Creativity and Innovation Empowerment by the Right Leadership Essay

Creativity and Innovation Empowerment by the Right Leadership - Essay Example This means employers look for people who are creative, innovative and bring in fresh, original and imaginative ideas to boost their products and services. In fostering environments where creativity thrive, stronger overall businesses will emerge. However, the way in which a manager of employees can get optimum creativity from his workforce is not always clear. According to Periperl (2002), creating teams of people inspired by the spirit of creativity will enhance overall performance within a business. This study intends to find the common elements of managerial/ leadership styles that promote employee creativity and innovation in the work environment. Creativity and Innovation In many research studies, the terms creativity and innovation are often used interchangeably, however, there are noted differences between the two. Mumford & Gustafson (1988) contend that creativity has to do with the production of novel and useful ideas, and innovation has to do with the production or adoption of such useful ideas as well as its implementation (Kanter, 1988; Van de Ven, 1986). In any case, organizations need both to be successful in the achievement of its goals. Robinson (2011) contends that in order to maintain a competitive edge, creativity and innovation are necessary to generate new ideas for products and services. ... r, even if an individual has enough appropriate creative thinking skills and expertise, a high level of creativity will not be reached if he or she lacks the motivation to mobilize efforts to use such capabilities (Jung, 2001). A common phrase used referring to creativity is ‘thinking outside the box†. Notar & Padgett (2010) commented that very successful people never appear to have a â€Å"box† from which they ope rate. However, a box is something associated with something that confines one to a finite space. â€Å"Thinking outside the box† then means not thinking in a finite space but opening the minds out to infinite space with endless possibilities. Bernacki (2002) enumerates some attributes related to thinking outside the box as having a willingness to take new perspectives to day-to-day work. It also entails openness to do different things and to do things differently. Creative individuals focus on the value of finding new ideas and acting on them. The y strive to create value in new ways. Although they already have great ideas in mind, they still enjoy listening to others due to their perennial search for better ideas. Creative Cultures/Environments Amabile (1998) suggests that for leaders to foster creativity among their subordinates, they must establish an organizational environment wherein subordinates feel safe contributing their ideas and trying out innovative approaches without fear of punishment for failure. Transformational leaders stimulate their followers to think ‘out of the box’ by enhancing generative and exploratory thinking (Sosik et al., 1998). Such leaders push their followers to bravely think about old problems in new ways, to question their own values, traditions and beliefs, as well as the leader’s beliefs and assumptions (Bass, 1985;