Enhancing Creativity in Groups -- Proposition of an Integrated Framework for Designing Group Creativity Support Systems

Abstract

In organizations, creative work is predominantly approached in groups. They develop new services or products like advertising campaigns or movie scripts. Group creativity support systems (GCSS) can have a positive impact on the creative performance of these groups. However, current literature on GCSS design requires system designers to consider a magnitude of aspects when constructing systems that support the creative group process. In a literature review we identify recurring topics in design recommendations, drawing both on design-oriented and experimental research, and develop an integrated set of design principles. We apply these design principles to generic GCSS components, resulting in an integrated GCSS framework, which provides guidance in system implementation. Future research directions that could complement the field are indicated.

A comprehensive framework of information system design to provide organizational creativity support

“…Technically, the term CSS concerns a class of information systems encompassing diverse types of IS that share the enhancement of creativity [35]. CSS may be used to (1) enhance a user's ability to perform creative tasks (the ability that the user possesses already), (2) support users in domain knowledge acquisition, to free up their creativity, and (3) give users new experiences concerning creative tasks, thus giving them new task-solving capabilities [36].…”

“…According to some scholars, two types of CSS are distinguished [34,35,45,46,47]: individual creativity support systems (ICSSs) and group creativity support systems (GCSSs). The main purpose of ICSSs is to increase the cognitive process, individual inspiration, and the learning and reasoning of individual persons.…”

Semi-Automated Questions as a Cognitive Stimulus in Idea Generation

“…These stimuli aim to activate new solutions for individuals or groups, who are working on a creative task. Group techniques, such as brainstorming, aim to stimulate creativity in a collective group [53,74]. Working in groups has a high potential of social and cognitive stimulating factors due to other group members and their knowledge, skills and ideas [18,25,52].…”

An Information System Design for Organizational Creativity Support

“…Shneiderman [17] advocates that technologies "enable people to be more creative more often" are referred to as creativity support systems. Technically, the term CSS concerns a class of information systems encompassing diverse types of IS that share the enhancement of creativity [18]. It is pointed out that CSS may be used to: (1) enhance a user's ability to perform creative tasks (the ability that the user possesses already), (2) support users in domain knowledge acquisition, in order to free up their creativity, (3) give users new experiences concerning creative tasks, thus giving them new task-solving capabilities [19].…”

“…Table I presents the most cited functions of IT for organizational creativity support. [5], [22] Collecting, storing, browsing and analyzing of information, [23], [25] Exploring problem domain, discovering of knowledge and associations, learning, classifying of notions [21], [25] Visualization of information [21], [23] Knowledge coding [5], [17] Cooperation, work group [5], [17] New problems discovering [25] Brainstorming, stimulation of users' imagination, modeling of creative processes [19] Creation of knowledge maps, thesaurus and libraries [17] Human-computer interaction [23], [24] Composing of artifacts, idea reviewing, disseminating the effects of creative cooperation [7], [20], [23], [25] According to some scholars three types of CSS are distinguished [18,26,27,28]: individual creativity support systems (ICSS), group creativity support systems (GCSS), and organizational creativity support systems (OCSS). The main purpose of ICSS is to increase the cognitive process, individual inspiration, as well as the learning and reasoning of individual persons.…”