Project Dissertation: Creative Deviance in Oman - Literature Review

This literature review examines creative deviance within Omani organizations, focusing on the interplay between innovation, leadership, and respect for authority. It explores how business leaders respond to creative deviance, the role of supervisors' creativity in fostering innovation, and the impact of leadership styles on employee behavior. The review also delves into how organizational structures, including hierarchical models, influence creativity and the importance of embracing innovation to encourage employee contributions. The analysis highlights the significance of organizational culture, the role of risk-taking, and the need for managers to support new ideas. The review also discusses the challenges of creative deviance, emphasizing the need for balance and the importance of addressing potential failures. Several key studies and organizational examples are cited to illustrate the concepts discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Running Head: Project Dissertation
Study on creative deviance without compromising respect for authority in organization of Oman-
Literature Review

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Literature Review
Table of Contents
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................3
Introduction............................................................................................................................3
Literature review........................................................................................................................3
Creative deviance...............................................................................................................3
Role of supervisors’ creativity...........................................................................................4
Leadership and creative deviance......................................................................................6
Creativity deviance embracing innovation.........................................................................8
Role of hierarchical and organizational structure in creativity deviance and innovation. .9
Role of employees in innovation and creativity...............................................................15
Summary..............................................................................................................................18
Conclusion............................................................................................................................20
References................................................................................................................................21

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Literature Review
Literature Review
Introduction
The literature review section entails the analysis of several relevant and useful resources on
the analysis of the creative deviance without compromising respect for authority in
organisation of Oman. The literature review section has provided ample opportunities to
develop a concrete understanding of the subject matter of the study. The findings of the
literature review section will enrich the findings of the entire research process. The current
literature resources have been utilised so as to explore the reactions to various punishments to
creative deviance and to analyse the over-reactions of middle management towards the
employees in the case of creative deviance tolerance. Various case studies have been gathered
and explored in the literature review section. The corporate environment should be highly
responsive towards creative designs tolerance so as to position them to be effective with
respect to corporate structures. Technology-Based business organisations face issue mode
performance.
Literature review
Creative deviance
According to Lin, et al. (2016), it has been observed that in many business organisations,
business leaders react differently to creative deviance. It is very important to analyse the
differential impacts of leaders’ responses on creative performance and subsequent creative
deviance. It has been observed that the business leaders very often reject new ideas of the
employees and it has also been noticed that some employees do not pay attention to the
instructions provided to them by the leaders so as to retain the rejected ideas alive. These

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situations of creative deviance get examined and investigated in relation to employees’
personal characteristics and the structural properties of the work. The role of the leaders in
creative deviance is also another important aspect which needs to be taken well care of. It is
also very important to review the leadership literature, creativity, and deviance. They are
major 5 responses of the leaders which have been observed to have made to creative divisions
of the employees. Such responses include rewarding, forgiving, ignoring, punishing, and
manipulating responses. These responses have differential impacts on the consequences. An
analysis has been conducted with 226 employee-leader dyads. For the purpose of the
investigation, two China-based advertising organisations who have portrayed their creative
deviance have been investigated. From the findings of the analysis, it has been observed that
these two Chinese organisations are responsive towards supportive supervision and creative
deviance so as to encourage rewarding, forgiving, ignoring and punishing responses. The
influence of punishing and forgiving responses is significant to creative deviance. On the
other hand, the influence of rewarding, manipulating, and punishing responses has an impact
on creative performance. The responses of the leaders to creative deviance indicate
collaborative impacts on supportive supervision and creative deviance. The responses of the
leaders and highly influential on both creative performance and creative deviance are
influential (Lin, et al., 2016).
Role of supervisors’ creativity
In the view of Koseoglu, et al. (2017), it has always been argued that the creativity level of
the supervisors is one of the core components of effective leadership. The creativity level of
the supervisors is highly associated with creativity and self-concept of the subordinates. It is
very important to understand and explore the relationship between the creativity of the
subordinates and the supervisors. In modern business organisations, importance is given on
creative ideas and opinions and the subordinates could face both challenges and rewarding

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situations while working with creative leaders (Lin, et al., 2016). In research, which has been
conducted on 443 employees and 44 supervisors working in Information Technology-based
organisation the creative role identity of the subordinates has been analysed applying role
identity theory. It has been observed that the relationship between the creativity of the
supervisors and the subordinates is highly influenced by the creative role of the subordinates
(Liedtka, 2011). The relationship between the creativity of the subordinates and their
superiors is highly indirect in nature but it is positive. Creative role identity of the
subordinates gets influenced by the creative role identity of the supervisors (Koseoglu, et al.,
2017). The relationship between the creativity of the superiors and the subordinates generally
becomes stronger when an employee becomes able to perceive organisational support to a
high extent. The organisational support with respect to creativity is highly important in
enabling an employee to become more creative. The supervisors’ creativity and role identity
also play a significant role in this case (Koseoglu, et al., 2017).
According to Cheong, et al. (2016), there are two faces of leadership empowerment such as
burdening and enabling aspects. In general, work is primarily focused on the positive,
expected and desirable outcomes of leadership empowerment. It has been observed in most of
the cases, that leadership empowerment is highly associated with positive and desirable
results. The role theory perspectives and cost of autonomy has been applied to understand the
two faces of leadership empowerment. It is observed that the leadership empowerment
increases performance and self-efficacy of the followers which is an aspect going beyond an
enabling process. It has also been observed that empowering leadership also has a burning
aspect (Hobcraft, 2012). The empowering leadership behaviours could also induce job
tensions in the subordinates or followers which could impact the enabling aspect of
empowering leadership. The advantages and positive side of empowering leadership and its
impacts on the role performance of the work of the followers gets adversely impacted by the

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burdening process. These are some of the contrasting notions. Upon investigation, the
researchers have come across the idea that empowering leadership has two faces and it deals
with both burning and enabling process (Cheong, et al., 2017).
Leadership and creative deviance
In the opinion of Mumford, et al. (2015), it is very important for business organisational
leaders to confirm creative deviance. It is always prudent for any business organisations to
harness creativity and innovative ideas from the employees. It has been observed in many
cases, that the managerial decisions become more effective and suitable with the
incorporation of several creative ideas and information of the employees (Hemmer, 2016).
The diverse work culture which is very commonly found in modern global organisations
contributes and enriches the decision outcomes with the help of their creative and innovative
ideas, beliefs, information, and skills. It would be desirable for any business organisation to
retain the creative people so that they contribute to the growth and prosperity of the business
by their creativity and innovation capabilities. It also develops the human resources in an
effective way. The diverse workforce with their creative ideas could bring in several
revolutionising outcomes (Hassain, 2013). Two of the leading organisations such as Procter
& Gamble and Imagine have already been able to enhance their customer focus and quality of
the deliverables with the help of creative deviance. Organisations like Google have always
been responsive towards empowering their corporate executives to desperately trigger the
creative ideas by encouraging creative deviance. Advertising agencies also support the
deviants of the managers which is the result of rewards, punishment, and tolerance. These
responses of the business leaders have ultimately contributed to the ultimate growth of the
organisations. Another leading organisation, LED has also admitted that it is desirable for any
business organisation to celebrate creativity by organising the same in a true manner.
Business leaders and managers embrace creative deviance. By tolerating the creative ideas of

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the employees and utilising them in the strategies towards customer orientation and safety, an
organization could depict the desirable action of the management (Mumford, et al., 2015).
Moreover, the organisations can enhance the entire organisational culture with the support of
the managers and business leaders who are effectively supportive and responsive to
innovation. It is very important for the business organisations of modern time, to understand
the importance of an organisational culture which is highly rewarding and does not encourage
fear of getting failed with any new decision. The changes are inevitable in the business
environment (Prosci, 2017). Risk taking is one of the important steps of innovation. The
organisational efforts could be increased by enhancing piloting cost-benefit analysis and
testing the possibilities during the technical failures. The management personnel should
always encourage the employees to come up with their creative and innovative ideas and to
present the same to the management irrespective of the escalation process and hierarchical
structure. The employees of the modern business organisations put their efforts to become
more innovative and creative with the aim of availing of the opportunity of becoming more
innovative and creative. Innovation is highly important in the modern competitive market.
The fear of the senior managers regarding the failure in innovative decisions and ideas need
to be overcome so that the opportunities in the business environment could be availed of. The
motivational leaders and managers are found to be effective in controlling several resources
which are highly important for developing and implementing new strategies, ideas, and
decisions. The motivational aspects also get encouraged by embracing employees’ creative
and innovative skills. The unique and new ideas which have the power to enhance growth
must be encouraged by the management personnel with the help of suitable resources so that
the straining of the management personnel could be avoided (Mumford, et al., 2015)

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Creativity deviance embracing innovation
In the opinion of Brown (2014), a business organisation could become tolerant towards
creative deviance if it embraces and encourages innovation (DeCanio, et al., 2000). It is also
an important approach of the business organisations to admit the mistakes which they commit
while becoming innovators. The innovation strategies and capabilities are supposed to be
improved with time and changes in deviances. The business organisational environment
needs to be highly encouraging and improved so as to foster innovation and embracing
employees’ contribution towards innovation and creativity (Chesbrough, 2011). The
employees are important human resources. The contributions of the employees in innovation
strategies could never be overemphasized. An ideal business environment is the one where
the employees get the opportunities to contribute their knowledge, skills, creative ideas, and
innovation capabilities in making the business decisions highly suitable and desirable in
achieving the competitive advantage. In such a business environment the employees get
ample space and time to come up with innovative alternative and ideas which would lead to
creative deviance (Casadesus-Masanell & Zhu, 2011). The business organisations which are
decentralized would provide the employees more autonomy and could motivate the human
resources to achieve creative designs. But there is a burning effect of this approach. The
failures and the issues which could get develop because of encouraging creative decisions are
supposed to be resolved before the development stage is approached. The issues creative
deviance could also take place if the business organisations pay more than give attention to
the existing customers (Babu, et al., 2013). It has been observed that there exists demand
improvement in the basic deliverables of the organisations more than any new and unique
deliverables. They just expect improvements but if the business organisations come up with
an innovative idea for product or service. The customers become highly attracted to it. Some
of the customers also prefer to try new products and services so as to add value to their

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purchases. Creative deviance should be confirmed. If there is creative deviance in the growth
of the business organisations and if such deviance is not getting successful, it could derail the
entire project and could lead the business towards an undesirable outcome (BROWN, 2014).
Role of hierarchical and organizational structure in creativity deviance and
innovation
According to Kotter (2012), the role of hierarchical structure is highly important in modern
business organizational environments. One of the leading organisations, Apple Inc. has
always been creative and innovative with the support of its robust hierarchical structure. The
organisation has not only relies on its strong hierarchical structure but also it has provided
ample authority and autonomy to its employees. Unlike traditional organisations with
conventional assembly line development approach, Apple has adopted parallel production
line where it includes manufacturing, designing, engineering, and selling products and
services with the support of its product development cycle (Awamleh, 2005). The
brainstorming sessions are quite significantly where different new and unique solutions and
ideas get developed. This kind of organisations is highly open-minded and keeps the doors
open for their executive and employees to contribute to the innovative ideas and strategies
(Amit & Zott, 2010). The role of hierarchical structure is very important for successful
organizations towards creative deviance. Apple Inc. It has been observed that the
contributions of its founder, Steve Jobs are highly beneficial for the successful journey it has
come across. When a product or service reaches its target market, creative designs becomes
an invisible aspect. It is all about the creative idea from one of the person or groups who is
highly responsive towards creative deviance (Alexander, 2013). Unique styles of leadership
would be observed in some of the successful organisations where employees are given the
opportunities where they could come up with their innovative ideas through brainstorming
sessions so as to provide best-suited solutions to any issues. It is also true that the hierarchical

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structure and the organisational culture should be developed and designed in a way that the
employees would be complying with the instructions they get from their superiors or business
leaders (Makanyeza & Dzvuke, 2015 ). There is also a limitation of this kind of approach. If
organisational decisions are solely dependent on the creative thinking of any single person
then the organisation would suffer losses in the creative ideas do not hold good (ALi, et al.,
2018). Hence, it is always prudent for any organisation to keep its doors open for the creative
ideas opinions, information, and innovative capabilities of the employees and other members
of the organizations. The collaborative teamwork towards creative deviance is a desirable
situation (Kotter, 2012).
In the view of Shei & Hoskisson (2012), the dynamic transition takes place when any new
idea gets evolved and proposed. It is a common phenomenon observed in the business
organisations where new ideas initially get rejections based on the perception of the
management personnel regarding the outcomes of the employees’ new ideas and information.
The management sometimes rejects the ideas of the employees by apprehending and
questioning the appropriateness workability and stability of the new ideas. The risk factor is
one of the major reasons behind creative deviance. The managers and the management
personnel sometimes feel offended when they observe their employees are violating their
instructions or orders in order to continue with their inventions or ideas. Some managers
prefer to on with punishment upon rejecting their ideas. On the other hand, some leaders and
managers prefer rewarding the employees upon developing creative ideas. The employees
when coming up with creative and new ideas, the managers should encourage them. It is also
the responsibility of the employees to follow the instructions of the managers and pursue their
ideas and research. Creative deviance takes place when the employees turn up with their new
ideas and research work ignoring the orders of their superiors to discontinue the project.
Innovative and creative organisations like Apple Inc. adopt a top-down approach of decision

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making so as to handle such situations. It is the responsibility of a visionary and experienced
business leader to develop a culture where innovation takes place constantly. A business
organisation can deliberately develop and anti-hierarchy so as to involve and encourage the
employees to get exposed to more situations of creative divisions. It has to be understood that
encouraging increased creative deviance can be beneficial as it encourages innovation. It also
encourages the ongoing process of improving innovation. It helps in creating a suitable
working environment where each employee is given with ample space and time. This kind of
anti-hierarchical situation also encourages less centralisation of authority and power. The
autonomy given to the employees could be beneficial not only for the development of the
employees but also for the ultimate performance of the organisations in relation to creativity
and innovation.
Furthermore, it can be notices that there are certain disadvantages on limitations of
encouraging creative deviance. It is observed that in the case of creative deviance, the control
of a group of employees gets difficult to establish by the managers and leaders. It also so
developed a sense of false authority as the employees start believing that they have the
authority and right to continue with the actions which have been ordered to be stopped. The
culture of improving the existing deliverables of the organisations gets negatively affected
when the employees only think of new ideas as solutions to the problems Apple is one of the
innovative organisations which have encouraged creativity and innovations. It mainly
depends on its cross-functional teams. It has developed a structure which is highly simplified
and contains limited layers. Huge responsibilities are given on the members of the
organisations and the employees are accountable for the outcomes of their decisions and
actions. The product development cycle is highly adopted by Apple where all the individuals
and groups communicate and interact with each other on a continuous basis. The situations
have given creative deviance to take place in Apple. But these approaches have also brought

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in some liabilities on the shoulder of the organisation. These liabilities are found in
connection with the process of decision making. It has been observed that is an organisation
relies too much on the ideas of any single person of the organisation. In this type of situation,
errors could generate leading to non-achievement of the mission and vision of the business.
The changes taking place in the market could not be detected if creative deviance is not
managed well. The end result could be highly devastating. The organisations could get
ruined. It is the responsibility of the business leaders to develop a clear vision with the help of
his or her experiences so that best-suited solutions could be generated in response to the
business issues (Shei & Hoskisson, 2012).
According to Keum & See (2017), there is a close link between innovation and organisational
structure. But it has been observed that in the previous studies, this relationship has not been
explored to the desired level. The behaviour theory of the business organisation can be
applied in order to take the support of process theory in examining the authority of the
hierarchy. Hierarchy is an important element of the entire organisational structure which
reflects several degrees of management and managerial oversight. It also differentiates the
performance and behaviour of the organisation in relation to the generation of ideas and the
selection of suitable innovation process. In one of the researches, the multi-method technique
has been implemented and the findings have clearly indicated that hierarchy is an important
aspect in selecting the best-suited innovation process. The behavioural mechanism has been
identified which underlines the impacts of hierarchical authority on the performance of the
selection process. It has been proposed that the selection process is not an easy task for the
organisational capability and it can be developed quite strategically. The selection process
also needs to be managed with the support of an effective organisational design encouraging
innovation. The role of organisational and hierarchical structure is very important the line of
authority which flows from the top management to the bottom line gets impacted by the