Understanding How Creative Thinking Skills, Attitudes and Behaviors Work Together: A Causal Process Model

Abstract

Managers (N = 112) from a large international consumer goods manufacturer participated in a field experiment in which they learned and applied the Simplex process of creative thinking to solve real management problems. The interrelationships among six attitudinal and behavioral skill variables learned during the training were measured to improve understanding of how these variables contribute to the process. Predicted relationships were tested and a best‐fit causal model was developed. Behavioral skill in generating quantity of options was the most important variable overall: it was directly associated with behavioral skill in both generating quality options and evaluating options. The key attitudinal skill and the second most important variable overall was the preference for avoiding premature evaluation of options (deferral of judgment). The other attitude measured, the preference for active divergence, played only an indirect role in the process.

Development and Validation of the Information Systems Creative-Self-Efficacy Scale

“…Their measure has been used by many researchers in other management [44] and educational contexts [7] and also to further the work on CreaSE itself [19].…”

“…After identifying the subconstructs above from literature on creativity [22,7,9,10,13,36,44,53], and before actually generating the constructs, we surveyed IS executives contacted through the advisory boards of two universities and IS faculty across four universities. The survey included two openended questions designed to gather valid content from both educators and professionals in the IS field.…”

“…While this line of research has shown promising results for explaining employee productivity, the commonly accepted measure of CreaSE only refers to the general management context and is not well-suited to the unique IS discipline, which requires expertise in a combination of technology, business processes, and human behavior [7,24,25]. Furthermore, there has not been a rigorous scale development and refinement process for this construct in the management discipline based on the strongest principles for scale development [c.f.…”

An Analysis of Internal Environment of a Commercial-oriented Research Organization: Using Mckinsey 7S Framework in a Ghanaian Context

“…The application of creative thinking skills in idea evaluation, however, is not simply a matter of seeing implications. Instead, as Mumford et al (2003) have pointed out, leaders in their appraisal of ideas, suggest approaches for idea revision and refinement, and require creative thinking skills (Basadur, 2000). Also, leaders need social skills that will allow them to encourage participation and build a sense of employee commitment to the commercial project being pursued.…”

Can we Really Have an Integrative Theory of Creativity? The Case of Creative Cognition

“…With regard to idea evaluation and choice, we know that individuals can accurately evaluate ideas for originality (Runco & Basadur, 1993;Runco & Chand, 1995). That said, other work suggests that more creative individuals are more accurate in their evaluations (Basadur, Runco, & Vega, 2000). While idea evaluation was found to be related to divergent thought more so than convergent thought (Runco & Smith, 1992), factors that influence idea generation seem to influence idea evaluation in a different way (Herman & Reiter-Palmon, 2011).…”