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Creativity (Ideas) Management in Industrial R&D Organizations: A Crea‐Political Process Model and an Empirical Illustration of Corus RD&T
Author(s) -
Bakker Han,
Boersma Kees,
Oreel Sytse
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8691.2006.00397.x
Subject(s) - creativity , politics , context (archaeology) , sociology , process (computing) , empirical research , management , public relations , epistemology , political science , computer science , economics , law , paleontology , philosophy , biology , operating system
Creativity management is a crucial topic to consider in the debate about the innovative research department. Against the background of discussions about individual creativity and organizational commitment, this article argues that the creative process in organizations is a matter of political strategies. The ideator literally has to sell his/her idea. The article therefore comes up with a crea‐political process model in which there is ample room for the thought that ideas emerge and survive within a social‐political context. In addition, the crea‐political process model is used to analyse the way in which the Corus Group Research Development and Technology (RD&T) department has implemented an electronic idea‐management system. The system, called eureka! , has been designed as a straightforward platform to capture, review, evaluate and select creative ideas. The findings challenge the literature on idea management in organizations to consider the political activities of ideators in the whole process of creativity.