How to not kill creativity

: a look through an innovation consultant´s culture

Abstract

Achieving sustainable growth in one´s business appears to be a challenge for many entrepreneurs, since the business environment modern organizations face is characterized by numerous demands that, if not met, will most likely lead to the firm's failure. Ergo, there is an emergence from firms to achieve competitive advantage over other firms.Accordingly, one strategy used is through innovation, thus organizational creativity.However, even though firms recognize the value of creativity, they still fail to understand how to promote it amongst their employees. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to understand how firms can foster their employees' creative potential, through a case study on an innovation consultant. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study draws inferences from the perspective of both subordinates and leaders on the type of culture embebed in the organization, as well as the cultural elements that promote and hinder creativity. Using a sample of 23 participants, a survey, the TCT-DP and 4 semi-structured interviews were carried out. Results suggest that freedom, communication, feedback, interpersonal relationships, work, resources, risk-taking, mistake handling, motivation, conflict handling, cooperation, decision-making and goal setting promote creativity, whereas mechanistic structures, poorly defined goals, lack of time constraint and lack of support for new ideas and change inhibit creativity.

Date of Award	7 Feb 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Leonor Almeida (Supervisor)