Innovation as a subject is very broad and has received attention from a large number of researchers. Senior managers that see the value in formally managing innovation are not only faced with making decisions about where to start and what to focus on, but also with specific challenges that make innovation difficult to manage. These challenges include definitions of innovation that differ widely within organizations, ownership of different stages of the innovation process, cultural issues as well as lack of innovation performance measures. To assist executives under such circumstances, the aim of the research was to identify key elements of an innovation strategy as well as the appropriate performance measures that will determine the extent to which the innovation strategy is bearing fruit. This research was carried out in two stages. The first stage consisted of documentary (secondary) research, the purpose of which was to develop an innovation strategy scorecard. The scorecard was developed by firstly identifying the key components of an innovation strategy, arranging them into perspectives and thereafter developing performance measurements for each perspective. The purpose of the second stage was to validate the results obtained in stage one using feedback from a panel of experts in innovation management. At the end of the research, the key components of the innovation strategy were represented as perspectives similar to those in the Balanced Scorecard methodology. The perspectives consisted of innovation vision, innovation goals and objectives, innovation sources and resourcing, innovation metrics as well as innovation deployment. Performance measures were identified for each of these perspectives to develop the innovation strategy scorecard. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of the present research was to examine the behavioral and individual-differences characteristics of a key figure in the innovation process—the champion. The champion, also known as corporate entrepreneur (Kanter, 1982), and intrapreneur (Pinchot, 1985) is an individual who emerges informally in an organization to introduce and promote innovation. These individuals have been described as forceful, driven, energetic, and visionary and have been found to be critical players in the success of organizational innovation. The majority of research on the champion has not, however, been conducted with a focus on this key figure. Rather, the emphasis of much of the previous research has typically been on the process of innovation, with the champion acknowledged and discussed, but not featured or described in detail. Given the importance of the champion in promoting innovation, it would be desirable to conduct research in which this figure was the focus of attention. The three studies carried out as part of this research project were designed with this purpose in mind. Methods of individual-differences assessment were applied to the study of the champion. The present research began with a study of the champion’s behavior. Techniques from the act frequency approach (Buss & Craik, 1980) were used to develop a comprehensive behavioral profile of the champion in order to establish a structural model of championship. Acts describing championship were generated by panels of middle- and senior-level managers and these items were factor analyzed separately in two samples, involving over 600 managers from seven Western Canadian organizations. Ultimately, 10 first- and two second-order factors were identified and named by subject matter experts. Evidence was found for a heroic and a dark side to championship at the second order factor level. In Study 2, the focus turned to predictor measurement. Supervisory ratings of championship on the criterion dimensions identified in Study 1 were obtained for 174 middle- and senior-level managers. These same managers had been participants in a three-day Assessment Center in which they were administered: (a) cognitive ability tests, (b) personality inventories, (c) management simulations, and (d) a structured interview. Correlations computed between the Assessment Center measures, on the one hand, and the criterion dimensions on the other, led to the conclusion that the dark side of championship could be predicted, but that, unfortunately, the heroic side could not. On the basis of the Assessment Center scale correlations with the dark side, the champion was found to be: dominant, assertive, exhibitionistic, aggressive, independent, competitive, driven, impulsive, impatient, and likely to break rules and take risks. The results of Study 3 led to the development of a low-fidelity simulation, based on the behavioral consistency model (Wernimont & Campbell, 1968). This simulation, called the Management Practices Simulation (MPS), was administered to the Assessment Center participants involved in Study 2 and scores on the MPS were correlated with scores on the criterion dimensions from Study 1. Two higher-order MPS scales were found to correlate significantly with the two second-order criterion factor scales identified in Study 1. Moreover, the criterion-related validity of these scales surpassed that achieved with any component of the Assessment Center. The results of Studies 1, 2, and 3 indicate that championship is a multi dimensional construct that, at a higher-order level, can be described with reference to two orthogonal dimensions, labeled the dark and heroic side. Individuals can be ordered along a continuum on these dimensions and this scaling reflects meaningful differences in behavior. Psychological tests can be used to predict ratings of championship, at least those associated with the dark side. Finally, application of the behavioral consistency model to the development of a low-fidelity simulation, led to the creation of a new instrument—the Management Practices Simulation—whose scales correlated significantly and at a slightly higher-level with the criterion than any of the Assessment Center battery scales. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

In a commonly held view, creativity and intelligence interact in a mutually enhancing way. Their interaction, however is assumed to be slight and relatively unimportant, and to find its ceiling at a certain IQ level. Beyond this IQ ceiling, no interaction is believed to occur, and the two variables are assumed to be independent. It is suggested that this view and those theorists who hold it do little to explain the reason for the ceiling effect. An attempt is made to devise a theoretical system which accounts for a explains the ceiling effect, as well as providing new ground for the synthesis of existing experimental data from a wide range of related fields. The theoretical system is based upon the hypothesis that an environmental variable acts to suppress increased potential for creativity accompanying increases in intelligence level, and that this variable is able in effect to cancel the higher potential for creativity which may exist among those above the ceiling level of intelligence. The research is reviewed in search of any support for or critical refutation of the hypothesis and its corollaries, and suggestions are made as to the possible mediators of the suppressor-variable effect. It is concluded that the suppressor-variable hypotheses, provides a useful means of bringing together widely diversified bodies of research data, and accounts for the ceiling effect without violating logical and initiative conceptions of intelligence and creativity.

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The importance of personality characteristics in the study of creativity has been emphasized by many investigators (Golann,. 1963; Delias and Gaier, 1970). In this line of investigation there has been some inconsistency in the findings both in regard to the way in which creative persons describe themselves and the way in which they are judged by others . To account for the variance In results , a number of factors such as intelligence (Wallach and Kogan, 1965) , sex (Kurtzman, 1967) , and age (Parloff et. al • , 1968 ) have been suggested as influencing the personality correlates of creativity. The purpose of this study is to investigate an additional factor , organizational structuredness. This study will be concerned with contrasting the self-perception and peer acceptance of high and low creative students in a high structure and low structure Junior High School.

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