Organizational Creativity

2. ORGANIZATIONAL CREATIVITY

Vicari defines creativity as:

"the result of the conditions the whole organization is in" (Vicari, 1998)

It is not determined by the single individual creativities
It is not the sum of individual creativities
It is the context, that exalts synergies

Binnig defines creativity as:

"...the evolutive aptitude of a system"(Binnig, 1991)

This definition includes 3 fundamental concepts:

Aptitude; it is strictly connected with the idea that creativity is not just a condition, but it is a capability of modifying, changing, innovating. Every system has this aptitude for changing.
System;it is concerned with the subject of creativity, that is to say a system. Not just individuals can be defined as creative, but also social systems,organizations, enterprises, as they all require the capability of changing.
Evolution; change is a necessary, but not sufficient condition in order to define creativity.

Creativity means that systems are able to self-evolve without any external intervention. Then we could define a system as creative in case it is able to evolve in a not known, not predetermined and not definable way. In other words it is not possible to foresee system’s behaviour just considering its input.

(When we talk about the subjects of creativity, that is to say individuals, organizations and systems in general, now we will try to define organizational creativity and its relationship with the individual one. Vicari [1] a teacher at Bocconi University in Milan, says that organizational creativity doesn’t correspond to the individual one. In particular it is not determined and it is not the sum of individual creativities, but it is the result of the conditions organizations are in.)

For example a painter or a philosopher, who work at artistic academies or at universities, are creative individuals, but they don’t make those institutions creative. What is important is not the quantity of creativity in an organization, but the relational and social context where individuals work.

Moreover organizational creativity might also flourish from a low level of individual creativity. For example Japanese enterprises have shown, up to now, an excellent creative capability in several industries even if they have an organizational environment which doesn’t support individual initiative but enhances team coordination.
Then we could say that there is no bijective relationship between individual and organizational creativity. And we could classify organizations according to the possible combinations between individual and organizational creativity. In fact organizations can work by using a low or high level of creativity and in the same way their employees might be creative or not.

Tab. 2.1 - Kinds of creativity

		Individual creativity
		low	high
Organizational creativity	high	Organizations based on continuous development, on systematic research of efficiency	Successful organizations High rate of innovations
Organizational creativity	low	Few innovations, just imitations Not effective organizations.	Low rate of innovations, sometimes radical, based on entrepreneurial spirit of individuals

[1] S.Vicari, La creatività dell’impresa. Tra caso e necessità, Milano, Etas Libri, 1998.

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