Critical Analysis of Theories and Models of Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Change Management

Introduction 

Creativity is referred to as the tendency to recognise and generate idea, possibilities and alternatives in order to solve the problem faced by an organisation and create new product and strategy for its betterment. It turns a new imaginative idea into reality and solves an existing problem in order to reduce the complexities of the working process. It is the ability of the person to meet an inner pool of various resources such as insights, knowledge, inspiration and information that accumulated during entire life for the purpose of finding new ways of performing a specific task (Runco and Jaeger, 2012).

Innovation is the implementation of the new idea for the improvement in existing services and product in order to create value for society and business. In this context, creativity and innovation are interrelated as the main purpose behind both is to create value for the company and society. Creativity and innovation are necessary for the growth of the business by increasing engagement, interaction, staff morale, passion, problem-solving, motivation bonding and collaboration and productivity at the workplace (Baregheh, Rowley and Sambrook, 2009).

In this regard, the report’s objective is to explore the concepts of creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and change management by taking the example of Drax Group. The report also develops a plan for Drax in order to encourage creative thinking and enhancing innovation in the company. Moreover, the report also describes the importance of innovation creativity for a company. On the basis of discussion, useful recommendations are also provided for Drax to promote creativity and innovation in its business process at the end of the report.       

Overview of Drax Group  

Drax Technology is an innovative company that has experience in the field of alarm management. The company manufactures and develops hardware, software and their interface products for the purpose of connecting various manufacturing units and offices of the client in order to monitor the alarming system. The system of the DRAX technology helps the management of the companies to maintain records of alarming events such as fire and develop an understanding of the reason for unwanted alarms in order to avoid them. The company has more than 2500 installations across the globe and also provides advice regarding the need for an alarm management system (Drax, 2019).   

Analysis of the strategies and need for innovation and creativity in relation to Drax Technology 

In the views of Moultrie and Young (2009), creativity is defined as the creation of a new idea that is applicable to an opportunity and novel. The factors that affect creativity in the company are the development of the team, the role of communication. Moreover, Moultrie and Young (2009) have further stated that in organisational point of view creativity is considered as the events that describe the outputs and processes instead of the inherent trait of an individual.

Giannopoulou, Gryszkiewicz and Barlatier (2014) have stated that the promotion of creativity and innovation in a company is vital, as it allows to take sustaining competitive advantages, creates opportunities to improve efficiency and quality of the products and services. In addition to this, there are various other benefits of implementing innovation and creativity such as it reduces the risk of commoditisation, introduce new concepts in the services and products of the company, and help companies in outperforming their competitors.       

According to Nguyen and Shanks (2009), creativity is a vital factor in the analysis of the requirements of business and user in order to innovatively utilise communication and information technologies. Creativity is an important factor that adds surprising elements in the products and services of the company and increases their sales and profitability. It provides unexpected features such as application of existing ideas and thoughts and unpredictable change of the problem.

However, Dul and Ceylan (2011) have stated that the creativity in the working of a company helps in improving quality of services and products of the company, improve the process of manufacturing products and delivering services and finding a new solution for the problem faced by the employees and management in their daily work. Dul and Ceylan (2011) have further stated that the traits that support creativity in an individual are cognitive style, divergent thinking, knowledge, broad interest, openness and tolerance to ambiguity. 

From the above discussion, it is evaluated that the creativity provides numerous benefits to the company such as providing a sustainable competitive advantage to the company, creating new opportunities and reduce the risk associated with the existing tasks. In the same context, the management of DRAX technology should also promote innovation and creativity in its working and takes the benefits of improving productivity and sales of the company. 

In the opinion of Moultrie and Young (2009), innovation and creativity are an essential object for the entrepreneurs as it helps them in finding the solution of the existing problem and finding new ways to reduce the cost spend on the existing product. According to Ekvall’s model of creative climate, various dimensions govern creativity and innovation in the working of the company such as idea-time, risk-taking, challenges, freedom, idea support, conflicts, debates, trust, openness, liveliness and debates.

The extent to which these dimensions are supported and suppressed decides the level of creativity in the company.  Pörzse et al. (2012) supported this and have added in the discussion that the creative climate in the company has main eight categories such as work characteristics, support of the management, support of co-workers, safety, resources, risk-taking capabilities, diversity, system and process. Pörzse et al. (2012) have further stated that the complexity of the job is closely related to the creative climate because they require different types of talent and skills and due to this employees need more thinking that enhance the creativity of the employees. 

On the basis of the above discussion it is evaluated that the creativity has various process from getting an idea to implementation such as preparation, incubation, intimation, insights and verification. Similarly, management of Drex technology should also focus on these stages and promote creativity and innovation in its working. The stage of preparation helps company in generating thinking of the problem.

The stage of incubation will lead the management of the company to ponder on it in order to find the solution of the problem and insight will help in implementing the idea in the subconscious mind to the real world. The last stage of verification helps the company in discussing the consequence of the idea and implement changes in it in order to make it more efficient and effective.    

According to Amabile and Pratt (2016), the model of Amabile has suggested that the process of creativity includes several stages such as presentation, preparation, response generation, response validation and outcomes. The first stage of the presentation includes identification of problem and goal by an individual and this stage a strong individual will of completing the task and kick off the problem works. The second stage in Amabile model is of preparation and this include building skills, knowledge and gather specific information that is vital for solving a particular problem.

The third stage is of generating possibilities and helps in generating a new idea in an individual in order to solve the problem faced by that individual. It depends on two important components such as task motivation and creativity relevant processes. The final stage in the model of Amabile is of idea validation in which the idea is evaluated against various criteria in order to determine the appropriateness and usefulness of the idea generated in the above stages.   

As per Teal (2011), three-stage model of Basadur provides insights into the implementation of creativity in the process of business in a company. According to the model of Basadur, the process of creativity includes three stages that are finding of problem, solving of problem and implementation of the solution in the real world scenario. In each stage of this model, the process of ideation evaluation is employed in order to obtain a best-fitted solution by the problem solver.

The model provides an incremental view of the process of implementation of creativity and innovation in the company. The model emphasises on adoption of divergent thinking by an individual and focuses on convergent thinking and brainstorming.   

According to Anne Loewenberger, Newton and Wick (2014), the employee in a company become beneficial for the company by adopting an innovative approach regardless of its position. In addition to this, innovation and creativity pose a threat to the existing stability and order and due to this reason it is opposed by a large number of people. Implementation of creative idea in the company depends on the social structure that means new idea must include the strategies and rationale that helps in overcoming the inertia of the previous strategy utilised by the company.

However, Gumusluoglu and Ilsev (2009) have stated that creativity is the process implemented at the level of individual and innovation is the process influenced the working of a company at a broad level. Gumusluoglu and Ilsev (2009) have further stated that the intrinsic motivation and perception of an individual contributes in increasing creativity of the employees in a company. 

From above discussion it is examined that the process of implementing innovation and creativity in a company includes various stages such as presentation, preparation, response generation, response validation and outcomes. The management of Drax technology adopt the strategies that promote innovation in the employees by promoting identification of the problem by the employees and provide necessary training to the employees that sharpen their skills and improved knowledge in order to promote creativity.

The management of Drax should promote the strategy of implementing new creative of doing work and continuously evaluate and examine them in order to know their effectiveness. Moreover, the management of the company should focus on finding the root cause of the problem, finding necessary strategies to solve that problem and implement that solution in its business to get desired outcomes.  

Conclusions 

From the overall discussion, it is concluded that creativity is a tendency to generate an idea, possibilities and alternatives in order to solve the problem faced by the company. Creativity turns an imaginative idea into reality and reduces the complexities of the process of work of the company. Drax technology is an alarming solution providing a company that deals in making hardware and software of the alarming system.

The company needs innovation and creativity in order to remain in the competition and provide a new and upgraded alarming system to the customers. Implementation of creative strategy creates opportunities to improve the efficiency and quality of the products and services. Moreover, it is also evaluated that the creativity includes the factor of surprise in the services and products of the company and provides unexpected features such as application of existing ideas and thoughts and unpredictable change of the problem.

It is also evaluated that the process of creativity includes various stages such as preparation, incubation, intimation, insights and verification. Drax technology also adopts these processes and promote thinking about the problem and find a suitable idea that provides a solution for the existing problem of the company. In addition to this, it is also evaluated that the management of Drax technology should implement the strategy of problem finding, problem-solving and implementation of a new idea in order to eliminate existing problem faced by the company. The management of Drax should promote the strategy of implementing new creative of doing work and continuously evaluate and examine them in order to know their effectiveness.  

Recommendations 

In order to implement innovation and creativity in working of the company, the management of Drax should foster a creative and open work environment in the company. This can be achieved by reducing the level of stress from employees by playing some small games and provide snacks in a working hour. In addition to this, management should make a proper channel of communication in the company.

Encouraging communication in the company helps in increasing the transfer of knowledge, making a positive attitude and reduce the level of stress. Reduction in level of stress of employees helps in promoting positive thinking in the employees, and they are able to concentrate on finding the solution of the problem and implement creativity in the company (Ceylan, Dul and Aytac, 2008).  

The company should motivate employees by providing a bonus, incentives, compensation times and prizes for providing a new and creative idea for finding the solution of an existing problem. In addition to this, the management of Drax should not discourage employees in the condition their idea does provide suitable results instead the employee should be motivated for making changes in that idea to make it suitable of for the growth of the company. Furthermore, the employees should also be promoted to speak and share their viewpoints regarding the problem in order to motivate them in providing suitable solution of the problem and create a new product (Roskes, De Dreu and Nijstad, 2012).   

Reference

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