Veränderungen sind in Lebens- und Arbeitskontexten allgegenwärtig. Sie führen zum Durchbrechen von routinierten Pfaden und Auflösen von Rezeptwissen. Darüber hinaus generieren sie Unsicherheit, Komplexität und Widersprüchlichkeit. Studierenden diese Phänomene zu vergegenwärtigen bzw. sie für diese zu sensibilisieren ist ebenso eine Herausforderung der Hochschuldidaktik. Des Weiteren sieht sich die Hochschule des 21. Jahrhunderts mit der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung konfrontiert. Im Rahmen des Lehr-Lern-Projekts haben wir uns dieser Schwerpunkte angenommen. Der Werkstattbericht verdeutlicht die Generierung einer expansiven Bildungskonzeption und versucht einen Möglichkeitsraum für die Hochschuldidaktik zu schaffen. Des Weiteren stellen wir die Evaluation sowie Implikationen für eine Weiterentwicklung des didaktischen Konzepts dar.

The prevalence of Virtual Team (VT) configurations in organizations has come to challenge the relevance of traditional management practices based on traditional, physically collocated teams. Creativity—a topical and multidisciplinary issue—has been under-researched within the context of virtuality. Predicated on the premise that creativity may be expressed differently in the context of VTs, I draw the conceptual foundations for this research from the fields of virtuality (i.e. VTs) and creativity, and use engineering design as the empirical context, with the aim of pursuing a better understanding of creativity in relationship with virtuality in the context of Virtual Design Teams (VDTs). Design constitutes a pertinent empirical context because (a) designers have to deliver outputs requiring creativity; and (b) their work is increasingly accomplished in VDT environments. I report on the findings from three case studies involving temporary VDTs. Studies 1 and 2 comprised student engineers. Study 3 was a comparative case study focusing on a team of professional engineers, who completed one design task while physically collocated (face-to-face, F2F) and another one while geographically dispersed (virtually), with the aim of isolating factors that are unique to virtuality. With an interpretive stance guiding this research, the same analytical approach for each case study, and with the team serving as the unit of analysis, I analysed the collected data (interview data, observations, video recordings, photographic material, documents, communication extracts, design and other outputs) qualitatively with the use of visual and thematic analysis. The thesis makes the following theoretical contributions: (a) it advances understanding of creativity within the VDT lifecycle; (b) it elicits factors influencing creativity in the temporary VDT context; and (c) it explains how the unique characteristics of virtuality influence creativity within this context. The thesis’ limitations as well as implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre des recherches menées sur la méthode des personas. Modèles d’utilisateurs, les personas restituent de manière personnalisée des comportements, des attitudes ou encore des contextes d’usage. A ce titre, ils sont utilisés dans le domaine de la conception de produits numériques. Nous proposons, plus largement, de les mobiliser au cours d’interventions axées sur la santé des salariés et la performance des systèmes. En effet, les personas sont considérés dans la littérature comme un outil puissant de génération et de sélection des idées. De plus, les travaux menés principalement en psychologie de la créativité permettent de penser que les personas sont effectivement susceptibles d’améliorer les performances créatives des acteurs impliqués dans un processus de transformation ou de conception. Néanmoins, très peu de recherches ont porté sur cet aspect. La question est donc d’établir la capacité des personas à générer des idées nouvelles et adaptées. Cinq études ont été conduites pour répondre à cette question. Elles montrent que les personas ne se distinguent pas des autres sources d’inspiration étudiées par le nombre d’idées générées. Leur apport fondamental se situe au niveau de la nature des idées produites et de leur capacité à instrumenter la sélection de ces idées. De plus, les personas soutiennent la construction de représentations communes, la simulation langagière et l’activité argumentative dans les groupes de travail. Ces résultats confirment l’utilité du recours aux personas dans un processus de transformation ou de conception. Ils ouvrent des perspectives sur un enrichissement de l’intervention / This thesis is part of the research on personas. As user models, personas restore in a personalized way, behaviors, attitudes or contexts of use. Thus, they are commonly used in the field of digital product design. We propose using them in a broader context i.e in interventions focused in occupational health and systems performance. In the literature on personas they are considered as a powerful tool for idea generation and idea selection. In addition, the research mainly in the domain of the psychology of creativity shows that personas are actually likely to improve creative performance. However, very few studies have focused on this aspect. The question is to establish whether the personas are able to generate new and relevant ideas. Five studies were carried out to answer this question. They indicate that personas do not generate more ideas than other sources of inspiration taken into consideration. Their fundamental contribution lies in the nature of the ideas generated and in their ability to orchestrate the selection of these ideas. Moreover, personas support the construction of common representations, the simulation activity and the discussion in the working groups. These results confirm the contribution of personas to a transformation or design process. They allow us to open up perspectives for an enrichment of the intervention

In recent years, there has been a strong interest in developing Creativity Support Tools for many exciting areas of research such as art and music. Yet few such tools have been developed to support creativity in advertising. This is unusual since advertising, like art and music, is a highly creative endeavour of the human mind. The goal of advertising is to transform a communicational objective of a product or a service into a creative idea. A tool that would enhance the development of creative ideas in advertising would be highly beneficial for the advertising industry and possibly shed light on the mystery behind creativity. In this thesis, I developed Creative Pad, a new Creativity Support Tool to assist advertising creative in generating creative ideas for advertising. In developing Creative Pad, I studied advertising creativity and human creative thinking. I developed a framework for analysing the advertising process, in which the process is viewed as having three distinct phases: a message, an idea, and an execution. A significant implication of this view is that the process for developing ideas for new advertisements and the process of executing those ideas and turning them into creative products are independent. Each step is the result of a significant creative process. Creative Pad is developed to assist in the development of creative ideas for new advertisements. To assist this creativity, relevant triggers are needed. Research has shown that individuals with high associative skills produce more creative advertising. Creative Pad supports the associative skills of the advertising creative and exploits the use of the Internet as a dynamic database. It finds words and sentences related to the original communicational objective, providing relevant triggers for the associative creative process in the minds of the advertising creative. Several experiments using Creative Pad were conducted with advertising creative and students with no advertising background. The results show that Creative Pad supports the generation of new ideas in two ways. First, and most important, all the subjects were able to develop interesting new ideas. In particular, the advertising creative were able to design a sketch of the advertisement from ideas generated using Creative Pad. Second, I was able to find a connection between the triggers, the words and sentences selected by the user during the creative process, and the ideas generated. Although the connection might be considered a weak one, it nonetheless demonstrates that a connection exists between the ideas developed by the advertising creative and those suggested by Creative Pad.

The notion of sustainability has become an extensive area of research ever since the term emerged in the late 1980s, due to the negative effects of unsustainable production and consumption patterns on environmental stewardship, social equity and economic development. There have been various approaches developed for product design and education within the context sustainability. Biomimicry is one of those approaches, and its implications for product design education have recently started to be explored. In this study, an educational tool - Biomimicry Sketch Analysis (BSA) - was developed and integrated into the idea-generation phase of an educational design project at the undergraduate level in the Department of Industrial Design at the Middle East Technical University (METU). This integration is analyzed throughout the graduate thesis study, to understand and explore the implications of the biomimicry approach for sustainability in product design education. The educational tool within this approach was found as influential among the third year industrial design students for the idea-generation phase, yet the results of this study included both pros and cons for the incorporation of the BSA exercise.

Problem Att generera kreativa idéer i grupp kan anses vara en omöjlig uppgift när en arbetsgrupp är homogen där divergent tänkande saknas. Då veckomöten är identiska och innehåller upprepande processer i form av att samma dagordning repeteras, anser författarna att nya metoder är nödvändiga för att nya idéer ska träda fram. Syfte Författarna vill undersöka om en stegvis förändring i arbetsgruppens veckomötes rutiner kan öka antal idéer/ förslag som arbetsgruppen genererar fram. Tanken är att ge produktionsledaren ett verktyg som denne kan använda sig av när gruppen ska generera fram lösningar till arbetsrelaterade problem.  Metod Metoden i arbetet är en systematisk observation, det vill säga att flera observatörer studerar flera individers beteende med en specifik instruktion. Instruktionen anger vilka händelser som observeras. Instruktionen i detta arbete är studiens syfte som undersöker arbetsgruppens idégenerering. Den andra instruktionen ska informera deltagarna om den kreativa övningen. Teori Författarna tar upp viktiga förutsättningar som kan stimulera gruppkreativitet. Teorier som författarna tar med i arbetet beskriver bland annat ledarskapsstilar, motivation, kreativa övningar i grupp samt divergent tänkande. Empiri Genom att manipulera möten för en arbetsgrupp har författarna observerat om idégenereringen kan öka med hjälp av en förändring av lokalen samt kreativa övningar. De fyra observationstillfällen samt intervjuer har bidragit till en förståelse kring hur arbetsgruppen tar emot sådan förändring samt vilken effekt manipulationerna har på arbetsgruppens idégenerering.  Analys Svaret på arbetets frågeställningar har analyseras fram med hjälp av det teoretiska perspektivet samt empiriska studier som genomfördes på avdelningen som ingick i undersökningen. Frågor som besvaras handlar om hur man kan träna arbetsgruppen till att generera fler idéer, kommer antal idéer att öka med hjälp av våra manipulationer samt vilka förutsättningar bör skapas för att arbetsgruppen skall behålla kreativiteten. Resultat Författarna har utifrån empirin utvecklat en egen modell som skulle kunna användas av arbetsledaren som ett verktyg för arbetsgruppen att behålla idégenereringen vid framtida möten. Slutsats Författarna markerar i punktform förutsättningar som måste skapas för att denna arbetsgrupp ska använda kreativa övningar som ett verktyg vid idégenerering. Flera faktorer måste samspela för att kreativiteten ska behållas i framtiden. / Problems To generate creative ideas in groups can be considered an impossible task when a task force is homogeneous where divergent thinking is missing. When the weekly meetings are identical and contain repetitive processes in the form of the same agenda is repeated the authors consider that the new methods are necessary for new ideas to emerge. Purpose The authors would like to investigate if a step change in the working group meeting weekly routines can increase the working groups number of ideas / suggestions. The idea is to give the production manager a tool that he can use when the group generates solutions to work-related problems. Method The method of work is a systematic observation, namely that several observers studying several individual behavior with a specific instruction. The instruction specifies which events are observed. The instruction in this work is the study aim to investigate the working group idea generation. The second instruction is to inform participants about the creative exercise. Theory The authors raise important conditions that can stimulate group creativity. Highlighted theories include important inputs of leadership styles, motivation, creative exercises in groups and divergent thinking. Empirical studies By manipulating the meetings of a working group, the authors observed if idea generation increases through a change of venue, and creative exercises. The four observation sessions and interviews contribute to an understanding of how the working group receives such change, and the impact of the manipulations on ideas generated. Analysis The answer to questions has been analyzed with the help of theoretical perspectives and empirical studies conducted in the department surveyed. Questions answered about how to train working group to generate more ideas, the number of ideas to increase with the help of our manipulations and what conditions should be created for the group to maintain creativity. Results The authors have based on empirical data developed a model that could be used by the supervisor so that the group can keep the idea generation at future meetings. Conclusion The author’s highlight in bullet form what conditions must be created for this working group to use creative exercises as a tool for generating ideas. Several factors must interact for creativity to be retained in the future.

Studien syftar till att förbättra kunskapen om förhållandet mellan idéhantering och idégenereringsvilja hos Volvo CE och presenterar rekommendationer för fortsatt förbättringsarbete. Detta behov har uppkommit då Volvo CE uppfattat att antalet genererade idéer sjunkit. Följande frågor formulerades i arbetets inledningsfas: Hur påverkas deltagarnas vilja att komma med idéer och förbättringsförslag av idéhanteringssystemet? Finns det brister i Volvos idéhanteringssystem och om så är fallet, hur avhjälps detta? Arbetets empiri samlades genom ett antal intervjuer av deltagare och processledare under hösten 2011 och metoden har varit kvalitativ med grundad teori som ansats. Resultatet av arbetet är ett antal faktorer som tillsammans kraftigt påverkar deltagarnas idégenereringsvilja på lång sikt. Bland dessa faktorer finns, för att nämna några, innovation och ledarskap, återkoppling, upplevd expertis och insyn. / This study aims to gather knowledge regarding the connection between idea management and the employees will to participate in idea generation at Volvo CE. This was necessary as Volvo CE perceived that the amount of generated ideas was sinking. Recommendations for further improvements are also presented. The following questions were formulated at the start of this study: How is the participants will to share ideas and suggestions of improvement affected by the idea management system? Are there flaws in Volvo’s idea management system and if so, how can they be resolved? The data was gathered through a series of interviews during the fall of 2011 and the method used was a qualitative method with elements from grounded theory. The results presented are in form of factors that when combined, affect the participants longtime will to generate new ideas. Among these factors are, to mention a few, innovation and leadership, feedback, perceived expertise and transparency.

Coworking is a new type of work model that has been developing rapidly during the 21th century. However, no academic research has been conducted on the subject yet. We have, therefore, decided to study the subject in order to evaluate if and how Coworking has an effect on creativity. The problem with this thesis is that creativity is a broad subject that includes several variables. This has led us to study theories within the field of: innovation, motivation, personal traits, and environment in respect to the Creative Process by Sawyer (2006). These theories have laid the foundation of our theoretical framework and are used to study our purpose and answer the research questions. This thesis is built upon data from individual case studies from semi-structured interviewees with coworkers from The Hub in Stockholm, Sweden. These interviews have then been transcribed and categorized by the Content Analysis in accordance with Hancock (1998).  The data has then been analyzed in-depth by using Eisenhardt’s Cross-Case Pattern Analysis (1989) in order to evaluate the relevance and reliability of the data. The results from our analysis are presented in unity with our method and theoretical framework, this part concludes with a reflection over our purpose and suggestions for future areas of research. The main finding from the results is that Coworking has a positive effect on creativity. But, this is mainly due to the mix of people participating in Coworking. The diverse group of coworkers creates at network of knowledge located in an open atmosphere that simplifies the creation of new ideas. We believe that this thesis has contributed to the academic society as it currently is the only academic paper within the area of Coworking.

Globally distributed engineering teams are a reality in globally operating companies. However, research on teams is often done by psychologists, with a focus on general team building and working processes, and seldom on engineering teams and the challenges and benefits that are specific to them. In this thesis, experimental research on two globally distributed engineering teams is presented. First, one instance of globally distributed teams in computational fluid dynamics is scrutinized. Second, experimental research on idea generation methods used in globally distributed teams during the conceptual design phase of the product development process is presented. An experimental study simulating the global distribution of a three person Computational Fluid Dynamics team shows that successful sequential processing of a problem is possible given technological support by different internet based technologies. Three succeeding studies researched the influence of space and time during idea generation for an engineering problem, leading to the conclusion in the final study that idea generation in distributed engineering teams is a valid option. It is shown that the idea generation method has a significant effect on the number of ideas generated per team member. Further, the quality, novelty, and variety are each significantly influenced by both the idea generation method chosen and the team member’s location, but in different ways by the same level of each factor. Concluding, both experiments in distributed engineering teams show these teams have unused potential that can be utilized using appropriate process, procedures and tools.

In today’s competitive market, it is essential to be innovative and creative for an industry to sustain. Industry need to introduce new products to the market. Engineering idea generation plays a vital role in the development of new products. This research study is focused on the engineering idea generation. The representations of ideas have an important impact on the idea generation process. Design concepts may be represented in a variety of forms like sketches, physical models or computer based models. The goal of this research is to understand how these various representations affect design cognition. In this thesis, three studies showing the effects of two different representations in the idea generation process are presented. The first study focuses on the effects of physical models in engineers’ design cognition. This preliminary study investigates two different hypotheses: (1) Physical models supplement and improve designer’s mental models and (2) Physical models induce design fixation. The results show that physical models supplement the designer’s mental models but fail to enhance them. No evidence of design fixation is observed. The second and third studies investigate the effects of computer-based idea generation software on design cognition. The research questions investigated in this study are: (1) How does the use of this software tool assist design cognition? (2) How can the software interface be improved so that designers can generate ideas more easily? To answer these questions, a between-subjects idea generation experiment is conducted. In the experiment, the participants are asked to generate ideas to solve a design problem with and without the software. The results show that participants who generated ideas with the help of the software tool have less quantity of ideas compared to the control group. This may be due to the design fixation induced by the concepts presented. In the third study, the opinions of the participants for the improvements of the software interface are collected. Results show that participants do not have any preference of one way of clustering the concepts over the other. The results of this study also provide creative input for the future improvement of the software.