Organizations routinely rely on work groups for creative solutions to the problems they face. This is because solving difficult problems is often assumed to require the talents and knowledge of multiple people working together. However, much research has shown over the years that groups frequently experience dysfunction when trying to collaborate and generate creative solutions. Organizational researchers have theorized that analogical reasoning may play an important role in promoting collective creativity, but these claims are for the most part untested in the literature. In this dissertation, I attempt to answer two questions. First, does analogical reasoning provide some functional benefits for groups solving creative problems? Second, does analogical reasoning give rise to synergistic effects when creative groups collaborate during ideation and problem-solving? I assessed these questions using a laboratory study designed to find the effects of analogical reasoning in interacting and non-interacting groups, and to test for potential synergistic effects of analogical reasoning as a group-level strategy for generating creative problem solutions. Findings of the study suggest that analogical reasoning may provide some benefits for creative group outputs, and it may also create synergistic effects for creative groups. / text

<p>Kreativitet har blivit allt viktigare inom dagens organisationer och forskningen har börjat intressera sig för hur kreativiteten påverkas av nominala eller riktiga grupper, samt hur dessa grupper är sammansatta. Syftet med undersökningen var att se hur kreativiteten i arbetsteam påverkas av mängden yrkesgrupper som ingår, samt att se hur externa faktorer som ledarskap och organisationskultur påverkar. I denna studie intervjuades 14 anställda inom olika branscher om deras syn på kreativitet och det visade sig finnas skillnader mellan grupperna. Arbete i grupp kan ge kreativiteten en annan kvalité och heterogenitet förknippades med mer dynamik och kreativa strategier. Samtliga respondenter i den heterogena gruppen var överens om att arbete i en blandad grupp var en styrka för kreativiteten.</p>

Kreativitet har blivit allt viktigare inom dagens organisationer och forskningen har börjat intressera sig för hur kreativiteten påverkas av nominala eller riktiga grupper, samt hur dessa grupper är sammansatta. Syftet med undersökningen var att se hur kreativiteten i arbetsteam påverkas av mängden yrkesgrupper som ingår, samt att se hur externa faktorer som ledarskap och organisationskultur påverkar. I denna studie intervjuades 14 anställda inom olika branscher om deras syn på kreativitet och det visade sig finnas skillnader mellan grupperna. Arbete i grupp kan ge kreativiteten en annan kvalité och heterogenitet förknippades med mer dynamik och kreativa strategier. Samtliga respondenter i den heterogena gruppen var överens om att arbete i en blandad grupp var en styrka för kreativiteten.

This thesis investigated shared creative processes and the role of flow experience in group dance improvisation. A literature review suggested that dancers associate high-quality performance with 'being in the flow', and that group flow is a peak experience when a group is performing at its highest level. The first study explored the role of flow in dance creative practice and improvisation through qualitative content analysis of individual interviews with six dancers. Absorption with activity and enjoyment were themes in dancers' reports of flow. Group improvisation facilitated flow and creativity through maintaining desired focus for longer, lowering self-judgment and inspiring novel solutions. The second study investigated the occurrence of flow and its shared character within group improvisation using video-stimulated recall and questionnaire methods (n=16, 4 groups of four dancers). It showed that group flow was rather rare and it was more likely when a group had worked together for longer. Dancers reported that a group in a high-flow state engaged with a task in a more complex way, sharing, transforming and supporting each other's ideas, while low-flow groups worked more with mimicry and bodily manipulation. Dancers perceived tasks performed in a high-flow state as more creative. The third study explored the relationship between dancers' flow experience and creative outcomes from a third person perspective. A total of 203 participants (77 experts and 126 nonexperts) rated excerpts of high- and low-flow dance improvisation (five each) using Consensual Assessment Technique. Experts judged high-flow collaborations as more creative, and more coherent, technically advanced, aesthetically appealing and meaningful, however there were no significant differences in nonexperts' ratings. The fourth study explored whether synchronous arousal, measured by cross-recurrence quantification analysis of heart and breathing rate, was a physiological basis for group flow (n=8 group, 4 dancers per group). Although no relationship between synchronous arousal and flow was found, spontaneous synchronization of dancers' heart and breathing rate in improvisational group tasks was observed, unrelated to synchronized activity. Overall, the studies conducted confirmed that flow was a highly creative state for dancers, in which they performed better. The presence of others and quality of group collaboration supported the occurrence and amount of flow. However, group flow occurred rarely and was more likely when a group had worked together for longer.

Creativity plays a crucial role in innovation, and innovation is essential for any organization's continuous success and survival. Past creativity research focused on the studies of individual creativity (West, 2009); however, in recent years there has been an increased emphasis on understanding how a group of people work together to produce creative ideas and products (Paulus & Nijstad, 2003). This collaborative creativity process is often referred to as group creativity. Despite the increased interest in group creativity, there is still a lack of empirical studies (Taggar, 2002). This study explored the impact of group collaboration on the improvement of individual creative thinking ability. During the 2009–2010 school year, approximately 120 undergraduate technology and engineering students participated in the Innovation Boot Camp (IBC), a creativity training program. The participants were teamed up with people from different majors and asked to work together to design an innovative solution to a problem. Their individual creativity was also measured before and after the IBC using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Interestingly, a significant TTCT score improvement was found only in a few groups, but not in all groups. This study qualitatively analyzed video-recorded team interactions of three groups that significantly increased their creativity scores (improved groups) and three groups who did not (non-improved groups). The findings of this analysis revealed six major differences between the improved and non-improved groups. These differences were (1) idea and information exchange, (2) critique, (3) idea improvement, (4) prototype design, (5) challenging solution, and (6) engagement level. Based on these differences, this report presents a theory that could explain how group collaboration can improve individual creative thinking ability. The implications of the study findings for future research were also discussed.

Creativity has received significant interest in variety of fields and disciplines with a major focus on individual level creativity. As more and more achievements started originating from groups, researchers turned their attention to creativity on group level. Current thesis explores the group creativity as well as flow experience in collaboration. It explores the group creativity phenomena and its correlates in different contexts, age groups and cultures. The overarching aim of the thesis is to extend our knowledge on group creativity and contribute to open questions in the field such as - How does (group) creativity develop? Which interpersonal and motivational processes play a role in group creativity? How can we measure group creativity? In four studies, the present research found that (social) flow can be explained by empathy and motivation of group members as well as domain of performance. To build on these results, the role of interpersonal processes in group creativity was explored with adults. While closeness was found to benefit group creativity, combination of closeness with perspective taking was harmful on creative performance. Moreover, with an aim to understand how group creativity develops, this thesis explored group creativity in children and adolescents from England and Turkey. Across these two samples, group creativity performance developed with age and advances in social perspective coordination was one mechanism explaining that development. Additionally, study conducted with Turkish children found task cohesion as a facilitator of group creativity. Major similarities in findings obtained from two samples implicated cultural universality in development of group creativity, however, slight differences in results pointed to the possibility of culture-specific differences in processes underlying group creativity. Finally, the current thesis contributed to literature by adopting and validating a collaborative story writing method as a promising measurement of group creativity. Overall, the studies presented in this thesis illustrate the role that interpersonal and motivational process play in group creativity practices of different age groups and cultures. Findings lead us to the next steps on the adventurous discovery of group creativity.

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.

在知識社會裡，想法的生成是創新的原動力。如何培養學生提想法與翻新想法的能力、以及與他人協作並共構知識以激發團隊創造力，將是產生創新思考人才與促進未來社會進步的重要關鍵。本研究的目的在探究知識翻新學習對團隊創造力的影響。為協助學生進行協作與共創，本研究運用知識翻新(knowledge-building)教育理念(Scardamalia, 2002)，並輔以「知識論壇」(knowledge Forum™)線上學習平台，作為教學與研究的環境。研究對象為某國立大學修習生活科技課程之大學生(N=30)。資料來源包括: (1) Besemer (1998)所編的創意產品分析量表(Creative Product Analysis Matrix)；(2)平台互動資料；(3)線上協作的討論內容；(4)創意氛圍量表(Creative Climate Questionnaire )(吳靜吉和曾敬梅，2002)；與(5) 創意生活經驗量表(吳靜吉、陳淑惠、李慧賢、郭俊賢、王文中和劉鶴龍，1996)。 研究結果如下： (1)在團隊產品上，本研究比較學生在課程中所共創的十項產品與坊間有類似屬性之產品，結果發現學生普遍能提出有趣的創新構想。這些構想亦多能反應知識翻新的理念；(2)在協作歷程上，本研究發現學生均能在平台上進行密集的貼文、閱讀、與回文。顯示學生在社群裡並非只是被動閱讀文章，也能在平台上主動進行想法的分享、交流與激盪；內容分析—使用修改自Gunawardena, Lowe 和 Anderson (1997) 的互動分析模式(Interaction Analysis Model) 編碼—亦發現想法交流在知識共構階段上有顯著成長；(3)在團隊氛圍上，本研究也與台灣研究生(N=703)及瑞典中小企業員工(N=245)在創意氛圍量表的施測成績上進行比較，結果發現本研究的研究對象有六項因素優於上述二個參照團體的常模平均值。此六項因素分別為「玩興/幽默」、「想法支持」、「生動活潑」、「辯論」、「信任/開放」、和「自由」。此結果顯示，作為一個以想法為中心的知識翻新學習環境，知識論壇確實有助於提供學生較開放自在的討論環境，促使學生表達多元觀點，並透過知識分享以翻新彼此的看法。 / The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of knowledge building pedagogy and Knowledge forum (KF) technology on groups’ collaborative and creative processes in a college class. Participants were 30 college students who took a university course about living technologies. Data sources and analyses included: (1) students’ online activities, recorded in a KF database, which was assessed using descriptive statistics, (2) students’ online discourse data which were content-analyzed using Interaction Analysis Model (Gunawardena, Lowe & Anderson, 1997); (3) groups’ technology products which was peer-assessed using a survey called “Creative Product Analysis Matrix” (Besemer, 1998); and (4) “Creative Climate Questionnaire (CCQ)” (Tseng & Wu, 2000; Ekvall, 1987) which was adopted to evaluate the characteristics of Knowledge Forum being a creative learning environment. After 18 weeks of knowledge building, the findings indicated enhanced performance in terms of three dimensions of group creativity (i.e., product, process, and place): (1) first, in terms of product, in this study, students developed ten technology products by means of initially proposing original ideas and then progressively improving them, with the guidance of a set of 12 knowledge building principles. The results showed that students were able to propose novel and useful technology products; (2) in terms of process, findings based on content analysis showed that students could creatively work with their ideas while opportunistically collaborating with others both within and beyond groups; and (3) in terms of place, the results based on the CCQ suggested that, of all 10 factors that characterize a creative environment, six of them, including playfulness/humor, idea support, liveliness, debate, trust/openness, and freedom, were rated much superior than the means of two other reference/comparison groups—Taiwanese graduate students (n=703) and Swedish company employees (n=245). To conclude, the results showed that an idea-centered knowledge-building environment was helpful for students to become more engaged in generating, exchanging, and co-elaborating ideas while debating, collaborating and discussing with one another in an environment that is conducive to group creativity.

Creativity is highly sought after in our society, but that is far from obvious what is really meant by it. Many researchers in the field of creativity stress the lack of clarity, and it is described as a divided felt. The aim of this thesis is to clarify the meaning structure of the phenomenon of creativity, i.e. those distinguishing features that together form the experience of creativity.  The individual’s experience of creativity is studied in two different contexts, individually and in-group collaboration. The research object is adult people’s experience of creativity in its natural expression in the everyday world. Data have been collected from open interviews, and is constituted of descriptions of a particular situation when the participants experienced creativity. The results consist of the meaning structures for the phenomenon of being creative individually respectively in-group collaboration. In the analysis it has emerged that the creative process is both creating meaning and producing a product at the same time. The three main distinguishing features of the experience of creativity are: 1) an experienced discrepancy between the existing and the possible; 2) a special alertness that surfaces during the creating; 3) a progression which occurs under the process and cannot be completely ruled. The creative process includes thoughts, acts, feelings, body, material and communicative processes; and it results in new knowledge, a new approach, a change in emotion and new constituted gestalts. The experience of creativity individually and in-group collaboration is different, among other things, in that the later is more complex, and that the group makes extra efforts to deal with the higher complexity.

Notre travail concerne la créativité en groupe 'group creativity' dans la conception d'un jeu musical. Notre but est d'identifier et de caractériser les processus collaboratifs et de conception, et plus précisément ceux impliqués dans la génération de solutions créatives. A un deuxième degré, notre objectif est de caractériser les solutions créatives. Durant une étude ethnographique dans un studio de conception de jeu vidéo, d'une part, les réunions collaboratives ont été enregistrées et d'autre part, un entretien combiné à un questionnaire ont été réalisé avec des concepteurs. Avec ces données, nous avons adopté une approche originale qui croise différents 'focus' de la créativité ; le 'focus' processus avec une perspective troisième personne, i.e. notre analyse en tant que chercheur-observateur, le 'focus' produits avec une perspective première personne, i.e. la perspective des concepteurs eux-mêmes et à un moindre degré, le 'focus' place en tant qu'environnement sociotechnique. Pour analyser les processus, nous avons combiné trois analyses appliquées à nos corpora d'enregistrement vidéo. Premièrement, une analyse de contenu a pour but de souligner les activités de conception, et les problèmes et solutions. Deuxièmement, une analyse interactionnelle a pour objectif de mettre en exergue les formes de collaboration, i.e. des paires adjacentes récurrentes d'activités de conception collaboratives autour de la génération de solutions, donc avant pendant et après la génération de solution. Troisièmement, une analyse longitudinale a été conduite pour mettre en lumière la temporalité de la résolution de problème collaborative dans les réunions, plus précisément les processus sociocognitifs de conception, i.e. les processus cognitifs de conception distribués parmi les concepteurs/participants, et les formes de collaboration. Pour analyser les produits, les solutions générées dans nos enregistrements vidéo ont été évaluées par les concepteurs eux-mêmes sur la base de deux dimensions de la créativité, i.e. nouveauté et faisabilité. Ainsi, les solutions les plus créatives ont pu être distinguées des moins créatives par une analyse quantitative. En complément, les justifications utilisées par les concepteurs pour expliquer leurs évaluations ont été investies pour caractériser les solutions créatives par une analyse thématique. Finalement, notre objectif principal a été atteint par le croisement des 'focus' processus et produits. Ce croisement a pour but de mettre en exergue et caractériser les formats de collaboration et processus sociocognitifs de conception spécifiques à la génération de solutions créatives grâce à une analyse quantitative utilisant les taux de liaison. Au regard des processus, notre approche originale a souligné le concept de formats de collaboration comme différentes structures formées de paires adjacentes récurrentes autour de génération de solution et/ou problème. Trois formats de collaboration ont été identifié : (1) formats directifs, i.e. formes spécifiques d'activité de conception collaborative servant à déclencher l'évolution et la définition des espaces de solution c'est-à-dire problème et solution ; (2) formats relationnels, i.e. construction de relations entre une idée de conception en discussion et d'autres idées -réifiées ou non- à l'intérieur ou à l'extérieur des limites du projet de conception ; (3) formats représentationnels, i.e. co-construction de représentations d'une idée de conception en discussion dans le but de la développer au travers de multiple points de vue. Au regard des produits, nous avons mis l'accent sur plusieurs caractéristiques des produits créatifs confortant la littérature (nouveauté, approprié, surprise) dont une, 'ownership', est original. Finalement, le croisement des 'focus' processus et produits a mis en exergue que les formats de collaboration relationnels sont fortement associés à la génération de solutions créatives.