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Creativity Assignment 1

Creativity, Innovation and Design Thinking (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)

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Creativity, Innovation and Design Thinking Assignment 1: Argumentative academic essay

‘Organizations can make very little impact on strengthening creativity,

innovation and design thinking processes as these are dependent on
individual employees'.

Introduction
This essay will emphasise the critical arguments on whether organisations can make very
little impact on strengthening creativity, innovation and design thinking processes as these
are dependant on individual employees. I disagree with this statement as creativity,
innovation and design thinking can be heavily impacted by an organisation and the
environment an employee is in. Many different aspects of an organisation can influence
creativity and influence innovative thinking within an individual through an organisation’s
culture, leadership style and group involvement. A company must begin with having a culture
that encourages and promotes creativity, innovation and design thinking. The innovative
culture should also be reiterated by team leaders and managers who act like role models and
show confidence towards their team to be creative and innovative.
Creativity is the development of original ideas that make a socially accepted contribution.
Innovation is the process of implementing ideas to improve systems, operations and products.
Design thinking is a thought process that improves ways of performing tasks and provides
solutions to an established problem. These three aspect take place within an organisation and
this can occur through individual work, group work and multiple levels contributions. It is
important for both organisations and individuals to employ creativity, innovation and design
thinking regardless of what industry they are in as these aspects address the complex and
evolving nature of today’s problem. Furthermore, it allows for companies to stay ahead of
their completion and provides an insight to user-focused products and services.

Organisational Culture and Work Environment

An organisation and its community have a significant role to play in the productivity of its
employees and the level of innovation they have. Establishing an innovative workforce is
very critical for companies seeking to achieve a competitive edge in creativity and design
over competitors. An organisation’s culture would have a dramatic effect on how an
individual worker performs and promotes creativity. A culture that promotes processes for
generating new ideas, active exchange of knowledge and concepts, encourages and
acknowledges creative will promote creative and innovative attempts to solve challenges and
solutions (Fortwengel, Schüßler & Sydow 2016). Many of the most productive businesses
adopt these practises because innovation is inspired by organisations that foster intent,
flexibility and employee mastery (Blauth, Mauer & Brettel 2014). Organisations like Pixar
and Disney that are heavily dependant on new innovative concepts have enabled their staff to
be active in a lifelong learning cycle (Stallard 2014). The introduction has seen workers feel a
sense of self-actualisation and has given workers more creative flexibility, which has made
these box office companies so successful.

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Collaborative sharing is definitely a contributing factor of creativity and design thinking with
many new ideas being shared with diversely skilled team that supports each other ideas
allows for an open and effective interactive team (Nayak 2008). Moreover, an organisation
must provide challenging work that gives a sense of fulfillment for employees which will
prompt individuals to be more creative to tackle more challenging tasks and important
projects (Blauth, Mauer & Brettel 2014). A company should not limit the work an employee
is involved in and allow for flexibility within a workplace for creative thinking for an
employee.

The physical workplace of an individual also increases creativity through the use of a
spacious and refreshing work environment. A physical space can be divided into three
different functions: instrumentality, symbolism and aesthetics (Kallio, Kallio & Blomberg
2015). Instrumentality refers to how the physical environment and how the objects around it
can help or inhibit creativity, innovation and design thinking. If these conditions are met
correctly, the function will allow for fast and efficient decision marking and successful group
collaboration. Symbolism refers to the collection of symbols which shape the culture, identity
and values of the organisation (Kallio, Kallio & Blomberg 2015). This viewpoint encourages
collaboration and thought sharing. On the other hand, the aesthetic aspect refers to the
reaction to the physical environment whether it is ugly or beautiful (Kallio, Kallio &
Blomberg 2015). This aspect is seen as fostering a sense of belonging and creating unique
sensory experiences. Large corporations such as YouTube, Google and Pixar provide their
employees with large work spaces with surrounding views and inspiration. Main dining halls
and restaurants tend to be set in the middle of the office spaces to encourage a high level of
interaction of space (Buck 2012). These interactions between staff have become a highly
affect practice as employees are able to cooperate with members from different sectors and
teams they may give a different input and insight to existing and new projects (Shontell
2020). To make employees feel more comfortable, Google allow their workers build their
own workstations whether they be standing desks that have treadmills attached or areas that
require white/glass boards to write ideas down (Buck 2012). Google and YouTube offices are
also thematized and are carefully evaluated from an architectural viewpoint to produce a
creative workplace for their employees. These corporations recognise that their success
depends heavily on creativity, innovation and design thinking and hence their strong
emphasis on enhancing the workplace culture and physical environment.

Leadership

The leadership formed by an organisation can encourage employees and see a positive impact
on the creativity, innovation and design thinking. In particular, transformational leaders have
been shown to have a direct influence and considerable effect on their worker’s creativity and
innovation (Khalili 2016). Transformational leadership is a leadership style that identifies
change that is needed which then creates a vision. To evoke the vision to their employees,
leaders guide the change through inspiration and this allows tasks to be executed through the
commitment and trust of members of the team (Khalili 2016). A transformational leader
displays genuine and powerful leadership which motivates and inspires employees to be more
innovative and be involved in the future success of the company. Leaders have a huge
responsibility of creative a work atmosphere that is open and flexible to change so that
employees do not feel stuck and stagnant in their work (Eisenbeiß & Boerner 2011). A leader
must also be able to supply their employees with the right resources and be willing to
implement new ideas and suggestions presented by employees.

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Elon Musk has demonstrated transformational leadership as he emphasises an optimistic

vision combined with dedication and perseverance. He is also motivated, imaginative and
above all innovative. Musk leads by example and through his drive towards excellence he is
able to also push the people around him and his employees towards their fullest potential and
perhaps beyond (Blazek 2018). Musk enables innovation and creative performances of
workers because he encourages them to think outside the box and take on projects and ideas
they have never done before (Blazerk 2018). This belief and freedom he instils in this
workers has produced high levels of innovations from all his workers across all this different
companies. This in return creates a great work climate that encourages design thinking and
builds a culture that rewards creative efforts.

Individual Skills and Organisational Diversity

An individual’s skills to some degree influence the levels of imagination, innovation and
design thinking. On a personal level, the innovation and creative thinking of an individual
depends on their cognitive capacity, temperament, experiences, knowledge of a given subject,
motivation, interests, social and contextual influences (Martins & Terblanche 2003).
Individuals are able to succeed on their own and engage in many innovative projects without
the assistance of an organisation. However, down the road individuals may require support
from others and feedback from others.
The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos would be one with certain personal characteristics;
namely the dream and vision he has for the business. Bezos was a product manger before
becoming a leading entrepreneur and innovator (Umoh 2017). Bezos had these characteristics
as he already had a dream of the future and business plan for Amazon and worked on his
company in his garage disconnected from the world. Bezos considered that workers were not
involved in their employment to generate ideas (Fabiano 2019). Bezos’s boldness in taking
chances, ambition and determination helped create the Amazon we know now; changing the
ecommerce market and how people purchase books and other items (Fabiano 2019). This
emphasises how effective creativity, innovative and design thinking activities may rely solely
on individuals such as Bezos with such personal traits such as motivation, vision and
determination.
Diversity is also viewed within an organisation as an enabler for creativity, innovation and
design thinking. When people of different national and culture backgrounds, perspectives and
working styles come together and discuss ideas, individuals and group creativity will be
greatly enhanced (Bouncken, Brem & Kraus 2016). Organisational diversity allows for the
presentation of international cultures and values which encourages individuals to step beyond
their usual systems of awareness and acknowledge new insights and ideas (Balkin & Schjoedt
2012). Therefore, individuals with a higher rate of multiculturalism experience can form
different ideas that go beyond the boundaries.
Spotify is a company that is amongst the few organisations that heavily accentuate and
recognise diversity within their workforce. Spotify concentrates on maximising diversity and
inclusion within their operations and corporate events to achieve superior business outcomes
and to remain viable within their highly competitive market climate (Notermans 2018). In
addition, Spotify supports the use of shared perspectives and backgrounds by diversifying
staff meeting to inspire more innovative solutions. The strong focus on organisational

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diversity has helped promoted creativity, innovation and design thinking within the company
which has allowed Spotify to become the leading music streaming service.

Conclusion
In conclusion, organisations do have a significant impact on strengthening creativity,
innovation and design thinking processes as these are not solely dependant on individual
employees. Firstly, organisational culture and physical work environment have a significant
impact of the productivity of individuals and how well they perform in creative and
innovative tasks. Establishing a work culture that supports innovation and encourages out of
the box thinking is paramount to the success of an individuals design thinking. In addition to
a great work culture, the physical environment surrounding employees must provide for a
comfortable and creative space for ideas to develop. A culture that allows for collaboration
and is designed to accommodate meetings will heavily impact an individual’s ability to create
and innovate within an organisation. Leaders and management must reiterate this through the
use of transformational leadership as this has been established to have a direct effect on an
individuals ability to produce creative ideas and innovative designs. However, an individual’s
skill, personal experience and traits may have an influence of the level of innovative and
creative thinking they provide but this could also be developed and strengthened with
organisational diversity. Diversity within a workplace has proven to be an effective way of
giving employees a different viewpoint of things and allows them to hear new ideas and
suggestions from people of various culture and employment backgrounds. Finally, it can be
concluded that organisations can have a considerable impact on strengthening the creativity,
innovation and design thinking process of individual employees.

References
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