Creativity And Business in The
Last Twenty Years
The
recent past has seen the business world emphasizing on the need for creativity
and concomitant innovation. This could be driven by the need for brand
differentiation in the age of global competitiveness in the information
technology age. Businesses need to be creative and constantly redefine their
competitive advantage in a flux, global economic situation. It is because of
this that this author would wish to explore the understanding and evolvement of
creativity in business over the last twenty years. A good understanding of this
term in a business context will ensure one is able to stay ahead of the
industry curve in terms of product, person, process and place; the four Ps of
creativity as defined by Mel Rhodes.[1]
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Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed; such as an idea, a scientific theory, an invention, a literary work, a painting, a musical composition, a joke, etc.[2] Scholarly interest in creativity involves many definitions and concepts covering a variety of disciplines that include business studies, cognitive science, economics, education, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, songwriting, technology, and theology. The creativity process involves identifying problems, searching for solutions by formulating and affirming hypotheses, and communicating the results. Scientific research into creativity involves the production of novel, useful products.
Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed; such as an idea, a scientific theory, an invention, a literary work, a painting, a musical composition, a joke, etc.[2] Scholarly interest in creativity involves many definitions and concepts covering a variety of disciplines that include business studies, cognitive science, economics, education, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, songwriting, technology, and theology. The creativity process involves identifying problems, searching for solutions by formulating and affirming hypotheses, and communicating the results. Scientific research into creativity involves the production of novel, useful products.
Wikipedia
is a good source to start regarding the history and concept of creativity. It
traces the development of the word from the era of Archimedes and Plato in
ancient Greece to the present. From Wikipedia, it is evident that the concept
of creativity has changed over the years from its original concept in ancient Greece,
to the Romans concept of sharing, Latin’s association with the divine, the Renaissance,
the 19th century art ownership, and onto the 20th century
when creativity started to be associated with sciences and nature. In this
millennium the term creativity has found a proper footing in business with
organizational factors fostering creativity in science coming to the fore via
interrogation of creative capabilities and the promotion of highly innovative
research.
Details
of creativity’s etymology of discovery and its subsequent development to mean
innovation and invention are found on various Wikipedia pages. The online
encyclopedia also has important links to useful indexes, notes, references and
further reading. The site also has a 2012 video entitled The 7 Steps of Creative Thinking by Raphael DiLuzio.
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research paper by Professor Dean Keith Simonton entitled The Psychology of Creativity also has a historical perspective to
this subject. This paper was presented on September 10, 2001 in a lecture
series on “The Nature of Creativity”. It has various in-text citations quoting
various authorities. Not only does it look at the creative process, the persons
involved in it and the products of the process, the paper also explores the
mainstreaming of creativity into psychological research with mention of the
various sub-disciplines that consider creativity worthy of empirical and
theoretical research. Notably, evolutionary and positive psychology, two recent
movements in the field, have both adopted creativity as a topic.
Professor
Simonton offers further areas for research in creativity including its
understanding as a biological and social phenomenon, development of its
theories, and its practical application. The paper also has nine pages of an
exhaustive reference list on the subject.
A useful
book on creativity available at Google Books is Creativity and Beyond: Cultures, Values and Change from SUNY Press.
The 368-page book by Robert Paul Weiner has a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary
tour of past and present cultures that examines the different ways people have
viewed creativity and how this understanding is changing in the context of
today’s global culture. The book looks at the subject vis-à-vis the broader contemporary
patterns such as postmodernism, art trends, gender, electronic media,
multiculturalism and psychology. It offers various hypotheses, vignettes and
examples.[3]
To order quality, original work for this and or similar paper please skip this way.Creativity and Beyond: Cultures, Values and
Change is divided into thirteen chapters ranging from “Creativity, The West
and History” to “Creativity and Some Contemporary Policy Issues in the United
States”. Especially pertinent are chapters on everyday obstacles to creativity
and the future of creativity. The book has useful, interesting illustrations and
end matter that includes comprehensive notes, references and an index.
Robert
Paul Weiner is an author, teacher, and consultant on multiculturalism and
creativity and has also served as Coordinator of Liberal Studies at St Mary's
College of California and Chair of Liberal Arts at John F Kennedy University.
Another
important book in this field is Explaining
Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation by Prof R Keith Sawyer available
on paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon.com. The voluminous 568-page second
edition of this book published in 2012 has many positive peer reviews on the
site; including from Professor David Henry Feldman of Tufts University who describes
Prof Sawyer and his work as “leading young scholar and proponent of a sociocultural
approach to the study of creativity...written the most comprehensive and
compelling work on creativity studies in years."[4]
Professor
R Keith Sawyer is a leading scientific expert on creativity, innovation, and
learning and teaches psychology, education, and business at Washington
University in St Louis. He has strong practical background in real-world
creativity having begun his career making videogames for Atari after his
graduation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before a stint as a
management consultant in Boston and New York. He is also an accomplished jazz
pianist who has played the piano with various theater groups in Chicago for
many years.
Summarizing
and integrating extensive research in psychology and related scientific fields,
Professor Sawyers’ book has the latest scientific research on creativity. The
book has an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses the arts, science,
stage performance, business innovation, and everyday-life creativity. This
interdisciplinary approach to creativity is reflected in the examination of
various psychological, anthropological, sociological, and cognitive neuroscience
studies. Individual, social and cultural contexts of creativity, including the
role of collaboration in the creative process, are explored.
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also a 321-page book freely available online entitled Creativity: Theory,
History and Practice by Professor Rob Pope of Oxford Brookes University.
Offering important perspectives on creativity based on contemporary critical
theory and cultural history, the book is divided into four parts namely why
creativity now; defining creativity, creating definitions; creation as myth,
story, metaphor; and creative practices, cultural processes. The eight chapters
in the book include “creativity old, new and otherwise”, “alternative terms,
emerging debates,” and “transforming
culture”. The book also has end matter that includes a list of further reading
by topic, bibliography and an index.
Understanding
why creativity in business has become important is crucial in understanding
business trends in United States, and indeed in the world. As the world
continues to technologically become flat, it is important for the country to
retain its competitive advantage. Whereas many countries can compete on such
aspects as economies of scale, labor and logistics, most Western economies,
including the United States, remain leaders in research and development
(R&D); a critical aspect of product development and marketing. Creativity
that leads to invention and innovation is core for the country to continue
being a leader in business.
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Bibliography
Pope, R.
Creativity: Theory, History and Practice.
New York: Routledge, 2005. http://www.itu.dk/~kenn/dtu-diplom/imv2013/Creativity_%20Theory,%20History,%20Practice.pdf.
Sawyer,
R K. Explaining Creativity: The Science
of Human Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. http://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Creativity-Science-Human-Innovation/dp/0199737576.
Simonton,
D K. The Psychology of Creativity: A
Historical Perspective. Davis: University of California, 2001. http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/faculty_sites/simonton/HistoryCreativity.pdf.
Weiner,
R P. Creativity and Beyond: Cultures,
Values, and Change. New York: SUNY Press, 2012. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=2hFvMUYNnEgC&pg=PR11&dq=creativity+and+beyond+google+books+weiner&hl=en&sa=X&ei=e9ldVaiBI4LisATA5YDgAQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=creativity%20and%20beyond%20google%20books%20weiner&f=false.
Wikipedia.
Creativity. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity.
Accessed on May 21, 2015.
Weiner, R P. Creativity
and Beyond: Cultures, Values, and Change. New York: SUNY Press, 2012. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=2hFvMUYNnEgC&pg=PR11&dq=creativity+and+beyond+google+books+weiner&hl=en&sa=X&ei=e9ldVaiBI4LisATA5YDgAQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=creativity%20and%20beyond%20google%20books%20weiner&f=false.
Sawyer,
R K. Explaining Creativity: The Science
of Human Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. http://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Creativity-Science-Human-Innovation/dp/0199737576.
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