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Organizational Conditions and Levels of Creativity GoÈran Ekvall Two levels of creativity can be identified whether we look at the concept from the product, the person or the process point of view. The one is radical and revolutionary, the other adaptive and confirmatory. Are there organizational structures and practices that support lower level creativity but hamper higher level, or vice versa? Some research results on organizational climate and structure variables are presented that indicate differing influences on higher and lower level creativity. It is argued that the issue of innovation in organizations harbours a couple of basic dilemmas, the management of which requires understanding and taking into consideration the psychology of creativity.
A
n innovation springs from a creative idea, otherwise it is not an innovation. The creative idea, in its turn, has arisen in a single person's brain, even if other individuals may have provided clues and stimulation. An innovation can accordingly be defined in general terms as a creative idea that has been brought to application. This transformation of the original idea into an innovation is often a collective endeavour, for instance by a product development group of a company's R&D department. To understand innovation we must understand creativity, its processes and conditions, as well as the processes that are involved in the transformations of creative ideas into innovations. Creativity as an outcome has been described psychologically as a new structure of the mind, a new configuration or a new formulation of meaning (Ghiselin 1963). Creative outcomes viewed as ``products'' in a broad sense are usually ascribed three types of qualities: Novelty (uniqueness, newness, originality are other terms used); Value (usefulness, appropriateness, resolution), and Elegance (synthesis, integration, harmony, balance). (Besemer & O'Quin 1987). The mental processes involved in creative action have been conceived as the combining of principles and elements of knowledge and insights that have not been connected before. ``Making new and valuable connections'' is a description of this mental act met in many textbooks on creativity. Arthur Koestler (1964), in his great book The Act of Creation,
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names the process ``bisociation'' and defines it as ``any mental occurrence simultaneously associated with two habitually incompatible contexts''. A different but not incompatible understanding of the creative act tells that it basically implies a shift in perception; the habitual perception and interpretation is abandoned, the stimuli or mental structure is seen in a new context and therefore open to new connections, to new mental structures. Many authors emphasize the sub-conscious elements of the creative act, as either parts of the creative mental process, or as the source of it (e.g. Maslow 1962, Poincare 1970, Arieti 1976, Smith 1981). It is a remarkable fact that two kinds of creativity, some authors conceive of it as two levels, one more ingenious and reshaping than the other, have emerged from theoretical and empirical work on creative action of very differing approaches; person-oriented, product-oriented, process-oriented. The British scholar Michael J. Kirton presented in the '70s a theory about two different cognitive styles of solving problems; adaptive and innovative styles. Persons who are characterized by the adaptive style are designated Adaptors and those who have an innovative style are called Innovators. The A-I-theory and Kirton's test, the KAI-scale, have been the subject of a great many studies since then (Kirton 1987). As cognitive style is a personality-related construct several studies have correlated KAI-scores with scores on well-known tests of the creative personality.
Innovation often a collective endeavour
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The correlations are substantial, the Innovator's style being connected to the radical creative end of the personality scales. These results lend support to the construct validity of the theory and the KAI-scale. The Adaptor is a problem-solver who seeks solutions in well-known, common and safe ways, who accepts given goals and frames, who sticks to the given paradigm and who tries to make better what is already there. The Innovator on the contrary is a person who when meeting a problem attempts to reformulate it, to seek solutions from new and unproven angles, to break frames, to make new instead of improving the old and customary. Kirton (1987) stresses a difference between ``style'' and ``level''. Adaptors and Innovators prefer different kinds of approaches to problems but the one is not by definition more successful as a problem-solver than the other. Kirton claims that the difference between ``style'' and ``level'' is proven by zero-correlations between KAI-scores and scores on achievement tests. Not all results reported by Kirton however, give unequivocal support to the proposition that ``style'' is unrelated to ``level''. Apart from that we can find in Kirton's work, the difference between two kinds of creative action, inclined to radical change and adaptive change respectively, is clearly mirrored in personality constructs. Adaptors and Innovators exist as two distinct types of problem-solvers. A reasonable assumption is that highly radical creative outcomes require an Innovator's style notwithstanding the fact that not all people with innovative styles are capable of producing such outcomes. One of the authors who have described two levels of creativity, based on products, is Brewster Ghiselin (1963). He writes that ``there are two levels of creativity, one higher and one lower, one primary and one secondary, one major and one minor''. He further states: ``Creative action of the higher, primary sort alters the universe of meaning itself, by introducing into it some new element of meaning or some new order of significance''. As examples of creative products of this higher sort he presents the quantum theory and the handsaw, two products of different historical eras and on very different levels of abstraction. The quantum theory in physics is a child of the present century. As Ghiselin phrases it, the quantum theory introduced ``a new constellation against virtually unconstellated darkness''. The handsaw was, according to legend, invented by a 12-year old boy in ancient Greece. The saw is a combination of the principles of three different tools, the awl,
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the blade and the rasp. That association of the three was the new configuration, the new insight, that appeared in the mind of a young boy, for the first time in history. Creative action of the lower kind gives, writes Ghiselin, ``further development to an established body of meaning through initiating some advance in its use''. As an example he presents the printing of pictures (the first order creative product) that a few years after its introduction was expanded to the printing of books. The printing of pictures contained the general new insight of the printing, which then became applied in a different context, the printing of verbal symbols ± a creative achievement of the lower, secondary level. The further life of the saw across the centuries adds to the meaning of the two levels of creativity. The circular saw was probably invented in the beginning of the 19th century. One version of its history tells that the idea came to an English lady working at her spinning wheel. The story might be more fiction than truth but the circular saw is anyhow real. It was at its birth a new insight, a new configuration of the primary order. The at that time well-known principle of the saw became combined with another established principle, that of the wheel, to produce a quite new constellation. The circular saw changed the direction of the mechanical driving forces. With the handsaw the tool is pressed against the wood, but with the circular saw the wood is pressed to the saw. When later, in the 20th century, the circular saw was developed for use in metal industries by applying hard-steel to the cutting edges we had an example of creativity of the lower order. When engine driven hand-tools for gardening and forestry were invented by combining saws with small combustion engines, these were also products on the lower creativity levels, because the combination of tools and engines was an already known constellation at that time. Models and knowledge on the creative process have emerged from several quite differing sources and research traditions. Studies of biographies and letters of eminent scientists, inventors, artists, composers, poets and novel-writers have demonstrated the elements of preconscious activity, of incubation phases and of inspiration moments in the creative process. (Wallas, 1926; Ghiselin, 1952; Simonton, 1984). These kinds of studies have not explicitly revealed levels of creativity, concerned (as they are) with the processes of genius. But they have pointed to the hard work leading up to and following the real creative mental acts. The Gestalt psychologists' experiments and theories of learning and problem-solving
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raised a distinction between reproductive and productive thinking (Wertheimer 1945). Reproductive thinking is the application of a known solution to a new situation. It can be considered as a process of generalization (Kaufmann 1980). Productive thinking on the other hand consists of the combination and integration of different known principles and ideas into a new combination. The creative-abilities testing approach, that got its impetus mainly from Guilford's factoranalytical studies of intellectual processes and structure, presented fully in his Structureof-Intellect Model (1967), has emphasized a difference between two types of mental operations, convergent and divergent thinking, that has come to influence understanding, research and education on problem solving and creativity to a large extent. Convergent thinking is a search for the one correct answer, whereas divergent thinking means production of alternative ideas and solutions to a problem, a broader, more flexible and open search process. These concepts run parallel to the concepts of vertical and lateral thinking, proposed and elaborated by DeBono (1971). Divergent and lateral thinking is considered to be closely integrated in creative problem-solving processes, whereas convergent-vertical thinking is considered to characterize problem-solving along known lines and according to established principles. The psychodynamically oriented personality approach to the study of creativity has contributed understanding of the subconscious elements of the creative process, the interplay between ``primary'' and ``secondary'' process stuff, between sub-conscious instinctual, motivational, emotional forces and conscious mental structures and processes. (Kris 1952, Barron 1969, Arieti 1976). Working in this tradition the Swedish psychologist Gudmund Smith has made studies of scientists indicating differences in creative function between two kinds of young scientists; those who by their supervisors were rated as highly creative, more as paradigm breakers, ``revolutionary scientists'' in the Kuhn sense, and those who were rated as more of ``normal science'' workers, staying inside the given paradigm. The first group showed in the Creative Function Test to combine outer stimuli with inner, personal material in their construction of their perceptions and interpretations. The latter group, on the other hand, were bound to the outer stimuli, to reality, and were not able to integrate personal, original, stuff into their perceptions. (Smith, 1981; Smith & Carlsson, 1990).
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It seems reasonable to conclude that two kinds of creativity can be discerned, the one radical and boundary crossing, the other adaptive and confirmatory, whether we look at the concept from the product point, the person point or the process point. These perspectives are three of the renowned four Ps of creativity: Product, Person, Process. The fourth P is Press or Place, i.e. the environmental factors influencing creative action. So, what about the fourth P? How does it relate to the two kinds of creativity?
New research questions The understandings of creative products, persons and processes, that have emerged through the research during the present century, provide a valid and sound basis of formulating hypotheses about organizational structures, systems and processes that simulate or block creative acts. Conditions that restrict free and open communications, such as rigid bureaucratic rules and instructions, ``holy'' hierarchies and detail controlling supervision keep creativity down, because new mental structures, new constellations, come into being when knowledge, experiences, ideas from widely differing and distinct domains meet. Such meetings can more easily appear when there are few restrictions to the members' possibilities to move mentally inside and outside the organization and be able to confront themselves to variety. As creative thinking questions established ways of doing things, conservative values, strategies and policies, that support the conventional, are blocking creativity. Those that ask for change stimulate it. As incubation phases and subconscious mental activities are elements of the creative problem-solving process, time for retreat, reflection and relaxation promotes the processes and subsequent time pressure, heavy work-load and stress reactions hamper them. As risktaking and anxiety are ingredients of creative acts, culture elements that make risktaking and failure less threatening and dangerous are promoting of creative behavior, whereas in situations where creative initiatives are met with suspicion, defensiveness and aggression, the fear of failure becomes strong and holds creativity back. Those propositions have support both in research reports and in management textbooks on creativity and innovation in organisations (Hage & Aiken, 1970; Hall, 1977; Peters & Waterman, 1982; Amabile, 1988; Woodman 1995). We certainly have some solid knowledge about the organizational
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Organizational characteristics and creativity
conditions that enhance and those that block creativity in general terms. There are also indications and hypotheses about differential influences related to the two levels, or if we prefer, the two kinds, of creativity (Ekvall 1996). The rest of this article is devoted to that latter issue. Do some organizational characteristics promote lower, more adaptive, creative acts but impede more radical creativity? And do some conditions that stimulate the radical block the adaptive kind of creative acts? The existing knowledge of creative persons and creative processes makes it reasonable to raise such questions. The bulk of empirical data collected during my four decades of research and consultancy on creativity and innovation in organizations, by the research groups I have been affiliated to and by students and colleagues of mine, contains data that allow analyses to shed light upon the question. Two studies of that kind will be presented below.
A study at a chemical company This was a study of the four divisions of a middle-sized Swedish industrial company, producing chemicals for other industries, i.e. paper, pulp, detergents and others. Each division had its own product development, marketing and sales. Three of them also had their own production facilities, whereas the fourth used one of the others as subcontractor. The study lasted for almost a year and had a broad scope concerning domains studied (history, strategies, philosophies, policies, structures, leadership, processes, climates, job-satisfaction, profits and innovations) and concerning research methods applied (document analysis, interviews, questionnaires, direct observations, group discussions). The analyses are geared to the issue of differences in innovative achievements between the divisions and the organizational conditions influencing the innovative outcomes. The study was carried out by me and two colleagues, Jouko Arvonen from Stockholm University (a psychologist) and Harry NystroÈm from Uppsala University (an economist). We presented the whole study in a book titled ``Organisation och Innovation''. (Ekvall, Arvonen and NystroÈm 1987). Later, more specialized analyses were reported by the authors separately (Ekvall, 1988, 1991, 1996; NystroÈm, 1991, 1993). The present article presents another example of utilizing the data from this study for a special analysis.
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The four divisions (we can call them A, B, C and D) showed fundamental differences in history, age, culture, strategies, leadership and innovative achievements. Division A, the oldest, was a traditional process-plant, with its roots in the late 19th century. It produced some basic chemicals and had a given market-share for those mature products. No development activities about products existed. The organization was of the traditional, hierarchical style and the leadership was patriarchal. Division B produced a chemical that was of later date than those of the A-division. The prospects for the chemical were bright, the sales volume had grown substantially. These successes were the result of purposeful market-oriented development work. Project groups were established with customers in order to adapt the chemical to new applications and to better meet the needs of the customer. There prevailed a rational systematic, achievement-oriented culture, an administrative functioning style, stressing systems, procedures, goals. The leadership reinforced these values and principles. The C-division had about the same size and was of the same age as the B-division. But in contrast to B, which was a oneproduct business, it contained several product lines and it had both mature and younger products and furthermore a lot of new product development projects were in progress. The leadership was democratic and relations-oriented and emphasized integration and synergies between old and new parts of the business. Values of creativity and flexibility were salient elements of the culture. The D-division was the youngest. At the time of the study it was a large product project for a new chemical system, that had recently started its entrance on the market. The concept had its roots in the C-division. The leadership and the culture were of the typical entrepreneurial style. The product concept later became a great commercial success. To set about the question raised here, comparison between the B- and C-divisions are feasible and adequate. They were of the same size and age, roughly. Both were complete plants with their own development, production, marketing and sales functions. They however differed considerably in the case of creativity and innovations; the B-division being a one-product business, striving to adapt its concept to new appli-
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cations and new customers and the C-division being a multi-product business with a mix of mature and young products and many new product development projects going on. The innovative activities at the B-division were of a typical adaptive sort, whereas the C-division presented a clear example of radical innovation strivings. These facts justify a proposition that adaptive, lower level creative acts were prevailing at the B-division and radical, higher level, creative acts at the C-division. The empirical question thus becomes: Are these differences between B and C reflected in the research data? A questionnaire was handed out to all white-collar and supervisory personnel in the divisions. In B 85 % answered and in C 87 %. The questions concern fifteen domains, each covered by an index of five items. The items consist of statements about practice and behavior patterns in the organization, which the respondent has to agree or disagree with. Examples: Tasks are clearly defined Rules and principles are stressed
There is a clear tendency for risk-taking here. Answer alternatives: & & & &
Not at all applicable Applicable to some extent Fairly applicable Applicable to a high degree
0 1 2 3
In six of the fifteen indexes there were statistically significant differences between B and C, shown in Table 1 below. The indexes where no differences were observed belonged to three different domains: Information and personnel policy; Climate of challenge and achievement orientation; Trust, openness and harmony in relations. Both B and C scored quite high in those domains. Table 1 shows that B-division scored higher than C on only two indexes, Order/Structure/Plan and Goal Clarity. The differences on Order/Structure/Plan is substantial, the largest of the differences. In Table 2 the three items that carried the main part of the difference in this index are presented.
Table 1. Mean scores on organizational indexes. White-collar and supervisory employees. Scale 0±3. Divisions Index Order/Structure/Plan Goal clarity Risktaking Freedom Playfulness/Humour Debates Livefulness/Dynamism +
p 5 .10 * p 5 .05
** p 5 .01
B
C
Diff.
1.77 1.73 1.37 1.95 1.66 .96 1.68
1.12 1.56 1.92 2.33 1.96 1.35 2.05
.65*** .17+ 7.55** 7.38* 7.30* 7.39* 7.37*
*** p 5 .001
Table 2. Mean scores on items of the Order/Structure/Plan index. Scale 0±3. Divisions Item The operations are strictly planned and organized One is exacting about plans being followed Everyone knows what is expected of him/her
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B
C
Diff.
1.58 1.85 2.04
.82 1.13 1.37
.76*** .72*** .67***
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The results indicate that the strict, rational, structured culture and praxis prevailing in the B-division promoted adaptive creativity and the second order innovations that characterized the product strategies and achievements. The C-division on the other hand with its looser structure, more freedom, higher risk-inclination, and debating, dynamic and playful atmosphere tended to stimulate creative acts of the higher, first order kind, that paved the way to new projects and products.
A study at a mechanical company This study was carried out as a masters thesis work at Halmstad university, Sweden (Ljungkvist 1993). The author applied the Creative Climate Questionnaire (CCQ), developed by the present author (Ekvall 1991 and 1996), to compare different parts of the company. This multinational company produces systems and machinery for packing food-stuffs and is very successful on the world-market. The company's product development function is divided into two departments; the one working with design of new products, the other with improvements of old established products. The CCQ is a fifty item questionnaire, covering ten dimensions: Challenge. Freedom. Idea-support. Trust. Dynamism. Playfulness. Debates. Conflicts. Risktaking. Idea-
time. All dimensions except Conflicts are positively related to an organization's degree of creativity and innovativeness (Ekvall 1996). The items are phrased in the same way as those in the questionnaire described in the previous example. The CCQ does not include dimensions of organizational structure, policies and formal praxis, as the questionnaire applied in the study of the chemical company did. The CCQ-items are all about climate aspects; behaviours, attitudes and feelings, characterizing the life in the organization. The study included two random samples of ten design-engineers each, the one from the department for development of new products, the other from the department of product improvements. Table 3 below shows the mean scores in the climate indexes for the two samples. The results are evident. The designers in the new-product department perceived a more creativity promoting and stimulating climate than the design-engineers in the product-improvement department did. The management of the R&D function declared that they ``accepted'' a lower level of creativity in the product improvement department than in the new product department, from which they thus expected higher levels of creativity. Both departments were living up to expectations, as the company is very successful with its product goals and strategies. This makes comparisons with other companies, whose creative achievements are known, and
Table 3. Mean scores in CCQ indexes for two departments. Scale 0±3 Departments for Index Challenge Freedom Idea-support Trust Dynamism Playfulness Debates Conflicts1 Risktaking Idea-time
New products
Improvements
Diff.
2.26 2.12 2.12 2.02 2.06 2.08 2.08 .76 1.82 1.80
1.98 1.72 1.70 1.82 1.64 1.90 1.64 1.18 1.39 1.43
.28 n.s. .40* .42* .20 n.s. .42* .18 n.s. .44* 7.42* .43* .37*
* p 5 .05 1
The Conflict dimension, in the CCQ operationalized by items concerning ego and power tensions in the organization, has in all studies so far showed negative correlations with all the other dimensions, Debates (tensions between ideas) included. Person collisions (Conflicts), have come out as obstacles to creativity and innovation in the studies, as opposed to idea collisions (Debates) that have shown positive relations.
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who have been studied with the CCQ, apt in order to check where the two departments fit in considering organizational variables and levels of creativity and innovation. In Table 4 the two departments' mean scores on the climate indexes are compared to mean scores of three other organizations: a) A large product development project in high-tech, lasting for three years and with thirty engineers working full-time in the project. The climate was measured each third month with the CCQ. (The scores in Table 4 are means of these measurements.) The product, a new type of operator station for defense systems, was rated as comprising several original spearhead technical solutions. Creative acts of the higher level were no doubt occurring in this project (Ekvall 1994). b) The product development department of a large mechanical company operating in an old business line characterized by incremental product changes. The company is no exception to that kind of strategy. The companies in this trade watch each other keenly and product changes of the same kind tend to appear at the same time in their programmes. The adaptive kind of creativity might be the hall-mark of this product development department (Ekvall 1990). c) Five ``stagnated'' organizations. Small companies or independent divisions of larger companies, all being in difficult economical circumstances, at the time of the study, due to lack of new products and/or refreshing of their old products.
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It is reasonable to assume that these organizations were uncreative and had so been for a couple of years. Mean scores for the five organizations presented here (Ekvall 1996). The climate pattern of the New Products Department is similar to that of the Hightech project. The pattern of the Product Improvement Department is near the Mechanical Company's and is substantially deviate from the Stagnated Organizations', in the positive direction, which places its climate between the climates of highly creative and uncreative organizations. The climate picture as defined by the CCQ indexes seems to reflect the two levels of organizational creativity; The Product Improvement Department can be assumed to expose a climate typical of organizations where adaptive creativity is practised, and the New Products Department can in the same way be assumed to show a climate representative of organizations where radical creative acts occur frequently.
Discussion The presented data indicate that creative acts in companies are related to organizational variables and that the two levels of creativity do have parallels in organizational constructs. The relationships are, as usual in organizational settings, complex from the causality point of view. Climate aspects stimulate or hamper creativity, but creative outcomes then influence climate. The organizational constructs measured in the studies are mediators
Complex causal relationships
Table 4. CCQ mean scores for the two divisions (italics) compared to mean scores for other organizations. Scales 0±3 High-tech project
New product dept.
Mechanical company
Prod. improvement dept.
Five ``stagnated'' organizations
2.36 2.00 1.83 2.23 2.20 2.30 1.85 .30 1.57 1.40
2.26 2.12 2.12 2.02 2.06 2.08 2.08 .76 1.82 1.80
1.80 1.70 1.50 1.60 1.60 1.70 1.60 1.00 1.20 1.10
1.98 1.72 1.70 1.82 1.64 1.90 1.64 1.18 1.39 1.43
1.63 1.53 1.08 1.28 1.40 1.40 1.05 1.40 .53 .97
Challenge Freedom Idea-support Trust Dynamism Playfulness Debates Conflicts Risktaking Idea-time
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of more basic driving forces, acting in the organization or on it from its environment. The measurements illuminate one link in the causal chain. The CCQ-data may be interpreted as the differences in organizational variables between the two levels of creativity being a matter of degree; the constructs are positive for both kinds of creativity, but more is required for radical creativity to occur than for adaptive, the exception being Conflicts, where the case is reversed. The more intricate question of impeding as opposed to required degrees, is not answered by the CCQ-data. We can only speculate about effects of ``too much'' of some climate dimensions. For example: What will happen if Risktaking and Freedom are being stressed harder than previously by management in an organization, working with incremental innovations and thus practising adaptive creativity? It is probable that the highly creative people, those with an ``innovative style'' in the Kirton terms (if there are some left there), will be stimulated and respond by presenting more radical ideas and problem solutions than before. The ``adaptors'', on the other hand, will be uneasy, reluctant and lose energy and motivation to solve problems. It is not probable that persons who basically, due to personality dispositions, are adaptive problem solvers will turn into radical thinkers. The organizational effect will accordingly be that the adaptive creativity fades away and more innovative creative acts tend to appear, provided that the organization harbours some innovative thinkers, who respond to the new management signals and that recruiting more such employees is possible. If the strategy aims at exchanging adaptive innovations for radical innovations, the effects are adequate. If, however the idea with the stronger push for risktaking and freedom is to reach a balance of adaptive and radical creativity and a mix of improvement and new product achievements, the decreasing motivation and morale among the adaptive problem solvers becomes a problem. This depicts a dilemma of having ``innovators'' and ``adaptors'' understand and accept each other's ways of approaching and solving problems and work together; a dilemma that Kirton has discussed (Kirton 1987). The case with the two different departments, one for product improvements and another for development of new products might be regarded as an attempt to manage the dilemma. A still more intricate issue is that of organizational dimensions on which high degrees may block the radical creativity and innovation but promote the adaptive.
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The study at the chemical company provides an indication that strict and clear structures, policies and rules are hindrances to higher level creativity and that more loose, vague and variable structures are prerequisites of such radical creative acts to be prevalent in the organization. The C-division (with its radical innovation strategy and outcomes) showed low scores on items about order, structure, planning. The adaptively inclined B-division, on the other hand, had high scores, which supports the assumption that its systematic, structured organizational functioning favoured the appearance of adaptive creative acts. The causes of strict and plain organizational principles and practice hampering the radical, higher level creativity and promoting the adaptive, lower level creativity are to be found in the nature of creative processes and of creative personalities. As creative processes consist in ``making new and valuable connections'' and as the more apart the connected elements are at the outset, the more creative the outcome will be, it is reasonable to assume that organizational conditions that support meetings of ideas, knowledge, experiences and standpoints, which are highly different, prepare the way for radical creative processes to come up. A loose structure and elastic practice facilitates such encounters. That kind of structure allows the members of the organization to move mentally and bodily in order to search information and viewpoints freely and not be restricted to using only formal channels and contacts. Furthermore the lower stress laid on timeschedules, strict planning and fixed roleassignments entails time and freedom for initiatives, experimentation, reflection and ``incubation'', which raises the chances for ``shifts in perception'' to occur and ``new structures of the mind`` to appear. The radical problem-solver is very well content with a vague and loose structure. His/her ways of intellectual, motivational and emotional functioning are apt to such situations. Strict, rigid, formal organizational settings are experienced as uneasy and fettering and are resisted. Kirton (1987) has described the ``innovator'' as a person who challenges rules, dislikes routine work and takes control in unstructured situations. The latter tendency implies that highly creative persons are stimulated by vague, unstructured situations because those present possibilities for them to make scope for their own new ``mental configurations''. Researchers of the creative personality have maintained that highly creative persons are characterized by ``tolerance of ambiguity'' (Stein 1962, Rogers
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1962). It might be that they are not only tolerant of the vagueness, they are even motivated by it. The Adaptor-personality as described by Kirton (1987) is the psychological pendant to the bureaucratic structure with its stress on precision, methods, stability, and conformity. They are the kind of people who ``seek solutions to problems in tried and understood ways'', who ``reduce problems by improvement and greater efficiency, with maximum of continuity and stability''. The Norwegian scholar Paul Moxnes has described this kind of personality as socio-structure dependent and found that they tend to become anxious in loose, vague, fluid situations (Moxnes 1978). The Adaptor needs a clearly defined context in order to feel well and be able to utilize his/her capabilities at work. And when solving problems it becomes necessary to operate within that context and not put the safe frame at risk. Goal clarity probably has similar effects on the creativity in the organization as structure and order, even if the results of the study at the chemical company were not strongly indicative. The elaboration of the mission, goals and strategies of the company and proclaiming this to the members of the organization is a management principle and procedure aimed at consistency and guidance and at the same time supposed to engender meaning and commitment. The principle has been named MBO (management by objectives) in the management philosophy. The energy, initiatives and problem-solving efforts of the employees are expected to be geared to the company's stated goals and support the goal attainment. Management by objectives has developed in opposition to bureaucratic management by strict rules and prescriptions to give more scope for discretion and initiatives to the members of the organization. Clear mission statements, goals and strategies entail a structure, different from the bureaucratic, but still a structure. The business lines, the expected achievements in different aspects and the main routes are laid out by top management. Inside this framework departments and teams are expected to use initiatives and discretion to have their work contribute to the goal attainment. This kind of structure is supporting creativity because of the amount of freedom it allows. Departments, teams and individuals have to organize their work and set their targets at their own discretion, inside the frames given, in order to promote the overall goal. It is however the adaptive kind of creativity that
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grows best in the MBO-culture. It is a situation where the Adaptor feels at home and becomes productive as a problem solver. Steady improvements alongside the set avenues are expected. Some basic, governing values in the MBO-culture are very much the same as in the bureaucratic culture; consistency, predictability, risk-avoidance. The main difference is the higher trust in people's capacities to take on responsibility characterizing MBO. The values that MBO have in common with the bureaucratic systems tends to make the scope for radical creativity on problems of work organization and methods more narrow than the general frame of goals and strategies would permit. Elaborated goals and strategies that are clearly announced in the company are intended to work as fixed guiding-stars and guideways for initiatives and plans. Highly creative individuals with their ``innovatorstyle'' of approaching problems are frustrated when things are settled and indisputable. Their drives are to question the established, to reformulate problems and goals, not to stay mentally inside frames that are given, traditional and accepted. The MBO-principles do not permit much scope for such ambitions, especially not where the principles have been introduced in organizations with deep-rooted bureaucratic values. The difficulties of generating innovations in large organizations have had growing attention during the '80s and '90s. The rigidity and gravity of large, bureaucratic systems are considered as the basic problem. The common conclusion is creative ideas are not taken care of in such systems. Some of the modern management trends such as MBO and decentralization can be assumed to promote creative acts, mainly of the adaptive kind, but other tendencies that are pushing pace, efficiency and productivity, like ``time-management'', ``lean production'', ``just in time'', ``re-engineering'' and ``cutting down product development time'', might be pressing down even the lower kind of creativity and probably blocking the more radical. (MellstroÈm 1995). Layoffs due to the rationalizations or to shrinking markets have deteriorating effects on the rate of creative behaviors. (Amabile and Conti 1995). The TQM (total quality management) movement has introduced strict control systems and procedures not only in production but in almost all operations and functions. It has been argued that TQM implies a renaissance of Taylorism. (Boje & Windsor 1993). If this is so and quality has become a cardinal all-embracing light, approached by scientificmanagement methods, there has come a
Structures supporting creativity
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second unconditional goal, besides efficiency, whose application has a similar complicated relation to creativity and innovation. The fundamental problem with radical innovation in organizations can be described as consisting of a couple of inter-related dilemmas: . The fact that creativity on the one hand and .
.
.
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time-pressure, speed and stress on the other are counteracting forces. The fact that organizational principles, systems and procedures aimed at structure and stability do shrink the scope for high level creativity but allow adaptive creativity. The necessity of ample resources to bring forth radical innovations in modern hightech industries implies large organizations with many people, frequently co-operation and joint-ventures, where two or more companies are co-actors, which requires structures and procedures for co-ordination and control, i.e. the sort of organizational mechanisms that reduce the chances for radical creative acts to appear. The fact that companies in highly competitive markets must create the means for long-term development by having high efficiency in their operations, which brings in strategies, systems and structures which are problematic from the creativity point of view. The experiences of the difficulty of having Adaptors and Innovators co-operate because they challenge each other's beliefs and basic values.
The dilemmas have been observed and expressed not only by organization theorists but also by management people, who try to find ways to overcome them. There are still, however, plenty of managers who deny the problem and argue that radical innovations can be brought forth by strict planning and follow-up systems. There is even much material with that kind of message included in textbooks and courses on project management. The trend seems nevertheless to be towards a broadening awareness of the problem, which probably is a consequence of the constantly increasing requirements for innovations in the world of business. These growing insights can be traced in strategic statements and policy documents. They are also revealed in metaphorical phrases flitting around in the organization as normative cultural elements, such as ``love and care for the kids as much as the grownups'', ``don't shoot the skunks'', ``stand the mavericks and wild cats''. Examples of organizational strategies to manage the dilemmas
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are of many kinds: Special departments for evaluation of ideas and finding funding and promoters inside the company for the promising ideas ± Kodak's ``office of innovation'' for example. (Rosenfeld & Servo 1984). Giving R&D people time for ``free projects'' as with 3M. Establishing company funds, for highrisk projects, where departments and subsidiaries can apply for grants ± the Perstorp system of a variety of funds being an example. (Nordberg 1983). Starting separate subsidiaries for development of new products, where the structures, rules, administrative principles, policies and economic targets of the mother company are not applied ± this being probably the most common strategy. Running idea- and innovation campaigns during a limited time and directed towards specified problems, like the Volfram campaign at Volvo. (Ekvall 1990). There have been success stories as well as failures reported for all these kinds of strategies. The variance in outcomes is probably due to differences in the top managers' understandings of the basic character of the problem and the differences in ways to put the strategies into practice according to the diverging understandings. The thesis of this article is that the problem of innovation in organizations is rooted in the nature of creative processes and creative persons and that the two different kinds of creativity, that have been identified, are differentially facilitated by organizational conditions. This creates organizational dilemmas. These dilemmas cannot be wiped out because creative processes and the creative personality are given. The dilemmas must however be managed as companies must have capacity for radical changes in different aspects in order to survive in the long run, and they must at the same time earn the money day by day by effective operations to make the resources for the development work. The keys to success in the inevitable act of balance are to be found in understanding and paying regard to the nature of creative processes and creative persons in the construction and application of the organizational strategies aimed to manage the dilemmas.
References Amabile, T.M. (1988). A Model of Creativity And Innovation In Organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol 10, 123±167. Amabile, M. & Conti, R. (1995). What Down-sizing Does to Creativity. Issues & Observations, Vol 15, No 3. Greensboro: Center For Creative Leadership.
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Arieti, S. (1976). Creativity. The Magic Synthesis. New York: Basic Books. Barron, F. (1969). Creative Person and Creative Process. New York: Holt, Reinehart & Winston. Besemer, S.P. & O'Quin, K. (1987). Creative Product Analysis. Testing a Model by Developing a Judging Instrument. In: Isaksen, S.G. (Ed.). Frontiers of Creativity Research. Buffalo: Bearly Ltd. Boje, D.M. & Windsor, R.D. (1993). The resurrection of Taylorism: Total Quality Management's Hidden Agenda. Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol 6, No 4. DeBono, E. (1971). The Mechanism of Mind. Middlesex: Penguin Books. Ekvall, G. (1988). FoÈrnyelse och Friktion. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur. Ekvall, G. (1990). IdeÂer, Organisationsklimat och ledningsfilosofi. Stockholm: Norstedts. Ekvall, G. (1991). The organizational culture of idea-management: a creative climate for the management of ideas. In: Henry, J. & Walker, D. (Eds.) Managing Innovation. London: SAGE Publications. Ekvall, G. (1996). Organizational Climate for Creativity and Innovation. European Journal Of Work And Organizational Psychology, 5 (1), 105±123. Ekvall, G., Arvonen, J. & NystroÈm, H. (1987). Organisation och innovation. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Ghiselin, B. (1952). The Creative Process. New York: New American Library. Ghiselin, B. (1963). Ultimate Criteria for Two Levels of Creativity. In: Taylor, C.W. & Barron, F. (Eds.). Scientific Creativity. New York: Wiley & Sons. Guilford, J.P. (1967). The nature of human intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hage, J. & Aiken, M. (1970). Social Change in Complex Organizations. New York: Random Hansey, Inc. Hall, R.H. (1977). Organizations. Structure and Process. (2nd ed.). Englewood: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Kaufmann, G. (1980). Problemlùsning og kreativitet. Oslo: Cappelens Forlag. Kirton, M.J. (1987). Adaptors and Innovators. Cognitive Style and Personality. In: Isaksen, S.G. (Ed.). Frontiers of Creativity Research. Buffalo: Bearly Ltd. Koestler, A. (1964). The Act of Creation. New York: Dell. Kris, E. (1952). Psychoanalytical explorations in art. New York: International Universities Press. Ljungkvist, P. (1993). Bolagiseringens effekter paÊ innovationsklimat och kommunikationsmoÈnster. Magisteruppsats. HoÈgskolan i Halmstad. Maslow, A.H. (1962). Emotional Blocks To Creativity. In: Parnes, S.J. & Harding, H.F. (Eds.) A Source Book for Creative Thinking. New York: Scribner's Sons.
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MellstroÈm, U. (1995). Engineering Lives. Technology, Time and Space in a Male World. University of LinkoÈping. Moxnes, P. (1978). Angst og organisasjon. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. Nordberg, S. (1983). Perstorps kreativa bas ± en unik vaÈg mot foÈrnyelse. Konferens-paper. Liber FoÈrlag. NystroÈm, H. (1990). Organizational innovation. In: M.A. West & J.L. Farr (Eds.), Innovation and Creativity at Work: Psychological and Organizational Strategies. Chichester: Wiley. NystroÈm, H. (1991). Technological and Market Innovation ± Strategies for Product and Company Development. Chichester: Wiley and Sons. Peters, T. & Waterman, R. Jr. (1982). In search of Excellence. New York: Harper and Row. PoincareÂ, H. (1970). Mathematical Creation. In: Vernon, P. (Ed.) Creativity. London: Penguin Books. Rogers, C.R. (1962). Towards a theory of creativity. In: Parnes, S.J. & Harding, H.F. (Eds.). A Source Book for Creative Thinking. New York: Scribner's Sons. Rosenfeld, R. & Servo, J. (1984). Business and Creativity. Making Ideas Connect. The Futurist, August issue. Simonton, D.K. (1984). Genius, Creativity And Leadership. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Smith, G.J.W. (1981). Creation and reconstruction. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 4, 275±286. Smith, G. & Carlsson, I. (1990). The creative process. A functional model based on empirical studies from early childhood to middle age. Psychological Issues, 57. Stein, M.I. (1962). Creativity as an intra- and interpersonal process. In: Parnes, S.J. & Harding, H.F. (Eds.). A Source Book for Creative Thinking. New York: Scribner's Sons. Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. London: Watts. Wertheimer, M. (1945). Productive thinking. New York: Harper. Woodman, R.W. (1995). Managing Creativity. In: Ford, C.M. & Gioia, D.A. (Eds.). Creative Action in Organizations. London: SAGE Publications.
GoÈran Ekvall PhD is Research Fellow, FAinstitute, Stockholm and Visiting Professor State University College, Buffalo, Center For Studies in Creativity and a former Professor of Organizational Psychology at the University of Lund.
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Innovation and the Dynamics of Economic Growth: The Case of the Mahi River Project R.K. Saxena and Tudor Rickards A regional irrigation project in India has been studied as a focus for economic growth through innovation over the period 1983±1993. The classical theory of Schumpeter is considered in terms of the irrigation potential of a dam as a primary environmental jolt or deviant. Subsequent secondary innovations are traced as new crops (`products') and processes. The main active `drivers' were noted as technical influence agents and entrepreneurial end-users (farmers). Multiple tertiary innovations were also noted as emerging from the secondary innovations. It is suggested that the dynamics of economic growth through environmental jolts requires a combination of entrepreneurial and active processes as well as more passive diffusion processes. Thus early models of entrepreneurial and diffusional aspects of innovation may require adapting to a more integrated theory for explaining the economic consequences of regional development initiatives.
Innovation: a brief overview
N
eo-classical economics present a picture of the world in which economic actors are engaged in resource transactions in a predictable fashion based on utility maximisation (Robbins, 1935). Such beliefs are consistent with the rationalistic world view which can be traced to Descartian and enlightenment influences according to which the natural world can be understood as a gigantic machine operating according to predictable and discoverable rules. By implications the workings of social systems were also considered to be rationalistic. Economics offered modern `scientific' principles permitting prediction and control, which fitted with the view of organisational `best practice' as scientific and rational. In some contrast with the idea of rational man's increasing control over natural events was the failure of theories to explain and control scientific and economic advances. The forces and mechanisms for explaining the great (`revolutionary') economic upheavals were evaded in mainstream economic thought. A major contribution came from Joseph Schumpeter to whose work we have to return in order to understand the origins of inno-
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vation theories. According to Schumpeter (1939) economic changes resulted from external events which in turn triggered a multitude of innovations primarily introduced through the efforts of entrepreneurs. Thus wars, gold discoveries, or harvest failures might be seen as triggering innovative activities. It has been pointed out (Phillips, 1971; Freeman, 1982) that Schumpeter modified his earlier model to emphasise the involvement of large firm efforts at managing the innovation process. Such efforts were proposed to capture much of the economic advantage from innovation, thereby producing virtuous cycles of organisational R&D, innovation, profitability, and more innovation. In early and later models, Schumpeter viewed innovation as a discontinuous series of events explaining the rise of some industrial sectors (via new technological innovations) at the expense of others. Overall, his model views innovation as upheavals of a socio-economic system out of which an (economic) equilibrium or orderliness is gradually re-established following the jolts ± be they external (natural events) or internal (purposive entrepreneurial activities). Innovation as an output of entrepreneurial actions is also proposed by the so-called Austrian School of Economic theorists # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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(Hayak, 1945; 1967; Kirtzner, 1985). The arguments between the schools may be clouded through their differing interpretations of the earlier term entrepreneur. The Austrian School considered all economic actions as involving decisions and actions under conditions of uncertainty ± i.e. entrepreneurialism. Their emphasis was on competition, and they regarded entrepreneurial action as `smoothing out distortions in markets'. In contrast Schumpeter's entrepreneur produced distortions and temporary monopolies through innovative actions. The distinction was recently summed up as follows: `the Austrians emphasise the perennial existence of competition and of entrepreneurial opportunity, in contrast to what they perceive as Schumpeter's focus on the transient nature of entrepreneurial activity and the episodic upheavals caused by the ``new combinations''' (Cheah, 1993) Cheah argues that Schumpeterian and Austrian perspectives can be integrated to provide a model in which upheavals (disequilibrating forces) produce the conditions which permit smoother (re-equilibrating forces). Freeman points out that economists have tended to favour `demand pull' of market forces, which leads to models of innovation of a rather passive diffusion kind. Thus Mansfield's influential output over many years focused on diffusion of innovations. Mansfield conducted numerous studies, many but not all demonstrating that successful innovation supported organisational growth and survival (1968, 1983, 1984). In practice the demand pull and supply push theories have tended to be divorced, although various commentators such as Cheah (1993); Freeman (1982); Langrish (1974); Rickards (1985) and Schmookler (1966) have argued that they are mutually interactive. Pettigrew & Whipp (1991) also brought together the work of Schumpeter (1934, 1950) and Hayak (1967) as representations of innovation as social learning processes, extensions to rational `neo-classical' economic thought by incorporating social learning processes. They suggest that subsequent theories of economic retardation and organisational level studies connect with these theories, offering strategies and structures to enhance competitiveness through innovation (c.f. Peters, 1992; Peters & Waterman, 1982; or strategic planning, Wheelright, 1987). Summarising, the various theories of innovation may appear to be more diverse than is actually the case. Most authoritative
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economic writings consider innovation as occurring in the presence of some macrointervening force which is followed by microlevel (organisational) actions from entrepreneurs, technologists, and other innovation players. Increasingly the search for a generalised theory has been accompanied by a recognition of the need for in-depth studies of specific cases (argued, according to Freeman, 1982, by Schumpeter himself). The `rich picture' thus obtained helps to indicate the areas within the various theories in need of further examination. In what follows we follow this advice in examining the details of a series of innovations that occurred within a major irrigation initiative in a province of India. The case provides us with a clear-cut example of an external dis-equilibrating force ± the construction of a large dam. Furthermore, the major subsequent changes (primary innovations) can be traced easily to reactions initiated by that change), and minor changes to those major changes. This the study permits a revisiting of innovation theory in the specific context of regional development. The consequences of innovative actions are in this case localised, making their study rather easier than those of changes which may rapidly become lost in the complexities of ideas transmitted across global marketplaces. Major changes in social systems require a powerful external intervention around which dynamic growth occurs. Here, the change processes are modelled as a driving force, jolt or deviance trigger (`deviant') and two dependent processes through which major innovations are developed and diffused. An understanding of their interrelationships is explored with a variety of examples which occurred in a newly developed irrigation area of India.
Modelling regional growth through innovation Society grows with time. The pace of growth is normally slow and steady, within which incremental innovation processes ± `a cumulative series of minor changes', classified by Urabe, Child & Kagano (1988) as one of the patterns of innovation, continue to operate. The processes of radical innovations ± `extremely major changes' can only be attained if some source of growth becomes available for exploitation. The source may be raw material resources taken and re-processed into economically viable new products; or some other basic infrastructural factor created as a pre-requisite to development.
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In considering the impact of the Mahi River Project on the region, our model indicates developmental processes that occur as a society undergoes major changes. The components within the model are: *A jolt or deviant: a physical agent or agency of change that jolts growth processes which, in turn, generate economic activities. For example: the flow of a river if directed to a crop area permits agricultural development and subsequent processes of economic growth. In our model, deviants are considered `prime originators' in initiating change processes. These would reflect Schumpeter's discontinuities precipitating innovations. Deviants or jolts emerge in various forms, sometimes as access to a source of power, or an approach road in rural areas, or mineral deposits. But nominating any one as the dominant deviant for a particular situation depends largely upon the way in which social scientists and economists vested with the appropriate responsibilities seek to reorient developmental processes and how they assess the opportunity cost of social investment. Sometimes, changes in habits of consumers (for example increasing use of coloured TV sets in developing countries) will emerge inherently as a deviant that might lead to investments in manufacturing units, after which ancillary infrastructures may also develop, and change processes become initiated. In our case, the establishment of irrigation potential was a clear-cut primary `jolt'. *Radical innovation processes: a phase of activities wherein innovative individuals search for possibilities that align with the primary creation (deviant) and tune these to be technological innovations making use of known resources. Such innovations are treated as `secondary creations' for dynamic growth. According to various innovation theories the activation of the innovation requires diffusion gate keepers, entrepreneurs, early adaptors and so on. *Diffusion and adoption processes: a communication process by which explored ideas or innovations/products (of radical innovation processes) `flow down' to their ultimate users. The adoption of the products (as an outcome of strategic management of the communication processes) is referred here as `tertiary creation' within our proposed model. The process may be seen as a minor version of the radical innovation one, occurring in a
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cascade fashion; or it may be regarded as a more passive one.
From deviant to synthesis of radical innovations To explain our analysis of the change processes, we consider a hypothetical situation in a Schumpeterian way in which a geological survey of an area identifies a rich content of precious metal ± gold. That instantly jolts radical innovation processes for getting this metal out economically. Under pressures from competitors, pioneering entrepreneurs analyse processing technologies available to them, or may consider modifying existing methods for adoption of the form in which this metallic element exists. In so doing, they look towards new possibilities, synthesise them into workable models, and continue experimenting until the prototypes emerge to be tested. Coverdale (1977) categorised these exercises into a ``reasoning of risk thinking'' which is to make progress from segregative analysis (setting the existing technology in a new context) into constructive synthesis (the evolution of new processes). The process has to go further into examining the possible consequences if the innovations are implemented. Needless to say, they have to be pre-determined cautiously as they might offer some clues; as a result of which an evolved innovation might have to be complemented with another input or be modified even before being introduced as a proven new technology. This will be illustrated in our case of the development of banana crops. The unanticipated glut on local markets meant that farmers did not get a good price and the innovation suffered a lot through the absence of a satisfactory return on investment and effort. Similarly, a means had to be found for encouraging the farmers to consider advanced planting. But `the consequence of adoption' did not emerge here as one of the processes for bringing about social changes.1
From synthesis to adoption The value of radical innovations lies in their commercial exploitation (in the illustrative example of gold ± leading to large-scale plants of innovative processing technology and adoption of their products). These changes are realised through communication processes by which innovations reach entrepreneurs and get transformed into products (having gold processing units installed). The process also explores the product's marketing if innovations are not rapidly accepted. The
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processes thus can be investigated beginning with the floating of a new idea either through mass media or inter-personal contacts, and the manner of communicating/telling what it is, then the collaboration with users while they are in the adoption stage; followed by know-how transfer and follow-up stages. Thereafter, efforts turn to reaching more consumers through publicity and propaganda. The diffusion process goes beyond the scope of our model. Once the products are installed, some of the ancillary infrastructures emerge ± machinery manufacturing units, service units, credit institutions, or entrepreneurship for ornamental smithery etc. further strengthening and stabilising subsequent economic growth. We should add that a complementary deviant might, at times, be crucial in mobilising change. In the case of irrigation to produce sugar cane, although increased yields were obtained, these didn't lead to economic growth until a cane-crushing and sugar refining unit came into existence. Until then farmers were not certain of the market. We prefer to categorise the cane crushing and sugar technology as a complementary deviant, rather than a major innovation, as it did not arise directly from the irrigation process.
The Mahi River Project: a case study of a newly irrigated area The speedy transformation in the economic scenario and sharp changes in cultural norms initiated with irrigation often take years to settle (Gulhati & Smith 1967). A case study which was undertaken for agriculture growth in the Mahi River Project area of the Banswara district, in the state of Rajasthan (India) shows that changes in an agrarian society began with the first release of water from the reservoir for irrigation purposes as on 1st November 1983. An area of 20,000 hectares which was initially irrigated was increased to 75,000 ha by 1993. The transition during this decade was very fast and dynamic, especially after two years, during which the major creativity was observation of how the prevalent cropping pattern or existing technology responded to irrigation.
The entrepreneurship stage The farmers were initially delighted with the irrigation and wanted immediate results. But by the time the necessary technology would have become available the farmers would have become late in its adoption. Therefore, a
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short-cut strategy ``to involve farmers in parallel innovation development work'' was devised by one of the authors (RKS) who was the team leader of agriculture extension activities during the years 1985±90. Most of the ideas were first tested in the fields. Meantime, the ideas were refined at the Agriculture Research Station, Borwat, (Banswara) and developed into proven technologies. The farmers subsequently took research findings as a crucial input to their own work.2 These adaptive trials were conducted at the (involved) farmers' fields before declaring research findings as a proven option for mass application. The author who was one of the members of the Zonal Research Advisory Committee operated a strategy of bridging the gap between `lab and land', permitting a two-way information flow (farmer-scientistfarmer) which was maintained during developing and refining stages of the innovations. After the irrigation had been carried out, the level of awareness of technology among farmers spread rapidly. Surprisingly, tribe peasants who were more socio-economically backward proved themselves better entrepreneurs (to new technology) and also early adopters. Perhaps they were conscious of raising their status quickly. In contrast, farmers of the Patel community who had already acquired new techniques, and thereby were accruing better returns out of traditional crops, hardly bothered with the emerging innovations. They were rather selfcentred, stubborn, and proved resistant to persuasion. The poorer farmers were more responsive to low-cost technology. Wealthy people who took agriculture as a subsidiary business were also receptive but unable to manage the innovations on the farms, and so their involvement was limited. This, in turn, had an effect on technology proliferation.3 This general account is now expanded to cover the main changes on the various crops in the region. i) Cotton and cotton substitution. At first a majority of cotton growers resisted irrigation. The native cotton required two seasons (rainy, and winter), and irrigation actually did not help (it even delayed harvesting). Two trends were observed. Some farmers switched from cotton to crops that benefited from irrigation. The area under cotton dropped by 50% (from 15,000 ha) within four years. At the same time experiments took place to achieve double cropping of cotton.4 The innovation, based on advancing the crop two months ahead of the rain required considerable experimentation. When the crop reached its boll-formation the rain came and
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damaged the crop. Several years of experimentation were required before the problems were solved through the identification and introduction of appropriate hybrids. The search was for short-duration varieties sown with the onset of the monsoon and harvested early in December to facilitate a second crop in winter.5 The appropriate hybrids were identified in the period 1987±1989 and within that period the spread of the innovation was rapid and required no great effort for its diffusion to occur. By 1989 the cotton cultivation had gone up to 11,600 ha, a 150% increase over 1988. Interestingly some areas were retained for local strains (perhaps for comparison purposes). The hybrids were found to be remunerative, though the crop needed much higher investment on plant protection. Only those who could afford the investment continued to grow cotton.6 The area of cotton production which had been shrinking, stabilised gradually at around 9,000 ha. ii) Maize (corn). Maize, the staple food crop occupied 43% of the area sown during the rainy season. The crop yields used to vary due to uneven distribution of rains (normally starting in the third week of June: two peaks of heavy downpour ± around the fourth week of July as well as in late August, with long dry spells in and around them. The annual rainfall was in excess of 90cm. Under these conditions the growers were at the mercy of climatic variations. The humid warm climate was also conducive to infesting the crop with diseases (army worm attack and brown stripe downy mildew infestation) in the early stages of growth. Moreover, the poor yields were also due to enforced delay in sowing. Sometimes the onset of a monsoon was late; or at times prolonged early rains kept the clay soils wet for a longer period and did not allow the soil to arrive rapidly at a condition for ploughing-down prior to sowing. To cope with these conditions, a premonsoon seeding in dry soil had been a typical practice, which resulted in the seeds germinated following the rains. This would have been successful had weeds been removed during the process. Despite all efforts, such dry sowing persistently failed. Re-sowing was often needed; soil-buried seeds were either removed by birds/insects or rotted if rains were meagre. a) An innovation of advanced planting. The author knew of the success and failure of dry sowing and also considered that advanced planting might be a failure (as in case
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of cotton). By analogy with the cotton technology, he thought of advancing the crop by one month. The experiments (in May 1985) showed promising results under irrigated conditions; a sturdy crop was attained before it experienced the vagaries of the monsoon. In this case, a pre-monsoon irrigation allowed a better tilth. Weeds which came up following irrigation were ploughed down immediately. Moreover, the pre-monsoon weather was not conducive to any serious pathogenic crop diseases. However, no stable yields would be obtainable unless a canal system was operationalised. Usually, the system operated for winter season crops but here the irrigation was needed from late May. Fortunately there was no dearth of water, Mahi Reservoir has a live storage capacity of 1839*106 m3 which is never fully depleted.7 The first wide-scale maize successes were noticed in 1987±88. By 1993 about 15,000 ha of land had come under advanced planting. Since the farmers were familiar with the crop, it needed little back-up support beyond follow up monitoring. [In the early stages, 2,200 quintal hybrid seeds were also distributed as an incentive for advanced planting.] b) Winter maize, an innovation of major dimensions. Before irrigation there was no satisfactory winter crop. Although well-dug irrigated wheat and dryland chick-pea (grown on residual soil moisture of the last rainfall) were mainly grown they both had poor productivity. Wheat yields were, however, stable and certain, although the productivity was below the national/state averages, and crop management was considered to be poor. After irrigation, yield levels were raised in proportion to the increased inputs but still did not reach required levels. The marginal returns obtained could not satisfy growers unless yields could be guaranteed. Chick-pea, although productivity improved, suffered from diseases such as plant-wilt, mosaic, heavy attacks of podboarer. The non-availability of high-yielding varieties meant that farmers were eager for innovative improvements. A familiar crop like maize seemed an ideal proposition for the winter season. Previously the growing of maize for green fodder purposes had been a common practice for the winter season in some areas around Deoda and Harrow villages. But the fodder was harvested before it produced cobs. With the advent of irrigation, when a small plot of fodder crop was unknowingly left unharvested, the green fodder produced an astonishingly high yield, much more than those obtained in the rainy
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season. Experiments in 1984±85 confirmed winter maize as a highly-paying crop, performing even better than wheat. This innovation was not an outcome of pre-planned efforts but had brought a great deal of hope for winter maize.8 More active experimentation was then initiated. The winter crop was found to respond better to applied farm inputs due to longer hours of clear sunshine, comparatively cool conditions and a long growing period (140±150 days) conducive to photosynthesis or low photorespiration. The winter crop faced no moisture stress or waterlogging, and the menaces of nutrient leaching, and weeds, which usually occurred in rainy seasons, were manageable.
Diffusion and adoption processes Maize was well-known for rainy season growth patterns and no diffusion efforts were needed except letting farmers know that it could be grown in the winter also. Farmers' meetings were organised at different locations where extension workers expected good reception for the proposals. Some innovative farmers were brought to the research station and its trial locations in order to demonstrate the technology. Further environmental `jolts' occurred in 1987±88 when there was monsoon failure and severe fodder shortages. The state government vigorously promoted fodder crops. Having analysed the fodder value of maize crops, the author took this as an opportunity to popularise winter maize. The extension machinery (i.e. technical support in the countryside) was thus oriented to exploit winter maize from seeds distributed for fodder. These trials were successful and maize occupied 1035 ha in that year.9 There was another jolt when the research station was able to deliver the appropriate technology in full, when the area under winter maize doubled (1988±89). Some 545 ha were also put under block demonstrations (of 5 ha) in order to facilitate early adoption. As a result cultivation continued to rise, and by 1993 about 15,000 ha were estimated to be under winter maize.10 However, farmers had to buy seeds afresh every time as the grains obtained from hybrid maize plants did not maintain high yielding characters if grown the following season for crop purposes. The production figure indicated that as a result of technology adoption (advance planting and winter maize), corn, during the decade, produced each year, on average, just double the yield of 1982±83 (59,000 mt), although the land under cultivation was hardly twenty percent greater (including
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winter use). Land revenue data also reveal a complete replacement of fodder maize (which was occupying an area of 306 ha in 1983±84) by other green-fodder crops which responded better to irrigation. By the time maize was recognised as a better proposition, wheat cultivation had increased in area cultivated, and occupied about 50,000 ha (the rise for such a stable crop was hardly 10,000 ha over the entire previous decade). But this was not in proportion to expanding irrigation facilities; marginal progress was due to increased productivity of wheat. For higher productivity, wheat needed a temperature around 48C at least at tillering and jointing stages of growth and also a long cool-growing period. Neither was available (the temperature seldom fell below 108C).11 Although the lion's share of expanding irrigation went to winter maize, it could not replace wheat in areas which were settled before maize was introduced. c) Industrial starch from maize. Influenced by the expanding economic activities, the traders developed export networks in nearby states in order to sell/dispose of surplus production at a reasonable price. Latterly, the people having known production all round the year came forward with a proposal to let the produce be processed out locally. A maize-based starch industry is presently under consideration with credit-lines through the local capital market.12 iii) Banana cultivation. The growing of a humid tropical plant in sub-humid and semi-arid areas lying on the tropic of Cancer has always been a remote possibility. The author had, on a private visit, been to one of the banana growing localities, and anticipated banana as an innovation (external stimulus) for the Mahi project area. Climatic parameters, mild winters, well-drained deep soils and ample water availability formed compatible conditions with those existing in traditional bananagrowing areas. The risks assessed were due to low temperature which for a couple of days fell slightly below ten degrees centigrade in the winter, and also due to infrequent hot winds during the summer which occasionally produced day temperatures of 458C. It was concluded that such short periodic anomalies could be overcome for banana production by initiating changes in microclimates. Planting tall and bushy shrubs all around the banana fields was one of the acceptable propositions.13 During July 1985, a few banana corms were transplanted at the Government Fruit Nursery, Garhi (Banswara). The crop attained a good growth and
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vigour, and once transformed into the reproductive phase, yielded flower bearing brackets, and then fruits emerged in the bunch. The author motivated two innovative Gujarati farmers who originally hailed from bananagrowing areas. They planted corms in 0.4 ha (each) at their farms in Nagdala and Mordi villages. The results were of a highly encouraging nature.14
Diffusion and adoption The question that persisted in the mind of the author (RKS) and others was whether farmers who were mostly tribe people could accept banana, a crop requiring high investment. Would they wait for a 12±14 month period to get a single one-time higher return, within a period when they could have reaped three crops generating lower but more frequent returns? The author thought that relatively higher income-group farmers and a few wealthy people could certainly transform this innovation into success, and he began looking for financial support. In a meeting held at The District Rural Development Agency, Banswara, an unspent balance of 4 million Rupees was reported from a grant meant for farmers. Thereupon, proposals were sought for making use of this unspent balance, and the case for banana cultivation made. Support from the chief minister of the state, who fortunately hailed from Banswara, was also sought, for government approval. Subsequently, a programme was sanctioned in 1987. The unfamiliar innovation couldn't have gained acceptability without change agents (extension machinery), and efforts to prepare the change agents mentally as well as technically. Even a failure of the monsoon demoralised the support staff who became suspicious of the banana's adaptability. Subsequently they were brought to Mordi village where banana cultivation had succeeded. As a source of inspiration that successful farmer was asked to address them and urge them to be hopeful and arrange irrigation either from dug- wells or canals, as the new planting would certainly have a good response.15 This experience lead to self-confidence. Simultaneously, the product authorities were persuaded to allocate water from the reserves when there were meagre rains in the 1987 rainy season. Despite all, it was 1988, perhaps for the first time in the history of Banswara, when bananas yielded large-size fruit bunches, of 12±16 kg each. This innovative effort fetched widespread recognition. 16 Credit support for such a high investment crop was important ± and banks set support
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norms for crop-loans (RJS was one of the members of the technical committee of the agriculture credit institutions). Yet this innovation could not sustain its early promise, in the absence of a marketing network. Traders offered lower prices for local produce than the price they were charged for imported bananas. Despite all this, returns were much higher than the farmers would have received from their former field crops. The farmers set a great deal of expectations for extremely high returns, and treated banana not as a better replacement, but as a means of immediate high returns. When these did not occur they lost interest. As a result the cultivated area under banana declined sharply.17 In contrast, the people who looked on it as an alternate adopted their own techniques and have continued to reap good returns. Installation of the product in the market was found to be a crucial point for proliferation, or the meticulously evolved innovations tended to become disused or abandoned. From 1988, the culture Research Station Borwat (Banswara) planned and started laying down field experiments. Until then the reported findings of remote experiments were applied. The farmers accepted without challenge the suggested treatments. Similar problems of conformity were observed with those efforts of mustard cultivation introduced first in the nearby district (Chittoregarh) which has a different agro-climate.18 iv) Oilseeds and pulses. The oilseeds do not occupy a significant acreage in the 1990s. During the 1970s groundnut (10,000 ha) was one of the established rainfed crops but declined, following changes in rainfall pattern. The rains which had continued up to late September started receding earlier by a fortnight or so. Early September was the time after which formation or elongation of pods started to suffer for want of adequate soil moisture. During 1985±86, attempts to reinstate groundnut with supplementary irrigation didn't make any impact. The peasants could not easily afford the investment on seeds. Similarly, mustard could not be installed for want of the cool weather needed for better growth. Soyabean was one of the groups which advanced very quickly in the nearby state. The farmers knew and without encouragement grew it with supplementary irrigation (by mid-September). Their inclination led the technical support staff to encourage soyabean growing which had gained an area of 1,000 ha by 1988, and was still fast-spreading. In 1993 the area was estimated at around 6,000 ha
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with a productivity of 1,300 kg/ha.19 This crop had been replacing black-gram, whose yields were highly unstable due to heavy rains. A crop which also made an impression in the project area was pigeon pea. The cropped area of this medium-duration plant (140±150 days), like cotton, tended to decrease with irrigation (from 5,000 to 2,800 ha by 1987±88). The crop, which was usually sown with rainy season maize as a companion crop, had a stunted growth until the maize was harvested. Then it transformed into its reproductive phase and was harvested by late November. By these means wheat could be sown as a third crop. The cropped area shot up to 13,000 ha in 1988±89 and peaked at 15,700 ha in 1990±91, before settling around 10,000 ha by 1993. This provided additional returns even within a growing season of two crops, as well as yielding ample fuel sticks for cooking purposes. Being a leguminous crop it also improved the soil condition, and became a crop of the farmers' choice. v) Other innovations which had an impact in the irrigated system were related to fruits and vegetable sericulture; timely transplanting of paddy seedlings; improved implements 20 etc. The tremendous progress made in the agriculture sector is also reflected by the following data. During a decade of irrigation, paddy showed doubled production (63,000 mt) with no shift in its cultivated area; wheat produce had gone up threefold (107,000 mt) although the crop area increased only by 25%; chick-pea productivity raised from 678 to 1023 kg/ha. Fertiliser consumption which was another important input, as a result of transfer of technology, shot up tremendously from 4,250 to 17,750 mt [figure by courtesy of the State Agriculture Department].21 vi) Upland innovation. A considerable acreage of the area was at higher elevation and couldn't receive flow irrigation. These farmers also became receptive to the suggestions of support workers. Although there were no major innovations (except the use of high yielding varieties), crop yields were increased and stabilised under uneven rainfall,22 through input management, adoption of dryland technology, and a follow-up package of cultural practices which helped changes in nearby rainfed areas. The innovative work there was for native jujube plants. In degraded pasture lands, jujube was found in abundance but had no economic values except as thorny dry sticks for fence purposes. The fruits were also sour, small and less pulpy. A technology for
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propagating them into quality fruit-bearing plants had been tried in arid areas of the state. Although that was not very successful in terms of economic returns, that may have been due to extreme dry conditions. But the idea was imported to Banswara where the climate was mild and sub-humid, and where it could have been an adaptable proposition. The technology involving top-working of native plants, cut around the ground and when new shoots emerged to pencil size those were budded with buds of improved varieties. Within a nine-month period they bore sweet and larger sized fruits. Economic yields were obtained from the third year onward.
Diffusion and adoption The spread of jujube was so wide that the support workers could not find themselves able to handle a programme if undertaken for mass application. Then the author had the idea of forming groups of farmers who could undertake top-working and budding at their own lands as well as of others. They were trained at Fruit Farm Garhi (Banswara), and during a period 1986±89, budding work to 81,000 plants was carried out, especially in Kota Magri, Biladi and Bhaisau villages.22 vii) The dangers of incautious innovation. Green gram was a rainy season crop, normally grown in the medium rainfall zone (below 700 mm annually). In that zone, the crop was also tried unsuccessfully in the spring season. The plants' leaves were, as the author observed, curled and the flowers dried due to the high temperatures. [When a question of raising cropping-intensity (to grow more number of crops in a year) for Mahi Project area was considered, green gram came up as a promising candidate.] The author was not so enthusiastic due to past experience and also because of the possibility of undesirable micro-organisms. However, the people tried green gram and were successful (as the temperature seldom rose to 458C and that only for one or two days). The low cost of cultivation and relatively good returns in 65 days became made for an attractive proposition among farmers. During May 1994, the author visited Banswara as the person in charge of State-level Cell on Agriculture Plan. He found a geographical spread of this crop (about 15,000 ha area) but was disappointed to see the fields with a high population and intensity of weeds, as feared, because the soil remained moist almost around the year. Irrigation is per se an innovation to rainfed areas that has to be managed cautiously. Peter Beaumont (1993) states, `perhaps somewhat
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surprisingly, most salinity problems are caused by excessive rather than insufficient water or by improper use of newly available water. Areas of productive soils in Bagidora, Talwara and Garhi blocks of the Mahi project area are prime examples of waterlogging and salinity due to excessive use of water.
Discussion What general principles can be inferred from the experiences of the Mahi River project? The dangers of extrapolation from a single case are well-known, as there may be specific features that restrict the knowledge to an interesting analysis of a one-off set of events. However, we believe that the general pattern of events reported in the case has wider interest. The close relationship with one author with the project over a period of years helps authenticate the reported innovations. His own approach to codifying innovation and his technical and professional interests resulted in a thorough account ± with ample evidence of unexpected and unplanned outcomes of interventions. Secondly, the account can be framed within much that has been written about innovation ± while providing tests of some of the conventional wisdom and assumptions in this subject area. The intimacy of the observations, and the `rich-picture' provided go beyond general theorising. Additionally, the case tests and extends an earlier model proposed in Saxena (1993), in which the process of product/process innovation was examined, again in a mode of selfreflective analysis. According to Saxena, product/process innovations occur through the PGP-J process. The first three components involve application of professional knowledge (P); generation of fresh insights (G) and establishing through a more material (`philosophic') mode, a valid rationale for action (P). The PGP components produce an innovation ``in the head''; there follows an acceptance seeking process which Saxena termed journalism or in the literature this acquires various labels such as implementation; selling; acceptanceseeking; even marketing, perhaps. Note that the J stage while most recognisable as following PEP, does not have to be sequential. In the case of all but the most trivial of innovations the processes may be overlapping or simultaneous over time. In the simple cases already described, the J stage suggests that innovations, once conceived, can be diffused through a process of communication of the new idea. This, at its
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simplest, is the rather rational `technology push' model through which the buyers at the market place ``beat a path to the door'' of the inventor ± perhaps assisted by PGP processes in which market needs are taken into account (marketing; advertising; consumer-research, i.e. market-pull). This model of the diffusive process, however, is at best incomplete. It fails to capture the resistances to change; it ignores a formulation of initiative mechanisms for innovation; it misses the uncertainties and discontinuities in the process. Here, the PGP-J model is extended in the following ways. The origins of regional change are explored beyond the bounds of the system containing the innovation ± even beyond what might be termed `the inventive bits' (PGP cycles). For innovative ideas to occur and survive, we propose the preoccurrence of a substantial environmental deviant or jolt. Our own vocabulary and this metaphor was itself influenced (`jolted') by a wellknown article on how a literal environmental jolt (an earthquake near San Francisco) disrupted hospital services, after which various innovations in services and behaviours occurred (Meyer, 1982). Might the jolt metaphor apply in the Banswara district with the potential for agricultural innovations jolted into being through the availability of irrigation? Here the connection is clear. A government policy provides the opportunity ± the jolt. The community may not act upon the opportunity, or the water may not produce permanent changes. Here we wish to point to the images of metaphor. The `jolt' does not permit innovations to `reverberate' throughout the system, in a manner of a jolt applied to a physical system. To change our metaphor, further pumps are needed. Our analysis suggests that the pumps were what we called ``extension machinery'' ± in practice the way active procedures of professionals visiting and engaging the farmers in selling the reality of the proposed changes through their involvement in practical experimentation. Such activities may connect up with additional jolts ± of lesser magnitude ± as indicated here, e.g. the delivery of a `full package of technology' to meet the specific needs of a region, after which the farmers become early adapters and innovators. In these terms, the total environmental area served by the irrigation supply received external stimuli which triggered PGP-J cycles at differing levels. For the author, with responsibilities for facilitating innovative
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changes in the region, innovative insights were supported and communicated through the field-workers. At the level of local farmers, each communicated idea was in the nature of a mini-jolt, which required active involvement ± according to the `professionalism, generation of insights, and concepts for action'. As the innovator here was the first recipient, we might interpret the `J' (implementation/marketing) as efforts in capitalising in the changes ± e.g. through marketing. As we have presented it, innovation does not spring up in a mysterious way within a stable system, but is the consequence of a deviation or jolt ± purposively introduced. (There will, of course, be examples of jolts that were not deliberate ± natural disasters or resource discoveries, for example.) What follows, however, cannot be easily predicted, as the process involves various levels of activity supported by innovation cycles. The activities will involve experiments ± by nature partly novel and unpredictable. Classical diffusion models have overlooked the inherently unpredictable nature of such surprises and opportunism. In time the turbulent and energising impact of the primary and secondary jolts, and the purposive innovative efforts, settle down. The economic transformation, from external impulse to micro-level activities, is essentially over. This model of innovation is particularly easy to conceptualise when the jolt is confined in its consequences in space. (The opportunity of the dam would not be transferred to other regions.) It may well serve less well as a model for specially distributable `jolts' ± perhaps an intellectual property would be an example. The messages for major environmental projects are clear: economies can be `jolted' by major structural interventions which will also include innovations. These will inevitably have unanticipated consequences by deliberately facilitating the communication of available new methods (technology). Despite these uncertainties, our model gives a logical framework on the nature of social growth if changes are to be mobilised. Moreover, every happening had its own implications and repercussions over the economic activities of a society; Mahi project had, however, caused geographical inequalities, prosperity in one of the pockets of an area. Accordingly, to put that enthusiasm into perspective, it is necessary to take a look at the possible dangers which can be associated with problem solving if carried out inappropriately and unskilfully (Nolan 1993). There-
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fore, the pros and cons of the change have to be determined cautiously if a society determines to install a deviant for jolting processes of economic development and growth.
Notes 1. In Roger and Shoemaker's Model (1973), social change was an effect of communication. The process consisted of three sequential steps: (1) innovation, (2) diffusion and (3) consequences. But the ``diffusion process'' of our model infused both the other components and proceeded according to adoption or rejection of an innovation (due to consequences). Therefore, innovation and consequences were not ``processes'' within themselves but they were rather ``outcome/end results'' of one and another processes of our model (generating innovations and facilitating their adoption). The social changes were, however, brought about through communication which was found to be operative since inception of ideas following the `jolt' or deviant and continued until the economic outcomes diminished completely. 2. Pottier (1933), based on the study of the Madura project in Indonesia, however, argued for `continual collaborative research' at ground level rather than field-station based agriculture researches which were found to produce relatively low returns on investments. He also recommended participatory researches that required generous doses of self-criticism, thus helping the innovators to greater levels of learning and adjustments in light of market intelligence. Our approach (innovation development through farmers' participation) was exclusively meant for `advancing innovation adoption through farmers' ownership' rather than exercises in pure research. It was essentially a tool for generating thinking for what could be better options for them, which with a little experimentation could be ``owned'' by the farmers. Through such processes technology (a result of research activities) when suggested is more willingly accepted. The motivating force seemed to be based on a perceived ``opportunity cost of TIME'' (especially when farmers could not wait for changes, and wanted immediate action). This approach, as evident from our study, not only generated innovations for cotton, maize and other crops but also led farmers to `own' the changes. 3. A person who approaches innovations as an entrepreneur appeared an important vehicle in the transfer of technology, rather than a man or woman who encountered innovation as a naive observer. When a resource appears attractive (like irrigation in this case) entrepreneurial individuals become self-motivated at harnessing its potential, whether they have or have not any means presently to hand. So they
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4.
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are sensitised to opportunities. In contrast, a majority of people continue to watch the impact of the entrepreneur's efforts and only then proceed, according to its observed success or failure. Therefore, innovation work needs to be channelled through committed people, otherwise promising innovations may fail abruptly. Interestingly, ``opinion leaders'', personalities of social influence for bringing about change (Roger & Shoemaker 1973) were in no way visibly effective to these change processes. The know-how or experience of users (e.g. farmers' acquired know-how on cotton) is one of the crucial resources that has to be harnessed in complementing the irrigation operating as a deviant. Innovation development should be oriented in terms of exploring such available resources. The necessity of such exploration is illustrated by the accelerated pace of innovation adoption it produced in the case of hybrid cotton. Experimentation is progress made in the face of necessity, irrespective of its success or failure. Even failures form one of the footsteps to success; without cotton failure, cotton hybrids would not have succeeded easily. In needy situations, the awareness of even innovations infuses the masses with hope. But their adoption and proliferation depends largely upon the financial position of the innovation adopter; in many cases, financial constraints emerge as a barrier despite the willingness of people to adopt innovations. Some innovations cannot continue unless they are complemented with those management practices which are uncommon and also beyond the reach of the innovation adopter (users). The authorities who control the canal operating system neither have that anxiety nor feel the urgency that is in the minds of these users. In such situations, a mass approach to orient them and bringing consciousness towards people's felt-needs is warranted in order to mobilise change. Often people are concerned with one object or problem which matters for them (e.g. poor yields of wheat) but they somehow come up with another idea which is altogether different and yet useful. For example, winter maize was quickly perceived as an option for a problem which had no solution. Reaching users with new ideas is generally perceived as an extension of innovation. However, the activities are never confined to persuading users only, but they may require further work for creating opportunities through which adoption of the innovation could be facilitated. Had the fodder programme not been sensed in terms of popularising winter maize, fodder growing which ultimately had limited scope, would have quickly vanished. Thus winter maize, the innovation which matters for the future, would otherwise have suffered for want of opportunities. Low-cost technology has mass appeal and is quickly adopted.
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11. Experience is the key here to revitalised perceptions of individuals. 12. The generation of economic activities never stops with immediate returns to an innovation adopter. It goes beyond him, and passes through one hand to another. Having entered into a new era (processing of produce), the demand for a particular commodity increases. The dividend returns to the innovation adopter (due to price rises). It follows that processing plant so installed becomes another ancillary creation of economic changes. 13. Saxena (1993) describes innovation development in a logical framework wherein background knowledge on the needs of an area interacts with external stimuli, and response to which is stimulated through logical analysis and synthesis thus producing innovations. 14. When time is short for experimentation, a critical analysis of innovative efforts is of prime importance. This helps in organising pleas for acceptance for an innovation. However a rapid adaptive trial phase is desirable, whenever possible. 15. The building of confidence of the people who are behind the extension activities/popularisation appeared to be crucial for their commitment and regular follow-up in the fields if the technology were to be installed properly and well understood. 16. The author was awarded a merit certificate and also cash by the Tribal Area Development Department of the State. Dignitaries who visited Banswara were shown the banana fields to indicate progress and raise their understanding. 17. Generating ideas and developing possible solutions is a most enjoyable process, but Nolan (1990) notes `it is tempting to stay in this mode indefinitely without even getting to the point of facing harsh realities and commitment to new actions'. 18. A product when installed (e.g. introduction of a crop into a new locality) benefits from a full package of recommendations on operations. Conversely, making modifications of procedures for existing products (crops) may be a more incremental process (less economic urgency). 19. In a changing society, the people themselves show a trend to come forward and adopt as acceptable propositions for themselves whatever new things they see and hear. 20. The technology (bund-former, and doublebowl seed drills, which are farm implements) that curtailed the cost of cultivation was quickly adopted and the farmers usually become innovators and early adopters. 21. The management of ``communication processes'', by which innovations and evolved technology are transformed into field applications, emerges as one of the crucial inputs for channelising economic activities. See Saxena (1993). 22. Not surprisingly, the prosperity of an (irrigated) area also leads to changes in the people of nearby areas where limited economic
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activities (due to rainfed agriculture) still continue to be a means of livelihood. The people, in turn, become curious and innovative to do whatever they are able (with their rainfed crops) and adopt innovations for sustaining the economy. Previously there had been resource constraints (no certainty of what would happen to their field crops if rains were distributed unevenly). So they were unwilling to take a risk for change. 23. In these villages, the economic scenario changed altogether and the traders having been attracted to the commodity produced by users (farmers) came forward to buy. The users (farmers), when they manage innovations themselves, develop an impressive source of income. In these cases, groups of users might have been better change agents.
References Beaumont, P. (1933), Drylands, Environment Management and Development, Routledge, London. Cheah, H.B. (1993), `Dual Modes of Entrepreneurship: Revolution and Evolution in the Entrepreneurial Process', Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 243±251. Coverdale, R. (1977), Risk Thinking, The Coverdale Organisation, London. Freeman, C. (1982), The Economics of Industrial Innovation (2nd Ed.) Frances Pinter, London. Gulhati, N.D. & Smith, W.C. (1967), `Irrigation of Agricultural Land', in R.C. Dinauer (Ed.), A Monograph of the American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconsin (Managing Editor, R.C. Dinauer) No. 11, pp. 1±11. Hayak, F. (1945), `The Use of Knowledge in Society', American Economic Review, Vol. 35, pp. 519±530. Hayak, F. (1967), Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Kirtzner, I.M. (1985), Discovery and the Capitalist Process, Chicago University Press, Chicago. Kuniyoshi Urabe, J.Q. & Kagono, Y. (1988), Innovation and Management, International Comparisons, Walter de Gruyter, New York. Langrish, J. (1974), `The Changing Relationship Between Science and Technology', Nature, Vol. 250, 23rd August. Mansfield, E. (1968), The Economics of Technical Change, Norton, New York. Mansfield, E. (1983), `Technological Change and Market Structure', American Economic Review, Vol. 73, pp. 205±209.
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Mansfield, E. (1984), `R&D and Innovation: Some Empirical Findings', in Z. Griliches (Ed.) R&D, patents and Productivity, University of Chicago Press, for NBER, Chicago. Meyer, A. (1982), Adapting to Environmental Jolts, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 27, pp. 515±537. Nolan, V. (1990), The Innovator's Handbook: The Skills of Innovative Management, Problem Solving, Communication and Team Work, Sphere Books (Macdonald & Co.), London. Peters, T.J. (1992), Liberation Management: Necessary Disorganisation for the Nanosecond Nineties, Macmillan, London. Peters, T.J. and Waterman, R.H. (1982), In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best Run Companies, Harper & Row, New York. Pettigrew, A. & Whipp, R. (1991), Managing Change for Competitive Success, Blackwells, Oxford. Phillips, A. (1971), Technology and Market Structure, Lexington. Rickards, T. (1985), Stimulating Innovation, Pinter, London. Pottier, J. (1993), `Practising Development, Social Science Perspectives', Routledge, London, pp. 8 and 156. Robbins, L. (1935), An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, Macmillan, London. Schmookler (1966), Invention and Economic Growth, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. Schumpeter, J.A. (1950), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 3rd Ed., Harper, New York. Rogers, E.M. & Shoemaker, F. (1973), Communication of Innovations, Collier-Macmillan, London. Saxena, R.K. (1993), `The Greeks had a Word for it: ``PGP-J'' a Syllogistic Model of the Innovation process, and a Case Example of Successful Innovation', Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 92±96. Wheelright, S. (1987), Restoring Competitiveness in US Manufacturing. In D.J. Teece, (Ed.), The Competitive Challenge: Strategies for Industrial Innovation and Renewal, Cambridge, Mass.
R.J. Saxena is Joint Director of Agriculture, Krishi Bhawan, Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. Tudor Rickards is Professor of Creativity and Organisational Change, Manchester Business School.
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Improving Group Productivity with Group Support Systems and Creative Problem Solving Techniques Elspeth McFadzean Organisations today utilise teams to undertake problem solving and opportunity finding tasks. There have been a number of variables that have been posited by theorists that can influence group productivity. Two of these ± namely group technology and creative problem solving (CPS) techniques ± are explored in this paper. Studies have found that group support systems tend to improve group productivity because they can reduce evaluation apprehension, production blocking and free riding. These systems, however, tend to utilise Electronic Brainstorming in modes that fail to deliver some advantages of other CPS techniques. The paper suggests how developers of group support systems could incorporate new creative problem solving modules into their software.
1. Introduction
M
eetings are important and a very common part of company life. According to Briggs and Vreede (1997), meetings are difficult and expensive but necessary to undertake. They are frequently dominated by one or two individuals, or pointless arguments can occur which often lead to stalemate, or the meeting finishes without a solution or a way forward (Nunamaker et al, 1991; Nelson and McFadzean, in press). In order to be productive, meetings need to be well structured, have explicit objectives and an agenda, and the participants need to be focused on the task at hand (McFadzean and Nelson, in press). According to many management theorists, several of these problems can be solved by using a group support system (Dennis and Valacich, 1993; Dennis, George, Jessup, Nunamaker, and Vogel, 1988; Tyran, Dennis, Vogel, and Nunamaker, 1992; Gallupe et al, 1992; Nunamaker et al, 1991). Group support systems, however, tend to rely on Electronic Brainstorming (or Brainwriting) in order to encourage idea generation but McFadzean (1996), Nagasundaram (1995) and Proctor (1997) have all suggested that creativity can be enhanced by using unrelated stimuli such as pictures, fantasies and drawings. Although there are numerous different types of creativity software these tend to be
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stand alone systems and therefore do not reflect the advantages of a group support system. This article suggests that some synergy could be obtained if a group support system included a module consisting of a variety of different types of creative problem solving techniques. Creative problem solving (CPS) methods and techniques are now being used widely in organisations in order to produce novel and innovative practices, procedures, products and services (Nadler and Hibino, 1994; Baden-Fuller and Pitt, 1996; Hammer and Champy, 1996). CPS techniques have been found to be useful in building corporate vision (Forsth and Nordvik, 1995), aiding decision making (VanGundy, 1988), mapping information and restructuring thoughts (Proctor, 1995), developing novel ideas (McFadzean, 1996) and changing perceptions (De Bono, 1992). This paper will explore the areas of group technology and creative problem solving and suggests that a number of creative problem solving techniques could be incorporated into a group support system. The next section will describe the advantages offered to teams when they use a group support system. Section 3 then discusses the use of creative problem solving and outlines some research that has been undertaken in this area. In addition, it describes how a # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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number of creative problem solving techniques can be incorporated into a group support system. Finally, a summary of the paper is presented in Section 4.
2. Using a group support system to improve group productivity A group support system (GSS) can be defined as ``an information technology-based environment that supports group meetings, which may be dispersed geographically and temporally. The IT environment includes, but is not limited to, distributed facilities, computer hardware and software, audio and video technology, procedures, methodologies, facilitation and application group data'' (Dennis, George, Jessup, Nunamaker and Vogel, 1988, p. 593). There has been a large amount of empirical studies undertaken on the use of group support systems. Many of these studies have compared these systems with conventional face-to-face groups. Some theorists, such as Dennis, Heminger, Nunamaker and Vogel (1990), Gallupe DeSanctis and Dickson (1988) and Gallupe, Bastianutti and Cooper (1991) have found that group support systems are more effective than manual methods. Moreover, theorists have also found that GSS-supported groups are more efficient than their manual counterparts (see, for example, Lewis and Keleman, 1990; Dennis, Heminger, Nunamaker and Vogel, 1990; Martz, Vogel and Nunamaker, 1992; Tyran, Dennis, Vogel and Nunamaker, 1992). In addition, studies have been undertaken on group satisfaction. Gallupe et al (1992) and Lewis and Keleman (1990) found that GSS-supported groups were more satisfied with the process than manual groups. Lewis and Keleman (1990) also found that electronic groups were more satisfied with their output than their manual counterparts. Teams using group support systems tend to be more effective at idea generation than manual groups because the technology reduces or negates what is termed as process losses (Dennis and Valacich, 1993). These include factors such as free riding, production blocking and evaluation apprehension (Nunamaker et al, 1991). According to Albanese and Van Fleet (1985, p. 244), a free rider is ``a member of a group who obtains benefits from group membership but does not bear a proportional share of the costs of providing the benefits''. In other words, an individual within the group fails to make an effort to help achieve the task. This situation may exist for a number of reasons. The individual may believe that the
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rest of the group is capable of undertaking the task without his or her help, or the group member is unable to communicate because he or she is competing with other members for the opportunity to speak, or he or she is shy and lacks communicating skills (Harkins and Petty, 1982; Van de Ven and Delbecq, 1971; Johnson and Johnson, 1987). Production blocking occurs in an interacting group because only one member can communicate at any one time (Diehl and Stroebe, 1987). There are a number of consequences that occur as a result of production blocking (Dennis and Valacich, 1993). First, group members will be constantly listening to his or her fellow members' contributions and cannot therefore easily think about new ideas for fear of missing other peoples' views. Second, members who are unable to speak when their ideas occur may forget or suppress them because later on they feel they are less relevant or original. Finally, members may use their time to remember their ideas rather than thinking up new ones. Evaluation apprehension occurs when members withhold suggestions because they are frightened of negative criticism (Diehl and Stroebe, 1987). In an effort to reduce evaluation apprehension many idea generation techniques suspend evaluation until after the idea development phase has been concluded (Osborn, 1957). Interactive groups can also create other problems. In some instances, for example, social pressure within groups can lead to conformity where group members tend to favour acceptance rather than express their disagreement ( Janis, 1982). This may lead to an inaccurate, incomplete and misleading picture of the problem since individuals may have been reluctant to contribute to the discussion (Watson, 1993). This type of behaviour is more likely to occur when there is a strong and powerful leader heading the group (Janis, 1982). Group members may feel that they need to obey the group leader because of his or her higher organisational position (Finkelstein, 1992) or because he or she has strong personal characteristics such as vision and intelligence (Biggart and Hamilton, 1987) or, as Driskell and Salas (1991) found, group members tend to acquiesce to their leader when they are under stress. One particular type of group support system ± GroupSystems ± has been measured and discussed by countless theorists (see, for example, Nunamaker et al, 1991; Dennis and Valacich, 1993; Briggs and Vreede, 1997; Gallupe et al, 1992; Tyran, Dennis, Vogel, and Nunamaker, 1992; Dennis, Heminger,
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Nunamaker and Vogel, 1990). The present version of this software, GroupSystems for Windows, has a number of different tools. These are summarised in Table 1. According to Briggs and Nunamaker (1996) and Briggs and Vreede (1997), group support systems like GroupSystems have enhanced team productivity by improving communication, deliberation, information access and goal congruence. This has occurred in a number of ways. First, group support systems have improved communication because of parallel and anonymous processing. The participants are able to ``talk'' and ``listen'' all at once thus negating production blocking. They are also able to pick and choose when to read comments and ideas and when to type in their own ideas. In other words, they can select what captures their attention themselves instead of being forced to conform to the rest of the group, which occurs in an interactive session. Moreover, evaluation apprehension is reduced because participants are able to communicate contentious issues without fear of retribution. Participation by team members also tends to be more equal in electronic groups than manual groups (George, Easton, Nunamaker and Northcraft, 1990; Lewis and Keleman, 1990). This may be due to the reduction in production blocking
Parallel and anonymous processing
and evaluation apprehension or it may be that free riding is just less attractive in an electronic environment. Whatever the reason, participation equality ± and anonymity ± helps the team gather information, ideas and perceptions from each group member. This helps to reduce groupthink and conformity ( Janis, 1982). Second, Group support systems have improved deliberation by having tools available (e.g. electronic brainstorming, voting and categorising) that help the group to structure their thinking process. In addition, these tools aid both divergent and convergent thinking. Anonymity and parallel communication encourages a rapid free flow of ideas but the system also aids synthesis, categorisation and evaluation of ideas. Third, a group support system aids information access by acting as a group memory. Thus, everything that is typed in during the meeting is stored and can be accessed either during the meeting or can be used as a reference after the meeting by both the participants and others who wish the information. GSSs have also been proved useful when large groups are utilising them. Experiments in the past have found that larger groups gain more benefit from a group support system than smaller groups (Dennis
Table 1. The tools incorporated in GroupSystems for Windows
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Tool
Description
Alternative Analyzer
A tool that compares alternative sets of data against predetermined criteria in order to help the decision making process.
Briefcase
A collection of personal tools, which includes a Calculator, a Notepad, a Clipboard and Quick Vote.
Categorizer
This tool allows the participants to generate, merge and categorise ideas easily.
Electronic Brainstorming
This allows participants to generate ideas rapidly.
Group Outliner
A tool that allows participants to develop a structure or tree to help them explore issues more fully or to develop action plans.
Survey
This tool is essentially a questionnaire developed by the facilitator and/or problem champion and distributed electronically to the participants for completion.
Topic Commenter
A tool which permits idea generation. The ideas can be assigned separate files or topics. Each topic can then be discussed or evaluated by the participants.
Vote
This tool allows participants to vote on issues, measure consensus, evaluate ideas and make choices
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and Valacich, 1993; Gallupe et al, 1992). Using larger groups not only ensures that all the people who have essential information are present but that they are also productive, being able to share their information, discuss issues and evaluate ideas. Finally, a group support system helps participants to align their own personal goals. According to Briggs and Vreede (1997, p. 113), ``The team can only be productive to the degree that the goals of the team are congruent with the goals of the individuals on the team''. A GSS allows anonymous input thus allowing participants to express contentious and perhaps politically sensitive issues. Once brought out into the open they can be discussed by the group as a whole, thus allowing the meeting process to move forward. Another method of enhancing goal congruence is to encourage the group members to form the same vision. This can be undertaken by utilising creative problem solving techniques. Additionally, these techniques can also help teams to produce more novel and innovative solutions (VanGundy, 1988; McFadzean, 1996).
3. Discussion Group support systems are useful tools to enhance group productivity. They use Brainwriting, a form of Brainstorming, as a basis for idea generation. Here, there is a free flow of ideas generated by the group members. They are able to use other ideas to spark off new thoughts. This is known as ``piggybacking'' and is a useful way to develop new ideas that would not have previously been thought of before. There are, however, many other different types of creative problem solving techniques (see, for example, VanGundy, 1988; 1992; Couger, 1995; De Bono, 1992; Von Oech, 1983). VanGundy (1988) categorises these tools into groups taken from the problem solving process. There are a variety of techniques for: . . . .
redefining and analysing problems; generating ideas; evaluating and selecting ideas; and implementing ideas.
The techniques range from the simple to the obscure and include Progressive Abstraction, Creative Visualisation, Modifier-Noun Associations, Battelle-Bildmappen-Brainwriting, Method 6-3-5, Wildest Idea, Goalstorming, Consensus Mapping and many, many more.
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McFadzean (1996) explored the use of two creative problem solving techniques, namely Brainwriting and Object Stimulation. The first technique ± which is similar to that used in many group support systems ± allowed group members to write down their ideas, one per piece of paper. The ideas were then put into a pool in the middle of the table whereupon other members could look at these ideas and piggyback off them, thus producing new ideas. The second technique, that of Object Stimulation, required participants to choose a firm that they felt offered a quality service. They then described why this firm was successful for them and thus produced new ideas that could be linked back to the problem. The results of this experiment showed that the technique of Object Stimulation produced more ideas in general, and more creative ideas in particular. Object Stimulation encourages the group to look outside the problem space, to look at the world from a different perspective. When each group member achieves this then there are also numerous different perspectives of the world. The ideas generated by changing the perspective can then be linked back to the problem and more ideas can be generated. By stretching the problem space (by looking elsewhere) and exploring more desired situations, rather than the problem itself, more creative ideas can be developed. For example, a group of managers in an automobile company used both Brainwriting and Object Stimulation to explore and solve a problem with their sales staff. They were perceived by customers to be pushy and tended to pressurise them. The solutions developed from the Brainwriting session included better training on sales methods, reducing or stopping sales commission or employing polite or more understanding sales people. Although these solutions are perfectly acceptable, they are ideas that are usually produced when the problem space has not been stretched or broken. When the managers were encouraged to stretch the problem space (by using Object Stimulation) they produced ideas that included attracting customers by creating a more entertaining environment such as a ``theme park'' or a shopping centre beside the car showrooms and encouraging customers to build their own car on a computer terminal. The desired state, in this context, was to create an environment in which their potential customers felt comfortable although the problem that was stated was that of poor salesmen. According to Proctor (1997, p. 95), picture stimuli is a more effective method for
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producing creative ideas than verbal stimuli. He claims that: Arguably, language is a block to creative problem solving. There is some evidence to show that people when thinking creatively are more likely to be using imagery than words. In a recent study of some 50 or so individuals making use of free association to come up with ideas for the use of aluminium foil, many of the respondents reported the use of visual imagery in their accounts of what led them to think of the ideas.
Using unrelated stimuli
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There are a number of different techniques that can be utilised to help participants think visually. These include Rich Pictures and Picture Stimulation. Picture Stimulation is similar to Object Stimulation but instead of using an object or a company to stimulate creative thought, group members can use pictures. The picture can be described and the description can then be linked back to the problem. Rich pictures demands a little more effort and imagination because it requires the participants to draw a picture. Normally, this involves drawing a picture of the ``perfect'' future thus encouraging the group member to undertake some visioning. Each individual may also be required to draw a picture of the present situation so that they may be able to see the gap between what is occurring now and what they would like to see in the future. Ideas and an action plan are then developed in order to take steps towards the aspired vision. Creative ideas therefore are more likely to occur if participants view the situation from a different perspective. They may, for instance, look at a desired state instead of analysing the problem in detail by using techniques such as Rich Pictures, or they may use unrelated stimuli so that they can bring in new elements or make new connections not previously thought of before. In other words, creative problem solving is about questioning assumptions, making new and novel associations and exploring the issues in order to find an innovative solution. There is a need, therefore, to develop a method of helping groups to use unrelated stimuli to link new ideas together or to bring in new elements to the situation. This, at present, is not achieved in a group support system. There are creativity software packages that do encourage novel and radical thinking. These include Force Fit (Proctor, 1997), Idea Generator (Durand and VanHuss, 1992), Decision Explorer/COPE (Eden, 1988; 1990), Idea Fisher and so on. Except for Decision Explorer all of these pieces of software are stand-alone and therefore do not
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offer the advantages of a networked group support system. Decision Explorer, itself, is not considered to be a computer-supported creativity tool although it does help its users to organise and arrange information and can be used effectively to view a problem in its entirety. The developers of group support systems need to produce a creative problem solving module that allows its users to get the benefits of both a group support system ± anonymity, parallel communication, group memory and structure ± and a creativity-enhancing tool ± the use of unrelated stimuli and the ability to make new relationships between elements and to bring in new elements themselves. A new module, for example, could use Object Stimulation where the participants could choose a company, an industry or an object to describe (see Figure 1). The descriptions could be submitted to an ``electronic whiteboard'' similar to the Categorizer tool in GroupSystems (see Figure 2). Here, the whole group would be able to see the ideas and start to link them back to the problem or could comment on them or categorise them. The module could also incorporate both Picture Stimulation (see Figure 3), which would be used in a similar fashion to that of Object Stimulation, and the usual Electronic Brainstorming tool. The Picture Stimulation tool would have a variety of different images including clip art, photographs, paintings and cartoons. Together with the Object Stimulation tool the users would have an extensive choice of unrelated stimuli to choose from. This should ensure that participants would develop a wide variety of novel, interesting and creative ideas. Each group member would be able to choose his or her own pictures or objects thus producing a more comprehensive list of thoughts and inspirations. All the ideas would be anonymous thus outrageous or far-flung thoughts would not be attributed to any one member and these ideas would not be evaluated until later on in the process where they can be discussed more fully and perhaps developed into a notable innovative solution. Moreover, the system would act as a group memory and, of course, parallel communication would also occur thus making the whole process more efficient.
4. Summary This paper has examined group productivity and the use of group support systems and creative problem solving to enhance inno-
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Figure 1. Computer screen showing object stimulation
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Figure 3. Computer screen showing picture stimulation vative team output. The idea developed by Briggs and Nunamaker (1996) and Briggs and Vreede (1997) regarding communication, deliberation, information access and goal congruence was used to analyse the group productivity problem. Group support systems are useful because they reduce or negate group process losses such as free riding, production blocking and evaluation apprehension. They do not, however, tend to encourage users to stretch or break the problem boundaries. There are many creative problem solving techniques, however, that do encourage participants to view the problem from different perspectives. These include techniques such as Object Stimulation, Rich Pictures and Picture Stimulation. There is creativity-enhancing software on the market today but these tend to be standalone and therefore do not have the advantages of a networked group support system. This paper has suggested, therefore, that some synergy will be gained by developing a creative problem solving module for a group support system. The advantages of a GSS ± anonymity, parallel communication, group memory and structure ± can be brought together with the strengths of creativity-enhancing software, that is, the use of unrelated stimuli, both verbal and pictorial.
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This should provide users with enough stimuli to produce some really novel results.
References Albanese, R. and Van Fleet, D. D. (1985), Rational Behaviour in Groups: The Free-Riding Tendency, Academy of Management Review, 10, 244±255. Baden-Fuller, C. and Pitt, M. (1996), Strategic Innovation, Routledge, London. Biggart, N. W. and Hamilton, G. G. (1987), An Institutional Theory of Leadership, The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 23, 429±441. Briggs, R. O. and Nunamaker, J. F. (1996), Team Theory of Group Productivity and its Application to Development and Testing of Group Support Systems, CMI Working Paper Series WPS-96-1, University of Arizona. Briggs, R. O. and Vreede, G. J. de (1997), Meetings of the Future: Enhancing Group Collaboration with Group Support Systems, Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 6, no. 2, 106±116. Couger, J. D. (1995), Creative Problem Solving and Opportunity Finding, Boyd & Fraser Publishing Co., Danvers, Massachusetts. De Bono, E. (1992), Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas, Harper Collins, London. Dennis, A. R., George, J. F., Jessup, L. M., Nunamaker, J. F. and Vogel, D. R. (1988), Information
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Technology to Support Electronic Meetings, MIS Quarterly, 12, 591±624. Dennis, A. R., Heminger, A. R., Nunamaker, J. F. and Vogel, D. R. (1990), Bringing Automated Support to Large Groups: The Burr-Brown Experience, Information and Management, 18, 111±121. Dennis, A. R. and Valacich, J. S. (1993), Computer Brainstorms: More Heads are Better than One, Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 531±537. Diehl, M. and Stroebe, W. (1987), Productivity Loss in Brainstorming Groups: Toward the Solution of a Riddle, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 497±509. Driskell, J. E. and Salas, E. (1991), Group Decision Making Under Stress, Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 473±478. Durand, D. E. and VanHuss, S. H. (1992), Creativity Software and DSS, Information and Management, 23, 1±6. Eden, C. (1988), Cognitive Mapping, European Journal of Operational Research, 36, 1±13. Eden, C. (1990), Strategic Thinking With Computers, Long Range Planning, 23, 35±43. Finkelstein, S. (1992), Power in Top Management Teams: Dimensions, Measurement and Validation, Academy of Management Journal, 35, 505±538. Forsth, L-R. and Nordvik, B. (1995), Building a Vision ± A Practical Guide, Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 4, no. 4, 251±257. Gallupe, R. B., DeSanctis, G. and Dickson, G. W. (1988), Computer-Based Support for Group Problem-Finding: An Experimental Investigation, MIS Quarterly, 12, 277±296. Gallupe, R. B., Bastianutti, L. M. and Cooper, W. H. (1991), Unblocking Brainstorms, Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 137±142. Gallupe, R. B., Dennis, A. R., Cooper, W. H., Valacich, J. S., Bastianutti, L. M. and Nunamaker, J. F. (1992), Electronic Brainstorming and Group Size, Academy of Management Journal, 35, 350±369. George, J. F., Easton, G. K., Nunamaker, J. F. and Northcraft, G. B. (1990), A Study of Collaborative Group Work With and Without Computer-Based Support, Information Systems Research, 1, 394±415. Hammer, M. and Champy, J. (1996), Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London. Harkins, S. G. and Petty, R. E. (1982), Effects of Task Difficulty and Task Uniqueness on Social Loafing, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 1214±1229. Janis, I. L. (1982), Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascos, Second Edition, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston. Johnson, D. and Johnson, F. (1987), Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Lewis, L. F. and Keleman, K. S. (1990), Experiences With GDSS Development: Lab and Field Studies, Journal of Information Science, 16, 195±205.
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Martz, W. B., Vogel, D. R. and Nunamaker, J. F. (1992), Electronic Meeting Systems: Results from the Field, Decision Support Systems, 8, 141±158. McFadzean, E. S. (1996), New Ways of Thinking: An Evaluation of K-Groupware and Creative Problem Solving, Doctoral Dissertation, Henley Management College/Brunel University, Henley-onThames, Oxon. McFadzean, E. S. and Nelson, T. (In press), Facilitating Problem Solving Groups: A Conceptual Model, Leadership and Organization Development Journal. Nadler, G. and Hibino, S. (1994), Breakthrough Thinking: The Seven Principles of Creative Problem Solving, Second Edition, Prima Publishing, Rocklin, California. Nagasundaram, M. (1995), The Structuring of Creative Processes with Group Support Systems, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Nelson, T. and McFadzean, E. S. (In press), Facilitating Problem Solving Groups: Facilitator Competences, Leadership and Organization Development Journal. Nunamaker, J. F., Dennis, A. R., Valacich, J. S., Vogel, D. R. and George, J. F. (1991), Electronic Meeting Systems to Support Group Work, Communications of the ACM, 34, 40±61. Osborn, A. F. (1957), Applied Imagination, Revised Edition, Scribner, New York. Proctor, T. (1995), Computer Produced MindMaps, Rich Pictures and Charts as Aids to Creativity, Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 4, no. 4, 242±250. Proctor, T. (1997), New Developments in Computer Assisted Creative Problem Solving, Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 6, no. 2, 94±98. Tyran, C. K., Dennis, A. R., Vogel, D. R. and Nunamaker, J. F. (1992), The Application of Electronic Meeting Technology to Support Strategic Management, MIS Quarterly, 16, 313±334. Van de Ven, A. and Delbecq, A. L. (1971), Nominal Versus Interacting Group Processes for Committee Decision-Making Effectiveness, Academy of Management Journal, 14, 203±212. VanGundy, A. B. (1988), Techniques of Structured Problem Solving, Second Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. VanGundy, A. B. (1992), Idea Power: Techniques and Resources to Unleash the Creativity in Your Organisation, AMACOM, New York. Von Oech, R. (1983), A Whack on the Side of the Head, Thorsons, London. Watson, R. T. (1993), Yin and Yang, Social Forces, and Meeting Design, Unpublished Paper, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.
Elspeth McFazdean is a member of the Faculty in Information Management, Henley Management College, Henley-OnThames.
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Strategic Personal Links in Successful Innovation: Link-pins, Bridges, and Liaisons 1
Steve Conway The paper provides the results of an empirical study of the informal relationships employed in the development of 35 successful technological innovations. Through the adoption of a network perspective, the multiple sources and pluralistic patterns of collaboration and communication in the innovation process were systematically explored. A variety of formal and informal boundary-spanning relationships were found to have been mobilised by the innovating organisations during the respective developments investigated. A typology of three boundary-spanning link-types between these internal and external networks was identified: liaisons, bridges, and link-pins. Particular individuals were highlighted as being important in maintaining these often strategic links. Indeed, these links were found to be the property of individuals rather than the organisational positions that they occupied.
Introduction
T
Key inputs into development projects
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he sources of ideas and inputs into the process of successful technological innovation has been of increasing interest to academics and policy-makers since the 1950s. This interest has resulted in many studies over the last 40 years that have focused on identifying the origin of the features, functionality, and technical solutions embodied within successful product and process innovations.2 These studies have indicated that between one-third and two-thirds of the key inputs into these development projects were derived from a diverse range of sources external to the innovating organisation, including users, suppliers, competitors, academia, and government research laboratories. A number of studies have also sought to identify the nature of the linkages and mechanisms employed by innovative project teams in the sourcing of external inputs. Of particular interest here, is the highlighting of the importance of informal boundaryspanning relationships.3 Such research has challenged the basis of linear models of innovation (e.g. `sciencepush' or `market-pull') and led to the emergence of the interactive model of innovation, with its emphasis on the management of relationships across internal and external
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organisational boundaries. However, external sources should be viewed as a complementing rather than substituting indigenous innovative activity; Cohen and Levinthal (1989: 569) argue that ``R&D not only generates new information . . . [but] also develops the firm's ability to identify, assimilate, and exploit existing knowledge from the environment''.
Balancing effectiveness and originality in communication Although research has indicated the value of external networking and interaction to the innovation process, there exists a tension between the effectiveness and originality of team communication that must be recognised and addressed by innovative organisations. On the one hand, efficient and effective communication occurs most frequently between homophilous actors, that is individuals who are similar in certain attributes such as education, beliefs and social status. Indeed, Rogers and Bhowmik (1971: 529) argue that ``homophily and effective communication breed each other''. That is, iterations of interaction and information exchange between a number of individuals leads to a convergence of their norms, values, beliefs, and behaviour, and the formation of densely interconnected # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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groups of individuals; these groups are termed cliques, clusters, or interlocking networks. 4 This process of isomorphism is encouraged by the evolution of local languages and coding schemes within an organisational unit or technical discipline, that arise as an aid to more efficient information exchange and processing. While these coding schemes are far less exclusive than most languages, Allen (1977: 15) contends that ``the non-overlapping areas, however small, can potentially operate to produce semantic noise, and they can be even more troublesome because it can go undetected''. On the other hand, Rogers and Kincaid (1981: 128) forward the proposition that ``the information exchange potential [creative value] of dyadic communication is related to the degree of heterophily between the [communicators]''. This they argue is because ideas, information and approaches to problem-solving, that pass between sociometrically distant individuals or clusters of individuals are more likely to be unique and fresh. Indeed, Boissevain (1974: 22) argues that ``. . .it is no coincidence that criticism often comes from outsiders . . . Their social and geographic distance gives them perspective, it also ensures that they are less vulnerable to counter-pressures''. This hypothesis ties in with the findings from a study by Allen (1977: 122) that indicates that ``despite the hopes of brainstorming enthusiasts and other proponents of group approaches to problemsolving, the level of interaction within the project group shows no relation to problemsolving performance''. In fact, Rogers and Kincaid (1981: 13) go further, arguing that cliques that lack openness ``may simply facilitate the pooling of ignorance among the individual members''. In reality, heterphilous communication is more likely to occur between individuals who have at least some attributes in common, whilst remaining essentially sociometrically distant (Rogers and Bhowmik 1971). The idea that communication leading to novelty innovation typically entails a balance between similarity and dissimilarity, and between familiarity and novelty, is encapsulated by the concept of the `strength-of-weak-ties' (Lui and Duff 1972, Granovetter 1973); the `strength' is informational, while the `weakness' refers to the low overlap or proximity of the personal networks of the members of two cliques. Thus, it is hypothesised that successful innovation teams are more likely to be those that combine a dense set of internal linkages, that facilitate efficient and effective internal team communication, with a variety
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of external linkages between team members and other sociometrically distant cliques, that expose the team to new ideas and information. The affect of the balance between the density and openness of an innovation team network on the effectiveness and originality of its communication, is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Originality and effectiveness of communication in relation to the openness and density of a network
Gatekeepers as strategic actors Tushman and Katz (1980:1072) argue that for boundary-spanning communication to be effective, organisational units need to incorporate individuals ``who are capable of understanding and translating contrasting coding schemes''. While Allen (1977:148) contends that contact between the average engineer and technologist and the world outside of his organisation ``occurs most effectively through gatekeepers in a two-step or multi-step process''. Indeed, a number of studies of the communication behaviour of scientists and engineers in the 1960s and 1970s have indicated the critical role of a small number of key individuals in linking the laboratory with its external environment5. These key individuals have been termed gatekeepers, boundary-spanners, key communicators, communication stars, and linking-pins. Katz and Allen (1982:16) define gatekeepers as those ``who are both high internal and external communicators and who are able to effectively transfer external ideas and information into their project groups''. By virtue of their strategic position, gatekeepers or boundary-spanners are exposed
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to large amounts of potentially relevant information. Studies have found that gatekeepers in R&D laboratories have a significantly greater readership of professional and scientific literature, and maintain longer-term relations with experts in a broader, more diverse range of fields outside of their immediate working environment, than the average researcher 6 . Furthermore, gatekeepers also provide the main line of defence against information overload through the communication channels of the organisation, by acting as information filters (Aldrich 1979). Where there exists ambiguity and uncertainty in the information they receive, gatekeepers act as uncertainty absorbers, drawing inferences from the perceived facts and transmitting only the inferred information (March and Simon 1958). They may also generate or sustain internal variation by channelling information about external developments to relevant parts of the organisation (Aldrich 1979).
Gatekeepers as defence
Figure 2. An example of a liaison link-type between two cliques
Classifying strategic links: a typology The weak-ties that link cliques may be classified according to the number of steps between the original information transmitter and the final information receiver. A typology of three strategic links may be identified: `liaisons', `bridges' and `link-pins'.
Liaisons A liaison link-type may be defined as an indirect link between two or more cliques in a network. In this instance the link is facilitated by an actor who is not himself a member of any of the cliques (Boissevain 1974, Tichy 1981). The actor thus acts as an intermediary between two or more cliques, providing an indirect communication channel between them. This is exemplified by Figure 2, where a single actor provides the liaison between `Clique A' and `Clique B' via his direct link with `Clique A Gatekeeper' and `Clique B Gatekeeper'.
Bridges A bridge link-type represents a direct communication channel between two cliques by virtue of an existing relationship between an actor in each of the cliques (Granovetter 1973, Tichy 1981). In Figure 3, the link between `Clique A Gatekeeper' and `Clique B Gatekeeper' provides the bridge between `Clique A' and `Clique B'.
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Figure 3. An example of a bridge link-type between two cliques
Link-pins A link-pin is actually a network position rather than a link-type, since a link-pin represents an actor who provides a direct link between two or more cliques by virtue of their membership of each (Lincoln 1982). The link-pin node is the point at which one or more cliques may be said to overlap (Evan 1965). This is shown in Figure 4, where a single actor is the link-pin between `Clique A' and `Clique B'.
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extent of multiplexity (i.e. single or multiple links); and the strength or intensity of the relationship. Information was thus gathered concerning the three components of dyadic relationships: actors, relationships and exchange or transaction content. Action-sets could then be constructed for each of the innovations. This paper focuses on the incidence of strategic personal relationships, and the nature of the external cliques they link the innovating organisation to, during the development of successful technological innovation. The results presented here are therefore a subset of a broader analysis (Conway 1994).
Figure 4. An example of a link-pin link-type between two cliques
The empirical study The cross-sector study focused on the role, nature and importance of informal links and networks in the development of thirtyfive commercially successful technological innovations; each being a recent winner of either the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement or the British Design Award. The view was taken that each innovation should not be seen as resulting from a single idea, but from a bundle or ensemble of inputs. Through the adoption of a network perspective, the multiple sources and pluralistic patterns of collaboration and communication in the development process were systematically explored. The concept of `action-sets' was employed as a framework for data collection and analysis. An action-set is the set of dyadic relationships ``isolated in terms of a specific short-term instrumentallydefined transactional content'' (Mitchell 1969); which in this project refers to the inputs into the development process of a discrete innovation. This approach allowed for the analysis of both the individual links or dyads of the network and the overall form or morphology of the action-set network. For each of the innovations under investigation, the researcher first sought to identify the range of inputs into the innovation process. The role (impetus, concept, feature or solution), origin and importance of these inputs was then determined. For those inputs that were found to be sourced externally, further information was then sought concerning a number of dimensions of the sourcerecipient relationship, including: the degree of formalisation; the degree of reciprocity; the
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External cliques in the innovation process: a typology Much evidence was found in the casematerial of the importance of indirect links to the innovation process. For example, certain individuals within a number of the innovation projects were found to have provided a strategic personal or informal link to external cliques of actors. These external clusters of scientists, doctors and users, for example, can be seen as networks of expertise and ideas, that can be tapped by the innovating organisation. Indeed, by building linkages with these often sociometrically distant networks, boundary-spanners were found to complement and supplement internal resources by sourcing largely cognitive transaction content (e.g. ideas, information, feedback, and tacit knowledge), that had been generated within and diffused around such external networks prior to crossing the boundary into the innovating organisation. From an analysis of the nature of the external clusters identified in the study, five themes of shared commonality of clique membership emerged: scientific and technical specialty, profession, user or potential user of the innovation, leisure activity, and friendship. These five themes were then employed to create a typology of five external clusters defined by attributes of their membership.
Importance of indirect links
R&D networks Individuals in this type of informal network are organised around scientific or technological specialties and have a distinctive set of technical and cognitive norms. The R&D network category is based on the `invisible college' of Price (1963), but is intended to be broader in its scope, encompassing both scientists and engineers in either public or private organisational settings. R&D
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networks were employed in seventeen of the projects.
The nature of strategic links in innovation action-sets
Profession networks
We now analyse the manner in which the innovating organisations were found to bridge the gap between their internal project teams and the various external networks identified above.
This type of informal network comprises of individuals within a given profession, such as medicine or education. The informal contribution of such a network to the innovation process is best explained by what Freeman (1991) terms `professional ethics of co-operation'. Profession networks were found to be mobilised in five of the innovation projects and included networks of clinicians, nurses and primary school teachers.
User networks Informal personal networks also evolve between end-users of given products or technologies. This may originate from, or be reinforced by, the more formalised structure of user-groups. These networks can act as mutual technical support mechanisms, as pressure groups to lobby manufacturers, and as diffusers of innovations and techniques. Despite the important role played by discrete users in the innovation process, networks of users were found to play a role in only six of the projects investigated. This is because it appears that users tend not to be linked to each other directly in interlocking networks. The more typical network structure would seem to be for users to be linked indirectly, as spokes in the radial networks of professionals or overseas distributors, for example, to which the innovator is linked directly.
Recreation networks The cohesion in this type of informal network results from the mutual sense of attachment to some recreational activity, such as sailing, mountaineering or rugby, where the feelings of challenge, achievement and comradeship through participation, create and maintain personal bonds. Friendship is no doubt an important factor in this type of network, but it is not its raison d'eÃtre. The case material revealed four cases in which recreation networks had provided input into the innovation process.
Friendship networks This type of informal network refers to the personal networks of individuals based predominantly on friendship. The study revealed three projects in which friendship networks were mobilised in the innovation process.
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Liaisons Analysis of the various dyadic links within each of the action-sets revealed eight examples of individuals acting as a liaison for the innovating organisation. These liaisons were found to be professionals (four cases), such as doctors; individuals within distributor organisations (three cases); and individuals within research establishments (one case). However, in all but one of these examples the individual acted as a hub of a radial network 7, rather than an interlocking network or cluster. Thus, in the development of a pain-relief consumer product, for example, a small group of doctors and physiotherapists within various pain-clinics provided a channel for the flow of ideas and feedback between their patients and the developers, with whom they had informal and friendly links. A very similar pattern was identified during the mandatory in vivo clinical trials of two drugs, where clinicians were seen to provide an important liaison role between drug developer and patient through multiple and continuous interaction with both parties. Of the two cases in which the distributor was seen to provide a key liaison role, the first related to users in overseas markets, and the second, to users in a market in which the innovator had no previous knowledge or contacts; in these cases, critical user input was channelled into the innovation process via the distributor.
Bridges Fourteen instances were found of strategic personal links that may be classified as bridges, relating to eleven of the cases. These bridges were found to link the innovating organisations to a variety of attribute-defined cliques, including: networks of scientists (five cases); networks of professionals (five cases); networks of users (two cases); and networks of enthusiasts (two cases). Those links that were identified as bridging the gap between the innovator and the scientific community were most often found to be formal consultancy links, channelling expert knowledge and advice to the development team. However, those bridges that were identified as linking
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the innovator to profession networks, such as teachers in the development of science teaching equipment, were largely informal and friendship based, having been built-up over a number of years. Two examples of bridges between innovators and recreation networks were also identified in the case-studies. One of these concerns an informal friendship based link between a senior employee and a cluster of high profile professional walkers and mountaineers, which was mobilised in the development of an innovative rucksack. This bridge proved very effective in channelling important input into the idea-generation and field-testing phases of the innovation process.
Link-pins The case-material also revealed a total of eleven examples of individuals providing a link-pin between the development team and one or more external cliques. Examples of link-pins were identified in relation to networks of scientists (six cases); networks of users (two cases); networks of enthusiasts (one case); and networks of friends (two cases). The link-pins with the scientific community were found to be informal and reciprocal in nature; the link-pin individuals themselves being part of the invisible college. Whereas the link-pins with user networks tended to be through more formalised usergroups, established and co-ordinated by key engineers within the innovating organisations. The remaining three examples identified, involved informal and opportunistic transactions between individuals within the development team and their own personal leisure or friendship networks.
Overlapping personal networks In addition to the relatively fragile links between the innovating organisation and external networks discussed in the above three subsections, the case-material also revealed eleven examples, relating to nine of the innovations, where there existed an overlap in the internal and external network. This network integration was most notable in relation to the overlap in the internal network of engineers and scientists, and one or more external scientific or technological communities, within which a number of the project team members played an active part. Indeed, of the eleven examples identified of network integration, eight involved an overlap with external scientific or technological communities. The remaining cases of network integration, involved an overlap between
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the development team and a clinician community, a user community, and a sailing community. Such overlapping personal networks were found to be a very effective way for innovators to tap into the expertise of a variety of external networks.
Implications for the management of innovation In order to promote innovative activity, organisations need to recognise and address the inherent tension that exists between generating effective and original communication within innovation teams. The emergence of gatekeepers or boundary-spanners who are capable of mediating between their organisational colleagues and the outside world is key to gaining the necessary balance. In addition, it is important for the innovative organisation to link into a diversity of external cliques. This point was expressed well in one of the interviews ``. . . it's unpredictable where out of the network the opportunity arises. So you've just got to cast the net and not be too judgmental, and see what happens . . .The trick to being in the right place at the right time, is to be in a lot of places!'' (developer of innovative expertsystems). However, the importance of friendship and trust between boundary-spanners and external contacts in the effective functioning of liaisons, bridges and link-pins, indicates the importance of individuals rather than organisational roles or positions in boundaryspanning activity. That is, the strategic personal links that were identified in the study were often found to be the property of the individual rather than the role or position that they occupied in the innovating organisation. This highlights a potential problem for innovative organisations; the fragility of strategic linkages that rely on the mobilisation of the personal networks of a small number of their employees. In addressing this issue, Allen argues against formalising the role of boundary-spanners, which he believes ``seems unnecessary and could even prove undesirable'', favouring ``recognition be afforded on a private, informal basis'' (Allen 1977: 61). Thus, management should first identify the organisation's key boundaryspanners, and then seek to supervise, motivate and recognise them on an informal and flexible basis. Organisations may also seek to foster and encourage boundary-spanning activity amongst a wider set of employees. In contrast to earlier research that forwarded a social deviance argument for explaining
Informality and reciprocity
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why only a minority of employees choose to span organisational boundaries8, Steward and Conway (1997) contend that the networking competence of individual boundaryspanners is as important as their personality traits; this more optimistic perspective highlights the possibility that networking skills may be transferred and learnt.
Notes 1. An earlier version of this paper was originally presented at the First IAMOT European Conference on the Management of Technology, Aston University, Birmingham, 5±7 July 1995. 2. Myers and Marquis (1969); Utterback (1971); Langrish et al (1972); Hippel (1988). 3. Utterback (1971); Hippel (1987); Kriener and Schultz (1993); Shaw (1993); Conway (1995). 4. Rogers and Bhowmik (1971); Boissevain (1974); Rogers and Kincaid (1981). 5. Allen and Cohen (1969); Allen (1977); Tushman (1977); Tushman and Katz (1980). 6. Allen (1977); Tushman (1977); Tushman and Katz (1980). 7. Rogers and Kincaid (1981: 348) define such an individual as one who ``dinteracts with a set of . . . partners who do not interact with each other''. 8. Collins and Moore (1970); McGrath and MacMillan (1992); Shane (1994).
References Aldrich, H. (1979) Organizations and Environments, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey. Allen, T. (1977) Managing the Flow of Technology: Technology Transfer and the Dissemination of Technological Information within the R&D Organization, MIT Press, Massachusetts. Allen, T. & Cohen, S. (1969) `Information Flow in Research and Development Laboratories', Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 12±19. Boissevain, J. (1974) Friends of Friends: Networks, Manipulators and Coalitions, Basil Blackwell, Oxford. Cohen, W. & Levinthal, D. (1989) `Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D', The Economic Journal, Vol. 99, pp. 569±596. Collins & Moore (1970) The Organization Makers, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York. Conway, S. (1994) Informal Boundary-Spanning Links and Networks in Successful Technological Innovation, Unpublished Ph.D dissertation. Thesis, Aston Business School. Conway, S. (1995) `Informal Boundary-Spanning Networks in Successful Technological Innovation', Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 327±342. Evan, W. (1965) `Toward a Theory of Interorganizational Relations', Management Science, Vol. 11, No. 10, pp. 217±230.
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Freeman, C. (1991) `Networks of Innovators: A Synthesis of Research Issues', Research Policy, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 499±514. Granovetter, M. (1973) `The Strength of Weak Ties', American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 1360±1380. Hippel E. (1987) `Cooperation Between Rivals: Informal Knowhow Trading', Research Policy, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 291±302. Hippel E. (1988) `The Sources of Innovation', Oxford University Press, London. Katz, R. & Allen, T. (1982) `Investigating the Not Invented Here (NIH) Syndrome: A Look at the Performance, Tenure, and Communication Patterns of 50 R&D Projects', R&D Management, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 7±19. Kreiner, K. & Schultz, M. (1993) `Informal Collaboration in R&D: The Formation of Networks Across Organizations', Organization Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 189±209. Langrish, J., Gibbons, M., Evans, W. & Jevons, F. (1972) Wealth From Knowledge: A Study of Innovation in Industry, MacMillan, London. Lincoln, J. (1982) `Intra- (and Inter-) Organizational Networks'. In S. Bacharach (Ed) Research in the Sociology of Organizations: A Research Annual (pp. 1±38), Volume One, JAI Press, Connecticut. Liu, W. & Duff, R. (1972) `The Strength in Weak Ties', Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 361±366. McGrath, R. & MacMillan, I. (1992) `More Like Each Other Than Anyone Else? A CrossCultural Study of Entrepreneurial Perceptions', Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 419±429. March, J. & Simon, H. (1958) Organisations, John Wiley, New York. Mitchell, J. (1969) `The Concept and Use of Social Networks'. In J. Mitchell (Ed) Social Networks in Urban Situations (pp. 1±50), Manchester University Press, Manchester. Myers, S. & Marquis, D. (1969) Successful Commercial Innovations, National Science Foundation, Washington D.C. Price, D. DeSolla (1963) Little Science, Big Science, Columbia University Press, New York. Rogers, E. & Bhowmik, D. (1971) `HomophilyHeterophily: Relational Concepts for Communication Research', Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 34, pp. 523±538. Rogers, E. & Kincaid, D. (1981) Communication Networks, Free Press, New York. Shane, S. (1994) `Are Champions Different From Non-Champions?', Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 9, pp. 397±421. Shaw, B. (1993) `Formal and Informal Networks in the UK Medical Equipment Industry', Technovation, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 349±365. Steward, F. & Conway, S. (1997) Networks of Innovative Managers ± the Paths of Education and Experience, Final Report to the ESRC Innovation Programme ± Phase I. Tichy, N. (1981) `Networks in Organisations'. In P. Nystrom & W. Starbuck (Eds) Handbook of Organizational Design (pp. 225±249), Volume Two, Oxford University Press, New York.
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Tushman, M. (1977) `Special Boundary Roles in the Innovation Process', Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 22, pp. 587±605. Tushman, M. & Katz, R. (1980) `External Communication and Project Performance: An Investigation into the Role of Gatekeepers', Management Science, Vol. 26, No. 11, pp. 1071±1085. Utterback, J. (1971) `The Process of Innovation: A Study of the Origination and Development of Ideas for Scientific Instruments', IEEE Trans-
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actions on Engineering Management, Vol. EM-18, No. 4, pp. 124±131.
Dr. Steve Conway is Lecturer in Innovation at Aston Business School, Birmingham, B4 7ET.
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Problem-Driven Inventing: a Concept for Strong Solutions to Inventive Tasks Martin G. MoÈhrle and Tilo PannenbaÈcker This article presents the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing. It combines the application of condensed technical knowledge and special techniques for directed creativity and aims at strong solutions to inventive tasks. One core element of this concept is to work out the inherent contradiction of a company's problem and then take it as a challenge to overcome this contradiction instead of accepting a trade-off of contradictory requirements. To achieve this one should orientate oneself by the area of conflict between the metaphors of the ideal machine on the one hand and the fitting to economical, technological and social trends on the other hand. Several strong tools for overcoming technical and scientific contradictions complete this concept and can be supported by traditional creativity techniques. The Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing combines various approaches: It is inspired by Altshuller's empirical research work of the last six decades and uses the tools of his ``Theory of Inventive Problem Solving'' as well as other tools and techniques. Those tools are integrated into the modular structure of the ``Five-Field-Analysis'' by MuÈller-Merbach. Thus, this concept puts findings of different research fields in a form that is easy to understand and which is promising to be applicable to different types of enterprises in today's economic environment as well as to individuals. The article illustrates the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing by a continuous example, gives advice for its application and outlines current projects.
I
n many industrial and public R&D departments there are technical and techoeconomical problems to be solved. In this article problem stands for a special type of question, its counterpart is the search for diffusion:
Improving inventing
. Very often a certain technology is ready
on hand, e.g. the recently discovered spherical carbon molecules (Fullerens), but one searches for a new operational area; this type of question shall be called technology-driven search for diffusion. . On the other hand, in many cases one wants to realise a certain function, e.g. an automatic damage detection for roofs, and searches for adequate solutions; this type of question shall be called application-driven problem. For a lot of problems there are no solutions available yet, i.e. they require inventions. In
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this article the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing is recommended for such problems. This concept aims at improving both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the process of inventing. It offers the inventive problem solver ± in the following called inventor ± a methodical assistance which is consistent and which he can apply in manifold ways within his daily work. This assistance . is designed systematically and is therefore
called concept,
. focuses on and is driven by problems as
defined above and is therefore named problem-driven, and . aims at novel solutions and is therefore concerned with inventing.
The Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing is built upon the Five-Field-Analysis and connects it with numerous powerful tools: # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
PROBLEM-DRIVEN INVENTING
. The Five-Field-Analysis forms the framework
which covers all the relevant aspects of a general problem solving process. . Various tools are integrated in this framework. The tools to be presented subsequently are mainly derived from the ``Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS; abbreviation derived from the Russian title: TRIZ)'' by Altshuller (Altschuller, 1973; Altschuller, 1984; Altschuller & Seljuzki, 1983; Altshuller, 1984; Altshuller, 1996). They have been chosen for this article because they are not very common yet. However, the Concept of ProblemDriven Inventing is open to other tools. Some of the tools aim at a structured approach within the process of inventing. Some other tools are based on comprehensive lists and collections of examples, they stimulate the inventor to new ideas and may be supported by database software. However, their application should also be prepared through special training and accompanied by competent guidance. Altogether the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing is easy to apply and very flexible: There are several tools available for the core fields of the framework, which can be selected depending on the inventor's personal preferences, qualifications and practice as well as on the extent and the type of the problem to be solved. An exemplary problem shall be briefly described, it will be taken up at all steps of this article in order to illustrate the various
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elements of the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing (for the problem statement see Fey, Rivin & Vertkin, 1994, pp. 108-109): At a sawmill the logs drop chaotically on the conveyer after debarking (Fig. 1). For the subsequent treatment they have to be placed longitudinally. Known aligning devices are complex, occupy large floor space, and are not reliable enough. A simple, cost-effective, and reliable method of aligning the logs is needed.
The Five-Field-Analysis as Framework The Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing is built upon the thinking in the Five-FieldAnalysis. The Five-Field-Analysis describes all the relevant aspects that have to be considered when problems of the above defined sense in particular or similar types of questions in general are to be solved (for the Five-Field-Analysis see MuÈ ller-Merbach, 1987). It overcomes the paradigm of phase models and is founded upon two core ideas which are closely connected with each other: . IDEA 1: The process of solving a problem
can be divided into different parts, which are on the one hand closely interwoven, but which can be on the other hand addressed independently of each other. . IDEA 2: Referring to idea 1, various preferable orders in which to address the different parts of the problem solving
Figure 1. How do you align logs efficiently? The Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing is illustrated by an exemplary problem (problem statement according to Frey, Riven & Vertkin, 1994, p. 108). # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997
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process are possible, and also addressing several parts of this process at the same time is explicitly possible. The Five-Field-Analysis encompasses ± according to idea 1 ± five parts, all of which have to be addressed during the process of solving a problem and thus during the process of inventing (Fig. 2): . current state: What does the current situ-
ation look like?
. resources: Which resources are available? . goals: Which goals shall be fulfilled? . intended state: What shall the future situ-
. The inventor could as well begin with the
intended state: How precisely should the logs be aligned? Should the logs be conveyed to a certain position or should it even be possible to convey them to several different positions? Should it be allowed that several logs arrive at the same time? . The inventor could also start by thinking about the transformation, e.g. using a brainstorming session to generate different transformation alternatives like grip arms, rods, and conveyer constructions.
ation look like?
Tools for Problem-Driven Inventing
current state be transferred into the intended state?
There are tools available for all fields of the Five-Field-Analysis (Fig. 3; see also the fundamental version of relating the tools to the Five-Field-Analysis by MoÈhrle & PannenbaÈcker, 1996, pp. 113±114). In the following, mainly tools by Altshuller (Altschuller, 1973; Altschuller, 1984; Altschuller & Seljuzki, 1983; Altshuller, 1984; Altshuller, 1996), which are remarkably powerful but not very wide-spread yet, will be emphasised and explained:
. transformation: In which way can the
Distinguishing between the intended state and the goals as well as between the current state and the resources can sometimes be difficult but is nevertheless helpful (see Hauschildt 1997, pp. 273±276 for comprehensive discussion on the similar difficult relationship between goals and problem statements). The logs example illustrates the manifold ways to enter the problem solving process when using the Five-Field-Analysis, e.g.: . The inventor could specify the relevant
conditions of the problem by exactly analysing the current state: How many logs have to be conveyed and aligned per minute as minimum, on average and as maximum? Do the logs drop on the conveyer according to a statistical distribution? Which friction conditions exist between the logs and the conveyer?
. current state: Besides system analytical con-
siderations, thinking in contradictions helps to analyse the current state. A contradiction becomes visible by exaggerating a problem to a formulation that seems to be impossible to solve. . resources: Specifying the resources can be supported through formulating a ``minitask''. A mini-task is fulfilled when the necessary invention is realised with hardly more than the already existing resources of the technical system.
Figure 2. Framework for problem-driven inventing: The Five-Field-Analysis covers all aspects that have to be considered when solving problems.
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. goals: Two tools serve for selecting the
goals: the ``ideal machine'' and the ``fitting''. The ideal machine describes the desired result from a functional point of view, the fitting from the restricting economic, technological and social points of view. . intended state: The intended state consists of ``strong solutions'', i.e. such inventions that come closest to the goals of both the ideal machine and the fitting. . transformation: A whole bundle of tools is available for the transformation. It encompasses (i) the application of scientific effects and phenomena, (ii) the 40 inventive principles together with the morphologic matrix, (iii) the fundamental variations in space, time, structure and state as well as (iv) the laws of evolution of technical systems. Besides these ``Altshullerian tools'', other tools may be suited to transformation like the patent analysis in databases (Becker, 1988, pp. 20±23), the morphologic method (Zwicky, 1989, pp. 114±174) as well as various creativity techniques (see Geschka, 1986, for an overview of creativity techniques and Geschka, 1996, for selected creativity techniques and their application).
Current state: systems analysis and contradictions At first two tools shall be further outlined that substantially support the analysis of the current state and that may form the starting point for inventions: systems analysis and thinking in contradictions. While many inventors will
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almost intuitively think in system analytical categories, thinking in contradictions may appear strange in the first instance; the application of two mind-games is recommended in those cases. Through systems analysis the inventor chooses and specifies the relevant part of the technical system for his subsequent work in terms of its structure, its function and its focus (Schweizer, 1989, pp. 44±50). The structural and functional specification defines the system borders in space and in process, i.e. a higher or subordinate system. The focus indicates which aspect of the technical system will be relevant, e.g. the efficiency, the reliability or the safety of control (see Phan, 1995, pp. 21±22, for a discussion of the importance of the systems approach for inventive problem solving). Thinking in contradictions helps the inventor to carry the problem to extremes. A contradiction exists when a desired function is opposed by harmful factors. In general, technical and scientific contradictions can be distinguished: A technical contradiction relates to the constructive parts of the inspected technical system; a scientific contradiction relates to its substantial or procedural aspects. A problem can always contain several contradictions. Contradictions represent the core of a problem but are sometimes not easy to perceive. However, two mind-games may help the inventor to provoke and thus detect contradictions: By the ``what if'' mind-game the inventor varies one or more conditions and resources of the problem to extremes. What barriers, for instance, arise if the technical
Figure 3. Tools for problem-driven inventing: Within the framework of the Five-Field-Analysis several powerful tools are applied. # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997
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Overcoming patterns of thought
system may be immensely big but the desired function has to take place in minimum time? When playing the ``just do it'' mind-game the inventor at first states a possible intended state, exaggerates it as far as possible, and then tries to realise the intended state with no respect to resources. Whatever hinders the inventor to do so founds the contradiction. For both mind-games the ``PMI method'' according to de Bono (1995, pp. 25±34) is helpful: Step by step the positive, the negative and the interesting points (which often directly result from the comparison of the positive and the negative points) of the problem statement are considered. Thus the inventor can overcome patterns of thought and mind barriers that may arise out of preconceived ideas. The system borders as well as the focus and the contradiction of the current state are not necessarily static: During the problem solving process and when applying further tools the inventor will possibly change the inspected part of the technical system and its contradiction several times. Furthermore, in some cases it may be sufficient to consider only the technical or the scientific contradiction. For simplicity and didactical reasons, the system borders in the logs example shall be drawn from the ejection device after the debarking of the logs to the entering position for the subsequent treatment; the functions ``conveying'' and ``aligning'' shall be considered under efficiency aspects. Within these system borders, thinking in contradictions may be applied in several ways. One first technical contradiction can be derived directly from the formulation of the problem: After being conveyed, the logs shall reach the entering position for the subsequent treatment longitudinally placed (desired function), but the logs fall on the conveyer chaotically and do not change their position while being conveyed (harmful factors). A second technical contradiction can be provoked with the ``just do it'' mindgame: with no respect to the resources the logs could, for example, be aligned with a video-controlled grip arm. Such a device would on the one hand provide the desired function, but on the other hand lead to a system of undesired complexity, e.g. due to an exceeded number of parts or a great deal of measurement and control.
Resources: mini-task The consideration of the resources complements the just-described analysis of the current state. The Five-Field-Analysis urges
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the problem solver to list exactly and make himself aware of all the resources currently used and those additionally available. When doing so the problem solver should especially think of the resources normally taken for granted, e.g. the atmosphere, sunlight and time. Afterwards the resources allowed for the invention are to be selected out of this list. The mini-task tool allows one to limit the resources for the invention in a carefully directed manner (Altschuller & Seljuzki, 1983, pp. 64±69). A mini-task is fulfilled when the invention only needs the resources of the already existing technical system. Trying to fulfil the mini-task bears advantages and disadvantages: . If the inventor chooses the mini-task, he
reduces the number of possible solutions he has to check. In addition, it will be easy to finally realise the invention as no new resources will be required. . However, those inventions which would be possible with the use of new resources will not be considered. But what counts most is that through the mini-task the inventor will take over the system borders without reflecting upon them. Thus he will not be stimulated for inventions that relate to a higher technical system. Therefore the mini-task tool should preferably be applied if a technical system still bears a perceptible potential of improvement. It is possible to formulate a mini-task for the logs example even though some of the later outlined solutions will be beyond the scope of the mini-task: The invention should be realised with the currently available resources, i.e. the logs, the conveyer (a belt and a drive), gravitation, the surrounding air and the duration of conveying.
Goals: ideal machine and fitting Besides the current state and the resources, the goals are another central part of the FiveField-Analysis. A clever selection of goals gives the inventor an important orientation on his way to the problem's solution. Tools to determine the goals are the ideal machine and the fitting. To construct an ideal machine means to provide the desired function without using any substantial parts. In other ± paradox appearing ± words: the ideal machine is a machine that is not a machine. Analogous goals are the ideal substance and the ideal field. Together they describe the ideal result for the problem approach. By orientating himself to the ideal result, the inventor limits
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his search area systematically and leaves aside many of the other possible but ultimately weak solutions (Altschuller, 1984, pp. 52±53). The ideal machine is an ambitious target which might not be technically realisable in many cases but nevertheless is highly desirable. Within the selected system borders several different ideal machines can normally be defined. In those cases it is advisable to select, in the first instance, such an ideal machine which is related to the most easily modifiable resource. Furthermore, the inventor has to take economic, technological, and social conditions and restrictions into account, e.g. customer demands and market requirements. Fitting means to adjust an invention to those conditions and restrictions, i.e. ± just like a construction element in a casing ± to make it fit (Heister, 1996, pp. 22±24). In the logs example two ideal machines offer their services, on the one hand a log that aligns itself by itself, on the other hand a conveyer that aligns the logs by itself. As the conveyer can be modified more easily than the logs, it is chosen for the ideal machine. The fitting can be assumed as given for such an ideal machine.
Intended state: strong solutions The described goals are directly related to the intended state of a problem. The intended state is interpreted as a strong solution. Such a strong solution results from the area of conflict between the ideal machine and the fitting: a strong solution draws itself as close as possible to the ideal machine and at the same time achieves a high degree of fitting to the restrictions. A strong solution for the logs example is very close to the ideal machine, i.e. it can be of any type of conveyer that aligns the logs more or less automatically.
Transformation: . . . Within the framework of the Five-FieldAnalysis the transformation connects all the other fields and forms the transition from the current state to the intended state. There is a variety of transformation tools (Fig. 3) that form the inventor's key for strong solutions and which he can apply both individually and in teams. At first, a multi-purpose tool will be introduced which strongly interacts with the technical competence of the inventor: the application of scientific effects and phenomena.
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Other tools that will be described subsequently use the essence of previous inventions and make this potential more accessible.
. . . Effects and Phenomena, . . . Sophisticated inventions very often result ± as to be seen immediately from the patent literature ± directly from the clever application of scientific effects and phenomena. This does not necessarily mean to apply a completely new effect or detect a phenomenon that has been unknown up to now. Rather it is often sufficient to apply known effects and phenomena in a new context, e.g. in a different field or for a problem not yet considered. However, a single inventor is mostly well versed only in a single field and additionally has only some limited knowledge and experience within this field. He therefore needs a comprehensive catalogue of effects and phenomena of different disciplines including their explanation (Altschuller, 1984, pp. 107±111). A catalogue that can easily be handled ± as available today in different software solutions ± offers on the one hand well-devised search facilities, and on the other hand, it allows one to group and filter the effects and phenomena according to their functions and field of application. Furthermore, the inventor can supplement and modify such a catalogue individually. The application of scientific effects and phenomena requires only little preparatory work during the analysis of the current state: the inventor may apply the effects and phenomena tool immediately after a systems analysis ; formulating contradictions may be helpful but is not a requirement. Various scientific phenomena lead directly to strong solutions of the logs example. For instance, the friction phenomenon is of central importance for deftly aligning the logs on the conveyer. A vibrating conveyer belt is possible with two shovel-shaped blades, one on each side of the belt (Fig. 4a). The vibrations reduce the force required for rotating the logs on the conveyer belt, the blades make the logs rotate and thus align. Alternatively a belt could be used that is not vibrating but whose surface has different rough areas (Fig. 4b). In conjunction with the described blades, the logs would be aligned as well. Another useful phenomenon in the logs example is inertia. It can be used very easily if the existing conveyer belt is equipped with a rough surface and driven at much higher speed (Fig. 4c). A log dropping on the conveyer belt will then be extremely accelerated as soon as it touches the belt and thus tugged longitudinally, i.e. aligned as desired.
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A very powerful effect is the mobius strip, which was named after its discoverer MoÈbius (Fig. 4d). Using this effect, the combination of two conveyer belts can be a strong solution of the logs example: the first conveyer belt is shaped as a mobius strip which twists within the range of conveying. Through the belt's twist the logs are positioned in a uniform direction and thrown over on the second conveyer belt. This belt receives the logs and conveys them.
``40 fundamental principles to overcome technical contradictions'' ± mainly for the field of mechanical engineering ± were formulated (Altschuller, 1984, p. 86). These inventive principles are differently abstract and some of them are divided into sub-principles. For instance, principle 2 (``Extraction'') suggests to ``extract (remove or separate) a disturbing part or property from an object, or extract only the necessary part or property'' (Ideation International, 1996). Principle 15 (``Dynamics'') consists of the sub-principles
. . . 40 Inventive Principles and Morphologic Matrix, . . .
``(a) allow (or design) the characteristics of an object, external environment, or process to change to be optimal or to find an optimal operating condition, (b) divide an object into parts capable of movement relative to each other, (c) if an object (or process) is rigid or inflexible, make it movable or adaptive'' (Invention Machine, 1996).
The 40 inventive principles together with the morphologic matrix are the second transformation tool to be explained. This tool is extraordinary substantiated and remarkably powerful and can be applied both in its original form according to Altshuller and in various modified versions. A very comprehensive patent analysis of far more than 40,000 protective rights publications backed the thesis that large numbers of superior inventions are based on a comparative small number of inventive principles. Thereupon
The well-aimed application of the inventive principles is supported by a morphologic matrix of 39 rows and columns (Fig. 5 shows a part of the matrix with some of the suggested principles). The rows of the matrix state what
Figure 4. Four possible solutions of the logs example, found with the transformation tool application of scientific effects and phenomena.
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shall be changed through the invention ± i.e. what is desired ± whereas the columns state what changes inadmissibly ± what is undesired ± when the invention is realised by conventional means. By cleverly selecting the rows and the columns the technical contradiction can be represented. In the related cross-fields of the matrix up to four of the 40 inventive principles are stated whose application appears to be particularly promising for overcoming this contradiction (Altschuller, 1984, pp. 96±97). Despite all conceivable criticism, the inventive principles and the morphologic matrix seem to be very powerful for inventing and should therefore be further developed regularly. For instance, Altshuller already pointed out that there are reasonable combinations of the 40 inventive principles and that the inventor should always also consider the complementary principles (``anti-principles'', e.g. ``Extraction'' and its reversal ``Addition''). Furthermore, he formulated several so-called standards, i.e. principles or combinations of principles which are especially suitable for certain types and conditions of problems (Altschuller, 1983, pp. 156±185).
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A very valuable contribution to a handy application of the inventive principles has been made by Zobel (1991, pp. 108±116): He formulates 13 universal principles including their complementary principles and relates the rest of the inventive principles ± which are much less universally valid ± to those universal principles; thereby, it is remarkable that there hardly exist any complementary principles for the less universal principles. The resulting hierarchy of principles provides a very reasonable structure for the inventive principles and makes them much easier to apply. For instance after short practice, the inventor will already be very much acquainted with the universal principles and thus be able to apply them successfully without the morphologic matrix and even in almost every field of application. Additionally, the inventor can easily supplement such a hierarchy of principles with individual principles and recommendations found through experience and which are therefore normally much more specific. As the rows and columns of the morphologic matrix are rather generally titled, several cross-fields of the matrix may apply for the
Augmenting previous experience
Figure 5. A part of the morphologic matrix and some of the inventive principles it suggests; together they form a very powerful transformation tool for problem-driven inventing (for the matrix see Altschuller, 1984, pp. 172±189). # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997
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logs example. However, by choosing ``extent of automation'' (row 38) with respect to aligning and conveying as the desired function of the conveyer and ``complexity of device'' (column 36) as harmful factor that occurs when the function is realised with conventional means (e.g. a grip arm), the logs example's contradiction is represented best (see Fig. 5). The morphologic matrix then suggests the inventive principles 15 (``Dynamics''), 24 (``Mediator''), and 10 (``Prior Action''). The dynamics principle explicitly proposes to ``divide an object into parts capable of movement relative to each other'' (Invention Machine, 1996). This leads directly to the idea of a conveyer built out of three parallel belts (Fig. 6a). The middle belt is arranged underneath the two other belts and moves in the conveying direction, one of the outside belts also moves in the conveying direction while the other outside belt moves in the opposite direction. Through this conveyer construction, logs dropping on the conveyer are rotated by the two outside belts until they are longitudinally positioned and then drop on the middle belt which transports them. Another strong solution would be a similar conveyer construction where one of the outside belts is replaced by a sloping stop (Fig. 6b).
The mediator principle as well as the prior action principle confirm the already suggested solution for the logs example which has been obtained through the mobius strip effect (see Fig. 4d), as the mobius strip can be interpreted both as a mediator and a prior action for aligning. Furthermore, the prior action principle may recommend an ejection device after debarking shaped like a funnel whose special shape automatically aligns the logs before they reach the conveyer (Fig. 6c). The further development of this idea leads to a chute which replaces both the original ejection device after debarking and the original conveyer belt (Fig. 6d). Due to gravitation the logs slide down the slippery surface of the chute and at the same time they automatically position themselves longitudinally.
. . .Fundamental Variations, and . . . The fundamental variations are a third powerful transformation tool. They may be interpreted as generalisation of the above mentioned universal inventive principles and also Osborn & Parnes suggest similar variations within their five stage approach for creative problem solving called ``CPS model''. Although the fundamental variations tool
Figure 6. Four possible solutions of the logs example, found with the transformation tool of 40 inventive principles together with the morphologic matrix.
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may seem to be very simple, its application is not always easy, however, the experienced inventor will find it quite handy and extremely powerful. Through fundamental variations the inventor mentally varies some of the properties of the regarded technical system or its elements in a purposeful manner. Four types of variations appear to be especially advisable (Altschuller, 1984, p. 57): . variations in space: The system as a whole or
one element of the system has different (possibly even contradictory) properties at different locations. Such mental variations are not only advisable for vast technical systems as different properties can also exist next to each other on atomic level. . variations in time: The system as a whole or one element of the system has different (possibly even contradictory) properties over time. Such variations seem especially reasonable for processes that are not necessarily continuous or in any way discontinuous. . variations in structure: The elements of the system have certain (possibly different) properties while the system as a whole has the opposite property. For such variations it may be necessary to mentally restructure the system before they are applied. . variations in state: Within the system opposite properties purposefully coexist at the same time or occur alternately. Such transitional states appear to be especially reasonable if property changes are intended within the system anyway. Formulating the technical and/or scientific contradiction of a problem is not a prerequisite for applying fundamental variations. However, as a contradiction is normally concentrated in a certain area of the technical system ± the ``critical zone'' ±, the system's elements of that area are especially suitable for fundamental variations. Strong solutions may also result by cleverly combining several fundamental variations. However, experience shows that many problem solvers already have big problems in, for the first time, trying to do only a single mental variation, as those simple but not at all trivial variations require a high capability of abstract thinking. Therefore it may help to interpret the fundamental variations as generalised inventive principles. And indeed most of the universal principles of the 40 inventive principles are special variations in either space, time, structure or state. For instance, principle 1 (``Segmentation'', i.e. taking into equal pieces) and 2 (``Extraction'', i.e. taking
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into different pieces) are covered by variations in space and/or structure and principle 10 (``Prior action'') and 15 (``Dynamics'') can be interpreted as variations in time and/or structure. In the logs example, mental variations in both space and structure could lead to the already suggested conveyer construction of three belts with different running directions and a lower arranged middle belt (Fig. 6a). If the spatial and structural variations are supplemented by mental variations in time, another smart solution becomes obvious which has a less complex structure but affords a higher degree of controlling (Fig. 7): the conveyer construction could be built out of two parallel belts running next to each other on the same level but whose running direction is varied in time. In the beginning the two belts would be running in opposite directions until the log is positioned longitudinally (cycle A). Then the running direction would be switched so that both belts would be running in the same ± the conveying ± direction, thus transporting the log (cycle B).
. . . Laws of Evolution of Technical Systems The transformation tools described beforehand dealt with cleverly applying scientific effects and phenomena as well as the essence of previous inventions for new inventions. The last tool to be described in this article ± the laws of evolution of technical systems ± besides helping to solve problems through new inventions additionally indicates in which way the regarded technical system will probably evolve. Several scientists derived laws out of the evolution of technical systems (e.g. Altschuller, 1984; pp. 124±128; Foster, 1986, pp. 97±115; Linde & Hill, 1993, pp. 61±75). Those laws of evolution can be divided into two classes: laws about the correct composition of technical systems and laws about the prospective evolution of technical systems. Three laws of the latter class appear to be particularly powerful and at the same time easy to use for problem-driven inventing (Altschuller, 1984, pp. 127±128): . law of the transition from the macro level to the
micro level: In the first instance technical systems evolve on the macro level, i.e. its various components are improved step by step. Once hardly any further improvements can be realised on the macro level, the focus of development gradually shifts to the micro level, i.e. the design increasingly makes molecules, atoms, and elec-
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Figure 7. One further possible solution of the logs example, found with the transformation tool of the fundamental variations. trons take over the functions of the components. . law of the irregular evolution of the parts of a system: The different parts of a technical system evolve with different speed and the more complex a system is, the higher is this difference in pace. The irregular evolution of systems causes the technical and scientific contradictions that make inventions necessary. . law of the transition to a higher system: Once a regarded technical system can not be improved anymore it emerges as being a part of a higher system. The further development will then take place at the level of the higher system and thus include the formerly regarded technical system. By considering these laws of evolution of technical systems the inventor can on the one hand judge the previous development of the regarded system as well as his former inventions for this system. On the other hand he gets an orientation for the further development ± including prospective problems ± of the regarded system and promising new inventions for this system. In order to do so it appears to be helpful to derive various more expressive lines of evolution out of the rather abstract laws of evolution. For example, parts that have been
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considered static up to now (e.g. a driving shaft) normally become dynamic and are replaced step by step by (i) a device with a single joint (e.g. a Cardan shaft), (ii) several joints (e.g. a chain), (iii) elastic parts (e.g. a belt), and finally (iv) constructions that provide the function by liquids (e.g. a hydraulic drive), gases (e.g. a pneumatic drive), or fields (e.g. an induction drive). The transition from the macro level to the micro level is obvious for this line of evolution (Invention Machine, 1996). Considering the transition from the macro level to the micro level in the logs example it is suggested that the conveyer in the traditional sense is to be replaced by constructions of many tiny parts, e.g. rotating balls. The coordinated movement of those parts (e.g. balls) at the same time transports and aligns the logs. Following this law consequently leads to conveying the logs in streams of particles, liquids, gases, or even fields. And indeed, sawmills which are located at rivers already use the water flow for transporting the logs and with a good current, the logs automatically align. Additionally, the law of the irregular evolution of the parts of a system can be applied: currently we are only regarding the system ``conveyer with automatic alignment''
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and leave aside the systems ``debarking and ejection device'' and ``entering position for the subsequent treatment (e.g. sawing)''. Future inventors may integrate those systems in their work and search for inventions for the higher system ``debarking with subsequent sawing''.
The process of Problem-Driven Inventing In order to conduct a problem-driven invention successfully the following approach is suggested. It distinguishes between the process of problem-driven inventing on a small-scale and the process on a large-scale: The smallscale process is realised through a so-called PI-Workshop and may be sufficient for simple problems (Fig. 8). The large-scale process is designed to solve more complex problems and combines several of those PI-Workshops. The suggested approach for problem-driven inventing can be realised both individually and in teams; for simplicity reasons it shall be outlined for team-based inventing. The way of problem-driven inventing on a small-scale is a PI-Workshop which is subdivided into four steps: . Step 1 ± rough approximation: To start to
invent problem-driven the team should approximate the problem roughly. A first consideration of the current state, the resources, the intended state, and the goals as outlined for the logs example in the section ``the Five-Field-Analysis as framework'' helps to clarify the question which problem really has to be solved. A common understanding of the problem arises. Additionally, discussions on preparatory work or patent analysis findings already done may help to comprehend the problem. In step 1 as well as in the subsequent steps it is useful to visualise the state of discussion consequently, e.g. through pin cards or flip charts. . Step 2 ± collecting spontaneous ideas: In a brainstorming or brainwriting session ideas for solution emerging spontaneously should be collected. This step within the PI-Workshop corresponds with the socalled ``purge'' within a synectics session (Knieû, 1995, p. 96). In this step as well as in the other steps of a problem-driven invention good ideas for solution should be noted immediately; by no means should the inventor carry the idea until he finds a suitable transformation tool to develop the idea subsequently. If a strong enough solution is found in step 2 the process of problem-driven inventing may be con-
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cluded. However, even with having a first strong solution it may be beneficial to continue and find further strong solutions which can also serve as a benchmark for the first solution. . Step 3 ± thorough elaboration: After having collected spontaneous ideas, various transformation tools are applied and the four fields of step 1 may be elaborated thoroughly. The team may organise this step quite freely: It may be advisable to at first reconsider and specify ± possibly even redefine ± the current state, the resources, the intended state, and the goals before applying a transformation tool. Alternatively the team may at first apply a transformation tool and specify the other four fields of the Five-Field-Analysis only if necessary. During the thorough elaboration not only several transformation tools may be applied but also each transformation tool may be applied several times. Again all ideas for solution emerging in this step ± no matter whether through the application of transformation tools or not ± should be noted and visualised for the team. Step 3 is finished when the team has found enough ideas for solution expected to be strong or when the team is convinced that despite the application of several transformation tools and the multiple revision of the contradictions, the resources, etc. no strong solutions can be found. . Step 4 ± final assessment and selection: The ideas for solution found during a PIWorkshop are naturally not of equal standard. Therefore, they should be assessed by the team and the best ones should be selected for further treatment. The assessment may also be partially done in steps 2 and 3, e.g. when immediately specifying an idea for solution. However, a synoptic final assessment and selection is recommended. The further treatment of an idea for solution normally requires a considerable amount of time as internal and/or external experts may have to be involved and CAD calculations or simulations may be necessary. During a PI-Workshop the further treatment of the selected ideas for solution should therefore be discussed and assigned to a person or a team. This can be done either once the idea emerges or ± even better ± in step 4 of the PI-Workshop. The outlined course of PI-Workshop describes the process of problem-driven inventing on a small-scale, which should be
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Figure 8. The PI-Workshop is a core element of the process of problem-driven inventing, it represents the process on a small-scale. integrated in the process on a large-scale for more complex problems: . At first the team should conduct a plan-
ning phase during which the more complex problem is analysed systematically and divided in partial problems. For this purpose the Five-Field-Analysis can be very well utilised. . After the planning phase a PI-Workshop is run as outlined above for each of the partial problems. . In overall meetings the team should discuss the results of the various PIWorkshops and the meanwhile possibly changed problem statement. In this context the Morphologic Tableau is an interesting tool which helps to combine strong solutions of the partial problems to overall solutions of the complex problem (see Zwicky, 1989, pp. 114-174, for the Morphologic Tableau and Pahl & Beitz, 1997, pp. 126-128 and 201-213, for a similar approach for systematic design).
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The suggested approach of problem-driven inventing not only allows but also promotes a more or less parallel consideration of the five fields of the Five-Field-Analysis. This process is in obvious contrast to Altshuller's approach, which integrates his tools into an algorithm, i.e. a sequential form with only few optional possibilities to jump back. However, the approach suggested in this article appears to be not only more flexible to apply but also more suitable to current ways of doing business.
Software tools and project INVENT Some of the outlined tools for problem-driven inventing can be supported be special software tools. There are two software tools available that have been designed by former students of Altshuller who have immigrated to the US. Both software tools consist of three modules
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but they differ very much with regard to their contents and appearance: . ``Invention Machine Lab'' by Invention
Machine Corp. (e-mail:
[email protected]) offers a catalogue of scientific effects and phenomena (module ``IM Effects''), a software version of the 40 inventive principles together with the morphologic matrix (module ``IM Principles''), and an analysis tool that illustrates various lines of evolution of technical systems (module ``IM Prediction''). This software tool is professionally designed but not always intuitively useable; a special software training is offered by Invention Machine Corp. The Invention Machine Lab will be part of the ``TechOptimizer'', a new software tool that will be available soon. . ``Innovation Tools'' by Ideation International Inc. (e-mail:
[email protected]) with its three modules ``Ideator'', ``Eliminator'', and ``Improver'' aims at supporting the analysis of the current state, the consideration of the resources, and the formulation of an ideal machine. Additionally, it offers a limited selection of helpful scientific effects and phenomena and a software version of the 40 inventive principles together with the morphologic matrix. This software tool runs as a Windows help application and provides some tutorials and walk-through examples. A Windows version of the more comprehensive software tool ``Innovation Workbench'' has been released by Ideation International Inc. lately. The Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing has been set up by the authors only recently; however, some pilot projects with various enterprises have already been run successfully and further projects are in the planning stage. Furthermore, the EU-funded project INVENT, which was initiated in May 1997 and will have a duration of two years, will provide valuable experiences for the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing: the project aims at qualifying innovation managers based on a training concept that will be designed completely new for the project and teach inventive problem solving as a core element. After being qualified but still working within this project, these innovation managers will spend several months in various enterprises and solve real company problems. The Technical University of Cottbus will accompany both the design and the application of the training concept and finally evaluate the project INVENT.
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Summary Problem-driven inventing helps both R&D experts and managers of enterprises or public institutions in solving technical and technoeconomical problems in a new manner. It can be done individually as well as in teams. The Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing appeals to the competence as well as the creativity of these problem solvers and guides them to a systematic and determined procedure. Within the framework of the Five-FieldAnalysis, many powerful tools are integrated, which on the one hand structure the problem solvers' way of thinking ± e.g. thinking in contradictions, the mini-task, the ideal machine and the fitting ± and on the other hand stimulate them to strong solutions, e.g. the clever application of scientific effects and phenomena, the 40 inventive principles, the fundamental variations as well as the laws of evolution of technical systems. Although these tools mainly derive from Altshuller's Theory of Inventive Problem-Solving, the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing is not bound to this methodology. Rather it suggests a more flexible approach to the process of inventive problem solving. Furthermore, the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing is designed to be open and other tools and techniques may supplement it at anytime. Through helping to establish a common problem understanding and a co-ordinated proceeding amongst people of different background, the Concept of Problem-Driven Inventing not only serves as problem solving method but may also be utilised as a universal management approach for communication and leadership.
Establishing a common understanding
Acknowledgements This article arises from a paper given at the 1997 R&D Management Conference. The Project INVENT is co-ordinated by the Technology and Innovation Agency Brandenburg (T.IN.A. GmbH), Potsdam/Germany, and is supported by the European Commission within the programme ``Innovation''. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support they have received for this article.
References Altschuller, G.S. (1973) Erfinden ± (k)ein Problem? Anleitung fuÈr Neuerer und Erfinder, Verlag TribuÈne, Berlin, D. Altschuller, G.S. (1984) Erfinden: Wege zur LoÈsung technischer Probleme, VEB Verlag Technik, Berlin, D.
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Altschuller, G.S. & Seljuzki, A. (1983) FluÈgel fuÈr Ikarus: UÈber die moderne Technik des Erfindens, Urania-Verlag, Leipzig, Jena, Berlin, D. Altshuller, G.S. (1984) Creativity as an exact science, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, New York, NY et al., USA. Altshuller, G. (1996) And suddenly the inventor appeared: TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, Technical Innovation Centre, Worcester, MA, USA. Becker, T. (1988) 'Das fruÈhzeitige Erkennen von Technologietrends: Patentanalyse, Bibliometrie, Technometrie', technologie & management, Vol. 37, pp. 20±26. de Bono, E. (1995) Edward de Bonos Denkschule: Zu mehr Innovation und KreativitaÈt, Orbis Verlag, MuÈnchen, D. Fey, V.R., Rivin, E.I. & Vertkin, I.M. (1994) 'Application of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving to Design and Manufacturing Systems', Annals of the CIRP, Vol. 43, pp. 107±110. Foster, R. N. (1986), Innovation: Die technologische Offensive, Gabler, Wiesbaden, D. Geschka, H. (1986) 'KreativitaÈtstechniken', In E. Staudt (Ed) Das Management von Innovationen (pp. 147±160), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt/Main, D. Geschka, H. (1996) 'Creativity Techniques in Germany', Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol. 5, pp. 87±92. Hauschildt, J. (1997) Innovationsmanagement, Vol. 2, Vahlen, MuÈnchen, D. Heister, M. (1996) Der Technologie- und Innovationsverein TIV: Ein GruÈndungskonzept fuÈr aktuelles BuÈrgerhandeln zur KreativitaÈtsfoÈrderung und als Hilfe zur Selbshilfe, DABEI, Bonn, D. Ideation International (1996) Innovation Tools: Ideator 1.2, Ideation International Inc., Southfield, MI, USA (software tool). Invention Machine (1996) Invention Machine Lab: Principles 2.11, Invention Machine Corp., Cambridge, MA, USA (software tool).
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Knieû, M. (1995) Kreatives Arbeiten: Methoden und UÈbungen zur KreativitaÈtssteigerung, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, MuÈnchen, D. Linde, H. & Hill, B. (1993) Erfolgreich Erfinden: Widerspruchsorientierte Innovationsstrategie fuÈr Entwickler und Konstrukteure, Hoppenstedt, Darmstadt, D. MoÈhrle, M.G. & PannenbaÈcker, T. (1996) 'Erfinden per Methodik: Ein neuer Weg zur StaÈrkung der InnovationsfaÈhigkeit', technologie & management, Vol. 45, pp. 112±118. MuÈller-Merbach, H. (1987) 'FuÈnf-Felder-Analyse' In E. Dichtl & O. Issing (Ed) Vahlens Groûes Wirtschaftslexikon, Vol. 2 (p. 656), Vahlen, MuÈnchen, D. Pahl, G. & Beitz, W. (1997) Konstruktionslehre: Methoden und Anwendung, Vol. 4, Springer, Berlin et al., D. Phan, D. (1995) 'TRIZ: Inventive Creativity Based on the Laws of Systems Development', Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol. 4, pp. 19±30. Schweizer, P. (1989) Systematische Produktentwicklung mit Mikroelektronik: Technische und psychologische Erfolgsstrategien, VDI-Verlag, DuÈsseldorf, D. Zobel, D. (1991) Erfinderpraxis: Ideenvielfalt durch systematisches Erfinden, Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin, D. Zwicky, F. (1989) Entdecken, Erfinden, Forschen im morphologischen Weltbild, Vol. 2, Baeschlin, Glarus, CH.
Martin G. MoÈhrle is Professor of Planning and Innovation Management at the Technical University of Cottbus, Germany. Tilo PannenbaÈcker is Research Assistant to Prof. MoÈhrle.
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Letter from China: A Survey of Creativity Research* Fangqi Xu and Fangyi Xu
I
n this report we describe creativity research in China from four aspects: research organizations; typical researchers; main research achievements and the developing trends of recent years. From the beginning of the 1980s, China began to implement a reform and `open door' policy which also brought fresh air into academic circles. Various theories and studies emerged in large numbers, some were from overseas, some originating in China. The study of creativity, (in China, creative studies) came from Japan and the USA originally.
Research organisations A. Institutions In June 1983, the First National Symposium of Creative Studies was held at Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region. In this meeting the Preparatory Committee of the China Society of Creative studies (PCSCS) was set up. Following this, the PCSCS and its members conducted various activities in different parts of the country, the main ones being: 1. An academic exchange with the visiting delegation of the Japan Creativity Society headed by the president Professor Akira Onda (August 1984). 2. A symposium on Creativity Development in Enterprises (January 1984). 3. In Shanghai, educational experiments in children's invention at Hetian Road primary school, and Creative Education experiments at Xiangming middle school (1983±1986). 4. A symposium on creative studies in the railway industry (April 1984). 5. A young women's `Contest in Invention and Creativity' sponsored by the news# Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
paper `Jiefang Daily' (April 1984±March 1985). 6. A juvenile correspondence school of Creative Education in China in cooperation with the publication `Early Youth' (December 1984±December 1985). In addition to such activities we also held several lecture courses and seminars. The PCSCS has played an important role in the development of Chinese creativity research. Unfortunately, at the beginning of 1986, the department concerned in the Chinese government published an announcement that any institutions without approval could not carry out their activities. In addition to this, differences of opinion within the PCSCS were sharp, so this committee disbanded itself. If we say that the PCSCS was an abnormal institution, many institutions set up after this committee across China, were normal. The first was Guangxi Creativity Society (March, 1985). Its chairman was Zhiheng Gan (Professor of the Department of Philosophy at Guangxi University). Following this, the Human Creativity Society was set up through the efforts of Ruichong Wang, ex-Chairman of the Hunan Institute of Scientific and Technological Information Research, and it was aided financially by the Association of Science and Technology of Hunan province. By the end of 1985, in scenic Hanghzhou city, the Invention and Creativity Society was also established, headed by Professor Jiawei Wang (the Department of Management Engineering, Zhejiang University). In April 1986, the author, (Fangqi) organised the Changzhou Creativity Society, acting as a standing Director and General Secretary, with Shaoxi Shi (an educator) as Chairman. In December of the same year, the Shanghai Creativity Society was established. Zhangdu
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Yuan, ex-office Director of the collective economy of Shanghai, was chairman. Nanjing Creativity Society was set up in 1987 under the coordination of Jiazeng Li (Associate Professor, South East University). Its general secretary was Jimei Wang, (Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences, the Technology College of East China). Later, the Tianjing Creativity Society was set up. Though established at a later date, it has been active in recent years and its influence has spread. In addition, such institutions were also born in provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangxi and so on, (although their influence has been less significant). Needless to say, it was important to almost all researchers of creativity, that the China Creativity Society was founded by the Chinese government in September 1994. Its bulletin `The Creative Universe' was first published in September 1995. In December 1996, the Beijing Creativity Society (BCS) was set up with the direction of the hard working Deshan Ru, the President of the Beijing College of Petrochemistry Management. According to President Ru's speech at the inaugural meeting, the BCS was to concentrate their research activities around the development of enterprise.
B. Research institutes In March 1985, the Creativity Development Research Institute of China was set up in Changzhou city. Being the first institute for the study of creativity, it attracted a great deal of attention in various social circles. Since its inauguration, its main activities have been as follows: 1. With the help of Makato Takahashi (chairman of the Institute of Creativity Development Research, Japan) it invited Professor S.J. Parnes (Chairman of the Board of Creative Education Foundation, USA) to present lectures in China. 2. It held a seminar about the creative education in primary and middle schools for the Education branch of the Nuclear Industry Ministry. In October 1989 the Shanghai Institute of Creative Engineering Research of China was established. This institute invited dozens of special researchers from various parts of the country, and it may be regarded as one of the centres for Chinese creativity studies. At the same time, the Creativity Development Research Unit was re-organized, and became the Changzhou Branch of the Shanghai Institute.
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University developments Since 1983, there were more than thirty universities or colleges such as Guangxi University, Zhejiang University, NorthEast University, Fudan University, Jiaotong University of Xian, the Technology College of East China and so on, which held creativity lectures. Among them, two are worth mentioning. One was the Industry University of Middle-South China. In September 1986, its Department of Social Science recruited a graduate to specialise in the study of creativity. Her adviser, Professor Nianwen Cheng, chairman of this department whose speciality was natural dialectics, planned a series of relevant lessons for her, including the lectures given by Yukio Murakami (Director of the Japan Creativity Society) and the author (Fangqi). Unfortunately, Professor Cheng died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage, and this student had to turn to other work. Though this attempt to set up a programme for the Masters in Creativity failed, Professor Cheng's foresight and courage were important and praiseworthy. The other noteworthy institute is the Mining Institute of China. Its Professor, Shouqiang Zhuang, devoted himself to the study of creativity. From 1986, he began to extend his mining lessons to include creativity development, and this was welcomed by the students. At the start of 1988, they set up the Creativity Institute of students. In recent years, the experience has been that the students who have studied creativity showed better qualities in various aspects of their work than those who had not. In January, 1991 a creativity study laboratory was set up, with Professor Zhuang as Director. This was the first creativity research unit in a Chinese university, and its development attracted the attention of the academic community.
Typical researchers The researchers who are now active in the creativity field are mostly the participants of the Nanning meeting. They are engaged in various academic activities in their own disciplines and home towns. Details of some of the researchers are given below: Ziheng Gan. After graduating from the Department of Philosophy, Beijing University. He is now a professor in Guangxi University. One of the sponsors of the Nanning meeting, he is one of the earliest creativity researchers, and in 1985 founded the Journal of Creativity and Talents. He has made important contributions to Chinese
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creativity research. He is skilled in creative studies from a philosophical perspective, and has published many papers. He is now working on the study of creative philosophy and creative aesthetics. Xizheng Xie graduated from Quinghua University in 1965. He is currently Professor and Dean of the Department of Law, Literature and Law College, Northeast University. Professor Xie is prominent in such disciplines as the study of scientific philosophy, human engineering, the tactics of management and creativity. In 1983, he instituted a series of lectures about creativity. This action has prompted his fellow colleagues to join the creativity research programme and they set up a research group headed by Professor Xie. In 1987 they established a correspondence programme for creativity development amongst workers and staff members in the northeast area of China. Professor Xie has published more than ten works, such as `The Course of Invention and Creation' edited with others, and the `ABC of Invention'. Jiawei Wang graduated from the Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University in 1950. Now he is a retired Professor of the Department of Management Engineering of this university and has been a Professor of Wuhan University. Since the end of the 1970s, Professor Wang has been taught the history of natural science, management science and creative studies. After the Nanning meeting, he began to write about his work. In December 1986, his co-authored work ± `Creation and Creativity Development' ± was published and was haled as the first fruits of Chinese research into creativity. Zhangdu Yuan graduated from the Workers' and Staff Members' University of Shanghai Machine Tool Factory in 1956. He is now Head of the Shanghai Institute of Creative Engineering, and a Senior Engineer. Though his first occupation was as a worker, through hard study over many years, he has produced innovations and has become a leader of enterprise. He has worked in this for a long time and has acquired great practical experience. During recent years he has devoted himself to the study of creativity development in enterprises, with the help of creative engineering. His main work has been the `Potential of Creativity'. He was elected Chairman of the first Board of Directors of the China Creativity Society, in 1994. Fangqu Xu graduated from the Department of Mathematics at Shanghai University of Education. He was an Associate Professor and the Deputy Headman of Yangpu ward, Shanghai. He is now the vice chairman of Yangpu Ward assembly. Mr Xu specialized in
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the creative teaching of mathematics, particularly plane geometry. The geometry works edited by him have become the standard text books for this subject. Over many years, he has developed his interests from creative teaching in mathematics to the entire education syllabus. Since being elected as vicechairman of Yangpu ward, he has worked actively to guide creative teaching developments in middle and primary schools in his ward. His work on creativity research was `An Introduction to the Study of Creative Education'. Yuancheng Guan. A graduate from the Technology College of Taiwan in 1975, he is now Associate Professor and Chairman of the Science and Technology Association of Datong City, Shanxi province. Since the Nanning meeting, he has devoted himself to the study of creative thinking in the invention process. His work `The Tactics of Invention and Innovation' was welcomed on the mainland.
The main research results Here, the research results include papers, studies and research items.
A. Periodicals Since 1982, reports on the study of creativity have been published regularly in journals and newspapers. The major studies are represented below 1. Liyan Xu: `100 creative techniques' (Science Pictorial, 1982±1983) 2. Fukui Zhang: `Wise Methods' (Early Youth, 1983) 3. Fangqi Xu: `Creativity Development' (Youth, 1984) 4. Yuanchen-Guan: `Creativity Thinking' (The Journal of Scientific Friends, 1985) In addition, there was a special collection of papers in the Journal of Shanghai Education (March 1985), a special issue concerning the aspects of creative education.
B. Works and translations According to the authors' investigations, from 1983 to 1996, about 130 works on the study of creativity have been published, 60 of these are translations. We can deduce that there existed a great deal of influence from overseas in these works. It is worth pointing out that the work `Productive Thinking' (Wertheimer) has been translated into the Chinese language, 40 years since its
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conception. (Chongji Ling, Publishing of Education Science, China, 1987). In recent years, two books in particular have attracted academic acclaim. The first is `the Foundation of Creativity' (Shouqiang Zhuang Publishing, of the Mining University of China, October 1990). Its basis is the teaching material of Professor Xhuang who has taught creativity to university students for two years. The other is `the Introduction of Creative Education' (Fangqu Xu, People's Publishing of Ningxia, January 19). This was the first book in China which introduced in detail the definition of creative education and its teaching principles.
C. Tasks In 1989, the research group headed by Professor Xiheng Xie in Northeast University completed a research investigation of soft science in Liaoning province ± `the creativity development of technicians'. This was the first time in China that a group had attempted such a task collectively. The evaluating committee comprised experts from the Science Committee of China, the Science Association of Shanghai, Shengyiang Branch of the Chinese Research Institution, and the Science Committee of Liaoning province) decided that the results of this task had achieved an advanced level in China, and this project was approved.
Research trends in recent years In 1987, creativity research in China was at a low ebb, and we can find the proof of this state in the fact that the only academic journal `Creativity and Talents' was closed and academic meetings had decreased. There were four reasons for this: (1) The high tide of research reached around 1983 had passed; (2) Responding to the economic reforms, more people turned to business; (3) Difficulties in research were high, and some people lost their courage to carry out further work; (4) Some researchers who stood at the frontier of creativity research were dissatisfied with the existing achievements, and sought new developments. But the situation improved in 1989. First, in October of the same year, the Shanghai Institute of Creative Engineering Research was set up. This, without any doubt, will galvanize the study of creativity in the entire country. Then, in January 1991, the author (Fanqi) became the first visiting scholar to study creativity abroad with a national scholarship.
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This event gave great encouragement to researchers in various places. The Invention Association of China, which was set up in 1985, was still alive. As a national association, its development was rapid, now almost every province city and autonomous region had its own branch. Its bulletin, `Invention & Innovation', is a monthly publication. Mr Youzhi Huang, its chief editor, is an enthusiast for creativity research. He set up special columns in the journal, including `The Development of Creativity' and has held correspondence courses. In addition, the Invention Association of China held a national invention exhibition every year. Those adjudged the best were sent to the world's invention exhibition on behalf of China. This action was warmly welcomed and had great effect on the study of creativity throughout the country. In October of 1990 the Invention Association of China held a symposium `On the Development of Creativity' in Tianjing. In this symposium a working committee of creativity studies was set up which belonged to this Association. In September 1991 the Association held an `experience-exchanging meeting on the development of Creativity in the Enterprises and Institution of China.' Then it emerged that the study of creativity related to invention may be the main trend of the future. However, it is the viewpoint of the authors that the study from the perspective of invention is only one part of the whole study of creativity. They are the relations between the part and the whole. So the authors will still work hard for the comprehensive development of the study of creativity.
Acknowledgement * The authors gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and guidance of Professor Koji Morooka.
References Fangqi Xu (1983) `Creative Action', in PCSCS Ed The Collection of theses in the First Symposium on Creativity Study in China, pp. 54±68, Shanghai. Shouqiang Zhuang (1990) The Foundation of Creative Studies, Mining University of China, Xuzhou, China. Fangqi Xu (1991) `Difficulty and Easiness of the Study of Creativity', Journal of Japan Creative Society, vol. 8, pp. 101±108. Fangqi Xu (1991) The Introduction of the Study of Creative Education, People's Publishing of Ningxia, China.
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Editor's note We are pleased to publish this account of work in China by Fangqi Xu and Fangyi Xu. We appreciate their efforts to let us know of the activities of researchers and practitioners in that country, and would welcome further information from readers and subscribers.
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Fangqi Xu is a visiting scholar at Tokai University, Professor Koji Morooka Laboratory, Department of Management Engineering, Tokai, Japan. Fangyi Xu is an engineer at the Institute of Machinery Research, Shanghai Port Office, China.
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Book of the Quarter Reviewed by Tudor Rickards Teresa Amabile (1996) Creativity in Context, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, ISBN 08133-2877-6 (hardcover), bibliographic and general indexes, 317pp
W
hen Teresa Amabile moved from Brandeis and accepted a Professorship at Harvard Business School in 1995 she gave a boost to creativity as a topic of legitimate research interest in Management Science. The first edition of this book, The Social Psychology of Creativity, (1983) appeared at a time when individual-centred studies of creativity seemed to be running out of steam, and offered a more contextual alternative.
Amabile's intrinsic motivation hypothesis The fundamental hypothesis (yet to be labelled Amabile's hypothesis) can be summarised as follows: `. . . intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity but extrinsic motivation is detrimental' (p. 15). Social factors are important `largely because they affect motivation' (p. 17). This is in essence a view of creativity as being driven by forces intrinsic to the individual, and in general inhibited by forces imposed on the individual by his or her environment. At its simplest, the theory was anticipated by Don MacKinnon, who was fond of saying that for creativity `the play's the thing not the pay's the thing'. Her early work assessed the creative performance of school children, and the intrinsic motivation hypothesis was rather unequivocally supported. As the work was extended ± particularly into studies of managerial and technical professional social groupings ± so the hypothesis has been somewhat modified.
The componential model of creativity Amabile proposes three necessary components influencing creative behaviours: task
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motivation, domain-related skills and creativity-related skills. The representation of these components as a model in the earlier edition has been `expanded, refined and revised' here. The changes are not without interest to researchers wishing to study creativity using a sociological approach. For more general purposes, both models represent creativity as occurring in a flow of activities. The labels are familiar in general characteristics to earlier models of creative process, with some kind of initiation, preparation, and response elements. These activities may achieve some closure or outcome ± a created product, or abandonment of the project, for example. Or, the activities may lose the appearance of a simple sequence of events as efforts `loop back' to an earlier stage ± of reformulation of the problem or task, for example. The components of task motivation, domain-relevant skills and creativity relevant processes interact in cybernetic (feedback) ways to produce learning, set-breaking, and mediating effects. They also exercise influences on the flow of activities just described. The components themselves are embedded in a social environment. The modifications to the model permits a greater range of interactions between internal and external motivational forces, and creative outcomes. What was in the earlier book the intrinsic motivational principle made clear that extrinsic motivators would inhibit creativity. In this version there is more subtlety. `Recent theoretical advances by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan have made clear that extrinsic motivation is often perceived as externally controlling but can, under some circumstances, instead be perceived as informational 1 (Deci & Ryan, 1985). There are several important consequences to this shift of position. First, the model and the hypothesis are revised in ways that make them more compelling. I suspect that a large # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
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number of professionals have implicit models of motivation that dispose them to support theories of extrinsic rewards. Even those who have learned about Maslow's ideas of selfactualisation can display considerable ambivalence on this point. A model that suggests the dangers of inappropriate external motivators seems far more promising than one that denies all positive consequences of external motivators. In addition, the evidence of highly effective teamwork points to the benefits of well-defined goals, mostly supplied rather than created by the teams. The clear visionary goal would perhaps be another version of a `non-controlling' external influence.
factors in understanding creativity. Although it is unconventional, the consensual assessment technique finds a practical home in such studies. Indeed, I would like to see more recognition for such approaches. In the work of creative teams, this may permit assessments of performance based on the reactions of the team sponsor(s), for example. This seems a defensible assessment measure, and more convincing than measures based on the longer-term success or failure of the team's efforts to change the social system in which they are embedded. These outcomes are indicators of the wider social system and its capacity to learn, rather than the team's creative processes.
The consensual assessment technique (CAT)
Creativity in context ± in context
There is one particularly noteworthy aspect of the empirical approach taken by Amabile and co-workers. Creativity measures are based on the assessments of experts in the areas in which the `domain-related skills' are being examined. This has at times brought down the fury of those who consider such an approach to be unscientific. Amabile herself describes it as a subjectivist approach although I would prefer to treat Amabile's approach as relativistic and in some opposition to deterministic approaches.2 The so-called objective approach has derived from studies of phenomena in the empirical world. It has faith in the existence of truths that can be absolutely and scientifically established. Most professionals who use the term `scientific method' refer to belief in such absolutes. The relativistic view is held by some (not all) social scientists. Any research approach has inherent strengths and weaknesses. The deterministic view has had magnificent successes in predicting the behaviours of `things', especially when they are tangible and of medium scale (say quite a bit bigger than atoms, and a lot smaller than galaxies). The relativistic views offer ways of dealing with less tangible (less `thing-like') concepts such as idea, social relationships, values, beliefs, and so on. One objection to the relativistic approach to creativity assessment is that it does not permit an absolute measure that has not been `contaminated' through personal `bias'. Creativity is what a social group deems creative. If a posthumous artist gains recognition, the criteria and awareness of the social group has changed so that the work then becomes creative. At least this approach is consistent with the importance of social
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Creativity in context is an important book that will become a much-cited classic text. The serious researcher into creativity will have to become acquainted with its contents. Thanks to such work, managers and professionals may be helped to get answers to some very important practical questions about creativity and its stimulation. How are creative individuals and teams best treated? By providing environments that do not oppress the natural inclinations of those people. The creative climate is managed ± if that is an appropriate term ± so as to avoid interfering with those motivational forces that spring up intrinsically. An exemplar might be the life's work of Masaru Ibuka and his great successor Akio Morita at Sony. They had no great plan to impose on the technical experts they assembled. Rather, they wanted to create a place out of which great results would inevitably flow. They succeeded. Contrary to traditional beliefs about management they were in control by refusing to exercise typical managerial controls. It is unsurprising that the supportive climate is sometimes said to be one in which people take risks. Most inventories of creative climate suggest as much. However, the idea of risk seems to me to be in need of further examination in this setting. Perhaps the creative climate is one in which there is no psychological risk attached to speaking in favour of, or trying out, the new and unpredictable idea. What is less clear from the experimental evidence (and from the theory) is what can be done if there is evidential mis-alignment between organisational and individualistic goals. The old story still has some relevance. `What we want are some wild geese around here' says the CEO with more than a hint of
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rhetoric. `Yes', mutters the engineer `as long as we all fly in formation behind you'. Transformational recipes through quality programmes, business process reengineering, lean systems and so on have achieved considerable efficiency gains. Yet they may not have addressed that fundamental question. What ways can we improve the creative outputs from all of our employees? The answer, it seems lies in the context. For me that means also that the answer may lie directly within each organisation to figure out creatively what to do differently. Ironically, whereas highly creative behaviours in positive climates may be inhibited by externally imposed constraints and control, creative behaviours may be triggered as a
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result of unpleasant external threats, and may `jolt' an organisation into better shape.
Notes 1. Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1985), Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour, Plenum, New York. 2. See the debate in this journal prompted by Magyari-Beck, (Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 101±114, 1994) a researcher of orthodox persuasion, and Amabile's (Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 245±245) reply. The exchange should be studied by any researcher considering undertaking research with methods that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy of `objective' research methods.
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INDEX TO VOLUME 6
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Index to Volume 6 (e.g. 2/79 = number 2, page 79)
1. Articles ABETTI, Pier A. Underground Innovation in Japan: the Development of Toshiba's Word Processor and Laptop Computer
3/127
BRIGGS, Robert O. and DE VREEDE, Gert-Jan. Meetings of the Future: Enhancing Group Collaboration with Group Support Systems 2/106 CARR, Raymond T. Education and Genius
3/168
CONWAY, Steve. Strategic Personal Links in Successful Innovation: Link-pins, Bridges, and Liaisons
4/226
COVIN, Teresa Joyce and STIVERS, Bonnie P. Knowledge Management Focus in US and Canadian Firms
3/140
CULVENOR, John. The Use of Creativity Techniques in OHS Risk Management
2/99
DEGELE, Nina. Appropriation of Technology as a Creative Process
2/89
DENTON, John and DE COCK, Christian. 3M and Imation: Demerger as a Source of Innovation
2/73
EKVALL, GoÈran. Organizational Conditions and Levels of Creativity
4/195
FISHER, Tom. The Designer's SelfIdentity ± Myths of Creativity and the Management of Teams
1/10
GRéNHAUG, Kjell and HAUKEDAL, Willy. The Cumbersome Route from Research Data to Knowledge Use
3/151
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HACKLEY, Christopher and KITCHEN, Philip J. Creative Problem Solving as a Technology of Expert Behaviour within Marketing Management
1/45
MAGYARI-BECK, Istvan. Should the Studies in Creativity be a Serious Scholarly Enterprise? A Continuation of a Friendly Discussion with Teresa Amabile and Scott G. Isaksen
1/60
MATTHEWS, Peter. The Need for Innovation: a Case History from the Water Industry
1/19
MC FADZEAN, Elspeth. Improving Group Productivity with Group Support Systems and Creative Problem Solving Techniques
4/218
È HRLE, Martin G. and MO È CKER, Tilo. ProblemPANNENBA Driven Inventing: a Concept for Strong Solutions to Inventive Tasks
4/234
PAPER, David J. and JOHNSON, Jeffrey J. A Theoretical Framework Linking Creativity, Empowerment and Organizational Memory
1/32
PROCTOR, Tony. New Developments in Computer Assisted Creative Problem Solving
2/94
ROBINSON, Julian. Innovations in Sport: the Rise of One Day Internationals (ODIs) in Cricket
1/28
SAXENA, R. K. and RICKARDS, Tudor. Innovation and the Dynamics of Economic Growth: the Case of the Mahi River Project
4/206
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STéREN, Sigurd. Sustainable Product Design ± is there more to it than Science, Systems and Computers?
BIRCH, Paul and CLEGG, Brian. Imagination Engineering, The Toolkit For Business Creativity
2/121
BURRELL, Gibson. Pandemonium: Towards a Retro-Organization Theory
3/190
CLEGG, S. R., HARDY, C. and NORD, W. R. Handbook of Organization Studies
3/189
COLLISON, David L. and HEARN, Jeff. Men as Managers, Managers as Men, Masculinities and Management
1/68
4/254
JONES, T. New Product Development: an introduction to a multifunctional process
2/120
2/117
KING, N. and ANDERSON, N. Innovation and change in organizations
3/189
LAAGE-HELLMAN, Jens. Business Networks in Japan: supplier±customer interaction in product development
2/122
LIPNACK, J. and STAMPS, J. Virtual teams: reaching across space, time and organizations with technology
3/188
1/3
TALBOT, R. J. Taking Style On Board
3/177
WILSON, Peter. Simplex Creative Problem Solving
3/161
XU, Fangqi and XU, Fangyi. Letter from China: A Survey of Creativity Research
4/249
2. Books of the Quarter AMABILE, Teresa. Creativity in Context COLLINS, James C. and PORRAS, Jerry I. Built to Last: Successful habits of visionary companies REID, Robert H. Architects of the Web: 1000 days that built the future of business WEICK, K. E. Sensemaking in organizations
3/185 1/65
Book Reviews ACZEL, A. D. Fermat's last theorem, Unlocking the secret of an ancient mathematical problem ALVERSON, M. and WILMOTT, H. Making Sense of Management: a Critical Introduction
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3/191
1/69
ROGERS, Beth. Creating Product Strategies WEHRMEYER, Walter. Greening People: Human Resources and Environmental Management
1/68
2/119
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