The purpose of this study is to investigate creativity, innovation and certain determining factors, which have an influence on creativity and innovation in the micro business environment and specifically in an information technology firm. The information and communications technology (ICT) sector is very dynamic and very fast paced both in the world and in South Africa. Businesses in this sector have to adapt, almost constantly, to incessantly changing technology, customer demands and macro-environmental variables. A vast amount of research exists to suggest that businesses have to adapt to and embrace change in order to survive in this environment. Creativity and innovation are central to change in the organisation. For the purposes of this study creativity is defined as an intellectual process evident in four discernible components, namely the creative person, the creative product, the creative process and the creative environment. Evidence for creativity and innovation includes novelty and usefulness of ideas and new or improved solutions to existing problems within a given context. Novelty and usefulness are therefore characteristic and typical evidence for the presence of creativity. All four components are important for the development and facilitation of creativity and innovation. The four components have a determining influence on creativity resulting in a feedback system. The study specifically focuses on creative environment and in this case - the organisational climate. Organisational climate is the observed recurring behavioural patterns and attitudes in the organisation. This climate influences creativity and innovation by supporting or inhibiting it. An organisation’s climate can also influence other psychological processes such as job satisfaction, decision-making, communication, team effort and motivation of workers across the organisation. The goal of this study was to identify and measure organisational climate factors known to have a significant, determining influence on the work environment, conducive to creativity and innovation. The organisational climate of a firm in the South African ICT sector was measured and analysed. The “Situational Outlook Questionnaire” (SOQ) was used to measure the organisational climate observable in the organisation. The SOQ is employed to assist organisations in assessing the organisational climate for its conduciveness to creativity and innovation, as well as the climate’s ability to foster and promote productivity and change within the organisation. The SOQ was developed over a period of fifty years and is proven to be a reliable and valid measuring instrument. The SOQ assesses nine dimensions that have a direct impact on a creative organisational climate. The nine dimensions are: Challenge/involvement, trust, risk-taking, playfulness/humour, freedom, conflict, debate, idea support, and idea-time. The results indicated the organisation that has been assessed has a strong climate supportive of and conducive to creativity and innovation. The organisation’s SOQ results across all dimensions, except the freedom and debate dimensions, compared very well with other innovative organisations. This could indicate that there is too much debate around decisions, resulting in too much talking before important issues are decided upon. The freedom score was also somewhat low because employees are probably not allowed to make independent decisions related to their jobs. Employees are under obligation to report to superiors before deciding important issues. This organisation’s management strives towards promoting and fostering a climate that is supportive of and conducive to creativity and innovation. This is evident in the results provided by the SOQ as well as the innovative products and services delivered to customers. / Prof. W.M. Conradie

The thesis argues that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between a leadership style and creativity. There is a higher statistically significant positive relation between Transformational Leadership style and creativity than between creativity and the other leadership styles. Creativity (fluency and originality of thought), can be accounted for by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. To demonstrate this, the research in this study firstly uses the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to identify leadership style, and secondly three measuring instruments that measure creativity. The argument is substantiated by the results of a statistical analysis of leadership style and creativity. A discussion of the areas that were researched, leadership style and associational/ideational fluency of thought and originality, as elements of creativity, provide the context in which the research should be viewed. A detailed discussion of the method, which was employed and the measuring instruments used to establish whether there is a statistical correlation between leadership style and creativity, precedes the experimental results. A critical discussion of the results obtained from the statistical analysis and the literature on leadership style and creativity provides a foundation for recommendations for organisations on how to use the results of this study. The dissertation recommends that, in order to improve on research of leadership and creativity, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) could be considered as a starting point. It would also be worthwhile pursuing means of improving the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire as creativity could be accounted for by the MLQ. This measuring instrument could be recommended as a test during the selection process. It is recommended that the manager of the person also completes the instrument and rates the person from his/her perspective when similar research is done in future. Although scoring seems to be a difficulty characteristic of any measurement that involves divergent thinking, it would be of value to pursue means of further improving the Remote Associates Test (RAT) for future research purposes in the South African context. Objectivity in the scoring of divergent thinking tests seem to be difficult to achieve. In order to score fluency and originality of thought objectively, use can be made of experts, who have the knowledge and skills required, to provide such evaluations. The findings in this research are valuable because of a lack of previous research on the relationship between creativity and leadership style. / Dr. J. Zaaiman

Innovation allows for competitive advantage. Competitive advantage and innovation lead to economic growth. For innovation to occur, creativity is necessary. All individuals are creative, but continuous practice is necessary to be creative. The process from creativity to innovation and competitive advantage and economic growth involves three stages. The first stage involves educating primary and secondary school children to be creative across different domains. Current school systems focus on mathematical and linguistic skills. Examples of domains are linguistic, performance, mechanicalscientific and artistic. These creative domains can be taught through encouraging children to use their imagination and different methods. In primary and secondary education little-c creativity and mini-c creativity are developed. Little-c creativity involves developing problem solving skills. Mini-c creativity involves the ability to recognise personal creative events, not necessarily recognised by others. Tertiary education involves students gaining knowledge in a specific domain. While studying to gain knowledge and conduct research on a specific domain, practicing creativity is still important. Upon completion of tertiary education the second stage in creating economic growth through creativity and innovation commences. This second stage involves organisations hiring creative employees that have knowledge within a domain similar to the organisation‟s industry. Creative employees develop creative ideas. The creative ideas allow for innovative products to be developed. Innovative products satisfy customer needs and lead to competitive advantage. Managers should encourage employees to be innovative. Employees that are motivated and encouraged to take risks develop a talent within the domain that they are employed in. The ability to be creative and innovative leads to pro-creativity and big-c creativity. Pro-c creativity refers to a talent being developed over approximately ten years. Big-c creativity involves creating products that benefits society positively. Upon creating products that benefit society, competitive advantage is created that allows for the third stage of creating economic growth to commence. This third stage involves economic growth that stems from innovation and creative individuals. Countries currently focus on stage two where they aim to encourage innovation amongst organisations. There is a realisation that to be innovative,creativity is necessarily and that creativity must be taught by means of education. This research study will use a questionnaire by Kaufman (2009, 2012, 2013) to determine how creative students perceive they are and whether they are capable of recognising different levels of creativity. A similar study was conducted in Germany and Mexico. Professor Alexander Brem was asked for the questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated from German to English. The objective is to determine whether students perceive themselves to be creative, thus being innovative within their organisations and indirectly allowing for competitive advantage and economic growth. Kaufmans‟ questionnaire was distributed to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Masters in Business Administration students. Ethics clearance was granted and answering the questionnaire was optional.To draw conclusions an Exploratory Factor Analysis was done on creative domains and the levels of creativity students are able to recognise. The first Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed performance creativity as the first factor, mechanicalscientific creativity as the second factor, scholarly creativity as the third factor and artistic creativity as the fourth factor. The second Exploratory Factor Analysis grouped pro-c creativity, big-c creativity and little-c creativity as the first factor, not being able to recognise creativity as the second factor and mini-c creativity as the third factor. The individual results from each factor were discussed. Each factor was further analysed by comparing gender, age, year‟s work experience and type of students to the type and level of creativity. The results show three trends. Firstly, results indicated that respondents perceived themselves to be predominantly scholarly and mathematical-scientific creative. This result is synonymous with secondary research that states that educational institutions focus on enhancing linguistic and mathematical skills amongst students and that developing skills in other domains are seen as less important. Secondly, the ability of students to recognise different levels of creativity decreases from big-creativity to pro-c creativity; pro-c creativity to little-c creativity and little-c creativity to mini-c creativity. Students are therefore better able to recognise large inventions than smaller inventions. Thirdly, results indicated that creativity levels do not differ when gender, age, year‟s work experience and type of students are compared. In this research study the above statements will be discussed in detail.

Creativity is seen as the driving force behind innovation. It can even be said to be the same process. It is critical to implement the creativity in order for innovation to actually take place. This combination of creativity and innovation is required for economic growth, sustainability, continuous improvement and competitive edge for organisations. Creativity is more than just artistic ability but includes scientific and problem solving steps and basic everyday creativity. This combination would be key in government departments, organisations and universities today. People’s perception on creativity could hamper their growth and development in this key area, not only for themselves but of others that they come into contact with. People’s perception on creativity is that it is either a genius form in either artistic or musical terms or it is not at all creative. They do not necessarily view the everyday tasks as creative. The research approach for this study is positivistic and deductive. The students’ perception of creativity is gathered using a quantitative questionnaire, where they rank their perceptions. The questionnaire was from an international study and it was made available to all students at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The data analysis will be both descriptive and inferential in nature. The research seeks to examine students’ perception of their own creativity and how they rate various creative products or services. Students are on their way to the pinnacle in their fields and the creativity should therefore be at its peak to be able to take full advantage and to get maximum benefit from it. The research will gain insight into their perception via a questionnaire where they need to rate themselves. The literature review will investigate creativity, innovation and the links between them. It will analyse the importance of innovation to business and the unlocking of creativity. There are many differing ways to unlock and stimulate creativity and some of these are addressed.

M.Comm. / The objectives of the study are: To define "creativity", to understand how people think when they solve problems, and to identify the major barriers to creative problem solving and opportunity finding and to investigate whether these barriers can be overcome. To investigate the essence of TRIZ, its history of development, how it works, its nderlying inventive principles, its psychology and whether it is an effective problem solving technique in the sense that it is a cure for barriers to creative thinking. To investigate whether TRIZ can be applied in a non-technical context as a creative problem solving technique, whether it can be applied in conjunction with other creative problem solving techniques and whether it is effective in relation to other creative problem solving techniques.

Lin, Bilian. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-96). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

This thesis tackles the assessment of job candidates‟ creative potential through the processes of recruitment and selection in UK creative SMEs. Literature on individual creativity (Rogers, 1954; Oldham and Cummings, 1996; Sternberg and Lubart, 1996; Sternberg, O‟Hara and Lubart, 1997; West, 1997; Simonton, 2000), has placed importance on the individual characteristics and personality traits that distinguish a creative individual from a non-creative. Lack of knowledge regarding creativity assessment through recruitment and selection in creative SMEs has triggered the author to investigate this area. The author has designed a theoretical framework which comprises three elements, namely personality traits, individual knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) and team KSAs, which, according to the literature review, need to be taken into account when assessing individuals‟ creative potential in creative SMEs. This framework was tested with the use of a mixed methodological approach. Firstly, the qualitative approach involved the performance of 17 interviews with the owners/managers and directors of creative SMEs in Scotland. The quantitative approach involved the design and distribution of a questionnaire to a larger sample of creative companies across the UK, which resulted in 140 answered questionnaires. From the analysis of these data, interesting findings arose which indicated that creative SMEs use a mix of criteria when assessing job candidates‟ creativity. Personality traits, individual and team KSAs were highlighted, as well as the importance of motivation, which influenced selection decisions. Variations on the importance of such criteria were evident when the researcher investigated the different creative sectors and the different positions the respondents held. The most commonly used recruitment and selection practices in creative SMEs were provided. Additionally, differences in the recruitment methods used between creative SMEs who have and have not won creative awards were highlighted.

Organisations are born from and grow through creative ideas and innovative endeavours. For much of the twentieth century efficiency within organisations tended to be emphasized as the most important business focus with innovation as second choice. However, recently innovation has been cited as the primary way in which organisations can create and ensure long-term stability, shareholder satisfaction and industry leadership with a sustainable position. Subsequently, organisations realised that if they harnessed creativity and innovation correctly, it could lead to competitive advantage. Hence the question, what constitutes innovation? This research study endeavoured to determine the building blocks of innovation in a state-owned enterprise within the transport industry to facilitate the consistent adoption of innovation and its practices, by presenting the findings in a conceptual framework. As innovation is a multi-faceted and complex topic to study, a qualitative approach was chosen to identify concepts depicting the building blocks of innovation and the relationships between those concepts to enhance corporate functioning. Therefore, the method chosen had to support a qualitative and inductive research approach. Grounded Theory, as a qualitative method, ensured that innovation would be understood from the perspective of the participant. This in turn would ensure that the final result, the conceptual framework of building blocks of innovation, would be suitable to the environment from which it was generated. Through the empirical research, the state-owned enterprise’s approach towards innovation, that would influence the adoption of innovative practices, has been identified. Furthermore, barriers to innovation have been identified that might hinder the adoption of innovative practices. Finally, the enablers of innovation within a state-owned enterprise were identified and captured into a conceptual framework that depicts the building blocks of innovation. / Prof. Gert Roodt

D.Com. / Innovation mostly happens tacitly. Organisations do not usually explicate innovative thinking and behaviour in business processes and models. The thesis stresses the importance of seeing learning and innovation as dynamically linked processes consisting of different episodes. Innovators and innovation managers should be able to identify the unintended and intended messages in the different episodes of the learning and innovation process and decide upon the usefulness by further eliciting, sharing and shaping tacit knowing and being for innovation...

Thesis (MTech (Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Design is a highly complex process. It involves various stakeholders, processes and interactions that need to work coherently in order to result in a successful design or product. It needs to be acknowledged that offering design as a successful service is not simply an interaction between a customer and a single designer, but in reality is far more complex and detailed. In today’s society, it is no longer sufficient for design-businesses to only focus on providing a well designed end product. Instead, customers now seek value in superior experiences from the services they use. Design-businesses thus need to shift their current outward focus to also create and design superior service experiences. Owing to the intangible complexities and intricacies within design as a service it makes it incredibly challenging to improve or enhance. Skeg Product Development, a leader in the Product design industry in South Africa, was used as a single case study to offer a real-world working context of Product design as a service. This study used purposefully selected Service design tools and techniques, such as the customer journey and service blueprint, for co-design workshops. Three workshops were facilitated in order to co-design maps with employees from various functions within the case study. Workshop 1 required participants to map their ideal customer journey. This was used to identify an area of focus within the case study that would benefit the most from improved visualisation. Workshop 2 and 3 used a service blueprint to map the existing front of stage- and backstage interactions and processes respectively. The mapped findings were supplemented by informal interviews with employees as well as continuous observations within the case study. It was found that Product design as a service, although the experience is subjective to each customer and project, is filled with intangible challenges and intricacies. It had been identified that managing customer expectations is currently the biggest challenge in offering Product design as a service. Although this was found to be a crucial obstacle to the customer experience, with multiple discussions around the topic, very little is actively being done to address it. It was also identified that current internal processes are not completely understood in terms of what they entail or their purpose to the service. This was found to be especially true across the various functions. This holds significant consequences for employees, the service and ultimately the customers. During the course of the study a number of themes and topics emerged. These include the success criteria for Product design as a service, as well as the significance of understanding roles and processes. The challenge of managing customer expectations in an unpredictable context is also addressed. The study subsequently presents two means for design-businesses to shift their focus to backstage processes in order to mitigate this challenge. The emerged themes speak to the greater industry of Product design as well as the developing field of Service design. This research is aimed at any individual, business or employee involved in the design industry. This includes anyone who has a role in delivering design as service who could benefit from a clearer understanding of the challenging context in which they work. It would also be beneficial to an individual or business who may want to suggest adjustments or changes to improve design as a service in future.