Organizational development interventions for enhancing creativity in the workplace

Abstract

<p>In an era of global, rapidly accelerating change, many large organizations find themselves in a crisis of adapt ability and commitment. This is because they developed during an earlier more stable, predictable era which demanded bureaucratic efficiency. This paper describes and evalu ates the traditional Organi zational Development (OD) approach to this problem, then prese nts a new approach based on organizational creativity. The traditional OD approach is characterized as interventionist and stepwise and achieving little organizational self-renewal in practice. This lack of success is attributed to a single intervention "tool" approach and no em phasis on thinking skills. The new approach regards adaptability as a continuous process of creativity. Organizational creativity is defined as a deliberate change-making process of problem finding, problem solving and solution implementation. Organizations can learn to mainstream adaptability and creativity by doing two things. First, employees must master new thinking skills to reframe their jobs to become creative problem solvers as opposed to "job doers", thus increasing commitment. Second, the organization must provide a framework for directing these new skills in support of its mission. Research is reviewed supporting the new approach, and what works and why is identified.</p>