Thought Leadership Articles
Kenexa HR Thought Leadership™ articles are experience-driven pieces that discuss best practices in the Human Capital Management (HCM) space. These articles are written by skilled HR practitioners or technologists who initiate or provide new thinking on a specific component of HR. Kenexa HR Thought Leadership articles discuss strategies on new or existing HR topics and educate readers about future possibilities and considerations on those topics. The overall purpose of these thought leadership articles is to engage readers through original, innovative ideas that are supported by the knowledge and experience of the author.
Creativity and Innovation in Organizations
By Anne E. Herman, Ph.D., Kenexa
Organizations are becoming increasingly interested in creativity and innovation, in part as a response to the pressures associated with globalization, competition, economic factors and technology changes. Many organizations see creativity as an opportunity to maintain a competitive advantage and most organizations and researchers alike, evaluate creativity in terms of an original or innovative result (Reiter-Palmon & Illies, 2004). Originality, however, is only one aspect of creativity. An outcome or result is interpreted as creative if it is both novel and appropriate (Amabile, 1996).
Early research on creativity focused on major breakthroughs or radical ideas in science and art (referred to as “Big C”), but these types of creative activities are not always functional in organizations. Organizations need creative output to fit within their vision and goals, so the opportunity to be creative is different, and presents itself in less extreme ways, such as the adaptation of a process or a solution to a problem (known as “Little c”).