Week 3: Introduction to Creativity Flashcards

1
Q

Define creativity as it was in the lecture.

A

creativity refers to the processes, outcomes and products of attempts to develop and introduce new and improved ways of doing things

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2
Q

Difference between creativity and innovation:

Creativity refers to idea _____ and is the first step towards _____.

Innovation includes _____ and refers to the generation of ____ and _____ ideas that include the _____ and _____ to create better procedures, practices and products.

A

generation, innovation

creativity, new and novel, implementation and evaluation

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3
Q

Finish the quotation (Runco, 2004):

To survive, people must adapt to continuously changing ____. To develop, people must solve ____, generate ____, and create _____ or _____.

A

circumstances
problems
new ideas
new products or services

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4
Q

According to Amabile (1988) creativity and innovation are the key to what?

A

organisational effectiveness and competitive advantage

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5
Q

Creative performance should be evaluated in two ways. What are they? Which one is more important?

A

Novelty: how original the idea is
Usefulness: how feasible and realisable the idea is

Both are equally important

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6
Q

One of the difficulties with creative tasks is that often original ideas are not ____, while ____ ideas are not original.

A

feasible

feasible

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7
Q

What are the two causes of creative behaviour?

A

creative potential

creative environment

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8
Q

Creative behaviour comes in a 4-step process. Explain the process.

A
  1. Problem Formulation: spot the issue without a solution (e.g. COVID)
  2. Information Gathering: to help solving the issue
    3: Idea Generation: find possible solutions
  3. Idea Evaluation: to select best possible option
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9
Q

What is said to help Idea Generation?

A

physical activity

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10
Q

The three-stage model of creativity in organisations identifies three stages of the creative process in organisations:

_____ –> _____ –> _____

A

2 causes for creative behaviour (creative potential/environment) –> creative behaviour (4-steps) –> creative performance

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11
Q

What are the four dark sides of creativity/innovation?

A
  1. costs of creativity
  2. can be experienced as disruptive and destabilising
  3. may not benefit everyone (jobs can become redundant)
  4. can lead to conflict and tension
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12
Q

Creative potential refers to…

A

the personal characteristics that are shared by exceptionally creative people

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13
Q

What are four personal factors that contribute to higher creative potential?

A
  1. intelligence - smart people are better at solving complex issues as they have better working memory
  2. openness to experience ( ! ) - curiosity fosters innovation
  3. pro-activeness - self-confidence, risk-taking, perseverance and high tolerance to ambiguity can help
  4. expertise - having expertise, knowledge and abilities in the field of endeavour
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14
Q

Creative potential is also influenced by ____.

A

mood

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15
Q

What were the two components of mood, identified in a 2008 meta-analysis by Baas, de Dreu and Nijstad?

Which one is more important for creativity?

A

Hedonic tone: positive or negative affect?

Activation: activating or deactivating mood?

Activation is more important for creativity.

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16
Q

If you put the two mood components, activation and hedonic tone, on a matrix, what would be the four mood quadrants derived from it?

A

Activating + Positive tone = happy
Activating + Negative tone = angry
Deactivating + Positive tone = relaxed
Deactivating + Negative tone = sad

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17
Q

Why are deactivating moods not ideal for creativity?

A

When examining the effects of deactivating emotions such as sadness, fear, and anxiety, less creative problem solving and cognitive flexibility were evident.

(Baas et al., 2008)

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18
Q

Human moods and emotions have two essential aspects, hedonic tone and activation — the first is a measure of how _____, while the second is a measure of ____.

A

intrinsically pleasant or enjoyable the emotion is

its intrinsic ability to push you to do something

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19
Q

The combination of a positive and activating mood, such as ____, leads to creative performance via the _____.
This means one can achieve higher creative performance by being more likely to jump between _____.

The combination of a negative and activating mood, such as ____, leads to creative performance via the ____. This means one can achieve higher creative performance by systematically exploring _____ and being ____ in effort.

A

happiness, flexible route, a lot and broad cognitive categories

anger, persistent route, one or just a few cognitive categories, persistent

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20
Q

The Dual-Pathway to Creativity Model is a continuation of what thoughts?

A

The thought that mood influences creative performance

21
Q

The Dual-Pathway to Creativity Model tries to understand what?

A

creative potential within an individual

22
Q

In the Dual-Pathway to Creativity Model, what are the two routes towards creative performance?

A

Cognitive flexibility

Persistence

23
Q

Within the Dual-Pathway to Creativity Model, cognitive flexibility manifests itself in the use of _____, ____ and ____ cognitive categories and ones flexibility to ____.

A

many, broad, exclusive; switch between them

24
Q

Within the Dual-Pathway to Creativity Model, persistence manifests itself in a high number of ____ and ____ with a relatively _____, but _____ cognitive categories.

A

ideas, insights

low number, more specialised

25
Q

Which route in the Dual-Pathway to Creativity Model is more costly in time and energy?

A

The persistence route

26
Q

In conclusion, what are the three ways in which one can enhance the chances of creative potential and exhibiting creative behaviour?

A
  1. through 4 personal characteristics (intelligence, openness to experience, proactive personality, expertise)
  2. through mood (hedonic and activating tone)
  3. through a dual-pathway (cognitive flexibility or persistence route)
27
Q

In what four ways can organisations create a creative environment?

A
  1. Increasing intrinsic motivation of employees
  2. job complexity (with autonomy and feedback)
  3. goals, job demands, recognition
  4. transformational or empowering leadership and healthy LMX
28
Q

According to the Job Characteristics Model (JCM), ____ and the way elements in a job are organised impacts ____, ____ and ____.

A

job design

motivation, satisfaction, performance

29
Q

According to the Job Characteristics Model (JCM), any job can be described through five core dimensions

  1. ____ - the requirements for different tasks in the job
  2. ____ - the completion of a whole piece of work
  3. ____ - the jobs impact on others
  4. ____ - the level of discretion and freedom to make choices
  5. ____ - the amount of direct and clear information on performance

The higher the score on each, the more ____ your job is and the better for ____ and ____.

A
  1. skill variety
  2. task identity
  3. task significance
  4. autonomy
  5. feedback

complex, motivation, creativity

30
Q

Name three ways in which managers can redesign jobs to enhance motivation.

A
  1. job rotation: periodically shifting workers from one task to another
  2. job enlargement: horizontal expansion of jobs, i.e. increasing the number and variety of tasks
  3. job enrichment: vertical expansion of jobs, i.e. increasing the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution and evaluation of work
31
Q

Enhancing motivation: evidence from one study

Leaning on the JCM Model, Adam Grant (2008) examined call centres, in which employees sought to raise money for a university from their alma matter. The job was monotonous:
The average call centre has 100% turnover every 2 months. Employees followed pre-defined scripts and did repetitive calls. They frequently faced rejections - and very few donations were made.

Common solutions from 1000 executives were
1. Pay for performance (but often money promised never came in!)

  1. Promotions (not possible in this context).
  2. Relaxing the scripts (didn’t work – people had long, irrelevant calls!)
  3. Competition (some were stars, but most others didn’t improve)
  4. Recognition (because so few people gave money - it was difficult to find things to recognize them for!)
  5. Breaks (didn’t work – people just stopped doing their jobs!)

But after introducing a five-minute intervention, weekly donations per caller increased by 500%. What was the solution that finally worked?

A

It was an intervention to help employees understand that their work made a difference (i.e., that 65% of money raised went directly to student scholarships). This taps into the JCM dimension of task significance.

There was no improvement if leaders outlined the significance of employees’ fundraising efforts.

But there were significant improvements if they brought in scholarship students to explain how the scholarship had made a difference to their lives.

32
Q

Among who did the task significance-solution increase motivation and performance the most in Grants study?

A

This intervention was most useful for ‘carefree, lazy and disorganized’ employees as compared to ‘conscientious, disciplined and focused’ employees. The latter were already very hard-working, thus perhaps had a ceiling effect.

33
Q

Who were the most inspiring scholarship students in Grants motivation study?

A

The scholarship students that provided the most inspiring message were the socially-awkward introverts as compared to the charismatic extrovert.

Probably because employees could empathize with this person, and the scholarship was perceived as less vital for the charismatic student.

34
Q

What two factors enhance creativity on a team-level and which is stronger?

A

team process variables (mainly team climate)
team input variables (composition, diversity, structure)

team process variables are stronger in regards to creativity in groups.

35
Q

There are five team process variables that stand in good relation to group creativity:

  1. _____ - the degree to which we know where we want to go and how to get there
  2. ____ - feeling safe enough to be involved in decision-making
  3. _____ - motivation through recognition and rewards
  4. _____ - degree to which teams want to be high-performing
  5. _____ - the degree to which there is interaction with team members outside the team setting

The three team input variables are team _____, _____ and ____.

A
  1. appealing vision/commitment
  2. participative safety
  3. support for innovation
  4. climate of excellence
  5. external communication

diversity, structure, composition

36
Q

What is a common process of idea generations used in companies as well as personal lives?

A

brainstorming

37
Q

define brainstorming.

A

an idea generation process that specifically encourages any and all alternatives while withholding any criticism to those alternatives

38
Q

In the brainstorming process, first ideas tend to be most ____. Thats why one needs to separate idea ____ from idea ____, or in other words, ____ first, ____ later.

A

conventional
generation, evaluation
generate, judge

39
Q

In what two ways can creative ideas be assessed and evaluated?

A

by evaluating them in terms of

  1. novelty (originality)
  2. feasibility (usefulness)
40
Q

If the goal is to generate as many creative ideas as possible, it is better to let people work _____.

This reduces the three roadblocks (costs) often faced in group-brainstorming: ____, _____ and _____

A

individually

production blocking
social loafing
evaluation apprehension

41
Q

Explain the three disadvantages or costs of group brainstorming:

  1. production blocking
  2. social loafing
  3. evaluation apprehension
A
  1. cognitive interference - one must wait their turn while others are speaking
  2. one of the members does not feel like contributing, the other does not feel like brainstorming
  3. some of the newer members might be afraid to offer ideas and be judged with negative evaluations
42
Q

When disadvantages can be overcome, group brainstorming can have extremely positive outcomes:

  1. ____
  2. ____
  3. ____
A
  1. cognitive stimulation through others
  2. social interaction/support
  3. accumulated knowledge bases
43
Q

Why does group brainstorming feel easier?

  1. _____ - we tend to be insecure without a comparison and validation of our own ideas
  2. groups tend to ____ their performance.
  3. individuals tend to ____ for a groups idea and hence ____ their own performance, too.
  4. when the group is stuck, it is easier to ____ for individuals.
A
  1. social comparison
  2. overestimate
  3. take credit, overestimate
  4. hide
44
Q

What are three ways to increase effectiveness of group brainstorming?

A

nominal groups technique
computer brainstorming
brain writing

45
Q

Quickly describe the nominal groups brainstorming technique.

A

a problem is presented, everyone brainstoms individually (restricted communication and interaction), idea collection then happens collectively

the best ranked idea wins

46
Q

Quickly describe the computer brainstorming technique.

A

happens digitally; one simply types their answers in a chat and can simultaneously see everyone else answers as well

47
Q

Quickly describe the brainwriting technique.

A

in real settings; one writes an idea on a piece of paper and passes it on to the next, who adds his own ideas and so on.
one can use different coloured pens to be able to differentiate who wrote what (social loafing)

48
Q

Advantages & Disadvantages:

1) The nominal groups brainstorming technique reduces ____, _____ and ____.
However, _____ is basically non-existent.

2) Computer brainstorming scores high on _____, and low on _____ and ____.
However, people prefer working _____, and it easy to ____ input.

3) Brainwriting scores high on _____ and is effective in reducing ____ and ____.
However, ____ can happen if you don’t use different coloured pens.

A

1)
social loafing, evaluation apprehension, production blocking;
cognitive stimulation

2)
cognitive stimulation, social loafing, production blocking;
in groups, ignore

3)
cognitive stimulation, production blocking, social loafing
social loafing

49
Q

Why is brainwriting considered effective?

A

cause it has high interaction in silence - listening and speaking is swapped with reading and writing