On the Co-existence of Innovation and Creativity in the Lean Management Environment

The innovativeness and creativity of companies are of particular significance in terms of shaping competitive position. Both of these phenomena should co-exist and interact with each other. The aim of the paper is the preliminary identification of the determinants of innovation and creativity in enterprises and their bilateral coordination in the Lean Management environment. In order to accomplish the aims of the research, a study of the subject literature (on the theoretical level) was used, as well as the results of empirical research conducted on the basis of a case study within two companies. Thanks to the literature review, the assumption about the need to integrate and coordinate activities in the area of creativity and innovation was made. Case studies have shown that, in practice, unnecessary artificial divisions of these areas of the company’s operations are created. In both the theoretical and empirical layers, the necessity of continuing research into the given problem was confirmed.