Measuring Preference for Ideation in Creative Problem-Solving Training

Abstract

Creativity, problem solving, and innovation are of increasing concern to organizations in these times of accelerating change. This article seeks to deepen readers' understanding of the specific attitudes and thinking processes associated with creative behavior in organizations. The authors report on two empirical studies that developed a reliable, valid measure of "preference for ideation," an important attitude identified in previous creative problem-solving training research. They also identify three additional, distinct ideation-related attitudes: the tendency to make premature critical evaluations of ideas, the valuing of new ideas, and the belief that creative thinking is bizarre. The article presents a speculative model that differentiates "ideation" and "deferral of judgment" attitudinally and cognitively, categorizing Osborn's brainstorming rules accordingly.

Feedback in concept development: Comparing design disciplines

“…It is "the systematic, intelligent generation and evaluation of specifications for artifacts whose form and function achieve stated objectives and satisfy specified constraints" (Dym, 1994a(Dym, , 1994b. Innovative solutions with exceptional functionality are important to engineering organizations especially in times of accelerating change (Basadur & Finkbeiner, 1985). Expert engineering designers generate design specifications, and translate those design specifications to a final artifact by establishing objectives and criteria, generating alternatives, synthesizing, analyzing, constructing, testing and evaluating (Sheppard & Jenison, 1996;Sheppard, Macatangay, Colby, & Sullivan, 2009).…”

Divergent thinking and market visioning competence: An early front-end radical innovation success typology

“…In other words, an individual's attitude that favors open communication and idea-sharing, as is reflected in the divergent thinking attitude measure, is likely to impact both networking by individuals with the external community and idea driving within the community of the firm. The second divergent thinking factor-divergent thinking attitude: efficient divergent to convergent thinking (factor 2, Exhibit 1)-deals with individuals' attitudes about reaching closure-that is, moving towards cutting off ideation in order to come to quality ideas more quickly (Basadur & Finkbeiner, 1985;Cropley, 2006). This can be linked to the individuallevel MVC capability of idea driving, which involves the championing of innovative and often risky ideas within the firm.…”

Creative Abilities

“…Basadur (1994), Basadur & Finkbeiner (1985), Runco & Basadur (1993) identified four divergent thinking attitudes, and much of this research involved managers, making it directly applicable to organizations. The four attitudes were preference for ideation, tendency to avoid premature critical evaluations, valuing new ideas, and belief that creative thinking is not bizarre.…”

“…One focuses on thinking style (rather than ability). Basadur and Finkbeiner (1985) used an eight-item Premature Critical Evaluation of Ideas scale to measure premature convergence. It included items such as "I should do some prejudgment of my ideas before telling them to others", "Quality is a lot more important than quantity in generating ideas", and "We should cut off ideas when they get ridiculous and get on with it".…”