Business Commons^™

Linking Innovation & Creativity With Diversity & Inclusion Using Lean Six Sigma, Robin A. Roberts

Robin A. Roberts

“The SHRM Workplace Diversity Conference & Exposition fosters awareness and appreciation of workplace diversity issues through thought leadership, strategy development, resources, publications and professional development for HR professionals and other business leaders. Making the business case for diversity, helping HR professionals to better articulate its strategic business value, and enabling them to build more diverse and inclusive cultures, are the cornerstones of the initiative.”—Society for Human Resource Management website

"First Of It's Kind", Adenike Oyebanjo

Adia Coleman

Creativity From Constraint? How Political Correctness Influences Creativity In Mixed-Sex Work Groups, Jack Goncalo, Jennifer Chatman, Michelle Duguid, Jessica Kennedy

Jack Goncalo

Most group creativity research is premised on the assumption that creativity is unleashed by removing normative constraints. As work organizations become increasingly diverse in terms of gender, however, this assumption needs to be reconsidered since mixed-sex interactions carry a high risk of offense. Departing from the assumption that normative constraints necessarily stifle creativity, we develop a theoretical perspective in which creativity in mixed-sex groups is enhanced by imposing a norm to be politically correct (PC)—a norm that sets clear expectations for how men and women should interact with one another. We present evidence from two group experiments showing that the …

Embeddedness And New Idea Discussion In Professional Networks: The Mediating Role Of Affect-Based Trust, Roy Y. J. Chua, Michael W. Morris, Paul Ingram

Roy CHUA

This article examines how managers' tendency to discuss new ideas with others in their professional networks depends on the density of shared ties surrounding a given relationship. Consistent with prior research which found that embeddedness enhances information flow, an egocentric network survey of mid-level executives shows that managers tend to discuss new ideas with those who are densely embedded in their professional networks. More specifically, embeddedness increases the likelihood to discuss new ideas by engendering affect-based trust, as opposed to cognition-based trust. Implications for network and creativity research are discussed.

Creativity As A Matter Of Choice: Prior Experience And Task Instruction As Boundary Conditions For The Positive Effect Of Choice On Creativity, Roy Y. J. Chua, Sheena S. Iyengar

Roy CHUA

This study investigates the effects of prior experience, task instruction, and choice on creative performance. Although extant research suggests that giving people choice in how they approach a task could enhance creative performance, we propose that this view needs to be circumscribed. Specifically, we argue that when choice is administered during problem solving by varying the number of available resources, the high combinatorial flexibility conferred by a large choice set of resources can be overwhelming. Through two experiments, we found that only individuals with high prior experience in the task domain and given explicit instruction to be creative produced more …

The Costs Of Ambient Cultural Disharmony: Indirect Intercultural Conflicts In Social Environment Undermine Creativity, Roy Y. J. Chua

Roy CHUA

Intercultural tensions and conflicts are inevitable in the global workplace. This paper introduces the concept of ambient cultural disharmony—indirect experience of intercultural tensions and conflicts in individuals' immediate social environment—and demonstrates how it undermines creative thinking in tasks that draw on knowledge from multiple cultures. Three studies (a network survey and two experiments) found that ambient cultural disharmony decreases individuals' effectiveness at connecting ideas from disparate cultures. Beliefs that ideas from different cultures are incompatible mediate the relationship between ambient cultural disharmony and creativity. Alternative mechanisms such as negative affect and cognitive disruption were not viable mediators. Although ambient cultural …

Keeping The Magic: New Educator Award Winners Discuss Creativity And Challenges In Mid-Career, Joy Beatty, Amy L. Kenworthy, Jennifer S.A. Leigh, Suzanne De Janasz, Charles J. Fornaciari, Jane V. Wheeler, Kirsty K. Spence

Amy L. Kenworthy

Extract The New Educator Award recognizes early career teachers who have demonstrated excellence and creativity in their teaching practice, pedagogical research, and service to OBTS. In this session seven NEA winners discuss keeping magic in their teaching practice. Having moved from “new” to mid-career, the session addresses two questions: (1) what is the current career challenge you face? and (2) what attitudes, behaviors, or practices allow you to keep the magic (stay energized) in your career? The session encourages inquiry and dialogue with panellists and audience members about mid-career opportunities and challenges.

The Design Of Teaching Protocols That Develop Creativity, Innovation And Innovative Thinking Within Higher Education Business Schools - A Transfer Of Best Practice From Design And Engineering Education Principles, Lee Styger

Lee Styger

Typically, the construct of innovation within business education has focused around the concept of developing innovative and creative leaders of business. This is particularly so in the higher educational fields and specifically so within the context of the global market positioning of many MBA programs currently. However, in many cases, it would appear that business schools are typically embarking on a journey of curriculum development from the point of the core teaching of business methodologies (i.e. silo thinking), rather than incorporating best practice from other disciplines such as those found in leading design and engineering education, where, for example, applied …

Visual Creativity In Advertising: A Functional Typology, John R. Rossiter, Tobias Langner, Lawrence Ang

John Rossiter

There are many ways in which the visuals of an advertisement can be made "creative." In this article, we propose a new typology of visual creative ideas. The typology is functlonal in that the first type, literal product or user visuals, which are "noncreative" in the usual sense gain selective attention, by a product category-involved audience. The other three types, in contrast, are "creative" and can force reflexive attention among low-involved audiences. These are called pure attention getters, including the innate erotic, baby, and direct-gaze schemas, and the learned shock, celebrity, and culture-icon and subculture-icon schemas; distortional attention getters, including …