualism-Collectivism (I-C) cultural/psychological dimension. I examine how effects of incentives (or rewards) on creative performance in organizations may vary across two cultures that differ considerably in their I-C levels: Japan and the US. In light of the growing interest in cross-cultural psychology on the one hand, and the need for reliable knowledge to aid effectively manage multi-national and multi-ethnic organizations on the other, it is somewhat surprising that this line of study has not been more extensively examined. I start by introducing the relevant cultural dimensions to be discussed in the paper. Next, I review literature on the ways that culture moderates various aspects of organizations. Then, I make five propositions which outline ways in which I-C may moderate the effects of rewards on creativity and innovation and provide testable prepositions for each of the propositions. An increasing volume of cross-cultural psychology studies indicate that cultural variables, inter- as well as intra-national, play a significant role in various aspects of behavior including mental performance. At the same time, research has shown that we need to re-examine many `overgeneralized' conclusions. These conclusions have been based on the presumptions that, by and large, findings and phenomena found to be valid for samples from western-industrialized culture would be as valid for the rest of the world (e.g., Kennedy, Scheier, & Rogers, 1984; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). We have learned, however, that people from various cultures differ significantly in how they view themselves, the world, and the relation between the two. These fundamental differences may, and do, lead to differing cognitive, emotional, motivational, and behavioral systems (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Schwartz & Ross, 1995; Triandis, 1996). Markus and Kitayama claimed that culture shapes the most fundamental aspects of `self'. They and their colleagues examined characteristics and perceptions of the self in several cultures and concluded that there are significant differences between `Eastern' (e.g., China, Japan, Korea, and India) and `Western' (e.g., US, Britain, Germany, and Australia) cultures. Studies show principle differences in the
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perception, expression, and management of self-uniqueness, the basis of self-esteem, abstract thinking, locus of control, need for control, moral values, shyness, anger, guilt, shame, self vs. other oriented motivation, motive for cognitive consistency, achievement motivation, competitiveness and cooperation, and conformity among these cultures (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Moghaddam, Taylor, & Wright, 1993; Weisz, Rothbaum, & Blackburn, 1984). Globalization being fait accompli in many areas of business, the growing interest of organizations in the implications of crosscultural psychological differences is understandable (see for example Tayeb, 1996). Companies' future success and survival, especially of the multi-national and high-tech companies depends, to a large degree, on the ability of their management to understand and effectively utilize culturally diverse work forces. Thus, the need to understand how culture moderates the effects of incentive systems on work performance in general, and on creative work performance, in particular, is real and paramount. In the following discussion of how culture may serve as a moderator of rewards and creative performance, I will be often contrasting ``Western'' and ``Eastern'' cultural clusters. These are well-intended generalizations and should be qualified as we learn more and more about the significance of the fine crosscultural differences (see for example James, Chen, & Cropanzano, 1996 for a discussion of Taiwan and Japan as representing different sub-types of collectivist societies). It is also important to bear in mind that although these differences represent patterns that are characteristic of most people of one culture when compared to people from a different culture, individuals within a given culture vary considerably in the extent to which they are good cultural representatives of the specific dimension. Nevertheless, at least as far as I-C is concerned, there is strong evidence suggesting that inter-cultural differences are significantly larger than intra-cultural ones (e.g. Iyengar & Lepper, 1999). The bulk of research in the present paper draws on Japanese and U.S. samples as representatives of collectivist and individualistic countries, respectively. Both countries have been used most often in comparative analyses of individualistic and collectivist cultures (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1996) and their comparable levels of industrialization made them especially good candidates for cross-cultural comparisons in the organizational sciences. To organize and guide the prepositions offered in this paper,
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I have summarized them in Table 1. The table describes the major psychological differences between the Japanese and US culture and how these differences may interact with various reward types to affect creative performance.
Some Central Psychological Differences among Cultures First, I review several cross-cultural dimensions that have important implications for organizational behavior. These dimensions, or categories, have been well established as central constructs for comparing cultures and their relevancy was supported throughout various empirical studies. Since Individualism-Collectivism has been more thoroughly studied than other cultural dimensions and, as I will argue below, has great relevancy for the relation between rewards, motivation, and creativity it will be the focus of most arguments in this paper.
Individualism and Collectivism Individualism vs. collectivism became one of the most commonly used dimensions to differentiate among cultures or clusters of cultures. According to Triandis (1996) individualism is when ``the self is defined as independent and autonomous from collectives. Personal goals are given priority over the goals of collectives'' (p. 409). `Collectives' refer to social units ranging from family to nation. Collectivism is described as having the self ``defined as an aspect of a collective; personal goals are subordinated to the goals of this collective . . . taking into account the needs of others in the regulation of social behavior is widely practiced'' (Triandis, p. 409). A closely related concept is independent versus interdependent self. Markus and Kitayama (1991) suggested that these concepts describe the primary organization of the self. The main difference between these two personality construals is the role of others in one's self-definition. While others are important in both construals, for the interdependent self, others are included within the boundaries of the self and define its features; for the independent self, others are clearly external to the self and do not significantly define the self. While related to the individualismcollectivism (I-C) constructs, the independence/interdependence of differentiation focuses more on the individual level while I-C is based more on cultural-level analysis. For the sake of simplicity, when discussing independence-interdependence and indi-
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vidualism-collectivism, I will be using mainly the latter term, which is better known among scholars and managers, to refer to both constructs. Another related dimension that cultures differ on is that of control. In general, Western cultures emphasize primary control while Eastern cultures are oriented more towards secondary control. Primary control involves influencing existing realities. This is done through aiming to influence other people, objects, circumstances, or behaviors. On the other hand, secondary control acts through accommodating to existing realities. This is accomplished through aiming to influence self-expectations, goals, perceptions, attitudes, and attributions. While both forms of control intend to enhance reward or reduce punishment, those who employ primary control attempt that by influencing realities to fit the self, while secondary control focuses on influencing psychological impact of realities on the self (Weisz et al., 1984).
Differences among cultures
Individualism-Collectivism as a Moderator of the Effects of Incentives on Creativity & Innovation Japanese individuals from various demographic backgrounds (e.g., students, employees, managers) tend to emerge as highly collectivist, interdependent, and inclined toward secondary control. Conversely, mainstream US individuals (i.e., mainly those from Euro-American cultural background. Many minority groups in the US, on the other hand, display cultural patterns indicating higher collectivism than the mainstream, see for example James, Chen, & Cropanzano, 1996) tend to be highly individualistic, independent, and to rely heavily on primary control (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1996; Weisz et al., 1984). In the next pages I examine how these psychological differences relate to some of the central theories put forward to explain the effects of rewards on creativity.
Self-Determination One of the most prevalent theories in the area of creative performance is the Self-Determination theory which makes a distinction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation ``is based on the innate, organismic needs for competence and self-determination. It energizes a wide variety of behaviors and psychological processes for which the primary rewards are the
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Rewards enhance behaviour
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experiences of effectance and autonomy'' (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p. 32). Emotions of interest, enjoyment and excitement often accompany engagement in intrinsically motivated activities. Deci and Ryan further assert that ``When people are intrinsically motivated . . . they perceive the locus of causality for their activity to be internal . . . the antithesis of interest and flow is pressure and tension. Insofar as people are pressuring themselves, feeling anxious, and working with great urgency, we can be sure that there is at least some extrinsic motivation involved'' (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p. 34). Extrinsic motivation refers to behavior where the reason for doing it is something other than an interest in the activity itself. Typically, extrinsic motivation involves an activity with reward contingency or some external control, for example, through external evaluation or appraisal of one's performance. Self-determination revolves around the experience of choice and the belief of having control over one's actions. Self-determination is not impossible under conditions of external control, but is much more likely to occur when the locus of control over outcomes is perceived as internal. Deci and Ryan (1985) view self-determination both as human capacity and as a basic need. As such, it is a universal characteristic of human functioning. Self-determination is integral for intrinsically motivated behavior; intrinsic motivation, in turn is important for learning, adaptation, and cognitive performance. It has been suggested and demonstrated that intrinsic motivation plays a crucial role in motivating creative behavior of various sorts (Amabile, 1996; Deci & Ryan, 1985). A more controversial notion is that introduction of extrinsic motivators typically decreases intrinsic motivation and in turn, is detrimental to several intrinsically motivated behaviors, among them creativity. A series of studies by Amabile and her colleagues (see Amabile, 1996 for a summary) demonstrated that rewards, evaluation and situations of externally imposed competition all result in lower creative performance compared with conditions that do not employ any of these extrinsic motivators. Amabile's and Deci and Ryan's explanation for these negative effects is that the extrinsic motivators induced a change in the perceived locus of control from internal to external, resulting in decreased intrinsic motivation for the activity. Thus, the behavior is no longer done because it is interesting, but rather to get an external reward or to comply with an external demand.2 This shift in causal attribution of the underlying motivation occurs primarily when the activities one
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performs are challenging, which is typically the case for creative problem solving type tasks. Supposedly, creative thinking necessitates mental flexibility and freedom, which are constrained by perceptions of individuals that they do not have the choice to behave as they wish. It is important to note that the conclusion that rewards are detrimental for creative performance, have been challenged by other scholars, most notably by Eisenberger and his colleagues (1996, 1998). Eisenberger argues that when administered properly, rewards would enhance any behavior, including creative ones. In a series of experiments Eisenberger and co-workers demonstrated that under most conditions rewards do serve as incentives for behavior and observed better performance in the participants' groups who were rewarded compared to those who were not. As we have seen, the major tenets behind the ``intrinsic motivation'' explanations for the detrimental effects of rewards on creative performance (arguably, the most prevalent models since the 80s) are based on the presumptions that: A. All humans have a strong need for selfdetermination and self-actualization; B. Perceiving internal locus of control or causality is essential toward this end; C. Events that promote more externally perceived locus of causality undermine self determination, perceived internet control and, therefore, intrinsic motivation; and D. Decreases in intrinsic motivation have detrimental effects on performance of tasks that involve creative thinking.
Personal Control vs. In-Group Control While I agree that intrinsic motivation often mediates the effects of rewards on creativity, I suggest that, at least for the three first premises, substantial cross-cultural differences exist. These differences shape the effects of rewards (as well as other extrinsic motivators such as evaluation) on motivation, and, in turn, on creative performance. Given that collectivists are typically oriented towards secondary control to a much greater extent than individualists, and in turn, depend much less than individualists on primary control (which emphasizes one's desire to affect the existing reality), self-determination and self-actualization would have a different meaning for persons from collectivist cultures. In fact, they may even not exist as such! Several researchers and theorists (e.g., James & Eisenberg, 1999; Triandis, 1995) have argued that collectivists' goals are not
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directed at the individual level, but rather, often, at the collective level. Thus, the motivational mechanism behind collectivists' cognitions and actions should be regarded as collective-determination instead of self-determination. Support for this notion comes from studies that found that both self-esteem and self-efficacy depend on somewhat different characteristics for collectivists versus individualists. For collectivists relations to the collective (family and other close groups) and the extent to which one believes to be a good group member largely determine esteem and efficacy (James & Eisenberg, 1998; James & Greenberg, 1989; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). A study by James and Cropanzano (1990) found that those with an internal locus of control (which is closely related to primary control) performed more poorly when aware that their organization was using unfair reward procedures for people like them. The same effect was not observed for those with and external locus of control (closely related to secondary control). Similarly, Kolb and Aiello (1996) found that those with internal locus of control found monitoring of their work stressful, while those with an external locus of control found it to be less stressful to be monitored than to not be monitored. These two studies demonstrate how effects of external control on affect can differ considerably for persons with different personal construals. Finally, several recent studies clearly demonstrate how individualists and collectivists are differentially affected by conditions of self versus other control. These studies add an important refinement to the discussion of external versus internal control by highlighting the importance of differentiating in-group from out-group external control. Iyengar and Lepper (1999) examined the relevance and limitations of findings that linked provision of choice to increased levels of intrinsic motivation and performance for cultures where interdependent models of self are dominant (while the participants in the studies reported here are mainly children, recent experiments by the first author with employees of a major multinational financial institution present a similar pattern). The participants were either Asian-Americans or Anglo-Americans, and the tasks were solving anagrams and computeradministered math problems. Iyengar and Lepper found that individualist (Anglo) and collectivists (Asian) reacted differently to the three experimental conditions: personal choice of features related to the tasks, choice made by out-group members (experimenter, children form other schools), and choice made by in-group members (one's mom,
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one's classmates). While individualists performed best when given personal choice, collectivists performed best when the choice was made by in-group members. Both individualist and collectivists performed the worst when the choice was made by out-group members. The effect sizes are quite impressive: Performance of Anglos dropped by more than half from the personal to the in-group choice condition; in the personal choice condition, Asians' performance dropped by over a quarter compared to the in-group condition. Furthermore, measures of intrinsic motivation, preference for challenge, and subsequent learning showed similar patterns: Individualists scored significantly higher on these measures when performing in the personal choice condition compared with both group choice conditions, while collectivists scored the highest when performing under in-group conditions. As with performance, out-group choice resulted in the lowest motivation, learning, and preference for challenge for individualists and collectivists alike. Based on this literature, it seems plausible to expect collectivists to be more motivated and challenged by their work under external controls than under personal-control, as long as the external control is perceived as originating from an in-group member.3 Individualists, on the other hand, will be more challenged and motivated by perceiving internal (or personal) control over their work assignments. This brings me to the first set of propositions about the differential effects of rewards on creativity for individualists versus collectivists: Proposition 1A: Collectivists will be more intrinsically motivated when working under extrinsic motivators (rewards, evaluations) which are perceived to be administered by in-group members than when working under conditions of rewards administered through personal choice or out-group members; Proposition 1B: Individualists will be more intrinsically motivated when working under perceived personal regulation of rewards than when rewards are perceived to be regulated (or administered) externally. There is ample evidence to support the positive relation between intrinsic-motivation and creative performance (Amabile, 1996; Deci & Ryan, 1985). Thus, I expect that if, indeed, rewards affect differently individualists' and collectivists' intrinsic-motivation, these effects will translate to differential effects on creativity as well. Proposition 2A: Collectivists will perform more creatively under in-group controlled rewards
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than under personally or out-group controlled rewards; Proposition 2B: Individualists will perform more creatively under personally controlled rewards than under externally controlled rewards.
Individual vs. Group Allocation of Rewards Individualism/collectivism may create an inclination to focus on either individual-level contributions (individualism) or on grouplevel contributors (collectivism) (James, 1993; Triandis, 1989; 1995) in evaluating or using distributive systems. For instance, cultural I-C seems to influence endorsement of Protestant work-ethic principles and, by way of them, preferences for equality versus equity allocations (Greenberg, 1979; Leung, 1988). Research has shown that strength of Protestant work ethic is associated with orientation toward use of information about individualdifferences in inputs in making allocations (Stake, 1983). Leung, Bond and their colleagues (Leung & Bond, 1982; Leung & Bond, 1984; Leung & Iwawaki, 1988), Mahler, Greenberg and Hayashi (1981), and Siegal and Shwalb (1985), have produced data indicating that individuals from collectivist cultures (most of this research has been done in China or Japan) tend to allocate rewards more in line with the equality principle and less in line with the equity norm than do individuals from individualistic cultures.4 Along similar lines, Chen et al. (1999) suggested that American white R&D scientists and engineers compared with nonwhite colleagues would believe in the superiority of individual rewards over collective rewards in producing organizational benefits. Cross-cultural comparisons of social-loafing support the idea that I-C may moderate the effects of group- versus individual-based appraisal and reward. Karau and Williams (1993) conducted a meta-analysis on factors affecting the magnitude of social loafing. Among the factors examined was culture, Eastern (including Japan, Taiwan, and China) vs. Western (including the US and Canada). The results showed that the effect size of social loafing measures was almost three times larger for Western than Eastern samples. Moreover, some studies showed that collectivists actually performed higher when the evaluation and identification of their contribution was done on a group-basis; the reverse was found for individualistic participants. Earley (1989) found that in a low-individual accountability situation Chinese managerial trainees, unlike their colleagues from the US, did not show lower performance on simu-
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lation of managerial tasks due to social loafing. Brown, Nakata, Reich, and Ulman (1997) compared pay systems, and earnings inequalities, and management systems in the US and Japan. They observed low pay inequality between the top and bottom percentiles of the labor market, greater employer investments in worker training, greater use of teambased and company-based compensation schemes, and higher levels of worker involvement in production management in Japan than in the US. They concluded that these differences were driven by Japanese collectivistic values of reciprocal responsibility and loyalty between employees and management. Hasegawa (1986) similarly argues that the narrower range of compensation seen in Japanese organizations than in European or US ones is an outcome of greater collectivism in Japan. Finally, James and Eisenberg (1998) manipulated salience of collective vs. individual selfconstruals. They found that under collectivist priming participants performed better in the inter-group competition condition while participants who were individualistically primed performed better under inter-individual competition. On the basis of these considerations, I offer the following propositions: Proposition 3A: Collectivists will have higher motivation levels and better performance, in general, and particularly on creative tasks when the rewards are allocated on a group/ collective basis than when rewards are individually-based. Proposition 3B: Individualists, on the other hand, will be relatively more motivated and perform better when rewards are individuallyallocated than when the rewards are collectively-allocated.
In-Group vs. Out-Group Competition Focus A specific group phenomenon that collectivists and individualists seem to differ on is their relationship with in-groups and outgroups. While affiliation with in-group members is preferred on affiliation with out-group members in both types of cultures, this tendency is significantly stronger in collectivist cultures like Japan. This seems to translate to higher performance when collectivists/interdependents (but not individualists/independents) perform in competition with out-group members (James & Cropanzano, 1994; James & Greenberg, 1989; Triandis, 1996). Conversely, collectivists appear to be more inhibited than individualists when they compete against in-group members
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(Chen, Chen, & Meindl, 1998; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Thus, I propose that: Proposition 4: Collectivists' creative performance will be markedly higher in situations where rewards are linked to competition against out-group members than when rewards are contingent on competition against in-group members. Individualists, on the other hand, will perform equally well whether rewards are contingent on performance in a competition with in-group or with out-group members.
Effects of Individualism-Collectivism on Innovation Patterns In the last proposition I try to link the effects of the psycho-cultural differences between Japan and the US on the individual level with the effects these differences may have on the organizational level. Typically, a necessary though not sufficient precursor for innovation in organizations is employees' individual creativity. From this perspective, innovation can be seen as the implementation of individual creativity to organizational-level products or processes. Organizations use incentives to indicate what the desired behavior is and to encourage members to display such behavior in the future. When innovation is desired and when it is a high organizational priority, companies attempt, and often succeed, to use incentives to transform employees' individual creativity into organizational innovation. Some of the mechanisms that organizations use hoping to tap on employees' creativity include suggestion boxes and brainstorming sessions, where employees are somehow rewarded for their contributions. My general thesis is that, in general, the higher the identification level of members with their group (or of employees
with their company) the more effective would incentives be for eliciting pro-group ideas and behaviors. Furthermore, for highly-identified members, the same rewards would result in more efforts for the benefit of the organization than for low-identified members. Collectivists were shown to share organizational (or group) values to a higher degree than individualists do (Brown et al., 1997; James & Eisenberg, 1999). Reports of indirect indices of differential identification levels of Japanese employees with their organization compared to U.S. employees include higher levels of trust between employees and management in Japanese versus American organizations and much lower perception of unfair supervisors' treatment in Japan compared to the state (Brown et al.). Therefore, there may be less of a need in collectivist cultures for a constant use of individually-based rewards to create and maintain the identification of employees with the organization and of employees' commitment to share their individual ideas with the rest of the organization. Though research in this area is virtually nonexistent, Brown et al. provide insights from their examination of pay systems and performance in general, in Japan vs. the US. ``Some Japanese academics suggested to us that small monetary incentives will generate rather large increases in motivation and effort because of more conformist social norms in Japan, the greater dependence of Japanese families upon a single earner's pay check, and the lower inequality in income among families.'' (p. 100). Brown et al.'s comparative reports of growth rates per salary increase in Japan and the US seem to support this observation. Further support for this notion comes from organizational change literature (James & Levi, 1999) that suggests that resistance to change in general, and to
Collectivists share values
Table 1. Japan vs. the US: Creative Performance (High, Medium, and Low) as a Function of Reward Type and Cultural Values Individual-based
Group-based
In-group
Externally Controlled Out-group
Internally Controlled
In-group
Competition Out-group
Japan: Collectivism, Secondary Control
L
H
H
L
M
L
H
US: Individualism, Primary Control
H
L
L
L
H
M
M
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innovation in particular, is quite common in Western organizations. One of the strategies used to overcome such resistance involves administration of external controls ± rewards and/or threats. Finally, when we examine individual creativity in Japan versus the US and then look at organizational level indexes of innovation, such as number of employees' suggestions made annually, an interesting picture emerges. Several studies linked individualism, as a trait, to creative personality (e.g., Gough, 1979) and others suggested that, in general, individuals from Western nations would be more creative than individuals from Eastern nations (e.g. Mari, 1976. See also Saeki, Fan, & Van Dusen, 1998 who compared American and Japanese college students' creativity). But though Americans seem to be higher on individual creativity measures, Japanese companies achieve higher ratios of suggestions per employee than comparable US organizations (Quinn & Rivoli, 1991). At the same time, individually distributed rewards for suggestions seem to be less common in Japan compared with the U.S. (Brown et al., 1997). Thus, I suggest that:
Context affects behaviour
Proposition 5: Given the same incentive levels, employees in collectivist cultures will be more identified with their companies and, subsequently, will contribute more ideas to their organizations compared with employees in individualistic cultures.
Conclusions and Implications The present paper suggested that relationship between rewards and intrinsic motivation and creative performance is not fixed but rather may be affected by differences in basic personality constructs (i.e., values and needs) and in organizational culture that arise from cross-cultural differences. Amabile (1993) has similarly argued that extrinsic motivators do not necessarily undermine intrinsic ones: under certain combinations of personality traits and organizational context, extrinsic motivators and intrinsic motivators can combine to yield high level of performance and personal satisfaction. The general proposition put forth is that due to differential cognitive, emotional, and motivational patterns in US and Japanese cultures, various reward types (and appraisal) may carry different meaning, informational value, and motivational impact for collectivists compared with individualists. Table 1 summarizes the main arguments that were expressed in the propositions offered in this paper and allows an overall comparison
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of how reward types and culture-based values affect creative performance in the US and Japan. Some of the theoretical background of the propositions developed in this paper rests on a model presented by James and Eisenberg (1999), and more generally on Cropanzano, James and Citera's (1993) model, which linked cultural values to personality and to performance. Cropanzano et al. model places cultural values at the highest level of a linked group of hierarchies of enduring cognitive structures that constitute individual personality and shape individual thought and action. Each major value held by an individual is seen as providing the organizing principles that promote development of sets of value-relevant goals, drives, behavioral norms, skills, and strategies which form a linked hierarchy from general to specific. Active goals, in this scheme, trigger goalrelated information gathering, information use, and development of action plans, which also have a hierarchic structure that ranges from general categories of actions needed to achieve a goal to plans for very specific behaviors. Each distinct cluster of values and norms, the goals and plans derived from them, and the types of thoughts and emotions that typically accompany the values, norms, goals and plans in a hierarchy comprises a ``self,'' that is, an identity, that forms a major theme within an individual's personality. Different contexts bring different selves to the fore, affecting active goals such that cognition motivation and behavior are also affected. James and Eisenberg (1999) use Cropanzano's et al. (1993) model to explore how I-C relates to identity structures and to performance in organizations. In the present paper, I focus further on one organizational structure feature ± reward systems, and on one type of performance aspect±creative behavior. I approach performance from a perspective of congruence: an implicit notion in this paper is that, all other variables being equal, when there is a congruence between organizational situational factors (i.e., reward and appraisal type) and cultural values, which manifest themselves as personal needs (see also Cropanzano et al.), creative performance will be higher. Cropanzano et al. cite research which reports that when there is a conflict (or incongruence) between one's personal projects (which, in term of specificity, are located between identities and specific action-plans), performance (e.g., educational, cognitive) is lower, and negative affectivity is higher. Similarly, congruence among (multiple) selves results typically in higher performance
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and positive affectivity. I suggest that congruence between reward types and person's values would result in similar effects. To sum, this paper examines how I-C values may mediate the effects of various reward structures on employees' creative performance. Another way to look at Table 1 is through the proposed `congruence' lenses: when the organizational practices (the horizontal part of the table) match the values (or needs of organization members; presented along the vertical part), creative performance will be high. The lower the congruence, the lower the resulting performance is.
Limitations and Future Directions Some of the propositions offered in the present paper may, and accurately so, lead the reader to conclude that the collectivistbased Japanese culture should have an advantage, in several aspects, over the individualist-based US culture. Up till the mid 90s, both macro and micro economical and industrial indices tended to support this notion (see Brown et al., 1997 and Quinn & Rivoli, 1991 for some supportive data). However, how does the major economic crisis facing Japan since the late 90s fits this picture? Without doubt, `something' went wrong in the Japanese industrial-economic system. The degree to which collectivism played a destructive or a protective role in the current crisis is still to be examined. In the US, on the other hand, we have witnessed important reforms in the American industry and organizational systems. During the 80s, several practices such as TQM and Quality Circles have been adopted, with varying success, from the Japanese organizational culture. Presently, in the late 90s, teams and groupbased work are flourishing, and, with them, organizations have to pay more attention to `collective' values. Another slow but steady change is the increase of women and ethnic minorities in managerial roles; on average, women and non-Europeans tend to be both more collectivist than men and EuropeanAmericans. These changes seem to be even more pronounced in American R&D departments, probably due to factors that both have to do with the nature of work and the characteristics of the employees in these departments. A recent study by Chen et al. (1999) found that US R&D professionals believed that collective rewards have more organizational benefits than individual rewards. Thus, we witness several processes that have made the American corporateorganizational culture similar, in some ways
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to the Japanese one. At the same time, Japan attempts to reform both its political system and its economy to end the economic crisis it is still in. As much as these recent events are important, I believe that they do not, by and large, detract from the validity of the prepositions made in this paper. Most propositions deal with the manifestation of cultural values in the individual level and the role of these values in affecting the relationship between rewards and creativity. It seems that the crisis did not happen on the floors of Japanese factories, nor among the managers of R&D based organizations, but rather in the financial elite. I think there is little evidence to closely relate the causes of the economic crisis in Japan to I-C related values at the individual level. Since economics is not my forte, I do not want to enter a debate on these issues in the context of this paper. However, some data do support my assessment: In 1998, amidst the economic crisis, Japan's R&D expenditures increased significantly. At the same time, export of technology (which is often viewed as an indicator to the national innovation level), increased as well (Hajime, 1999). Additionally, while the crisis was surely felt in many industries, some Japanese industries continued flourishing (see for example the digital camera industry success and the recent innovations in minidisks and flat-screen televisions). Evidence for Japanese innovation during the last couple of years come also from more traditional industries such as the automobile one (see the Newsweek story about the subcompact vehicle industry success, Wehrfritz & Takayama, 1999). Having said that, it would be interesting to examine the relationship between the macro-economic level events and individual psychological characteristics, and further, how the recent changes in Japan would affect its organizational culture and employees values. Five concrete and testable predictions on the interaction of reward systems and I-C were offered throughout this paper. The next step should be testing these prepositions in a systematic manner, both through well-controlled experiments an through field studies. If the propositions suggested be found to be valid, there would be major implications for organizations. Knowing the moderating effects of I-C would be especially relevant for motivating and managing creativity in organizations that employ a multi-cultural work force (both within and across nations), and for organizations that operate plants in foreign countries. For example, evidence exists that, at least in the case of American ex-patriate managers in Hong Kong, management
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Globalization and diversification
practices that work in the US don't work as well with Chinese employees (Black & Porter, 1991). Chen et al.'s 1999 study addressed somewhat similar issues to this paper, specifically, the authors hypothesized that I-C differences do to ethnicity would affect organization members' beliefs of the organizational benefits of various reward types (extrinsic, intrinsic, individual-fixed, individual-variable, and collective). While their results did not support their hypothesis, they present good reasons to try and replicate some aspects of their study while adding direct measures of I-C. Another tentative conclusion of that study is, that gender and organizational role or department (e.g., R&D department vs. accounting or management) may well be important factors when designing the appropriate mix of reward types in an organization. There is little doubt that globalization of organizations and diversification of their work forces will increase in most industrialized countries. At the same time, innovation and creativity are becoming ever more crucial for the success and survival of companies. In such a reality it is crucial for managers to understand how incentives affect motivation and creative performance of employees from diverse cultures. Such an understanding will increase the chances of managers to use rewards in a ways that would be both satisfying for their employees and optimally productive for the company.
Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Keith James and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Correspondence regarding the article should be directed to Jacob Eisenstein, Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80521. Email:
[email protected]
Notes 1. The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for pointing out this interesting study. 2. This part of the motivational dynamics, the change in perceived locus of causality, is referred to by Deci (1975) and others as cognitive evaluation theory. 3. If I am correct, this may explain the high failure rate of US managers in collectivist cultures, such as China and Thailand. 4. However, the greater inclination toward equality norms by collectivistic than by individualists
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may depend on whether the allocations be to in-group members; allocations to out-group members by collectivists seem to follow equity principles even more strongly than out-group allocations by individualists (Leung & Bond, 1984; Mahler et al., 1981; Marin, 1981).
References Amabile, T.M. (1983) The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer Verlag. Amabile, T.M. (1993) Motivational synergy: Toward new conceptualizations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace. Human Resource Management Review, 3, 185±201. Amabile, T.M. (1996) Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Aoki, M. (1988) Information, incentives, and bargaining in the Japanese economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Black, J.S. and Porter, L.W. (1991) Managerial behavior and job performance: A successful manager in Los Angeles may not succeed in Hong Kong. Journal of International Business Studies, First Quarter, 99±113. Brown, C., Nakata, Y., Reich, M. and Ulman, L. (1997) Work and pay in the United States and Japan. New York: Oxford University Press. Chen, C.C., Ford, C.M. and Farris, G.F. (1999) Do rewards benefit the organization? The effects of reward types and the perceptions of diverse R&D professionals. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 46, 47±55. Chen, C.C., Chen, X.-P. and Meindl, J.R. (1998) How can cooperation be fostered? The cultural effects of individualism-collectivism. The Academy of Management Review, 23, 285±304. Cropanzano, R., James, K. and Citera, M. (1993) A goal-hierarchy model of personality, motivation and leadership. In L.L. Cummings & B.M. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, 15, 267±322. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (1985) Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum. Earley, P.C. (1989) Social loafing and collectivism: A comparison of the United States and the People's Republic of China. Administrative Science Quarterly, 34, 565±581. Eisenberger, R. and Cameron, J. (1996) Detrimental effects of reward: Reality or myth? American Psychologist, 51, 1153±1166. Eisenberger, R., Armeli, S. and Pretz, J. (1998) Can the promise of reward increase creativity? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 704±714. Gough, H.G. (1979) A creative personality scale for the adjective check list. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1398±1405. Greenberg, J. (1979) Protestant ethic endorsement and the fairness of equity inputs. Journal of Research in Personality, 13, 81±90. Hajime, K. (1999) Competitive power of Japanese industry ± The present situation and future prospects. Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry, July/August, 8±11.
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Hasegawa, K. (1986) Japanese-style management. New York: Kondansha International. Iyengar, S.S. and Lepper, M.R. (1999) Rethinking the value of choice: A cultural perspective of intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 349±366. James, K. and Cropanzano, R. (1990) Focus of attention and locus of control as moderators of fraternal justice effects. Social Justice Research, 4, 169±185. James, K. and Eisenberg, J. (1998) Context influences on social identity and individual creative performance. Poster presented at the 24th International Congress of Applied Psychology, San Francisco, CA. James, K. and Eisenberg, J. (1999) Individualism/ Collectivism and performance in the workplace: An integrated dispositional and situational view. Manuscript under review. James, K. and Greenberg, J. (1997) Spatial test performance among women: Social context influences on individual ability. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 19, 411±425. James, K. and Levi, D. (1999) Technological innovation and change in organizations. In K. James and D. Levi, Technology and people at work, Chapter 7. Book in preparation. James, K. (1993) The social context of organizational justice: Cultural, intergroup and structural effects on justice perceptions and behaviors. In R. Cropanzano (Ed.), Justice in the workplace: Approaching fairness in human resource management, 21±50. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. James, K. and Greenberg, J. (1989) In-group salience, intergroup comparison, and individual performance and self-esteem. Personality and Social Pyschology Bulletin, 15, 604±616. James, K., Chen, D.-L. and Cropanzano, R. (1996) The effect of value differences on social interaction processes and job outcomes: Implications for managing diversity. In M.N. Ruderman, M.W. Hughes-James & S.E. Jackson (Eds.), Selected research on work team diversity. American Psychological Association and Center for Create Leadership. Karau, S.J. and Williams, K.D. (1995) Social loafing: A meta-analytic review and theoretical integration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 681±706. Kennedy, S., Scheier, J. and Rogers, A. (1984) The price of success: Our monocultural science. American Psychologist, 39, 996-997. Kolb, K.J. and Aiello, J.R. (1996) The effects of electronic performance monitoring on stress: Locus of control as a moderator variable. Computers in Human Behavior, 12, 407±423. Leung, K. (1988) Some determinants of conflict avoidance. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 19, 125±136. Leung, K. and Bond, M.H. (1982) How Chinese and Americans reward task-related contributions: A preliminary study. Psychologia, 25, 32±39. Leung, K. and Bond, M.H. (1984) The impact of cultural collectivism on reward allocation.
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Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 793±804. Leung, K. and Iwawaki, S. (1988) Cultural collectivism and distributive behavior. Journal of CrossCultural Psychology, 19, 35±49. Mahler, I., Greenberg, L. and Hayashi, H. (1981) A comparative study of rules of justice: Japanese versus Americans. Psychologia, 24, 1±8. Mari, S.K. (1976) Toward a cross-cultural theory of creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 10, 108±116. Markus, H.R. and Kitayama, S. (1991) Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224±253. Moghaddam, F.M., Taylor, D.M. and Wright, S.C. (1993) Social psychology in cross-cultural perspective. Chapter 4, 71±92. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. Quinn, D.P. and Rivoli, P. (1991) The effects of American and Japanese-style employment and compensation practices on innovation. Organization Science, 2, 323±341. Saeki, N., Fan, X. and Van Dusen, L. (1998) American college students are more creative than Japanese college students. Presented at the 10th Annual APS Convention, May, Washington, D.C. Schwartz, S.H. and Ross, M. (1995) Values in the West: A theoretical and empirical challenge to the individualism-collectivism cultural dimension. World Psychology, 1, 91±122. Siegal, M. and Shwalb, D. (1985) Economic justice in adolescence: An Australian-Japanese comparison. Journal of Economic Psychology, 6, 313±326. Stake, J.E. (1983) Factors in reward distribution: Allocator motive, gender, and Protestant ethic endorsement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 410±418. Tayeb, M.H. (1996) The management of a multicultural workforce. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Triandis, H.C. (1995) Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Triandis, H.C. (1996) The psychological measurement of cultural syndromes. American Psychologist, 51, 407±415. Utman, C.H. (1997) Performance effects of motivational state: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 1, 170±182. Wehrfritz, G. and Takayama, H. (1999). Japan's mini invasion. Newsweek (International Edition), January 18. Weisz, J.R., Rothbaum, F.M. and Blackburn, T.C. (1984) Standing out and standing in: The psychology of control in America and Japan. American Psychologist, 39, 955±969.
Jacob Eisenberg is a Faculty Member in the Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Colorado, USA.
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Where Do Teachers Get Their Ideas From? Welko Tomic and Andre Brouwers The study investigated where and in what way secondary school teachers in the Netherlands generate ideas linked to their work environment using a self-report measure. Before idea generation teachers prefer to be alone in a quiet environment, almost always away from work. They consult colleagues, professional periodicals and specialized books. Also during the moment of idea generation, teachers are usually alone at home. In bed turns out to be a good place for generating new ideas. The work environment is not an appropriate place for getting ideas. After an idea occurs to them, teachers write it down immediately, talk to experts to evaluate it and to develop it in further detail, searching for facts supporting the idea. Keywords: creativity, idea generation, illumination, secondary school teachers.
Introduction
W
Origins of ideas
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e can hardly mention a human characteristic that is more inextricably bound up with human existence than creativity. Creativity is described as the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence novel and socially valued ideas (Galotti, 1994; Kellogg, 1995; Solso, 1988). Creativity encompasses the process of generating new ideas. Ideas can result in a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form. Generating new ideas and finding new solutions are essential for surviving and vital characteristics for contributing to the development of mankind. Hennessey and Amabile (1988) state that those ideas are supposed to be original, i.e., they suit some purpose. In this context it is important that the idea is new for the person in question, and self invented (Hayes, 1981). For centuries man has attempted to understand the process of generating new ideas. Ancient scholars assumed that new ideas came from the outside. As far back as the ninth or eighth century B.C., Homer noted that new ideas resulting, for instance, in poetry and tale, song and epic, came from the muses (Homer XXII, 347f). According to Goody (1987), idea generation often involves some kind of communication from the outside. In ancient times people thought that
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poets were inspired by the muses and that inspiration lay beyond their control. Phemios says to Odysseus (Od XXII. 347f): ``It was a deity that implanted poems of all kinds in my heart''. And Odysseus addresses Demodocos: ``I praise thee far above all mortals, Verily thou hast been taught either by a muse, a child of Zeus, or even by Apollo'' (Od. VIII. 487f). The belief that new ideas came from the outside was widely held down through the ages. Hadamard (1949) cites an extract from a letter by Mozart, who wrote: ``When I feel well and in a good humour, or when I am taking a drive or walking after a good meal, or in the night when I cannot sleep, thoughts crowd into my mind as easily as you could wish. Whence and how do they come? I do not know and I have nothing to do with it. Those which please me, I keep in my head and hum them; at least others have told me that I do so'' (Hadamard, 1949, p. 16). The examples given above refer to the view that the gods, muses, or inexplicable intuition are responsible for idea generation: ideas came from the outside. In Boden's (1992) view this is a Romantic explanation. In the second half of the nineteenth century there was an increasing scientific interest in idea generation. The literature abounds with introspective reports from renowned scholars. In a famous lecture delivered in 1908, # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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Poincare offers an introspective account of some mathematical inventing of his own. ``One evening, contrary to my custom, I drank black coffee and could not sleep. Ideas rose in crowds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination'' (Hadamard, 1949, p. 14). Researchers have attempted to investigate the process of generating ideas. Wallas (1926), who employed a descriptive approach, proposed four stages in the general process of idea generation: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. According to Solso (1988) empirical evidence for the validity of the four stages is almost non-existent. It has not become any easier to clarify what we mean by getting new ideas. This is partly due to the inherent difficulty of the topic and the lack of scientific attention (Solso, 1988). There is a growing interest in idea generation as an important component of professional effectiveness. For instance, Geschka (1987, 1992, 1993) has done a number of surveys in the field of business and management. Vaags and Douwes-Bolding (1988) replicated Geschka's survey among managers in The Netherlands. The aim of these studies is to explore how professionals get new ideas related to the requirements of their occupation. Up till now no research has been conducted on idea generating among teachers. Teachers are regarded as professionals. Their job is quite demanding and society expects much from them. Student achievement depends to a large extent on their efforts and expertise. An important way to solve educational and classroom problems is by generating new ideas and solutions. Adequate solutions often are based on renewed or new ideas; consequently they are indispensable. It is therefore a worthwhile task to investigate how teachers generate new ideas and solutions. After reviewing several models which include the moment of illumination or the birth of an idea, Geschka (1987) and Vaags and Douwes-Bolding (1988) suggest that the process of generating ideas could be broken down into three episodes or moments: the first, preceding the moment of illumination, i.e., before the moment of idea creation; the second, during the moment of illumination, i.e., the birth of an idea; and third, following the moment of illumination, i.e., after idea creation. The present study investigates where and in what way secondary school teachers generate ideas linked to their work environment. In this study, the concept ``idea'' is used to cover all aspects of teachers' work environments. The main point, however, is that the
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idea is new for the person in question, and self invented. The purpose of the study is to gain an understanding of the way secondary school teachers go about generating ideas. An additional aim of the study is to explore whether there are gender differences related to idea generation.
Method Participants First, twenty schools for secondary education were selected at random. Second, within each school 10 teachers were selected randomly as well. We received back 146 completed questionnaires, a response rate of 73%, which is generally considered to be adequate for a mail survey (Babbie, 1995). The sample consisted of 107 (73%) male and 39 females respondents (27%). The average age of the 146 respondents was 42.98 years. A comparison with all the teachers working in secondary schools in 1997 (CFI, 1998) shows that our sample was representative in terms of sex (w2(1) = 2.17, p = .14).
Instrument The teacher questionnaire was based on a questionnaire designed by Geschka in collaboration with the Soken Institute in Japan (1993) for managers, and on the Vaags and Douwes-Bolding adaptation (1988). Some modifications were made. First, the questions had to be tailored to another professional group: secondary school teachers instead of businessmen. Second, the questionnaire in the present study explicitly specifies what is meant by a new idea. The respondents were asked to choose a number of alternatives per question, ranging from one to three depending on the nature of the question. For the questions ± without alternatives ± see below. (1) Which environment do you prefer for idea generation? (2) Where are you usually when you get an idea? (3) Where do you go for inspiration about ideas other than your home or office? (4) What media do you prefer for inspiration about new ideas? (5) Who do you talk to to help you generate new ideas? (6) When do you generate ideas most frequently? (7) In which situation are you more likely to get an idea? (8) What do you do when you are stuck for ideas?
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(9) What activities do you typically and spontaneously do next after you have had an interesting idea? (10) What steps do you take next in your work after you have had an idea that seems worth following up?
Procedure In a letter we asked the principals of the 20 schools to cooperate in our research and to pass on the questionnaires to 10 teachers in their school for completion. These teachers were selected randomly by the researchers using the teacher lists provided by the schools. Follow-up mailings were conducted to increase the return rate.
Results In this section we report the percentages of teachers who gave a particular answer to the questions (Table 1). The percentages in the Table do not add up to 100 within each category, because in most cases respondents were asked to report more than one alternative per category or question. For comparison reasons we also give the Geschka and MaÈgdefrau (1992) survey results, as far as available. In the Geschka and MaÈgdefrau survey (1992), the response percentages of the three subsamples are reported, i.e., German, Swiss and Austrian businessmen. To make the comparison easier, we calculated the overall mean percentages as shown in the second column of Table 1.
Before the Moment of Idea Generation First, we asked teachers about preferred conditions, environments, media, people and activities before the moment of idea generation. A vast majority of teachers prefer a quiet, relaxing environment without music (64%). When teachers were asked where they go for inspiration about new ideas other than their homes or offices, a considerable number of them said they went to lectures and seminars (30%). They also talk to colleagues (18%) and visit the open countryside (18%). They also go to a library or reading room (16%). When the teachers were asked what media they prefer for inspiration about new ideas, they cited professional periodicals and specialized books (45%). Periodicals (15%) and daily newspapers (15%) are less popular in this regard. A great many teachers talk to colleagues (52%) and spouses or partners (27%) to help them generate new ideas. When teachers are
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stuck for ideas they think things over (26%) and think of other things (16%).
During the Moment of Idea Generation Second, teachers were asked about environments, time and situation during the moment of idea generation. On the one hand, they said that when they get an idea, they are usually at their desk at home (28%). On the other hand, they also found walking or cycling helpful for generating ideas (16%). They also thought of ideas while lying in bed (13%). Inspection of the data shows that female teachers get ideas during household work more frequently than their male counterparts (w2(1) = 4.96, p = .03). The study also looked at the time of idea generation. When teachers were asked to estimate when they generate ideas most frequently, i.e., the most fruitful part of the twenty-four hour period, they said not at any particular time (51%). Some teachers reported getting inspiration during the late evening, whether or not in bed (28%). This finding applies more to male than to female teachers. The latter tend to be early birds, more so than their male counterparts (w2(1) = 3.87, p = .05). One other item in the questionnaire asked in which situation teachers were more likely to get an idea. The majority of teachers preferred to be alone when getting an idea (76%) and favored a quiet environment as well (75%). However, female teachers were more likely to get ideas in a bustling environment than their male counterparts (w2(1) = 4.68, p = .03). Teachers generate more ideas (62%) when working on a problem than when doing other work (38%). It makes hardly any difference to them whether they are working under pressure of time or not (48%, respectively 52%). Nor is there hardly any difference between ideas occurring to them suddenly and ideas becoming gradually more concrete (52%, respectively 48%).
After the Moment of Idea Generation Third, we investigated what activities teachers typically and spontaneously do next after they have had an idea. The main spontaneous activity is writing down the idea immediately (36%). Respondents also mentioned thinking about the idea repeatedly (21%). What steps do teachers take next in their work after they have had an idea that seems worth following up? Teachers try to talk to experts to evaluate the idea (27%), they develop the idea in further detail (26%), they search for facts, literature and other information supporting the idea (16%), and plan all further activities (17%).
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Table 1. Idea Generating Among Secondary School Teachers Teachers' Answers
Percentage of Teachers
Businessmen (Geschka and MaÈgdefrau Survey)
Conditions for idea generation Quiet, relaxing environment without music
64
70
Environments (outside the home and office) Lectures and seminars Colleagues The open countryside Library or reading room
30 18 18 16
67 ± 28 ±
Media as stimuli for ideas Professional periodicals and specialized books Daily newspapers Periodicals
45 15 15
57 37 ±
Important people for discussing ideas Colleagues Spouse or partner
52 27
47 17
What to do when you need an idea Think things over Think of other things
26 16
36 32
Environments where ideas occur At one's desk at home During a walk or bicycle riding In bed
28 16 13
40 42 32
Time of idea generation Not at any particular time In the evening In bed, before falling asleep
51 18 10
51 76 ±
Situation for generating ideas Alone Working on a problem During other work activities Not under pressure (time) Under pressure (time) In a quiet environment The idea arises suddenly The idea gets gradually more concrete
76 62 38 52 48 75 52 48
± ± ± ± ± ± ± ±
1. Teachers' preferred conditions, environments, media, people and activities before the moment of idea generation
2. Teachers' environments, time and situation during the moment of idea generation
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Table 1. (cont.) Teachers' Answers
Percentage of Teachers
Businessmen (Geschka and MaÈgdefrau Survey)
36 21 12
62 46 35
27 26 16
50 50 33
3. Teachers' activities and next steps after the moment of idea generation Activities after getting an idea Writing down the idea immediately Thinking about the idea again and again Talking to someone about the idea Next steps Talking to experts to evaluate the idea Developing the idea further in detail Searching for facts, literature and other information supporting the idea Note: Percentages in the categories do not add up to 100. ±: No percentages available in the Geschka and MaÈgdefrau survey.
Comparison With the Geschka and MaÈgdefrau (1992) Survey
Businessmen and teachers
In almost all cases, the percentages of businessmen who gave a particular answer to the questions exceed the teachers' percentages. The results given by teachers and businessmen clearly differ with respect to answering the questions on `important people for discussing ideas' and `time of idea generation.' There is a tendency for the teachers to name their spouses more often as partners for discussing ideas. Teachers also talk to colleagues at school more frequently. In answering the question `When do you generate ideas most frequently,' 49% of the businessmen responded 'when getting up' and 'early in the morning,' whereas the percentage of teachers responding to this question is negligible.
Discussion The study investigated where and in what way secondary school teachers generate ideas linked to their work environment. The concept ``idea'' was used to cover all aspects of teachers' work environment. Ideas are supposed to be new for the person in question, and self invented (Hayes, 1981).
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The study shows that the questionnaire originally used by Geschka (1987) could be applied successfully to gather information on the way in which secondary school teachers generate ideas. The study also illustrates the significance of breaking down the process of generating ideas into three episodes or moments, i.e., before the moment of illumination or idea creation, during the moment of illumination, and after the moment of idea creation. We have every reason to assume that the notion of three episodes can be used fruitfully in future research in this field. Some highlights of the study are: before idea generation teachers prefer to be alone in a quiet environment. They consult colleagues, professional periodicals and specialized books. In general, during idea generation teachers are alone at home in a quiet environment. In bed turns out to be a good place for generating new ideas. The work environment was not, however, mentioned as an appropriate place for generating ideas. After illumination, teachers write down their ideas immediately. Compared to their male counterparts, female teachers are more likely to get ideas in a bustling environment. Women have less opportunity to stay in a quiet environment due to demanding duties at home. Results show that female teachers get ideas during
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household work more frequently than their male counterparts. This may reflect traditional sex roles. A recent survey demonstrates that even when both partners have full-time jobs, women still spend more time on household work (Niphuis-Nell, 1997). Evidently, it is easy to think about solving problems in one's work environment while carrying out routine tasks. Besides the above-mentioned results, the present study has produced three findings that need to be investigated further in future research. First, the time of idea generation: most teachers do not generate ideas at any particular time. Second, the situation in which idea generation takes place, i.e. under pressure or not under pressure of time. Teachers have a slight preference for generating ideas when not under pressure of time. Third, the way ideas arise: suddenly or gradually. The difference is a mere 4% in favor of ideas arising suddenly. It is interesting to compare our results with those of Geschka and MaÈgdefrau (1992). Although they investigated a different population ± German, Swiss and Austrian businessmen ± they used the same questionnaire to a large extent. Because the average response rate in the Geschka and MaÈgdefrau survey (1992) was only 21%, this comparison should be made with the necessary critical reserve. Businessmen attend lectures and seminars much more frequently than teachers do. Unlike businessmen, teachers do not usually have the opportunity to attend lectures and seminars during working hours. Besides, such activities do not suit the schools' budget as a rule. Unlike businessmen, teachers do not get ideas early in the morning. This may be because teachers immediately start off their working day interacting with pupils. From the very beginning of the schoolday their attention is claimed by others. When teachers and businessmen were asked when they get their ideas, both groups responded, `not at any particular time': 51%, similar for both groups. As regards the time of idea generation, the results do not provide a satisfactory explanation. As to their activities after getting an idea, the results show that the percentages of businessmen who give a particular answer to the questions in this category exceed the teachers' percentages. These findings can perhaps be ascribed to the fact that ideas are very important in businessmen's work: there is much competition and good ideas increase their chances of survival. This may explain why they are more likely to talk to experts,
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develop the idea in more detail, refer to literature, and write down the idea immediately. Although the percentages of the responses between teachers and businessmen are not similar, the results indicate a broad perception of idea generation processes. Further research on teacher idea-generating processes should consider, for instance, ``outstanding'', ``standard'' and ``below-standard'' schools. Any future study should also correct certain methodological weaknesses of the present study and the Geschka and MaÈgdefrau (1992) survey, that is, a larger sample and Likert response categories should be used with a matrix question format. Responses in Likert format can be subjected to factor analysis, which makes it possible to find groups of items that go together. Instead of discrete, continuous variables should be used. Future studies should consider subgroup descriptions, i.e. describing subsets of respondents.
Acknowledgements This study was supported in part by the Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University. The authors are indebted to Mr. Wim Geene who gathered the data. We thank the teachers for their participation in the project.
References Agentschap van het Ministerie van Onderwijs Cultuur en Wetenschappen (1998) [Branch office of the Ministry of Education Culture and Sciences]. Totaal aantal leerkrachten voor het voortgezet onderwijs naar leeftijd en naar geslacht. [Total number of secondary school teachers by age and sex]. Zoetermeer: CFI. Babbie, E.R. (1995) Survey research methods. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Boden (1992) The creative mind: Myths and mechanisms. New York: Basic Books. Galotti, K.M. (1994) Cognitive psychology in and out of the laboratory. Pacific Grove, Ca.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Geschka, H. (1987) A survey among managers in the Federal Republic of Germany, in Switzerland and Austria on the generation of ideas. Paper for the First European Congress on Creativity and Innovation. Noordwijk: Holland. Geschka, H. and MaÈgdefrau, H. (1992) How businessmen generate ideas: Results of a European survey and comparison with a Japanese poll. Creativity and Innovation Management, 1, 1, 14±19. Geschka, H. (1993) The Development and Assessment of Creative Thinking techniques: A German Perspective. In: Isaksen, S.G. et al. (Eds.), Nurturing and developing creativity: The Emergence of a discipline. Norwood: Ablex.
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Goody, J. (1987) The domestication of the savage mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hadamard, J. (1949) An essay on the psychology of invention in the mathematical field. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. Hayes, J.R. (1981) The complete problem solver. Philadelphia: Franklin Institute Press. Hennessey, B.A. and Amabile, T.M. (1988) The conditions of creativity. In R.J. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity, pp. 11±35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kellogg, R.T. (1995) Cognitive psychology. London: Sage. Niphuis-Nell, M. (1997) Sociale atlas van de vrouw, deel 4. Veranderingen in de primaire leefsfeer. [Woman's social atlas, part 4. Changes in primary life atmosphere. Rijswijk: Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau.
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Solso, R.L. (1988) Cognitive psychology. Second Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Vaags, W. and Douwes-Bolding, M. (1988) Een (inter)nationaal onderzoek naar het ontstaan van ideeeÈn. [An (inter)national survey of idea generation]. Eindhoven: Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. Wallas (1926) The art of thought. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Welko Tomic and Andre Brouwers are Faculty Members at the Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Heerlen, The Netherlands.
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The Development of Technological Creativity through Project Work Jon-Chao Hong and Shu-Wu Sheu Working in research and development groups and development groups and using actual materials, the learners acquire the abilities of systematic thinking and problem solving in completing the multifunction robot project. Moreover, the learners keep a record of data and messages collected in various stages of robot design and production. They also have to use thinking skills to locate problems and keep looking for better ways to modify and improve on their ideas until the robot function as it is originally intended to. A creativity-developing, and learning experiment is described involving the design of a multi-function robot. We conclude that the development of creative capabilities is enhanced when the design processes are accompanied by reflection and reporting procedures.
T
he unleashing of human creativity has resulted in the industrial revolution in the modern era, with its explosive growth of knowledge, the leaps and bounds in technological progress, and the increase of welfare for the human race in general. It is widely acknowledged by industrial leaders that the future of industrial development lies in the innovation of products and manufacturing processes. Failure is unavoidable without continuous innovative efforts (Markides, 1997). As pointed out by the Japanese Ministry of Education, the Japanese education will have to achieve a few goals if Japan is to become the world number one economy. The goals are described in order as follows: (1) students must possess the ability to think creatively; (2) students must have integrative abilities; (3) students must have the ability to make independent judgment. This reflects the global trend in education in recent years, influenced by an ever more pluralistic society and the ever increasing speed of technological progress, to cultivate in students their creative thinking abilities. However, the regular subjects taught in school, with their emphasis on acquiring knowledge and skills, have little to do with cultivating research and development abilities and innovation. Only project work serves the purpose of developing creativity (Misako Nakama, 1993). In fact, the creativity development involved in project work makes it an integrated discipline combining engineering technical education and cognitive psychology. # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
As a result, it is better suited for the development of creativity. Furthermore, project work is highly regarded as an important part of the curriculum in university and college engineering departments. Before graduation, students make use of their professional knowledge and skills ± in other words, theories in their specialized field and practical skills in the profession ± in an integrated manner, and team up in small groups, researching and developing in cooperation an innovated piece of work. Not only does project work give students a hands-on experience of the theoretical and practical sides of their learning, it also serves as a simulation of the product development process used in real-world industries. This is a very meaningful instructional activity. In order to gain a deeper insight of the effective creative thinking processes and attitudes conductive to achieving concrete goals for creative thinking, this study utilizes the example of building a multifunction robot. From the thinking process that students go through in the designing and manufacturing stages, we found out about the effective skills for creative thinking and the evolution of attitudes toward thinking.
The Nature and Development of Technological Creativity As pointed out by Jonassen (1997), no creative activity is possible without domain knowledge
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as its foundation. Technological creation in particular requires a huge amount of domain knowledge in the creator in order to be successful. Along with creative mental activities, Ram and Leake (1995) also emphasize the importance of domain knowledge, a synthesis of professional knowledge, fundamental knowledge and applied knowledge. These types of knowledge enable one to analyze problems, and eventually find solutions for the problem at hand by means of systematic thinking. Such thinking ensures the validity and comprehensiveness of the final product in the project. Problem solving is like a cycle consisting of several steps. When a new circumstance arises, one is required to react by drawing from existing knowledge base, and try evaluating of the correspondence, or lack thereof between the new circumstance and existing knowledge. This is the problem identification stage. After the underlying cause of the mismatch between new circumstance and existing knowledge is identified, a few procedures follow: first, to explore and analyze the situation, and then to form hypothesis; to search ways to make validation of the hypothesis in order to obtain a satisfying answer; then to make new combinations from existing knowledge base according to the answer found. The procedures above constitute a problem-solving system. Moreover, there must be bridging between individual procedures in the systematic thinking process to string them together (Thomas et al., 1992). For example, the problem identification stage and the ``idea generation process'' in the hypothesis forming stage must be bridged with certain thinking methods, such as hand-brain interaction approach to problem-solving. There are a few tools (or methods) corresponding to the bridging of the ``idea generation process'': the contracting thinking method of reasonable group decision system based on the card file method or the fishbone graph method, and the expanding thinking method of collective free association with consensus on the problem based on hi-tech supportive information (Susumu Kunimoto, 1996). To sum up, the development of technological creativity must be founded on the establishment and application of domain knowledge. When a mismatch of the insideout or outside-in processes occurs in the existing knowledge base, the ability to identify the problem is required. The source of the problem will then be analyzed with thinking skills or tools, or a hypothesis is formed. Then the appropriateness of the new concept or method will be further verified and evaluated.
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The Progress of Technological Creativity in Project Production It is obvious from the discussion above that an innovative final product of a project requires certain qualities in the participants: general fundamental abilities, professional knowledge, the ability to think out of the box, the ability to put plans into practice with precision and validity, the drive and persistence to create, and teamwork spirit (Hong, 1997). Usually the creative work is guided by the principle of goal-driven learning. Under the principle, a targeted achievement will be the goal for participants to pursue. Resources in the learning environment will have to be fully utilized, and procedures of research will be drawn up. The project will be completed while participants attempt to solve problems that pop up along the way. Finally, the merits of the team's creative ideas will be evaluated (Ram & Leake, 1995). However, there are some problems inherent in project work conducted in academic environments. In the order of frequency, they are: improper subject matter; insufficient knowledge or skills related to the project; lack of experience leading to lack of fresh ideas; sketchy ideas that are hard to materialize; too much conformity or too little breadth; not knowing enough to demand accuracy and quality in the product, etc. (Bank, 1994) See Table 1. Since it is usual for school education to lose its grip on real-life experience, it is vital to emphasize effectiveness in real-world situations of creative thinking, besides freshness and originality. Therefore, structural methods should be adopted in the process of fermenting ideas in order to achieve the goal of effectiveness. Whether it is to take the technological creative product from the design stage to the production stage, or to take it from the conceptualization to the materialization process, it is a prerequisite to form a supportive environment for the creative activity. In this environment, the innovators can freely and unrestrictedly think as creatively as they can, to search for ideas, to develop content, and to help each other in their group. In other words, the systematic structure of creativity development is formed with the process of project work, along which creativity advances, combined with the concepts stated above. There are five major sub-systems in this framework: research and development activities, domain knowledge, methods of idea generation, mental activities and group cooperation. We will only analyze a few of these in the following.
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Table 1. Types of Difficulties in Implementing Project Production Problem in students' attitudes
Problems in the chosen subject
Students' knowledge and skills
*students running out of patience or feeling frustrated with production falling behind schedule
*improper choice of subject matter (due to students' lack of experience and related knowledge or skills)
*students having problems expressing their design or working concepts graphically
*students too dependent on teammates
*materials or environment required for project production impossible to obtain
*students having no idea about accuracy and quality in their product
*students blaming an insufficient supply of material or poor facility for their failure to deliver
*students unable to justly assess the value of their design and production
*students proposing unrealistic ideas that are difficult to put into production
*students unwilling to make improvement on finished product, even when it is substandard, thinking they just want to get it over with
*students can't come up with enough fresh ideas
*students having no idea about maintaining hygiene and safety in production process
*students regarding product evaluation as a form of competition against others instead of a chance to improve their works
*students' ideas are too conformist or too limited in scope
Source: Adapted from: Bank (1994).
A. The Analysis of Project Production Process In private industries, the development of project production usually consists of ten procedures: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
deciding the subject matter, collecting information, generating ideas for new products, designing products, completing the project, field testing, market evaluation, analysis of production, documentation, evaluating the outcome.
In an academic environment, however, project work is not commercial-oriented. Therefore, it has a different process consisting of (1) deciding the subject matter, (2) searching for ideas and designing the product,
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(3) technical analysis, (4) producing the test model and making improvement, (5) writing reports (Tanaka, 1990).
B. The Analysis of the Domain Knowledge Required for Project Production Jonassen, Beissner and Yacci (1993) stressed that the participants' general fundamental abilities and domain knowledge is indispensable for problem solving. Jonassen goes a step further by pointing out that any creative effort must be founded on domain knowledge, and that creative activities of a technological nature in particular requires even more background domain knowledge in the creator. In other words, the whole process of project production would not be possible without domain knowledge. Cohen (1991) holds that domain knowledge comes in two types: core domain knowledge and related domain knowledge. And knowledge itself, including both
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core and related domain knowledge, may be divided into the categories of (1) declarative knowledge and (2) procedural knowledge. Moreover, there is implicit and explicit knowledge in procedural knowledge (Sutcliffe, Benyon & Assche, 1996). These relationships are shown in Figure 1:
C. The Analysis of the Idea Generation Approaches Required in Project Production In the course of project production, there will inevitably be problems needing to be solved. And as long as there are problems, ideas are in demand. Ideas may come from (1) (2) (3) (4)
dialogue with others, model studying, surveying literature for references, thinking aloud (Hong, 1998).
Literature surveying includes obtaining related information from journals, magazines, books, television programs and the Internet. Model studying refers to a process that starts from modeling the works by other people or in other fields; through the application of ideas, autonomous creation can eventually be achieved. This idea generation approach can take as little as going to trade shows or observing models. Generating ideas by holding discussions with others is an indispensable part of project production. Dialogue with others includes (1) dialogue with individuals and (2) dialogue with a group. Dialogue with individuals may be interviews with people
successful in different fields, such as artists, inventors, or enterprise leaders. The purpose is to find inspiration in success stories from other domains of knowledge in order to find effective approaches to generate ideas. Or other people's approaches can be applied to one's own knowledge domain to solve problems. On the other hand, dialogue with groups, like brainstorming or the K-J method, can help extend one's scope of thinking. But the composition and working of the group also have influence on the effectiveness of idea generation. The working of a group can be interaction-oriented, function-oriented, or structure-oriented (Hirokawa & Poole, 1996). Different group dynamics have different impact on the generation of ideas. See Figure 2.
D. The Mental Modeling Required in Project Work For the largest part, the process of idea generation is thinking on one's own. The information processing in one's thinking influences the quality and quantity of idea generation. When it comes to improving on one's information processing, two factors ± the external and the internal ± should be considered. The external factor is the application of thinking tools, such as graphs, charts or concept mapping; the internal factor includes the attitudes of thinking and the skills of thinking processing. Thinking attitudes include curiosity, willingness to ask questions, inclination to make assumptions,
Declarative knowledge Core knowledge Domain knowledge Related knowledge
Procedural knowledge
Declarative knowledge Procedural knowledge
Implicit knowledge Explicit knowledge
Implicit knowledge Explicit knowledge
Figure 1. The Categorization of Domain Knowledge
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Literature survey Individuals
Idea generation approach
Model studying composition Dialogue with others Thinking aloud
groups dynamics
Figure 2. Methods of Idea Generation (Hong, 1998) penchant to integrate, motivation to make application and desire to make improvement. Thinking skills are the result of systemizing expansive/contracting thinking; they are principles of thinking processing, e.g. threedimensional thinking (thinking in multiple dimensions), dual-eye thinking (thinking in regular and reversed directions). These relationships are shown in Figure 3 below. Technological requires knowledge, ability of implementation and capacity of thinking in the participants (Hong, 1997). From the analysis of the four aspects of project work described above, a conclusion can also be drawn that implementation lies in the core of project work, and problems in production can be solved with knowledge application and idea generation, thus bringing the creative idea of the product to completion. There are a few questions about project production that must be addressed: (1) (2)
What is the domain knowledge required for different projects? How to generate ideas for solving problems in the project work process?
(3) (4)
How to achieve effective mental modeling in the self-reflecting stage of idea generation? How to effectively generate ideas in a group?
The relationship is demonstrated in Figure 4 and an elaborated discussion of related factors is shown in Table 2.
The Developing of a Project in Robot Production Technological development in the future faces an era of ``technology fusion,'' and the production of robots is a creative expression most typical of the integration of engineering and electronics. This study takes a project of robot production to exemplify the development of creativity in project production go on to illustrate the five major elements in creating a project. There are five major procedures in project production: deciding the subject matter, product conception and design, technical analysis, test type production and report
External information process
Mental modeling
Thinking tool
Thinking attitude Internal information process Thinking processing
Figure 3. Mental Modeling # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999
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Figure 4. The Relational Analysis of Five Major Elements Table 2. The Analysis of Elements in Project Production project production
domain knowledge
approach to idea generation
mode of thinking
group thinking
*deciding the subject matter
*Core domain knowledge
*literature survey
*external information processing . thinking tool
*group dynamics
*product conception and design
. Declarative
*model studying
*internal information processing . thinking skill
*group composition
*technical analysis
. Procedural
*dialogue with others . personal interview . dialogue in groups
*test model production and improvement
*Relative domain knowledge
*self reflection
knowledge
knowledge
*writing report
writing. For the decision of subject matter, most novices rely on their teachers for direction; only students with sufficient experience are trusted with the decision of subject matter. Idea hunting can be done in one of two ways: (1) through experience getting hands-on experience in manipulating a fully functional robot, in order to analyze its merits and problems; (2) the investigative
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method: studying literature related to robot building, and analyzing the strength and weakness of the robot types related to the chosen subject matter. This method is highly relevant to the methods of idea generation and will be further elaborated in the product conception section. The main purpose of product conception is the positioning of functions and capacity
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planned to be built into the product (Nakamura, 1994). As discussed above, contemplating the functions and characteristics of a product involves approaches such as (1) literature survey, (2) model studying, (3) dialogue with others, (4) meditation in isolation. (In fact, meditation is a procedure that will naturally and necessarily occur in the first three approaches.) The literature survey approach in robot project production may include watching videotaped programs and reading periodical publication and magazines to hunt for ideas. Model studying may involve playing around with robots made by others to understand their functionality, or even assembling/deconstructing one. Dialogue with other individuals may include interviews with artists or inventors, preferably experts who took part in robot production, in order to learn from their experience and mistakes. There are many expansive/contracting thinking techniques in group discussion that can serve as bridging: brainstorming, itemization (listing wished improvement or observed drawbacks item by item), the card method (K-J method), the I/O method, the significant factor analysis method, and so on. These methods contain the mechanisms of forced association and free association, thus making the ideas emerging from the dialogues more specific (Susumu Kunimoto, 1996). The relationship is illustrated in Figure 5.
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Technical analysis in robot design must take into consideration the primary functions of the robot, a process also called movement analysis. The major technical contents include the application or innovation in the following aspects: (1) physical characteristics (shape, size, decoration, color), (2) mechanism (O/I method, functions of components, structure), (3) materials (processing technology, physical and chemical change). Technical analysis also includes the methods and procedures in assembling/deconstructing the machinery. The capability of technical analysis has a high correlation to professional core knowledge and a relative knowledge (Bank, 1994). Of course, the quality of technical analysis is also related to the paths of implementation (assembly/deconstruction). Regarding core professional knowledge, the producer of robots must have: (1) mechanical knowledge: pneumonic and hydraulic control, mechanical plotting, machine design, material characteristics, etc.; (2) electronic know-how: electronics, practice in automation control, microcomputer control, etc.; (3) system technology: transmission system, positioning system, joint clutching and release system, etc. In terms of practical experience, lab sessions in automaton practice, automation control practice and information technology practice are preferred in robot production projects (Ishimoto, 1993). The process of test type production and improvement is usually ridden with problems brainstorming Free deduction itemization
Expansive Forced deduction
categorization
Thinking techniques I/O method Contracting thinking
Free induction Forced induction
The card method Significant factor analysis
Figure 5. Commonly Used Thinking Techniques # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999
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requiring new ideas for solution. In production conception, ideas can be obtained with the four approaches stated above. But the difference is that more reflection and meditation is involved. In other words, since a creative project is in question, very likely there will be something original, functions or characteristics that are absent in other people's works. In this case, the producer has to come up with this something new. On the other hand, consulting the first three of the four approaches is heavy duty mental activity, and the efficiency of mental manipulation needs to be enhanced. As mentioned in the previous section, one can think more effectively with the application of thinking tools and thinking techniques. Bank (1994) points out that an effective method for humans to contemplate solutions for problems is through graphs and charts as aides to categorization, exploration or evaluation. Nakamura (1994) also argues that product conception should be executed graphically. In the project production of a robot, different thinking techniques should be employed to make the generation of ideas easier. Guo (1983) mentioned a SCAMPER thinking technique, in which S is for ``substitute,'' C is for ``combine,'' A is for ``adapt,'' M is for ``modify,'' P is for ``put to other uses,'' E is for ``eliminate,'' and R is for ``rearrange.'' Tetsuo Iguchi (1997) proposes the idea of compoundeye thinking, suggesting that the act of thinking should also include thinking in the opposite direction, also called reverse thinking. Yoshiaki Noguchi (1995) saw the issue from the angle of industrial production, laying out the two dimensions of conceptualization and materialization in creativity. In each of the two dimensions there are three levels: original, applied, mimicry, as from top down. A few of the categories: Conceptual originality ± creating new functions or new materials using laws of nature. Conceptual application ± new combination or beautification of the shape , look or color of an object. Materialized originality ± creating new functions or new production technology from existing functionality. Materialized application ± the new application or renovation of existing functionality, or the creation of product quality. Hong (1997) proposes three-dimensional thinking technique as the basic thinking skill for technological creative activities. Used in combination with SCAMPER, this will make idea generation easier. Three-dimensional
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thinking method is the contemplation of changes to be made on the object being produced. For example: (1) changing the shape, size, or decorative patterns of the object; (2) changing the operation procedures or methods (e.g. dynamic operation, remote operation) of the object; (3) changing the processing method (e.g. enhancing precision or reliability) or the physical and chemical characteristics (e.g. visibility, surface) of the object. These concepts can be a combination of ideas from other sources and original idea of the maker. Therefore, the capability of thinking in technological creativity can be shown in the three-dimensional structure in Figure 6.
Figure 6. The Structure of Thinking in Creation with Materials Project production in an academic environment mostly occurs in the form of teamwork. When people in a group interact, their mental mode produces symmetric or asymmetric cooperation depending on the harmony or discord between the event and the onset of thought. In the course of symmetric or asymmetric cooperation, the mind changes and creates ideas (Granott & Gardner, 1994). For a given project, a group is influenced by two deciding behavioral factors: one is the number of its members; the other is the characteristics of its members. Depending on the characteristics of the members, there are three types of group composition (Hirokawa & Poole, 1996): (1)
Function oriented: the group is mainly composed of experts, and the solutions proposed are marked by the emphasis on domain knowledge.
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(2)
(3)
Structure oriented: the bureaucratic hierarchy is more important. The solution needs some domain knowledge, but not much. Interaction oriented: the group finds balance between professionalism and bureaucracy. The solution calls for an intermediate degree of domain knowledge.
Study Design Brown & Shavelson (1996) suggest that the two key elements in cultivating skills are: (1) Performance Task: a) giving students opportunities to solve problems or make investigations; b) asking students to express their ideas using concrete materials; c) asking students to provide practical principles, contents and procedures of problem solving. (2) Formatted student response: a) giving students opportunities to record the progress and result of their project; b) asking students to give more specific or special messages; c) asking students to make a brief report of their achievement; d) asking students to modify their own answers. In the project work, students are given the opportunity to produce an actual multifunction robot with actual materials; meanwhile they also acquire problem-solving abilities by means of completing the project. In the process of making the robot, students have
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to make record of all information and data gathered in various stages, and make continuous modification and improvement along the way. Finally, they have to write a brief report of their results, thus obtaining technical abilities that will be requirement in their professional life. These are all viable reference material for the study. Based on the convictions stated above, this study starts building the hardware and software structure from the first stage. In the second stage, the production of modulized robot begins. Since the project's level of difficulty must be adjusted according to the students' time available and the domain knowledge they possess, the freedom of movement in the robot must be kept to a lower level. The point is to let students demonstrate their creativity. The freedom of movement is temporarily limited to six movable joints, and the method of control and transmission should not be too complicated, either. Preferably, videotapes of the structure and manipulation of different robots would be shown to students being tested. If possible, students should have hands-on experience in operating a simulated robot to familiarize themselves with the transmission, positioning and control. These will help build up domain knowledge in students. In the course of training, researchers in each group will also observe the frequency with which students use mental activities to make comparison and analysis. See Figure 7.
Figure 7. Study Groups and their Characteristics # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999
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Figure 8.
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Because different elements in production lead to different functions in the product, there is plenty of room for creativity in the process of design and production. However, since the delicacy of robot functions is still desired, the process of research, production and analysis is divided into three phases. The procedures are shown in Figure 8. The first phase is the concept application phase; the task in this stage is to find as many creative ideas as possible using idea generation techniques; the goal is to use these ideas to change production methods, improve the functions or aesthetic value of the product. The second phase is the implementation and application stage; here idea generation techniques are combined and applied to the assembly of a multifunction robot from single-function modules. The goal is to find new application for product functions or the creation and renovation or product quality. In phase three, the results from the first and second phases are analyzed, user manuals are written, and a complete series of idea generation activities are designed for project production. The goal is to teach, inspire and assist students to find more ideas through the idea generation activities. They will eventually lean how to stimulate their own creativity by using some of the idea generation activities, and apply this knowledge to their life-long learning.
Concluding Observations We have observed gains in creative productivity with the promotion of such educational programs. Problem-solving abilities have also been developed in an educational environment. More specified knowledge and the techniques of using thinking tools can be reinforced through practice (Costa, 1985). Thus productivity training looks more and more important and attractive, and creative products are more and more valuable (Ianer, 1987). But it is important to know how the course design, planning, implementation, evaluation and record keeping can help students learn about stimulating, discovering, controlling, developing and implementing creativity. These are the deciding factors for the success of project production. In the example of producing a multifunction robot, we have learned that the project production courses in schools, the establishment of preparatory knowledge, guidance for techniques of creative thinking and idea generation, the familiarity with the working of group cooperative product development, and training the abilities to take record, write
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reports and publish works all play important roles in cultivating technical workers in creative thinking.
References Bank, F. (1994) Teaching technology. London: Open University. Brown, J.H. and Shavelson, R.J. (1996) Assessing hands on science. Thousand Oaks: Cacorwin. Cohen, G. (1991) Memory in the real world. London: Lea. Costa, A.L. (1985) Invention, science, and business: The professional career of Elihu Thomson 1870±1900. (AAC850 5045 Proquest Dissertation Abstracts.) Granott, N. and Gardner, H. (1994) When Minds Meet: Interactions, Coincidence, and Development in Domain of Ability-Mind in Content (Interaction Perspectives on Human Intelligence). New York: Cambridge. Hirokawa, R.Y. and Poole, M.S. (1996) Communication and group decision marking, (2nd edn). London: Sage. Hong, J.C. (1995) Technology transfer and human resource development. MCB. Hong, J.C. (1997) An Explorative Analysis of Technological Creativity, Proceedings of the International Conference on Creativity Development in Technical Education and Training. December 2±3, Taiwan, R.O.C. Hong, J.C. (1998) Creativity Class for Housewives. Taipei: Shi-Ta Bookstore, pp. 84±87. Ianer, A.J. (1987) Problem Solving in Technology Education. Industrial Education, p. 35. Iguchi, T. (1993) On Creative Science. Tokyo: Hyakumomo Bookstore. Iguchi, T. (1997) Demonstrative research on creativity of organization. Proceedings of the International conference on creativity development in technical education and training. December 2±3, Taiwan, R.O.C. Ishimoto, Y. (1993) Curriculum Design for Entrylevel Industrial Professional Education. Industry Education, (520), p. 11. Jonassen, D.H., Beissner, K. and Yacci, M. (1993) Structural knowledge. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Jonassen, D.H. (1997) Instructional design models for well-structed and ill-structed problem solving learning outcomes. Educational Technology Research & Development, 45 (1), pp. 45±94. Kunifuji, S. (1996) To Build up the knowledge creation environment through the development of supporting tools. 18th Research Proceedings. Tokyo: Japan Creativity Association. Markides, C. (1997, Spring) Strategic innovation. Sioan Management Review, pp. 9±23. Nakama, N. (1993) Life-Long Learning Society and the Significance of Making Home Economy a Mandatory Course for Both Sexes. Industry Education, issue (513), 5. Nakanmura, M. (1994) New Techniques of Developing and Designing Easy-to-use Products. Tokyo: Nippon Business Report Inc. Noguchi, Y. (1995) Creative corporation. Tokyo: disement.
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Ram, A. and Leake, D.B. (1995) Goal-Driven Learning. London: A Bradford Bood, p. 4. Sutcliffe, A.G., Benyon, D. and Assche, F.V. (1996) Domain knowledge for interactive system design. London: SAGE. Thomas, R., Anderson, L., Getahun, L. and Cooke, B. (1992) Teaching for transfer of learning. Berkeley: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California.
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Jon-Chao Hong and Shu-Wu Sheu are Faculty Members in the Department of Industrial Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan.
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The Need for Research into Creativity in Marketing Tony Proctor A convenience sample of 36 online journals was taken as the source of information for this study. Management and marketing journals at a major publishing house were analysed in order to find out what they had to say about creativity. A search over the period 1989±99 found 29 articles which included creativity as one of the keywords. The area of marketing revealed a range of applications for creativity thinking. It is suggested that marketing executives need to be creative in order to enable their organisations to match the activities of their competitors and meet the needs of a rapidly changing environment.
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he Porter/Novelli public relations agency, with offices in New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles reported that being bright was no longer enough to succeed in business, according to a survey of 100 top business executives (New York Post, August 13th, 1993). When asked which was more important ± intelligence or creativity ± for a person to succeed in business, 59 per cent voted for creativity versus 28 per cent who said intelligence. The survey was conducted among executives of Fortune 500 companies and Inc. Magazine's 50 fastest growing small companies, the survey was designed to reflect business perceptions about creativity today. The telephone survey found that creativity is essential to ensure success in business. It also uncovered a number of surprises about the status of creativity in American business today. Given the importance of creativity, this article sets out to see what writers in a sample of business journals ± academic and professional ± have to say about creativity. A convenience sample of 36 online journals was taken as the source of information for this study. All the management and marketing journals at the MCB Press were analysed in order to find out what they had to say about creativity. A search of the management and marketing journals over the period 1989±99 found 29 articles which included creativity as one of the keywords. The journals examined are listed in the appendix. Interest in particular is in the area of marketing where experience seems to indicate that there is # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
a multitude of applications for creativity thinking. After all, marketing executives need to be coming up with ideas all the time in order to enable their organisations to match the activities of their competitors and meet the needs of a rapidly changing environment.
The Research Design It was decided to conduct a sample survey of academic and professional journals which are available online. The ability to readily access such journals and undertake keyword searches was an important factor in influencing the choice of methodology. Such a sample is clearly one of convenience but the journals selected did seem to reflect the tone of published papers in the management and specifically the marketing literature.
Creativity ± an essential for success
Analysis An examination of the keywords for each of the journal articles which featured creativity as a key word found the following frequency (where no number appears in parentheses then the number count is ``1''):
Sorted Keywords Accounting, Advertising effectiveness, Analytical hierarchy process, Auditors, Bureaucracy, Chaos (2), Competitiveness, Computers,
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Computer software, Control (2), Corporate culture (2), Corporate strategy, Creativity (29), Customer requirements, Decision making (5), Delegation, Design, Effectiveness, Entrepreneurialism, Entrepreneurs (2), Financial innovations, Flexibility, Green issues, Groups, Hospitality industry, Idea generation, Image processing, Industrial market, Information, Innovation (10) Interpersonal communications, Japan, Lateral thinking, Management, Management attitudes, Management control, Management development, Management information systems, Management styles, Management techniques, Managers (2), Marketing, Marketing planning, Methods, Model, New product development (2), Organisation, Organisational Barriers, Organisational change (2), Organisational structure, Performance measurement, Priority rules, Problem solving (5), Process innovation, Product innovation, Product management, Psychology, Public sector, Risk, Shareholder value analysis, Shareholders, Skills, Strategic management, Strategic planning, Symbols, Technological innovation, Thinking styles,
Time, Time management, Uncertainty, USA (3), Value, Value analysis, Vision Thus we see that Creativity appears 29 times, Innovation appears 10 times, Decision Making 5 times, and so on. Creativity thus appears to be most frequently discussed alongside innovation and then alongside decision making. The keywords appearing more than once alongside creativity are shown in Figure 1 below. Creativity in conjunction with innovation figured highly (10 articles) while creativity and problem solving came next (5 articles). A complete list of the keywords in which creativity appeared is shown in table 1 below.
Analysis of the articles The abstracts for the various articles are summarised in the appendix. There were only two articles on marketing in which creativity really featured chiefly as a focus for the paper (Creative ideas take time:
Figure 1. Keywords Appearing More Than Once Alongside Creativity
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Table 1. Keywords: Showing Creativity in Context Creativity, Organisational structure, Process innovation, Product innovation Corporate culture, Creativity, Groups, Innovation, Problem solving Computers, Creativity, Decision making, Problem solving Creativity, Effectiveness, Priority rules Creativity, Innovation, Skills, Thinking styles Creativity, New product development, Industrial market Creativity, Design, Green issues Creativity, Managers, Shareholder value analysis, Shareholders, Value analysis Chaos, Creativity, Hospitality industry, Innovation, Strategic planning Accounting, Creativity Creativity, Marketing planning, Product management, Time Creativity, Japan, Methods, USA Creativity, Innovation, Management attitudes, Technological innovation Creativity, Financial innovations, Flexibility, Innovation, Uncertainty Creativity, Entrepreneurs, Management styles, USA Control, Corporate culture, Creativity, Decision making, Managers, Organisational change, Problem solving, Public sector Creativity, Decision making, Image processing, Information, Interpersonal communications, Problem solving, Strategic management, Symbols, Vision Advertising effectiveness, Analytical hierarchy process, Computer software, Creativity, Decision making, Model Creativity, Innovation, Lateral thinking, Psychology Competitiveness, Corporate strategy, Creativity, Customer requirements, Innovation, USA Control, Creativity, Management control, Performance measurement, Chaos Creativity, Organisation, Time management New product development, Idea generation, Marketing, Creativity, Innovation Management, Decision making, Management information systems, Management techniques, Creativity Bureaucracy, Creativity, Innovation Organisational Barriers, Creativity, Risk, Value Auditors, Creativity, Problem solving, Management development, Organisational change Creativity, Delegation, Entrepreneurialism, Innovation, Entrepreneurs
business practices that help product managers cope with time pressure, Jonlee Andrews Journal of Product and Brand Management; 5: 1 1996; pp. 6±18; Developing Combinations of Message Appeals for Campaign Management Mark Davies; European Journal of Marketing; 27: 1 1993). From the appendix it will also be seen that there were other articles aimed at a marketing audience which discussed creativity but did not really address key marketing issues. Indeed there was generally a lack of any material examining the creative dimensions of marketing. The two articles noted above illustrate the richness of the application of creativity to marketing problems and beg for the publication of more relevant information on the topic. With this in mind we will now turn to what kind of research can be undertaken with respect to marketing and creativity and thence what might form the basis of useful journal articles on the topic.
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Creativity and Marketing Here are just a few of the topics that need further academic research.
Changing Nature of Marketing Communications In recent times there has been a complete shift in the nature of marketing communications. Integrated marketing communications require the co-ordination of all the relevant marketing mix elements, especially that of promotion, in building a sound marketing communications strategy. Organisations are encouraged to develop a total marketing communications strategy capable of identifying the company to the target audience while attracting customers to its products or services. Likewise, marketing channels should be seen as an integrated system requiring a total perspective towards its marketing
Marketing communication strategies
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efforts. Thus, integrated marketing communications should be the underlying principle for each member of a channel structure so that promotional efforts are well co-ordinated to ensure greater sales impact. Integrated marketing communications produces better communications consistency which in turn, which in turn, will produce better performance for the products or services. This shift in approach has created new problems and challenges for executives concerned with the marketing function. These new problems demand creative insights and as such are a rich area for academic research.
How Creative Ideas are Conceived/Developed While knowledge of the creative problem solving process seems to be well illustrated in the articles surveyed there is nothing on how creative ideas are conceived and developed in a marketing context. There will certainly be many occasions when the creative problem solving process can be applied to marketing problems but as the Andrews (1996) article underlines creativity and finding new ways to market products and services is a key and continuous task of the marketing executive. It seems unlikely that such executives will get all their creative ideas from the creative problem solving routine. Much more need to be done to research this issue and to pinpoint the different ways in which marketing ideas are conceived and developed.
Need for Creative Marketing Communication Strategies At the heart of successful marketing strategies are successful marketing communication strategies. Positioning a product / service or organisation in the mind of the customer is the key component of marketing strategy. This requires the organisation first and foremost to understand its customer's decision making processes and above all to appreciate issues regarding low/high involvement with the product. Throughout the continuum which represents the extent of product involvement there is a need to understand how best the organisation can set about establishing a competitive advantage for itself and its products. In particular there is a need to determine how to position the product/ service or the organisation itself in the mind of the consumer. The ``listening bank'' and the ``wine which you have with your meal'' are examples of where commercial organisations have tried to position themselves so that they stand out from their competitors and appeal to that part of a market segment which really
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appreciates these benefits. It requires some creative thinking to come up with an appropriate positioning theme. It needs even more creative thinking to turn these themes into series of marketing communications which will actively inform the customer about these matters. This is considered further below under the heading of stereotyping.
Stereotyping Stereotyping is used to appeal to the masses of people who make up market segments, market niches, and even target customers within a market segment. The objective is to direct the positioning appeal of the product, service or organisation in such a way that it appeals to the people concerned. Clearly, as individuals we are unique but at the same time as buyers we often share many characteristics in common. Stereotyping aims to portray those common characteristics in a message, image or theme such that as individuals we can identify with what is portrayed in a positive way. Hopefully this will develop awareness, interest, desire and action with respect to the object that is being communicated towards us. How creative marketing communications make use of stereotyping is a topic which would benefit from academic investigation.
Unique Selling Point/Proposition Persuading the customer to show a preference for our product, service or organisation over a competitor's offering, requires the development of a unique selling point or proposition. It is that which distinguishes one offering from another in the market place and is highly related to how the product is being positioned in the mind of the customer. Just how this done requires a good deal of creative thinking Indeed, there are many ways in which creativity can makes itself felt in marketing. Types of messages/appeals and their appropriateness and the whole area of creating advertising messages are ripe for exploration and research. Merchandising, too, is a relatively unexplored area for creativity research.
Conclusions Apart from considering creativity alongside innovation and decision making the published material here shows that creativity does not really receive the broad attention in the literature that it deserves. There are many aspects of marketing, for example, where
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creativity is an extremely important concept and merits considerable research attention. However, to date the literature on the application of creativity in marketing is very deplete. There are also other aspects of management and business where creativity is highly relevant. What is needed at the present time is for writers and researchers on management and business topics, who have an interest in the topic of creativity, to consider making contributions to the research literature.
APPENDIX Journals Examined Management Journals General Management Accounting, Auditing & Accountability journal American Journal of Police Australian Journal of Hospitality Management British Food Journal Disaster Prevention and Management Environmental Management Health European Business Review Health Education International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research International Journal of Public Sector Management Journal of Management History Management Decision
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Management Research News Managerial Auditing Journal Managerial Finance Managerial Law Nutrition and Food Science Police Studies: The International Review of Police Development Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management World Transport Policy and Practice
Marketing Journals Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics Corporate Communications: An International Journal European Journal of Marketing International Journal of Bank Marketing International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management International Marketing Review Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Journal of Consumer Marketing Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science Journal of Product and Brand Management Journal of Services Marketing Marketing Intelligence and Planning Pricing Strategy & Practice Supply Chain Management
Tony Proctor is Visiting Professor in Marketing at Chester Business School, University College, Chester, UK.
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Brainstorming Products for the Long-term Future Bill Hollins Research has recently been completed to determine how innovative organisations manage innovation over an extended period into the future. The purpose of the research was to determine what companies active in this area, were doing and, from the results, write the new standard BS 7000 part 1 `Guide to Innovation Management'. This paper considers one of the findings that organisations can extend the use of brainstorming as a means for: developing the organisational structure for planning the long-term, and envisaging the types of products and services that may be developed up to three generations ahead ± typically ten years in many organisations.
Introduction
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Creativity can be taught
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ver since Alec Osborn devised his rules for Brainstorming in the 1930s and committed them to paper in the early 1950s (Osborn 1993), people have proposed ways of improving creativity (e.g. Majaro 1990, 1992; Rawlinson 1994; de Bono 1992; Kao 1996). Creativity can be taught (Adams 1987) and it has also been shown that it is not the case that as we get older our creative juices dry up (Hollins & Hollins 1991). It is more the case that we get `blinkered' by experience and that we tend to see the artefacts in our world as unchanging. Children, through having less experience in our world, are not so limited or restrained in their creativity. It is possible to adopt the `child-like' openness to new ideas through various `games' at the start of a brainstorming session. There are also tools that can help in this creativity called Design Methods. Still the best book on these is by J.C. Jones (Jones 1980). It is, therefore, possible for individuals, or better, teams to be creative. This is necessary in all spheres of business today if companies are to `break out' of a stagnant position and be able and prepared to move on to the new. Occasionally, this author has been confronted with some negative attitudes by those in large companies. `You don't understand the problem' or `its always been done like this'. The answer here is to show that the real problem often lies more in their heads than in the reality of the situation. ``The fault, dear
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Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, . . .'' (Shakespeare). After a long struggle most organisations have come to terms with change. People are prepared to encourage creativity and adopt change as a necessary part of their daily lives. And, anyway, change is fun. The change being discussed thus far relates to the present. Currently we are now being advised to take a ten year horizon (e.g. UK Government Competitiveness white paper, 1994; BS 7000 Part 1, 1995, resubmission in 1999) but there is very little written that tells you how to plan new products and services over the longer period. Is it possible to take a much longer view and consider change, not of the next product, not the product after that, but of the product beyond that? These were termed as `3-gen products'; this could be a time span for many organisations for the new products and services that would be introduced some ten years into the future. As Hamel and Prahalad (1994) have written, `every company is in the process of becoming an anachronism irrelevant to the future'. Yet earlier research has found that only 1/3rd of companies in the UK and Germany actively plan the products beyond those they are currently developing (IBM, LBS 1996). If companies do not at least try to look beyond their next product, then several things may happen. First they will be caught out by changes that do occur or, secondly, their existing products and services will go out-of-date and sales and the company will # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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decline. Companies that do not plan their own future are doomed to become followers of others, making `me-too' products. For some time, this policy has been known to be an area of poor profits and low growth (e.g. Thackaray 1997; Bellon and Whittington 1996 ) The first thought by most tends to be, `surely it is not possible to manage the future that far ahead?' Suddenly all the objections that were raised in planning the future in the short-term are raised again. Change is happening too fast and is too unpredictable for there to be any sense in doing it. `It's very easy to predict the future, people do it all the time. The thing you can't do is get it right'. (Norman 1998). But there is `the urgent need of organisations to develop innovative practices' (Rickards 1996) and this must apply not only to current products but those further into the future.
The Research Research was undertaken by this author, and Alan Topalian of Alto Design Management, into how organisations attempt to look further ahead. It was found that it does appear to be possible to set up procedures to plan long-term products and services for three generations ahead and some of our best organisations are attempting to do this. The main part of the research focused on companies that had a reputation for being innovative or had innovative products and services. More than eighty organisations that had won awards for design, innovation or technology were contacted. These organisations, at least, had a past record for successful innovation. After an initial telephone discussion in each of the short-listed companies, a few companies chose not to be involved. Several others companies were eliminated for not having sufficiently forwardranging plans. Those companies that appeared to be most active in planning the long-term were contacted and `invited' to become involved in the research. Thirty four accepted. These companies that did plan sufficiently far ahead were located all over Great Britain and ranged in size from 3 employees up to 58,000. The turnover of the companies ranged from £12,000 up to £8.4 billion. There was also a wide spread of company types. Apart from manufacturing, also included were organisations involved with pharmaceuticals, travel and tourism, distilling, communications, IT, leisure activities and power generation. Senior executives in each of these were visited and interviewed using a questionnaire
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of mainly open questions. Each interview was recorded and it was anticipated that each interview would take about 1 hours. In practice, many interviews took much longer. The purpose of these interviews was not to find out what products and services these organisations were developing for the longterm but the processes they used to do it. Also sought was evidence of activity around innovation management throughout the value chain. The results showed varying complexity in the processes adopted by these organisations. Some companies described a complete system for developing products for introduction up to twenty years ahead. Other companies had a series of pieces of the `jigsaw' that could be put together as part of a more complete process.
Brainstorming the Long-term One of the clearer findings showed that those organisations which were identified as being better at this future planning for long-term products, all utilised brainstorming as one of the major parts of the process. This suggests that the `forum', familiar to and used by most organisations for planning the present, can also be used for planning the future. What is more, all the same familiar rules seem to apply, regarding leadership, size of group, deblinkering, and so on. In the richer examples of brainstorming the organisations include `silly exercises' (e.g. Getzels and Jackson 1962) to help people think in new and different ways. Guests introduced from outside have also been found to achieve a similar effect. This was described as being particularly important where the management team had been together for a long time. Introducing an element of competition was also found to stimulate new ideas. Generally brainstorming sessions involve senior management from marketing or product development. Some also includes employees from all layers of the management structure and with various roles, in order that a wider or just a different viewpoint be obtained. Often customers are involved to inform this view. Several organisations stated that they were `trying to find where the customer is going'. In some organisations, consultants were used as facilitators in the sessions. Problems were expressed concerning the need to keep the results of the brainstorming sessions confidential (what was being described involved the long-term future of the company). For this reason, the
Richer examples of brainstorming
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involvement of `outsiders' was sometimes restricted. Suppliers tend not to be involved for reasons of confidentiality, but this was not exclusively the case. In some companies, it was found that where a close relationship had been forged with particular suppliers it was felt possible to involve them.
Two Types of Brainstorm The research determined that, generally, there are two types of brainstorm used when planning the long-term. The first is undertaken by the most senior management and the outcome of this is specified as what became known (in BS 7000 part 1) as the `Length of the Innovation Highway' and the `Width of the Innovation Highway'. The Length of the Innovation Highway is the time period over which planning will take place. The Width of the Innovation Highway are the (mainly financial) parameters in which new products, processes and services must fit. This will allow the process to gain corporate legitimacy by being recognised as part of corporate life, even though for these types of long-term plans there may not yet be anything as structured as a `strategic plan, budget, deadlines and targets' (Rickards 1996). The second type of brainstorming sessions tends to be undertaken by people lower down in the organisation. In these, the broad concepts for products and services that would fit onto this highway are determined. It has been found that these visual descriptions help in the understanding of what needs to be done when planning the future. It allows a `map' to be compiled, onto which can be plotted the possibilities, difficulties and timescales, as well as other dimensions such as skills and even risks.
Brainstorming Sessions The way in which the brainstorming sessions are carried out varies from a couple of hours to weekends away. These are often punctuated with long breaks in between sessions, as there is generally less `urgency' in planning for the long-term. Sometimes these sessions involved scenarios, speculation and backcasting to give them a vision of the future. It was suggested that `conflict' works to produce more ideas. Sometimes, objectives are set for the sessions and the brainstorm is to achieve these objectives whereas in others, the brainstorming sessions are refined into specific actions.
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Lower down the organisational hierarchy, brainstorming sessions were more focused on the products and services which could take the organisation in that direction. The earlier, more senior, brainstorming sessions are more open-ended, but the later ones may be restricted by existing technology and the finance, people, skills and time. Some of these brainstorming sessions are unstructured. The reason given for this is that a set of guidelines or limitations `puts a block on the way people think'. Most are undertaken within some kind of framework to prevent the discussions being outside of the `capabilities' or recognised direction for the organisation. One described that they use `capability charts of those within our organisation'. Clearly, if this is a boundary then the compilation of these capability charts must be part of the process. Also a `vision of the possible future of the organisation' was found to help. Perhaps this vision could be provided through a well worded Mission Statement.
The Specification? None of the brainstorming sessions described in the interviews is as focused as would be expected for shorter term new product development work. Although brainstorming sessions for the short-term are, in theory, unrestrained or restricted, nowadays, in practice most take place within the bounds of a formal and thorough design specification. In the broad process of Total Design as described in the simple but widely accepted Design Activity Model (Pugh 1982) allowing for iteration, the Concept stage, where the main brainstorming occurs, is after the Specification stage. These specifications are the main controlling documents against which the ideas generated in the brainstorming sessions are eventually judged. Those ideas that do not meet the specification are eliminated. When viewing concepts for the longer term it is not possible to compile such a specification. This shows one fundamental difference in the process of developing the long-term products in relation to the short-term ones. In practise there has to be. Blue sky thinking, while appropriate for brainstorming the longterm, must be followed by action. Action costs money and the action has to be described inside some parameters that are possible and achievable by the organisation concerned, if profitable results are to be obtained. In short, there needs to be a specification, something that sets the boundaries for the long-term related to what the company currently does
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and where the company plans to go in the future. Following this line of reasoning, most of these long-term brainstorms were not entirely unrestricted, and most did take place within certain company specified parameters or guidelines (the Width of the Innovation Highway). This type of specification must be fundamentally different from those used for short-term (next product) type projects. If they were of the same type then the long-term product or service being planned could be developed now. In the cases where these can be developed now when taking the long-term view you may have a leap-frog product or service ± one that is substantially in advance of that currently being marketed by you and the competition. Unfortunately, these tend to be the exceptions. It was often stated that, in practice, it was possible to plan the broad description of the product long-term and even the major innovations that were likely to occur (there is usually a sufficient gap between an invention being announced and it appearing in a marketable form). The incremental changes or precise detail changes were areas that were stated could not be planned a long way into the future. In some areas it was said that the `details' cannot be planned more than twelve months ahead.
The Individual But something is not right in the way we think up new ideas, especially those relating to the long-term. The creative process needs improvement beyond what can be achieved in brainstorming sessions. It can be seen that most views of 'enlightenment' identified by philosophers are all solitary experiences, though often achieved through some guide or teacher and nearly always after a long period of struggle. Designers can relate to this struggle for creating the new. Edison may have talked about the 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration, but that 5% is hard work and vital for successful products. Creativity takes time and far more time than we can allow in Brainstorming sessions ± they are, after all, expensive operations taking a number of senior people away from money-making activities. But perhaps individuals need more time than is available for brainstorming group sessions. Most individuals can relate to struggling over a problem for hours, or even days. Then some time later, often when doing another quite unrelated activity, like gardening or laying in the bath, the solution suddenly
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flashes into their head. McCorkle (1994) points out that many such ideas are lost as, by then, the brainstorming activity in the organisation has come to an end, ``the ideas have already been evaluated and voted on''. We probably need that early struggle to get the flash of inspiration but we also need this diversion and incubation time to enable the inspirational flash to appear. Can both be built into the concept phase of the process? Our conscious and unconscious creative processing seems to work slowly but we need to capture these brain waves as part of the creative concept stage if we are to have successful products.
The Group On the other hand, there is a great deal of team work involved in industrial discovery (`Teamwork has replaced individual genius' Enzio Ferrari). Group work is more effective for developing new ideas than (the sum of) individuals working alone. Research at Sheffield Hallam University found that 55% of industrial designers questioned stated that team working improved their capacity to generate ideas and that 70% reported that team working had led to better communication with colleagues outside of their own discipline. (Fisher et al 1996) During a Brainstorming session, up to nine or ten people (Shein 1969; Belbin 1991) are otherwise unproductive. Although this is expensive, it is justifiable when compared with the enormous cost of developing the wrong concept into a saleable product only to be faced with competitors who have chosen a 'less vulnerable' concept who subsequently take your market. The ability of those in groups to 'bounce' ideas off each other produces more, and better, ideas to a given problem. Therefore, brainstorming sessions of a couple of days are likely to be more productive than individuals working alone. This is even more of a potential problem when planning the longer-term future direction of an organisation When it comes to developing long-term products, even this is, probably, insufficient time and too 'intense' to be an effective way to getting the best from those involved. A much greater period of 'soaking' is necessary where individuals can mull over the problem to find this 'consciousness'. We are under-utilising our personal capabilities by subjecting them to group decision making. We need to promote the thoughts and subsequent ideas of those in the group so that the best of the various individuals ± as individuals ± is exhausted, and also
Creativity takes time
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maximise the best that the group situation can offer. But which comes first, the lone thinking or the group brainstorming?
Combination ± A New Way? The way by which we then achieve the 'best' product should be explored. There is truth in both the proverbs ``two heads are better than one'' and ``a camel is a horse designed by a committee''. Group decision making is flawed (e.g. Groupthink) (Janis 1972). Solitary designers also have propensity to fail, through, perhaps, too much focus (right-side brain activity?) and insufficient view of other areas such as the market and their organisation's capabilities (left-side brain logic?) (Ornstein 1977) What is needed is a compromise that develops the best of both worlds. In the recent summary of brainstorming in the Encyclopedia of creativity (Rickards, 1999) this idea was expressed as the benefits of a `cocktail of techniques' over simple individual, or group activities. First there needs to be a structure around the concept stage and guidance to those seeking these new concepts ± the width and length of the `Innovation Highway'. This requires greater commitment, direction and understanding of design by those at the top. People keep writing this but, even now, in too many organisations the top management only become actively involved when things (usually costs) are out of control and panic sets in. The message is that individuals have enormous untapped talents of creativity. Wellrun brainstorming sessions are supposed to release this potential but the very group situation and time limitations can stifle these. Even if the sessions are run for an adequate two or three days they cannot capture the sudden thoughts or release the intermittent unplanned spasms of creativity, the 'Eureka's' that ought to be harnessed in design. But the failure rate resulting from random inspirational sparks vastly out number the successes. The 'flashes of genius' from individuals are of little use unless they are funnelled towards organisational needs, strategies, and a planned product range. This paper proposes a compromise that may capture the best of both forms of creativity and that this would be even more effective in the search for long-term products.
Untapping creativity
Summarising the Research Findings on Innovation and the Highways A clear message that came across from this research is that is that there is no fundamental
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difference between developing future longterm products and long-term services. One observation is that innovation is not just restricted to the product but can occur throughout the value chain ± from initial trigger through to termination and disposal and all stages en route. And it is possible to `blueprint' the whole sequence and then identify where innovation may best be encapsulated. When looking at the type of specification for these 3-gen products, a `highway' is a useful way to view their development. The future products can be mapped out on a highway that stretches out into the future for as far as the organisation cares to plan. The concept of the innovation highway was found to be a useful way to visualise and to discuss future planning during the interviews that were part of the research. Subsequently, we have found that it is a suitable way to actually plan future activity. The start of the highway is determined by the organisation's existing new product development programme and the product lifecycle of the specific product (Figure 1). This highway dovetails into existing products and services that are currently being marketed and also the next product that is being developed. These existing products and short term product developments are generally well understood and their management has been described in the literature (Hollins & Hollins 1991; Baxter 1997; Trott 1998) and in several British standards (BS 7000 parts 2, 3 & 4; BS 6079). The total length of the highway should be so planned to encompass a smooth operation, incorporating improvement to existing products, innovation and subinnovation, from the existing products and then on to the `third time frame' ± the product beyond these eventually leading to the real 3-gen product. This is the `length' of this Innovation Highway. The `width' to this innovation highway is, in effect, the specification for these type of products. The `width' specifies actions `allowable' by an organisation. These can be as open or restricted as necessary. They partly cover aspects, such as minimum ROI, types of markets, types of skills. In fact, any parameters can be specified. The more that are specified the more restricted the subsequent allowable ideas that emanate from brainstorming sessions. On the other hand, the more open the parameters or the fewer the specified restrictions the greater will be the freedom to innovate. Also, though, with less `direction' greater will be the risk of those lower down the organisation taking the wrong direction.
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Figure 1. The Length of the Innovation Highway The `width of the innovation highway' is used to filter the ideas coming from the unrestricted brainstorming session just as would be the case in the use of product specifications when planning the short-term. As implied, the length and width of the innovation highway has to be determined by senior managers ± usually it is a responsibility of those at corporate level. Those at the top of any organisation are responsible for the strategy of that organisation. This research suggests that they need to take this further, to be responsible for the product strategy that can meet the overall strategy. Not the products, but the highway in which these products should fit. So how do managers and directors at corporate level identify the width of the innovation highway? In the research we found that, in the few cases where it was done, the main forum for achieving this was, again, through brainstorming sessions. Unfortunately these tended to be very poorly undertaken, far too short and incorrect structure for stimulating creativity. To plan the width of the highway time is needed to consider, have a period of gestation (BS 7000 part 2 1997) then reconvene, until those at the top are satisfied with their deliberations. These parameters can then be communicated
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so those of less seniority within the organisation can describe and define future ideas. Parameters can be expanded as time passes to allow for growth within the organisation. For example, it is possible to specify a particular maximum investment for the development of types of product. It may be planned for the maximum specified to increase over the length of the innovation highway. This may, or may not, include an additional figure to account for inflation. It is also possible to build in factors to allow for business cycles. Business cycles are more predictable than many people realise. It is possible to broadly predict the boom and bust of business cycles. The capital generated during the boom needs to be invested to cope with the inevitable downturn. This needs to be linked to the organisation's funding of their design programmes. Too often organisations cut design expenditure during business downturns , and this makes them poorly positioned to benefit from the later upturn. When written, the `width' is not cast in stone. (Circumstances will alter and these may require `fine tuning' to the parameters laid down.) On the other hand, wholesale and regular large changes, probably, indicate that the initial parameters specified were poorly considered. These should be reviewed, but
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anything more than once a year is, probably, too frequent an effort. The impression gained from some of the companies contacted as part of this research was that many top managers take the longterm planning in a half-hearted manner. They seem to forget that their future employment, as well as the future of the organisation depends on getting their future products and services right. But there are organisations who have quite sophisticated systems for planning their long-term existence. And most of those that took part in the interviews had `pieces of the jigsaw' that made up part of a system. The same barriers that exist in the planning of the long-term have existed in the past when organisations plan for the short term. It would appear, from this research, that similar solutions can be applied to overcome these barriers in today's environments. The first `tool' is brainstorming. The same rules and procedures can be adapted to work here even though those involved may be different. The research undertaken cannot prove that the extension of the use of brainstorming described will enable organisations to plan their longer-term products and services without failure. What is has shown is that the few organisations that actively attempt to plan the long-term all turn to brainstorming as an aid in their planning. A few of the organisations involved in the research have been operating their systems for some years and they still believe that the systems work. This viewpoint has been built in to the systems included in the forthcoming British Standard aimed at this long-term planning, BS 7000 Part 1 Guide to Managing Innovation and into this author's new book (Hollins & Hollins 1999) but then `each organisation has to become, and then remain, the ultimate expert on enacting its own innovation processes' (Rickards 1996).
Acknowledgements The Department of Trade and Industry funded this research, and the contract was placed by the British Standards Institution with Westminster Business School.
References Adams, J.L. (1987) Conceptual Blockbusting. A Guide to Better Ideas. 3rd ed. Penguin. Baxter, M.R. (1997) Product Design. Practical Methods for the Systematic Development of New Products. Chapman and Hall.
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Bellon, B. and Whittington, G. (1996) Competing Through Innovation. Oak Tree Press. Belbin, R.M. (1991) Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail. Butterworth-Heinemann. BS 7000 Part 1. (1999) Guide to Innovation Management. British Standards Institution. BS 7000 Part 2. (1997) Design Management Systems: Guide Managing the Design of Manufactured Products. British Standards Institution. BS 7000 Part 3. (1994) Guide to Managing Service Design. British Standards Institution. BS 7000 Part 4. (1996) Design Management Systems: Guide to Managing Design in Construction. British Standards Institution. de Bono, E. (1992) Serious Creativity. Harper Collins. Fisher, T., Press, M., Chapman, G. and Rust, C. (1996) The Management of New Product Development: Creativity and Teamwork. Art & Design Research Centre. Sheffield Hallam University. Getzels, J.W. and Jackson, P.W. (1962) Creativity and Intelligence. Wiley. Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C.K. (1994) Competing for the Future. Harvard Business. Hollins, B. and Hollins, G. (1999) Over the Horizon. Wiley. Hollins, G. and Hollins, B. (1991) Total Design: Managing the Design Process in the Service Sector. Pitman. IBM. London Business School (1996) Made in Europe 2: An Anglo-German Design Study. Janis, I. (1972) Victims of Groupthink: A psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Houghton Mifflin. Jones, J.C. (1980) Design Methods: Seeds of Human Futures. Wiley. Kao, J. (1996) Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity. Harper Collins Majaro, S. (1990) Innovation and top management. MBA Review, 2, No. 1 March. Majaro, S. (1992) Managing Ideas for Profit: The Creative Gap. McGraw-Hill. McCorkle, D.E. (1994) Climb out of the cellar of your mundane brainstorming sessions. IDM Exchange. Issue 1 Autumn. Norman, A. (1998) Open Saturday. BBC 2. 19 September. Ornstein, R.E. (1977) The Psychology of Consciousness. 2nd ed. NY. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Osborn, A. (1993) Applied Imagination. 2nd ed. Schibner. Pugh, S. (1982) Total Design Method. Loughborough University. Rawlinson, G. (1994) Creative Thinking and Brainstorming. Gower. Rickards, T. (1996) The Management of Innovation: Recasting the Role of Creativity. European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 5 (1). Rickards, T. (1999) 'Brainstorming' in M. Runco & S. Pritzker, Eds., Encyclopedia of Creativity Academic Press, San Diego, Ca. Vol 1, pp. 219±227. Schein, E.H. (1969) Process Consultation: Its role in organisation development. Addison-Wesley. Shakespeare, W. Julius Caesar. Penguin. Thackaray, J. (1997) Winners. How Today's Successful Companies Innovate by Design. Gower
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Trott, P. (1998) Innovation Management and NPD. Pitman UK Government (1994) Helping Business to Win. Government 1st White Paper on Competitiveness. May.
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Bill Hollins is a consultant with Direction Consultants and Senior Lecturer at Westminster Business School.
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Book of the Quarter Reviewed by Tudor Rickards R. Boutellier, O. Gassman and M. von Zedtwitz (1999), Managing global innovation: Uncovering the secrets of future competitiveness, ISBN 3-540-65256-6, 626 pp, hardback, index and company index, Berlin: Springer.
S
omething drastic is happening to Research and Development or R&D. In this age of knowledge management, R&D is widely recognized as one of the great contributors to knowledge generation and appropriation. Put another way, firms pay scientific and technical professionals to pioneer the discoveries that turn into corporate advantages. One of the old jokes about R&D compares it with other forms of risk taking and gambling. This is another version of the remark that Lord Lever made of advertising. He knew that 50% was useless, unfortunately he could never figure out which 50% was of any worth! To the outsider, R&D remains a bastion of professional mystique. What seems to be happening increasingly is that the R&D function has retained its mythic status, as innovation initiator, while losing out on the decisions regarding control of budgets and locations. Under pressures to become `more commercial, and customer oriented' the `labs' have found themselves down-sized, relocated, and generally buffeted by the forces of global change. `Buy-in' has become important. In principle, this might appear to begin with the more pedestrian development component, as has been seen, for example, in the rise of the software industry in Bangalore. But as the authors comment, many R&D laboratories are in place for historical reasons. Once relocation becomes thinkable, the case for remaining in situ has to be made more vigorously. I approached this book hoping to learn the views of those closest to these sources of disruption. In some ways I was not disappointed. The authors have collected a great deal of reliable information from a wide range of leading global firms on their R&D operations. By sampling three sectors and identifying six `best in class' performers they have ensured that a great deal of groundwork has
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been done of value to students of technology management. The `best-in-class' reports from the Pharmaceuticals, chemical and food sector included information on DuPont, Roche, Schering, Ciba, Nestle, and Kao. Here we see the resilience of well-established laboratories. Best-in-class for the electronics and software were Xerox, Canon, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, SAP (and IBM spin-off of that has attained global dimensions itself) and Unisys. Finally, in the electrical and machinery sector, the laboratories were from ABB, Daimler-Benz, Schindler, Hitachi, Leica Microscopy and MTU. Whereas these great companies are undoubtedly global, they are also rather more European in country of origin than the samples found in the more frequent North American compilations. Two of the authors are from the University of St Gallen Switzerland, and the third is from one of the selected best-in-class companies. Perhaps a more focused look at the global imperatives on the development of firms from a small home base such as Switzerland would have brought focus to what threatens to be an overwhelmingly complex subject. The arrangement of the material into themes is understandable. However, the very richness of materials sometimes gets in the way. A multitude of thematic points are covered, often illustrated with a small number of examples from best practice companies. Too often I was left wondering `what alternatives were faced by this company?' and `what alternatives might be faced by other companies?' These are the kinds of question that the R&D manager is likely to ask. Specifically, the claim that forces are shifting R&D towards an integrated network form is of major consequence and deserved a clearer treatment. As a former R&D technical manager myself, I found that some issues have remained # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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of concern from earlier days. R&D for decades has attempted to understand how it `interfaces' ± with production, and particularly with `the market'. Even the coupling between `R' and `D' is far from a resolved issue. Yet, it is also clear that the technicallyoriented execution of `close to product' work captures much that is the essence of development, and the less directional efforts of `distant from product' work captures much that is understood to be Research. There remains a fundamental suspicion (perhaps belief would be too strong a word) within large organisations, that technical application within closely directed operations looks after the short-term, and some less directed activities are needed to anticipate and create future revenue streams. These are the exploratory regions in which R survives. The major decisions facing R&D directors come into focus. To make or buy; to move towards a centralized or decentralised structure. These are essentially the issues that exercise economists and management theorists alike. We need not be surprised that there is no simple answer offered in the book. The authors do suggest that some general U-shaped curve exists for costs. This implies some `golden mean' for centralisation. However, as the authors also frankly admit: `. . .the strategic shift from one organizational concept to another, [from earlier modes to the proposed integrated network form] is:
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. determined more by careful considera-
tion of opportunities and risks than by the output of a mathematical formula; . . . .by external decision parameters such as the organization of the entire corporation, the development of the information technology infrastructure, or by political interests; . more of an evolutionary character than a discrete quantum leap.' Here we have in a paragraph a great deal that tends to be ignored or denied in the R&D literature. R&D is part of a wider Socioeconomic system, and decisions are grounded in non-technical, and sometimes non-economic factors. If I have a criticism, it is that the research project has stopped short of what it might have achieved. The access to major companies was a rare opportunity to establish a more dynamic picture of the observed trends. It was interesting to learn of the structures and strategies of so-called best-practice R&D operations. It would have been even more valuable if there had been more efforts to indicate how these structures and strategies are changing. This would not require fancy statistics to indicate no `how things are' by how (and perhaps why) things are changing. Nevertheless, for the impressive range of upto-date material provided, the book deserves a place as a reference text for R&D directors, policy makers, and theorists. It makes a welcome addition to the field.
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Book Reviews Sylvia Nasar (1998) A beautiful mind, Faber & Faber, 459 pp hback, ISBN 0-571-17794-8, notes and index, £17.99.
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beautiful mind is a biography of John Forbes Nash. Economists are increasingly aware of the significance of Nash's mathematical work that has had a profound impact on game theory. Nash was awarded the Nobel prize for his work in 1994, many years after his youthful discoveries. This book presents a fascinating tale of creative genius, madness, and an even more remarkable recovery from devastating mental illness. The story has a strong and simple central theme. A child of ambitious and relatively well-off parents under performs at school. Like Einstein (and Edison) the motivation to excel was not immediately apparent to his school teachers. Like Einstein, his capabilities went largely unnoticed at the time. From an early age he showed a lack of social skills and almost total immunity to social pressures for conformity of thought or action. The trait was to support his willingness to tackle projects that others believed to be impossible, while contributing to a presentation of self as at best eccentric (`spooky' was a word used as often as any in interviews about Nash, even before mental illness manifest itself.) His introversion and lack of social engagement were accompanied by a consuming need to prove himself the best there was in his chosen field of mathematics. In the highest prestige public competitions, he made every effort to finish ahead of the field. The overwhelming drive seems consistent with intrinsically motivated components. Yet intrinsic motivation seems to need extrinsic reinforcement for its fulfillment in action. In formal competition, as in his other projects, the sheer act of creating was only part of the pleasure. Other aspects came from proving something, to himself to be sure, but also through proving it to others. At several critical points in his life he approached the leading figures in a field of work to discover the hot issues ± the problems that if solved would bring them most glittering prizes to the solver. Even in approaching the competitions, it was not enough to win, the winning had to be achieved with the minimum of apparent effort.
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He began to flourish when he arrived at Princeton, a magnet for aspiring mathematicians at the time (the 1940s). The environment, described deliciously in the book, appears not unlike that found in the early days of Apple or Microsoft. High IQ nerds were engaged in incessant ferocious fights for intellectual leadership. This description, highly convincing, does contradict more placid models of a climate for creativity. In the creativity literature since the 1980s, it has been widely assumed that creative tension, or challenge, is an inhibitor of a creative climate (following the well-known work of Ekvall, in Europe, and Amabile and co-workers in America). What Princeton (and Apple, and Microsoft) had achieved was a critical mass of individual talents, who found opportunities to compete and outperform their peers. The model of creative generation seems Darwinian in nature. The story continues with the young man's adolescent efforts to achieve fame and to deal with personal relationships. Each were to become dramatic in tone. The publicly known story is that Nash developed the mathematics that connected game theory to the deepest problems of economics. The early link was made by the great John van Neumann, whom Nash was to meet at Princeton. Van Neumann and Morgenstern's book on game theory argued that economics needed to develop from firm foundations, that could be provided at a micro-level by the study of human behaviours in simple games. Neumann and Morgenstern concentrated on two-person games of the kind known as zero-sum Nash found a stunningly novel way of resolving the problem of non zero-sum games, that is to say games in which there are several opportunities for bargaining to mutual advantage. The identification of the general problem is attributed to Francis Edgeworth, an Oxford University scholar working towards the end of the nineteen century. Edgeworth was dissatisfied with the perfect competition assumptions of economic theory. However, his best efforts to understand the mixture of # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
BOOK REVIEWS
collaboration and competition in bargaining led nowhere. Edgeworth concluded that the problem is indeterminate mathematically. The youthful Nash found a resolution based on the negotiators' back-up preferences. His approach avoided various difficulties including that of mathematical infinite regress (having to estimate the outcomes of `what if he thinks that I think that he thinks . . .' etc). The result demonstrated a mathematical concept that was to enter economic vocabulary as Nash Equilibria. These equilibria show that Edgeware's conclusion was wrong, and that a mathematical theory can be constructed to determine the outcomes of contract negotiations. The idea has far-reaching implications for strategy, decision-theory, and conflict resolution. The book tells how Nash began describing his idea to van Neumann, who rather swiftly dismissed it as trivial. Fortunately, other Princeton mathematicians supported the development and publication of the idea. The story might have ended as the young Nash demonstrated his greatest mathematical contribution. However, it retains its interest as an account of a human tragedy with an unexpected outcome. Personal relationships, not surprisingly, in light of the pattern of `spookiness' of behaviour established since childhood, were less than straightforward. His marriage seems to have come about and was sustained mainly though the efforts of his wife Alicia. These efforts overcame complications of other affairs that seemed to have been in the main initiated by the emotionally immature and sexually ambivalent Nash. One of the affairs had resulted in a pregnancy and the birth of Nash's first son. This was to prove far too complex an emotional problem for Nash to deal with. Shortly after a marriage that promised social recognition and personal happiness, a series of psychological jolts may have triggered off a mental degeneration towards a delusional condition diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. He was to suffer, with infrequent
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and partial remissions, for three decades. For lengthy periods during those years, he spent much of his time around the Princeton campus, and particularly the library and lecture halls. He developed theories of alien invasions, and of secret messages decoded through numerology. He would leave cryptic comments in chalk on blackboards. I like to think that a University is one of the places where such behaviour is likely to be left unaddressed. It may be a conscious and noble impulse, or it may be more an unwillingness to deal with unusual behaviours in a culture familiar with pretty unusual behaviours of inmates! Near miraculously, in the late 1980s he became increasingly more coherent. Colleagues supported his nomination for the Nobel prize in economics. The book contains a wonderful account of the politics that went close to wrecking not just his nomination, but the whole future of the economics award. The book raises many points of interest for the researcher into creative behaviour. It reminds us that we still have no clear understanding of the `old after thirty' evidence of creative mathematical output. (A similar puzzle is around regarding composers and chess players). We are also forced to consider again the interplay of psychic forces involving exceptional creative insights and mental illness. One interpretation is that `normality' is supported by social pressures of conformity. These social pressures help preserve us from alternative explanations of our universe that draw on self-sealing ideas of alien invasions or numerology. I began this book out of curiosity to learn more about Nash. Although interested in the psychology of creative genius, I did not expect the book to add a great deal to the already extensive literature. Once I started reading however, I was quickly gripped by the story, and the way it had been written. A beautiful mind is also a beautiful story, and a beautiful read. Tudor Rickards
Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, George Roth and Bryan Smith (1999) The Dance of Change (A Fifth Discipline Resource): The Challenges of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations, ISBN 1 85788 243 1, Nicholas Brearley, NY/London, 596 pp, index, softback (£19.99 UK only). Peter Senge developed his ideas of systems thinking, most famously as the `fifth discipline' in the book of the same name, published in 1990. A fieldbook, and now this resource book, co-authored by a gifted team of management consultants and theorists followed the book.
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The book has therefore a guaranteed readership from those practitioners who have become attracted to this particular approach to organisational change. Indeed, it seems likely to have little impact unless it is considered within the wider context of Senge's earlier ideas.
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The general set of values inherent in the approach will be acceptable, and largely familiar to, practitioners within the creative problemsolving paradigm. These ideas derive from the humanistic beliefs developed by, among others Lewin, Lippett, and Schein as means of creating and sustaining change. They provide a reaction against well-known organisational demons such as bureaucratic command and control structures, and top-down leadership that restricts the contributions to a minority of employees. It is therefore an approach that identifies factors that inhibit everyday creativity. It also applauds the setting up a learning culture that is also a creative culture.
Senge's Famous Loops Senge's earlier work had a recognizable identity. It represented the essential features of a dynamic system by feedback diagrams. These famous loops were at simplest a benign or vicious circle of development. They revealed a universal principle of systems thinking that revealed the widely influential cause-effect assumption behind much of everyday thinking. Because the principle is universal, it can be applied and modified for specific circumstances. In practice, the simple loop is redrawn to show secondary loops, delay sequences, and other refinements. Nevertheless, the famous loops convey the impression that any organisational situation can be studied in this way. They also indicated what sort of actions would support change, and which ones would work against change. The approach thus offers a powerful and consistent methodology of mapping organisational processes. It plays well for managers who are in search of design principles for their organisations and for their organisational futures. However, an entire branch of management theory, namely Operations Research, (OR) has developed along similar lines. Senge, however, has been far more effective in taking the scientific and objectivelooking loops and combining them with a people-oriented philosophy. He is thus able to warn of the dangers of inappropriate mathematical abstractions, without being dismissed as some kind of sociological outsider.
Between and Beyond the Loops The current book extends this duality of the objective and subjective sides of management. In general, it does so by offering the systems language of explanatory loops and simultaneously providing text with the humanistic vocabulary of shared visions, dialogue,
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empowerment, and mentoring. It also affirms the connection between the systems change approach, and the processes of organisational learning. To take its title seriously, we might see the book as providing the rules or structures that characterize technical excellence in a dance routine, while also indicating the additional and necessary component of the dance, namely its artistic execution.
Format The book is particularly well crafted, and clearly written. The authoring team produced one little innovation by avoiding scholarlylooking footnotes and replacing them with interesting-looking comments in deep margins. This leaves plenty of white space for personal marginalia (shall we call these `asides'?). The margins also have various graphical signposts supporting comprehension and study. I rather enjoyed the innovative format. However, there is a great deal of material that overwhelms if read `cover-to-cover'. The contents include interspersed training suggestions, techniques, case examples, and reprinted articles. Indeed, I felt that the information provided would be better offered as an internet experience, with scope for extending the interactivity that the authors clearly support. In such a collage, the reader inevitably finds points of disagreement. These were, for me, rarely central. I did not, for example, like the manner in which dictionaries were called in to explain the meaning of words. `What does management mean?' is a question that reveals beliefs about the way in which meaning is constructed. For social constructions, meaning derives from a complex set of interrelationships generated as the word is `set to work'. History gives us a clue to its origins not its current contribution to our understanding of social activity and change.
Sustaining the Momentum for Change I found two important themes in a book that added to the earlier body of work by the authors. The first deals with leadership as dependent on organisational position. The myth of the heroic leader is again challenged, and replaced with a more enlightened executive leadership, supported throughout the firm by local line leaders and internal network leaders. This continues the movement away from a universalistic leader, and is a treatment that sits well with ideas of commitment that is more diffuse.
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The second theme is an examination of the limits of proposed change processes. Again, the treatment is familiar to students of management as a creative problem-solving process. The blocks to change seem remarkably similar to those encountered by change agents over the last thirty years. They include, for example, lack of time, fear of change, and suspicions of new ideas as fads imported by zealots. The complaints are well known, and the proposed remedies largely helpful. It is honest to indicate that there is no `silver bullet'. However, it is a stance that risks the challenge `so what?'
Learning Conclusion I found much of interest and not a little of direct value from reading The Dance of Change. The authors are probably on the right track in their strategy for diffusing their ideas more widely using that potent mix of objective and affective languages. The basic values espoused are morally sound, and offer a means of organisational leadership in the ethical as well as the economic sense. They hint at one danger for the successful implementation of change, namely that each change induces resistance. The resistance against the zealot (or The Heretic, to use Kleiner's vocabulary) is but one subjective component of this. More seriously, the directionality of the loops of change are presented as if they are obvious or inevitable. That is to say, there is an implied causality chain. Yet, it is often possible to conceive or a reality in which the causal direction is reversed. Higher motivation built into a loop so as to `cause' higher productivity. However, the loop may be one in which higher productivity `causes' higher motivation.
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The nice simple diagrams become messier if we start building in these possibilities. That was the original message of Lewin's field of forces that hold systems in equilibrium. Actions occur in a highly held in a selfsustaining field of resistances. Additional actions directed to promote change trigger additional resistances to the change. Here we have one of the serpents in this Garden of Eden promising the fruits of knowledge regarding purposive change. It takes us back, in a famous expression of one of Senge's mentors, to the Limits of Growth. There are limits to what be achieved in deliberately seeking to influence change. Does this matter? It is not critical if the little models are put to work to promote the `fifth discipline' of reflective thinking, thus avoiding the dangers of simplistic reasoning about the possible routes to achieving change. However, I have indicated in the last paragraph how accepting the logic of the systems loops may replace one kind of causal simplicity with another. I suspect that is already happening in some of the prescriptions on offer from commercial `change consultants' who endow `levers for change' and `resistors of change' with more empirical credibility than they deserve. However, I am for once in agreement with a version of an argument used in another context. As Charlton Heston has been known to remark, `it's not the gun that kills, it's the person who pull the trigger'. It's not the Senge loops that are at fault it's the way they get used. Overall this book has a lot of powerful ideas worth attending to. But remember, it's not the ideas in theory that have to achieve change, but the ideas in action. Tudor Rickards
William Rice-Johnson, Tactical management (1999) clothback, 419 pp, light reference section, ISBN 1861523769, International Thompson, London, £20.00. Tactical management offers `a complete management model' reworked for contemporary times. It is written in lively style, and contains evidence of what might be considered the tacit knowledge of an experienced consultant, converted as far as is possible into explicit form. Tactical management is, apparently, informed action. The author indicates that the entire book is about innovation, which is why innovation is only directly mentioned once. Creativity is also granted some lip service, as necessary, but is again broadly glossed over.
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The general focus is towards customer service, and quality. The management model is essentially another rational problem-solving model, with the inevitable loop from planning, match-up, assign, follow-up, report, evaluate act, and back to plan. For anyone immune to earlier messages, this is as good (and as deficient) as any other management model. However, the book is unlikely to satisfy anyone who has had any management training, or indeed any creativity training. Tudor Rickards
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Index to Volume 8 (e.g. 2/79 = number 2, page 79)
1. Articles ANTONACOPOULOU, Elena P. Individuals' Responses Between Learning and Knowledge ARVONEN, Jouko and EKVAL, GoÈran. Effective Leadership Style: Both Universal and Contingent? BOWONDER, B. and MIYAKE, T. Japanese LCD Industry: Completing through Knowledge Management CARLISLE, Ysanne and DEAN, Alison. Design as Knowledge Integration Capability COUCHMAN, Paul, BADHAM, Richard and ZANKO, Michael. Improving Product Innovation Processes: Moving Beyond Universalistic Prescription to Encompass Diversity EISENBERG, Jacob. How Individualism-Collectivism Moderates the Effects of Rewards on Creativity and Innovation: A Comparative Review of Practices in Japan and the US FONG, Patrick Sik-wah. FunctionOriented Creative Group Problem Solving
2/130
4/242
2/77
2/112
1/28
4/251
3/210
FORD, Cameron M. Interpretive Style, Motivation, Ability and Context as Predictors of Executives' Creative Performance 3/188 GOLDENBERG, Jacob and MAZURSKY, David. The Voice of the Product: Templates of New Product Emergence
3/157
GROTH, John C. and PETERS, John. What Blocks Creativity? A Managerial Perspective 3/179
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HOLLINS, Bill. Brainstorming Products for the Long-term Future
4/286
HOLLOWS, Judith. Historical Trajectories of Innovation and Competitiveness: Hong Kong Firms and their China Linkages
1/57
HONG, Jon-Chao and SHEU, Shu-Wu. The Development of Technological Creativity through Project Work
4/269
HUBER, George P. Facilitating Project Team Learning and Contributions to Organizational Knowledge
2/70
LALKAKA, Rustam and ABETTI, Pier A. Business Incubation and Enterprise Support Systems in Restructuring Countries
3/197
LITTLE, Stephen. Global Production and Global Consumption: Designing Organisations and Networks for the Next Century
1/8
MARCEAU, Jane. Networks of Innovation, Networks of Production, and Networks of Marketing Collaboration and Competition in the Biomedical and Toolmaking Industries in Australia
1/20
MCNAMARA, Dennis. Global Adjustment in Korean Textiles
1/48
MOGER, Susan and RICKARDS, Tudor. How Benign Structures can Support and Retain Creative Performance in Teams
3/165
PROCTOR, Tony. The Need for Research into Creativity in Marketing
4/281
PUCCIO, Gerard J. Creative Problem Solving Preferences: Their Identification and Implications
3/171
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
INDEX TO VOLUME 8
RICHARDSON, Pikay and NIGAM, Agit. New Technology Introduction and Implementation: The Case of Paging Technology in the Ratlam Division of Indian Railways RURA-POLLEY, Thekla and CLEGG, Stewart, R. Managing Collaborative Quality: A Challenging Innovation SMART, Alison U., MCCOSH, Andrew M., BARRAR, Peter and LLOYD, Ashley D. The Management of Knowledge during Design and Implementation of Process Technologies SPARROW, Paul R. Strategy and Cognition: Understanding the Role of Management Knowledge TIDD, Joe and TAURINS, Simon. Learn of Leverage? Strategic Diversification and Organizational Learning through Corporate Ventures TOMIC, Welko and BROUWERS, AndreÂ. Where Do Teachers Get Their Ideas From?
301
4/233
1/37
2/100
2/140
2/122
4/262
BOUTELLIER, R., GASSMAN, O. and VON ZEDTWITZ, M. Managing global innovation: Uncovering the secrets of future competitiveness 4/294
COHENDET, P. Llerena, STAHN, H. and UMBHAUER, G. (eds). The economics of networks: Interaction and behaviours
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999
2/149
3. Book Reviews
2. Books of the Quarter (Review Articles)
CLARKE, Thomas and CLEGG, Stewart. Changing Paradigms: The Transformation of Management Knowledge for the 21st Century
VON KROGH, Georg, ROOS, Johan and KLEINE, Dirk (eds). Knowing in firms: Understanding, managing and measuring knowledge
1/64
3/223
COOK, Peter. Best practice creativity
3/228
DINGLI, Sandra (ed). Creative thinking: towards broader horizons
3/230
FIDDIS, C. Managing knowledge in the supply chain: The key to competitive advantage
2/152
MURPHY, Emmett C. Leadership IQ
3/227
NASAR, Sylvia. A beautiful mind
4/296
PRICE, If and SHAW, Ray. Shifting the patterns: breaching the memetic codes of corporate performance
3/226
RICE-JOHNSON, William. Tactical management
4/299
SENGE, Peter, KLEINER, Art, ROBERTS, Charlotte, ROSS, Richard, ROTH, George and SMITH, Bryan. The Dance of Change (A Fifth Discipline Resource): The Challenges of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations
4/297
STERN, C.W. and STALK Jr, G. (eds). Perspectives on strategy from the Boston Consulting Group 3/229 SUTTON, John. Technology and Market Structure: Theory and History 3/225
4. Other Items CLARKE, Thomas. Introduction: Pacific Paradigms EDITORIAL Special Issue: Innovation through Knowledge Management
1/1 2/67
Volume 8 Number 4
December 1999
