مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد خلاقیت، فرهنگ سازمانی و جنسیت – امرالد 2017

It is almost a truism that organizations today are under unprecedented pressure to innovate. Yamin, Gunarsekaran and Mavondo (1999) described the effects of innovation in bottom-line terms by concluding that it leads to greater profitability. Other authors have listed its benefits in a more differentiated way, including obtaining a competitive advantage and increasing revenue (Cohen, 2010), improved export performance (Kleinknecht & Mohnen, 2001), and greater commercial competitiveness (Chan & Thomas, 2013, p. 1; Anderson, Potocnik & Zhou, 2014, p. 3). Some writers have been more specific: Rosenbusch, Brinckmann and Bausch (2011, p. 445) identified benefits such as new products, services, or production processes and more process-oriented benefits such as increased productivity, greater employee satisfaction, greater employee commitment, reduced staff turnover, and greater attractiveness to potential investors. Mumford, Hester and Robledo (2012, p.8) also emphasized factors such as ability to respond to a crisis and improved teamwork, collaboration and organizational citizenship. Mumford, Bedell-Avers and Hunter (2008) listed improved planning processes, and Amabile, Schatzel, Moneta and Kramer (2004) mentioned a more satisfied and intrinsically oriented workforce. Thus, the benefits of innovation are not confined to the conceptualization, production, and marketing of new and better products, as desirable as these are, but also involve factors such as the general atmosphere in an organization, staff motivation, or job satisfaction. In fact, over the years the call for innovation has reached life and death proportions, with Freeman and Soete (1997, p. 266) concluding that “not to innovate is to die”, and with the slogan “innovate or die” establishing itself as an important catch-cry in the current literature (e.g., Collis, 2010; Kriekels, 2013). It is thus apparent that an understanding of how organisations can become successful innovators is a matter of vital concern. Traditional innovation research frequently focuses on economic factors and concepts, or on structural factors. These may include, the trajectory innovations follow, where in the innovation process idea generation and opportunity recognition occur, the degree of formality and linearity of the process, the organizational structures that support the process, and the resources and competencies required (e.g., Leifer et al., 2000). In addition, the skills, strategy, structure, systems, style, staff, and shared values (e.g., Higgins, 1995), or resources, processes and values (RPV) (e.g., Christensen, Anthony & Roth, 2004), may form the focus of investigations into organisational innovation. Driven by for-profit, performance considerations – both financial and non-financial in nature – innovation is commonly examined only from the point of view of implementation of novel solutions, with little attention paid to the front-end idea generation – i.e. creativity. As a result, innovation is often assessed through lagging measures of outputs (e.g. annual sales) and outcomes (e.g. return on equity) – in other words, measures of innovation performance (see, for example, Davila et al, 2012).