BUSM4550: Creativity, Innovation and Employee Performance

This essay investigates the critical factors influencing creativity, innovation, and design thinking within organizations, arguing that employee work is the primary determinant of success. The essay explores the interplay between employee motivation, the nature of their job roles, and the impact of...Read More

Running head: CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
SUCCESSFUL CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING ACTIVITIES
WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS ARE DEPENDENT ON THE WORK OF INDIVIDUAL
EMPLOYEES ONLY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
The aim of this essay is to analyze whether successful creativity, innovation and design
thinking activities within organizations are dependent on the work of individual employees only
or on other factors associated with the organizations as well. This essay, in fact, will show that
the successful creativity, innovation and design thinking activities within organizations are
dependent on the work of individual employees only and not on the other aspects of the
organizations. Furthermore, for the attainment of this end the paper will take the help of help of
various real-life examples like that of the employees of Apple, Uber and others along with the
usage of different theories like innovative value chain, resources-based theories, Herzberg's Dual
Factor Theory of Motivation and others. More importantly, in three of the body paragraphs of
this essay the researcher had presented two important arguments supporting the claim made by
the researcher and a counter-argument in the second last paragraph.
The work which is being performed by the employees greatly determines whether they
would be taking the help of the constructs of innovation, creativity, design thinking and others or
for that matter would be taking the help of the traditional approaches to completing their work.
Wallace et al. (2016, p. 991) are of the viewpoint that the workers are required to take the help of
different kinds of skill sets, knowledge or information, processes and others for the adequate
completion of the tasks or the job roles that are delegated to them by the business corporations.
However, as discussed by Olszak, Bartuś and Lorek (2018, p. 97), the major problem arises
because of the fact that the different kinds of job roles require the usage or the application of
different kinds of skill sets, knowledge, processes and others for the completion of the same. For
example, within the spectrum of a business corporation like Apple which completely based on
technology, it is imperative for the workers associated with the concerned enterprise to take the
help of the concepts of innovation, creativity, design thinking and others for the completion of

2CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
their job roles (Ng & Lucianetti 2016, p. 14). More importantly, it had been seen that the
adequate usage of these concepts had helped the workers of the concerned corporations to
optimally utilize the resources which are available to them within the corporation for the
production of the kind of services or products which will create or for that matter capture
customer trends (Carlgren, Rauth & Elmquist 2016, p. 55). This had been greatly made possible
through the adequate usage of the resource-based theory and also the innovative value chain
which in turn had not only helped the workers to select the best creative ideas but also to
optimally use the limited resources of the corporation for the adequate usage of the creative ideas
(Elsbach & Stigliani 2018, p. 2290). In contrast to this, the workers who indulge in manual or
physical labor do not need to take the help of the concepts of creativity, innovation, design
thinking and others for the completion of the work that they perform (Carlgren, Elmquist &
Rauth 2016, p. 351). In the light of these aspects, it can be said that the successful creativity,
innovation and design thinking activities within organizations are dependent on the work of
individual employees only and not on the other aspects of the organizations.
The effective usage of the concepts of creativity, innovation, design thinking and others
are greatly reliant on the motivation level of the workers which in turn is greatly dependent on
the nature or the kind of work that is being performed by them within the framework of the
business corporations. Dong et al. (2017, p. 451) are of the viewpoint that if the employees have
a high level of self-motivation or for that matter are highly satisfied with the nature or the kind of
work that is being performed by them then it is more likely that they would take the help of the
concepts of innovation, creativity, design thinking and others for the completion of the same. In
this relation, the precepts of Herzberg's Dual Factor Theory of Motivation are important to note.
This theory of motivation states that there are two important factors within the framework of any

3CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
workplace, namely, the positive factors and the negative factors (Uhl-Bien & Arena 2018, p. 91).
As discussed by Hon and Lui (2016, p. 871), the positive factors are the ones which enhance the
motivation of the workers and thereby encourage them to use innovation, creativity, design
thinking and others for the completion of the work that they perform. On the other hand, the
negative factors are the ones which adversely affect the motivation level of the employees and
thereby the workers merely focus on the completion of their job roles while disregarding the
nature or the quality of the work which is being performed by them (Bason 2018, p. 87). Thus, it
had been seen that the business corporation Uber in the present times had been able to create
effective design, organizational culture and others so as to positively improve the nature or the
quality of the work that the workers are required to perform within the concerned corporation.
These in turn positively affected the motivation level of the employees and thereby they are
increasingly taking the help of the constructs of innovation, creativity, design thinking and others
for the completion of the job roles or the projects delegated to them within the corporation under
discussion here. In the light of these aspects, it can be said that the motivation level of the
employees which in turn is determined by the nature of the work performed by the employees
determines the usage of the constructs of innovation, creativity, design thinking and others by the
employees rather than the other attributes of the business corporations.
Amabile and Pratt (2016, p. 161) are of the viewpoint that the leadership and the
management approaches which are being followed by the workers rather than the nature of the
work performed by the employees are the most important factors which determine the usage of
the concepts of creativity, innovation, design thinking and others by the employees. As discussed
by Tidd and Bessant (2018, p. 98), the leadership and the management approaches which are
being followed by the business corporations greatly determines the organizational or for that

4CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
matter the workplace culture which is being followed within the spectrum of any business
corporation. The entity of organizational or workplace culture is important since it greatly
determines the manner or for that matter the approach which the employees would be following
for the adequate completion of the tasks or the job roles allocated to them (Olszak, Bartuś &
Lorek 2018, p. 97). For instance, if the organizational or the workplace culture followed within
the framework of a business corporation is a continuous learning one or for that matter an
innovative one then it is more likely that the employees of the concerned corporation would take
the help of the constructs of innovation, creativity and others for the completion of their job roles
and vice versa (Tidd & Bessant 2018, p. 98). More importantly, the different initiatives
undertaken by the leaders as well as the managers of the business corporations also facilitate the
usage of innovation, creativity, design thinking and others by the workers of the same. However,
Elsbach and Stigliani (2018, p. 2290) are of the viewpoint that the factors of leadership and
management approaches are important yet they are not the sole determining factors on which the
usage of innovation, creativity and design thinking by the workers depends. As a matter of fact,
the nature or for that matter the kind of job roles which are being performed by the employees or
the workers is the most important factor on which the usage of the above mentioned entities by
the workers greatly depends.
To conclude, the diversity as well as the complexity of the job roles that the workers are
required to perform within the spectrum of the modern-day business corporations had made it
important for them, to take the help of the constructs of innovation, creativity, design thinking
and others. In this relation, it needs to be said that the job roles which are being performed by the
employees or the workers are the most important factors on which the usage of innovation,
creation, design thinking and others greatly depends. For instance, if the employees are not

5CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
happy with the work that they perform or for that matter does not feel the urge to improve the
quality of the work which is being performed by them then it is likely that they would not use the
entities of creativity, innovation, design thinking and others. In the light of these aspects, it can
be said that the successful or the adequate usage of the constructs of innovation, creativity,
design thinking and others by the employees is greatly reliant on the work that they perform
rather than on the other attributes or the aspects of the business corporations with which they are
associated.

6CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
References
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innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in Organizational
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Bason, C., 2018. Leading public sector innovation: Co-creating for a better society. Policy
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Carlgren, L., Rauth, I. & Elmquist, M., 2016. Framing design thinking: The concept in idea and
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Hon, A.H. & Lui, S.S., 2016. Employee creativity and innovation in organizations: Review,
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Hospitality Management, 28(5), pp.862-885.

7CREATIVITY AND THE EMPLOYEES
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