Mobilizing Creativity and Innovation in Bank Nizwa

This report focuses on the promotion and sustenance of organizational creativity and innovation in Bank Nizwa in Oman. The main aim is to find out the barriers to organizational creativity and innovation, theoretical models and frameworks that can be used to promote organizational creativity and innovation and a plan towards improving organizational creativity and innovation in bank Nizwa in Oman.

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Title page
MOBILIZING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION IN BANK NIZWA
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Executive summary
This report focuses on the promotion and sustenance of organizational creativity and
innovation. The main aim is to find out the barriers to organizational creativity and innovation,
theoretical models and frameworks that can be used to promote organizational creativity and
innovation and a plan towards improving organizational creativity and innovation in bank Nizwa
in Oman. The main theoretical models used include the componential theory of creativity and
Kotter’s theory. The key conclusion is that creativity and innovation according to the
componential theory of creativity can be increased by creating a more conducive environment
and understanding the prerequisites for creativity. The main recommendations for bank Nizwa is
that it should focus more on diversity to increase tolerance and customer satisfaction. Supporting
creative ideas such as raising bank charges which makes customers opt to use ATM and mobile
banking to reduce crowding in the banking halls and creating freedom for workers to engage into
creative and innovative ideas.

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Table of contents
Contents
Title page.............................................................................................................................1
Executive summary.............................................................................................................2
Table of contents..................................................................................................................3
Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
Creativity and innovation climates in organizations......................................................4
Challenges hindering organizational creativity and innovation...................................6
Plan to promote creativity and innovation......................................................................6
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................8
Recommendations................................................................................................................8
References.........................................................................................................................10
Bibliography.....................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Increase in globalization as well as increased adoption of liberal capitalism and free
market economy has intensified trade all over the world (Serrat, 2017). This has increased
competition among different organizations which has forced organizations to find innovative and
creative solutions to be able to compete fairly and to be able to meet their goals and objectives.
Creativity refers to the process of using original ideas to find solutions to challenges. Innovation
on the other hand focuses on the successful implementation of the ideas to either improve
existing approaches or to chart new approaches to solve challenges. This paper focuses on
Organizational creativity and innovation which involves various aspects of the organization such
as leadership, management, employee motivation, advertising and customer satisfaction. The
paper also focuses on barriers to invention and innovation in organizations, different models that
are used in organizational creativity and innovation and barriers to organizational creativity and
innovation.
Creativity and innovation climates in organizations
Change is central concept in various models of creativity and innovation. Some of the
most common creativity and innovation models in organizations include componential theory of
creativity and Kotter’s change management theory among others.
The componential theory of creativity was advanced by Teresa Amabile. The model
comprehensively entails the psychological and social aspects that are prerequisites of creativity
in organizations. According to Amabile, 2012, the four major components of enhancing
creativity and innovation in an organization include individual motivation, a high level of

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expertise, creative thinking and a work environment that supports creativity and innovation. In
order to improve creativity and innovation at bank Nizwa, it is necessary that the management of
the bank creates a conducive environment that enhances creativity and innovation. According to
the theory, the conducive environment necessary for promoting innovation and creativity can be
enhanced in ways such as, creating a positive challenge towards work among the employees,
encouraging and supporting new ideas and giving workers the freedom to explore new ideas and
possibilities.
The human resource management department also has a role to play in providing the
necessary prerequisites for creativity and innovation. These include motivation. Motivation is
best when it is intrinsic. Workers are motivate more when they are satisfied and they enjoy their
work. Lastly, to improve expertise, it is important that the HRM department focuses on hiring a
diverse work force with high competent skills that can provide competitive solutions to various
challenges in the work place. The most important expertise in a healthy workforce include talent,
technical skills, intelligence, knowledge and expertise (Amabile, and Pratt, 2016).
Kotter’s change management theory is another model that can be used to analyze
creativity and innovation in organizations. The model was developed by John Kotter and it
consists of 8 stages through which organizations can creatively foster change Hornstein, 2015.
These stages include; increasing urgency so as to motivate workers towards change, building a
team with the best mix of skills to support the change, getting the vision correctly to allow for
creativity and sticking to the objectives, communicating with people about the change.
Implement change and eliminate barriers, break the change into short terms goals for easier
accomplishment, persistence with the process and incorporation which focuses on reinforcement.
One disadvantage of the model is that it is lengthy and time consuming.

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Challenges hindering organizational creativity and innovation.
Many organizations fail because they fail to address barriers that hinder them from
coming up and implementing innovative solutions to their challenges. Creativity and innovation
in most organizations is not welcomed by majority of people in the organization due to a variety
of reasons. These include; lack of employee empowerment and motivation, lack of effective
innovation strategies, centralization of innovation functions, lack of diversity and poor
parameters of measuring and assessing innovation. These barriers mainly arise from gaps in the
leadership and management of organizations. For instance, Ramos, Anderson, Peiró, and Zijlstra,
2016 argues that lack of employee empowerment and motivation makes employees to lack
commitment to organizational goals. Most managers who depend on the classical theories of
management such as the scientific theory of management are likely to fall in this trap because
such theories fail to accommodate human factors in the job such as emotion.
Bureaucracy as explained by weber is also one of the barriers that hinder creativity and
innovation in many organizations. This is mainly because of its rigid nature that emphasizes on
rules rather than evaluation. It is also impersonal in nature and fails to accommodate human
innovativeness. Bureaucracy is also characterized with centralization of power and decision
making which prevents subordinates from making decisions. This strips the organization of the
creativity of its subordinate employees (Thompson, 2017).
Plan to promote creativity and innovation
There are various ways that organizations can promote innovation and creativity. Most of
these ways depends on the accurate elimination of the barriers that hinder creativity in the
organizations. A plan to promote creativity and innovation in an organization can be improved
by decentralization of power, use of humanistic approach to management and increasing

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diversity. It is necessary that managers as well as the HRM department accommodate humanistic
theories in the management of workers. For instance the humanistic theory advanced by
Abraham Maslow on human needs is essential in focusing on a humanistic approach to
motivation. The theory explains the satisfaction of human needs as the source of motivation.
According to Linstead, 2017, human beings are not only motivated by money but by satisfaction
of human needs which are arranged in a hierarchical pattern from the most basic physiological
needs to self-actualization. Bank Nizwa can therefore use fringe benefits to motivate workers
such as health insurance cover and promotions.
Diversity at the work place is also necessary for creativity and innovation to flourish.
This is so because, diversity increases cultural competence levels among the employees (Zhou,
2015). In addition, it also increases toleration of different cultures and religion. This makes
customers more comfortable at the organization as compared to other organizations that are
intolerant to cultures. Diversity may also act as a route through which ideas that encourage
innovation penetrate into the organization. Bank Nizwa can therefore focus on creating a more
diverse workforce.
Lastly, the bank can also change the centralized organization structure to make a more
decentralized structure. This means that the centralized bureaucratic structure of management
can be replaced by a more decentralized structure with managers at all departments. Decision
making should also be allowed at the department level to make decision making easier and more
objective. Different departments should also set their own objectives and means of achieving
them. This will in turn increase creativity level as decisions will be made by people in a
department who are more conversant with the work, goals and objectives.

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Conclusion
Focusing on the aims and objectives of the report, it is clear that creativity and innovation
is indeed an essential tool in the leadership and management of organizations in order for them to
continue having a competitive edge in the fast paced developing world. The main areas where
organizational creativity and innovation is greatly required is in the leadership and management
sector, customer satisfaction and employee motivation. The main barriers to organizational
creativity and innovation include too much centralization of authority, lack of diversity at the
work place, poor communication and co-ordination, using wrong parameters to measure
creativity, rigidity of organization’s culture and lack of employee empowerment.
There are various theories and models that can be used to promote creativity and
innovation in an organization. However, this report narrowed down to the componential theory
of creativity and Kotter’s change management theory. According to the componential theory of
creativity, there are four major prerequisites for creativity in organizations and creativity can be
improved only when these four prerequisites are understood and adhered to. According to
Kotter’s change management theory, creativity and innovation can be increased by creating a
suitable climate and choosing a team with the best mix of skills to facilitate the desired change.
Therefore, the main ways in which creativity and innovation can be enhanced in organizations is
through decentralization of power, increasing diversity and use of humanistic approaches to
management such as Maslow theory of human needs.
Recommendations
It is recommendable that Bank Nizwa focuses on creative ways of promoting creativity
and innovation so as to continue having a competitive advantage over its competitors. One such
way is encouraging diversity of all races and cultures in Oman. This will increase cultural

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understanding and tolerance which will in turn encourage peaceful coexistence among workers
and customers. Peaceful coexistence increases the quality of services which helps the bank to
have more customers.
The management and the HRM department should focus on supporting creative ideas and
allowing workers the freedom to think creatively. For instance, in order to decongest banking
halls and eliminate chronic queues, the bank should also focus on a way of making people adopt
the credit cards to avoid crowding in the banking halls. One such way is through raising the
withdrawal charges in the banks and which will make customers opt to use ATM and mobile
banking. This will not only decongest the banking halls but it will also increase profits for the
bank.

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References
Amabile, T.M. and Pratt, M.G., 2016. The dynamic componential model of creativity and
innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in Organizational
Behavior, 36, pp.157-183.
Amabile, T.M., 2012. Componential theory of creativity. Harvard Business School, 12(96), pp.1-
10.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-
298.
Linstead, S., 2017. Organizational kitsch. In The Aesthetic Turn in Management (pp. 63-88).
Routledge.
Ramos, J., Anderson, N., Peiró, J.M. and Zijlstra, F., 2016. Studying innovation in organizations:
a dialectic perspective—introduction to the special issue.
Serrat, O., 2017. Harnessing creativity and innovation in the workplace. In Knowledge
Solutions (pp. 903-910). Springer, Singapore.
Thompson, J.D., 2017. Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative theory.
Routledge.
Zhou, J., 2015. The Oxford handbook of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Oxford
University Press.

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Bibliography
Hon, A.H. and Lui, S.S., 2016. Employee creativity and innovation in organizations: Review,
integration, and future directions for hospitality research. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 28(5), pp.862-885.
Perry-Smith, J.E. and Mannucci, P.V., 2017. From creativity to innovation: The social network
drivers of the four phases of the idea journey. Academy of Management Review, 42(1), pp.53-79.
Piperopoulos, P.G., 2016. Entrepreneurship, innovation and business clusters. Routledge.
Torugsa, N. and Arundel, A., 2016. Complexity of Innovation in the public sector: a workgroup-
level analysis of related factors and outcomes. Public Management Review, 18(3), pp.392-416.