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Alan Pearson, founding editor of [http://www.rndmanagement.info/ R&D management journal] , had formed links with the R&D managers at Unilever, and in 1972 invited Rickards to join The R&D Research Unit at MBS <ref name="MBS"> '''MBS : Manchester Business School'''. Refers to the School founded in 1967 within the Victoria University of Manchester, and to the Business School arising after the merger with UMIST which retained the MBS name </ref>
Alan Pearson, founding editor of [http://www.rndmanagement.info/ R&D management journal] , had formed links with the R&D managers at Unilever, and in 1972 invited Rickards to join The R&D Research Unit at MBS <ref name="MBS"> '''MBS : Manchester Business School'''. Refers to the School founded in 1967 within the Victoria University of Manchester, and to the Business School arising after the merger with UMIST which retained the MBS name </ref>
, to study [[creativity techniques]] in R&D laboratories. <ref>Pearson, A., (1989) Twenty-one years of research into the Management of R&D, R&D Management, 19.2 99-102</ref> The work was initially carried out as the ''Innovation through Creative Analysis'' [INCA] research programme. <Ref name="INCA"> INCA: Innovation through Creative Analysis. See INCA Research Programme at Manchester Business School (1972), R&D Management, 2,2, 97
, to study [[creativity techniques]] in R&D laboratories. <ref>Pearson, A., (1989) Twenty-one years of research into the Management of R&D, R&D Management, 19.2 99-102</ref> The work was initially carried out as the ''Innovation through Creative Analysis'' [INCA] research programme. <Ref name="INCA"> '''INCA: Innovation through Creative Analysis'''. See INCA Research Programme at Manchester Business School (1972), R&D Management, 2,2, 97
10.1111/j.1467-9310.1972.tb00104.x, j.1467-9310.1972.tb00104.x ></ref> The programme title referred to the methodology developed for studying structures for stimulating creativity. <ref name="PSTCA">Problem Solving through Creative Analysis </ref>
10.1111/j.1467-9310.1972.tb00104.x, j.1467-9310.1972.tb00104.x </ref> The programme title referred to the methodology developed for studying structures for stimulating creativity. <ref name="PSTCA">Problem Solving through Creative Analysis </ref>


==Creativity Research Unit at Manchester Business School (1979-1990s)==
==Creativity Research Unit at Manchester Business School (1979-1990s)==

Revision as of 23:03, 22 October 2008

Tudor Rickards is a British organizational theorist who is known for his pioneering role in the establishment of networks of practitioners and researchers across Europe committed to understanding and influencing organizational creativity. The networks have been influential in producing Europe’s first internationally recognized journal, Creativity and Innovation Management, and a coordinating structure for The European Association for Creativity and Innovation.

Working as a participant observer, he has catalogued his international experiences in project teams applying creative problem-solving techniques. From these experiences, he developed a theory that applying such processes enhanced personal learning and creativity through application of operating procedures and principles which make them benign structures for innovative change. He is Professor of Creativity and Organisational Change at Manchester Business School.

Development of interests in creativity

Early influences (1950s-1960s)

Reflecting on his work into organisational creativity, he has refered to the importance of early life experiences and the cultural life of Wales.[1] Degrees obtained in chemistry at University College Cardiff were followed by post-doctoral research at New York Medical College, during which he contributed to the literature of connective tissue degeneration. [2]

Unilever Research and Development Laboratories, (1967-1972)

On returning to the UK, he worked for Unilever as a new-product development manager at Port Sunlight Research Laboratory. He became part of an innovation group several of whose members subsequently published accounts of their work and experiences in applying creative problem-solving techniques. [3]

R&D Research Unit at Manchester Business School (1972-1979)

Alan Pearson, founding editor of R&D management journal , had formed links with the R&D managers at Unilever, and in 1972 invited Rickards to join The R&D Research Unit at MBS [4] , to study creativity techniques in R&D laboratories. [5] The work was initially carried out as the Innovation through Creative Analysis [INCA] research programme. [6] The programme title referred to the methodology developed for studying structures for stimulating creativity. [7]

Creativity Research Unit at Manchester Business School (1979-1990s)

He was later appointed lecturer in creativity at Manchester Business School [MBS] [4], by its first Director Grigor McClelland, and established The Creativity Research Unit there. This appears to have been an informal, self-funding arrangement, although by the mid 1970s it was attracting international recognition. One leading American practitioner, George Prince, [8] cited only four researchers contributing in Europe to developing insights into creativity: Tudor Rickards, Edward De Bono, Arthur Koestler, and Philip Vernon.

Tom Lupton, who succeeded McClelland as director of MBS, encouraged Rickards to extend his research into organisational creativity and the management of change. Influenced by a colleague Stafford Beer, he applied concepts from managerial cybernetics to explain how a set of procedures in techniques such as brainstorming could help an individual or group generate original ideas. [9] [10]

Network building (1970s-2000s)

Creativity networking in Manchester (1970s-1990s)

A regional creativity network was established in Manchester in the 1970s which included the Creativity Research Group at MBS, and a group at UMIST and its business department, Manchester School of Management (MSM). A merger of the two Universities in 2004 subsequently led to the creation of a unified Business School.

An active networker from MSM in the 1980s was Reg Talbot who with Alan Topalian, Jeff Butler and Margaret Bruce extended the group's interests into design creativity.

Building an international research network (1980s-2000s)

Associates and former doctoral students helped in the stablishment of active network of researchers exploring organisational creativity and related topics:


Susan Moger specialized in creativity in networks and in creative leadership.

Tony Proctor studied and published on creative problem-solving [11] including computerised approaches . [12]

Simon Aldridge (d. 2007) pursued his interests in creativity in complex social systems such as the National Health Service. [13] [14]

Hernan Riquelme has studied decision processes of venture capitalists. [15], creative imagery, and Herbert Simon's cognitive model of creativity[16].

Julie Hass researched a creative climate inventory[17] and extended the work into sustainability auditing.

Zain Mohammed applied Ekvall’s creative climate scale to organizations in Malaysia[18]

Christian de Cock has developed a post-structural approach to studies of creativity.

Fernando Gimenezhas examined the creative and strategic decision-making of Brazilian entrepreneurs

Frederic Hsu has studied modes of rationality in strategic decision-making

Faisal Q Khokhar has researched leadership and entrepreneurship in Pakistan

Nathan Proudlove researches group decision systems[19]

Ming-Huei Chen collaborated on the two-barrier model of team development, and on the validation of its team factor inventory. She has also researched creativity of entrepreneurs in Taiwan, [20] and team creativity

Abdulla Al-Bereidi has studied creativity in Saudi Arabian organizations [21]

Fangqi Xu has been comparing creativity courses around the world, as well as studying organizational creativity.

European Networks for Creativity and Innovation (1987-1993)

Contacts from Unilever Research in the 1970s [22] helped Rickards to establish links with creativity researchers and practitioners in Holland. [23] An early contact was Jan Buijs who was to become a leading scholar internationally in creativity in design projects based at the Technology University of Delft. By 1986, The Creativity Research Unit at MBS had connected with creativity centres emerging elsewhere in Europe. The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, TNO, supported an international conference with the intention of helping ‘build a greater understanding of innovation and creative processes’ across Europe'.

An international conference was planned and held [24]

The steering group for the conference was Hans Smeekes of TNO for the Netherlands, Tudor Rickards for the United Kingdom, Per Groholt of the Norwegian Centre for Leadership Development acting as a liasion person for Scandinavia, and Patrick Colemont [COCD] for Belgium.

The organizing team became known as The Periscope Group [24] whose members went on to organize subsequent conferences before establishing in its place the directorate of European Association for Creativity and Innovation. It also helped in the formation of a sister organization in America coordinated by the Prism group. Stan Gryskiewicz of The Center for Creative Leadership and a member of the Prism group reported in 1992 that:

The conference was to be the first in a series of events still held biennially in Europe. In alternative years a similar sequence of conferences have been held in North American venues, with collaboration between the steering groups. [25]

Over the period 1987-1994, four European conferences took place. Proceedings were published for each conference.

Tudor Rickards provided continuity within the editorial teams for these publications

The proceedings of the forth conference in 1993 announced the dissolution of the founding steering group and the establishment of The European Association for Creativity and Innovation with support from the province of Limburg and the city of Heerlan.

European Association for Creativity and Innovation (1994)

in 1996, the newly-established European Association for Creativity and Innovation arranged the next conference in Vaals, The Netherlands. [26]

The conference addressed the theme of generating and sustaining the impact of impact of creativity . It opened with a keynote speech from Edward de Bono, who argued that the mystique of creativity can be removed if it is regarded as a process associated with a self-structuring information system. [27]

Creativity and Innovation Management

Section to be added here

Research themes

In 1974, he summarized his industrial experiences in his first book, Problem Solving through Creative Analysis. In it he examined the procedures and principles through which creativity techniques might work. He coined the expression Creative Analysis for the process though which such techniques provided rule-based protocols which support individual and group learning and creativity.[7]

Creativity in the Business School Curriculum

Supporting the contrarian position taken by Henry Mintzberg he has argued strongly for curriculum change in Business Schools [28] [29] presenting creativity as a slumbering giant increasingly needed for business survival under conditions of turbulence. Creativity and the management of change [30] sets out to study 'creativity, one of the most silenced voices in MBA courses [to discover]'what they don't teach you (yet) at business school [ppxiii-xiv]'.

[31].

Structures for stimulating creativity

Early work had described and evaluated industrial applications and outcomes of trials of the most popular creativity techniques[7] , which were classed into methods for information management; methods of restructuring or reframing problems; and group problem-solving structures. The various components described drew on experiences with morphological analysis, lateral thinking, brainstorming and synectics

It was a a theme returned to in studies of synectics [32], Creativity at Work [33] Industrial new-product development, [34], electronic brainstorming [35] [36] and, with Susan Moger, Handbook for creative team leaders [37]

In the 1970s he visited with the Cambridge group of Epiphany Philosophers who had become intrigued by the philosophical challenges posed by lateral thinking. [38]

His advocacy of structured aids to creativity addresses a presumption that creativity is hindered by structures, and liberated in the absence of structure. He has described this as the fallacy of unconstrained action.

Rickards is not an unreflective advocate of creativity techniques. In empirical studies in 1970s with co-worker Brian Freedman, he explored the mechanisms, scope and limitations of industrial brainstorming, concluding "There seem two main reasons for utilizing [brainstorming] processes. The first is as an aid to creativity. The second is as an effective means of amassing ideas. These underlying principles have not been satisfactorily validated in the literature, but use of the technique for the latter, variety generating purpose, may be easier to justify than use as a creativity-spurring device". [39] [40][41]

The view has been challenged by Basadur and co-workers who suggested that creative problem solving techniques could support creativity when accompanied by 'appropriate' training. [42]

The approach to creativity has also been contested by critical theorists such as Martin Woodwho noted in a review article that Rickards is ‘claiming to speak on behalf of creativity whilst discussing only a percentage of the literature’ [43]

Models and diagnostics

Rickards and Moger propose three levels of team performance. “Glass ceilings” prevent team progressing to the next stage in Tuckman’s “Forming-storming-norming-performing” model of team formation

Since the 1970s, self-report instruments have been developed for exploring individual and team level creativity A climate measure The Creativity Audit was developed in conjunction with John Bessant. The work was influenced by Goran Ekvall. A measure of barriers to individual creativity was published in the 1990s. [44]

Two-barriers model of team effectiveness

The two-barriers model of team effectiveness [represented to the right] was developed. It challenged Bruce Tuckman's accepted Forming-storming-norming-performing stages of team development. The first barrier restricts development of the poorest teams ("Teams from hell") to the storm stage of team development. The second barrier, at the norm stage of team development, inhibits a further proportion of teams resulting in "standard teams". By breaking out of accepted norms, a minority of teams arrive at innovative insights, effectively establishing new ‘creative’ norms to become "dream teams."

The Team Factors Inventory [TFI] [45] was developed as an investigative tool for exploring the two-barriers model.

Discovery learning and The Manchester Method

The Manchester Method is an educational innovation which grew out of attempts to provide more experience-linked learning within business degree programmes at Manchester Business School. In a recent keynote presentation Rickards represented the Manchester Method as occurring with the application of structured aids to enhance creativity within project team work. However, The Manchester Method is also reported as being applied in situations without interventions designed to stimulate creativity.[46]

Other direct and indirect contributions to The Manchester Method were made by an eclectic group of researchers including Eric Miller of the Tavistock Institute, Enid Mumford, and Reg Revans [47], and Stafford Beer.

Creative leadership

In Handbook for Creative Team Leaders, Rickards & Moger suggest that creative leaders reconfigure the structures under which team members operate [by] reducing the impact of negative behaviour patterns of team members and providing a more benign structuring of work patterns. [48]

Broadening The Manchester Method (2006)

More recently he has been instrumental in introducing leadership and creativity into the blended learning courses offered by Manchester Business School. These courses, offered to employed senior professionals, enable learning and development in leadership themes, creativity and team working in a way that is directly applicable back to the workplace. This route is also highly international, raising further considerations regarding culturality in teamworking and leadership.

Notes

Chronology in the article has been derived from references below

  1. ^ Rickards, T., (2002) ‘Creativity in humans, computers and the rest of God’s creatures: A meditation from within the economic world’, in McKevitt, P., O Nullain, S., & Mulvihill, C., (eds), Language, vision, and music: selected papers from the 8th International workshop on the cognitive science of natural language processing, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp 373-384
  2. ^ Rickards, T., Herp, A., & Pigman, W., (1966) The kinetics of depolymerization of hyaluronic acid by l-ascorbic acid, and the inhibition of this reaction by anions of the lyotropic series, J of Polymer Science Part A-1 Polymer Chemistry, 5,4. pp 931-934
  3. ^ The group included a future Unilever director Richard Duggan, as well asGeorge Davies and Mike Woods Whetten, D.A, Cameron, K.S., and Woods, M., (2000), Developing Management Skills for Europe, London: Pearson Education, ISBN 0201342766,
  4. ^ a b MBS : Manchester Business School. Refers to the School founded in 1967 within the Victoria University of Manchester, and to the Business School arising after the merger with UMIST which retained the MBS name
  5. ^ Pearson, A., (1989) Twenty-one years of research into the Management of R&D, R&D Management, 19.2 99-102
  6. ^ INCA: Innovation through Creative Analysis. See INCA Research Programme at Manchester Business School (1972), R&D Management, 2,2, 97 10.1111/j.1467-9310.1972.tb00104.x, j.1467-9310.1972.tb00104.x
  7. ^ a b c Problem Solving through Creative Analysis Cite error: The named reference "PSTCA" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ Prince, G., (1975) Mindspring: Suggesting answers to why productivity is low, Chemical Technology, 6,5, 290-294, citation on p294
  9. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L., (1978) 'Procedures for managers in idea-deficient situations', Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp 43-55
  10. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L. (1979) 'A reappraisal of creativity techniques', Journal of European and Industrial Training, Vol 3 No 1, pp3-8
  11. ^ Proctor, T., (1999) Creative Problem Solving for Managers 1st ed: Oxford, Routledge.
  12. ^ Proctor, T., (1989) 'Experiments with two computer assisted problem-solving aids' Omega, The International Journal of Management Science Vol 17 No 2, pp197-200
  13. ^ Aldridge, S., A Study of Two Action Research Methodologies during Implementation of Technical Changes in the National Health Service., Victoria University of Manchester: Unpublished doctoral dissertation
  14. ^ Rickards, T.,Aldridge, S.,Gaston, K, (1988) Factors affecting brainstorming: towards the development of diagnostic tool, for assessment of creative performance, R&D Management, 18,4,309-320
  15. ^ Riquelme, H., & Rickards, T., (1992) 'Hybrid conjoint analysis: An estimation probe in new venture decisions', Journal of Venture Research, Vol. 7, No. 6, pp 505-518
  16. ^ Riquelme, H., (2002) Can people creative in imagery interpret ambiguous figures faster than people less creative in imagery?, J Creative Behavior, 36,2, 105-116
  17. ^ Hass, J., An Investigation into the Organizational Change Processes Related to Environmental Issues
  18. ^ Mohammed, Z., (1997) Successful Implementation of Innovation amongst Malaysian Firms, Manchester: Doctoral dissertation
  19. ^ Nathan Proudlove (1999) The Support of Group Decision Making using Judgemental Modelling: An Exploration of the Contributions of Behavioural Factors
  20. ^ Chen, Ming-Huei, Entrepreneurial Leadership and New Ventures: Creativity in Entrepreneurial Teams. Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 239-249, September 2007
  21. ^ Albereidi, A., & Rickards, T., (2003) Creativity in a big-five accounting office: A Saudi Arabian case study, Managerial auditing journal, 18: 1/2
  22. ^ Woods, M.F., & Davies G.B., (1973) Potential problem analysis: A systematic approach to problem prediction and contingency planning;an aid to the smooth exploitation of research, R&D Management, 4,1, 25-32
  23. ^ Abels, J.J, (1974) Generating new product ideas, a systematic approach, Netherlands: Markartikelen BV; Melis, T. (1991), The innovative packager. Singapore: Octogram Books
  24. ^ a b Colemont, P., Groholt, P., Rickards, T. & Smeekes, H., Eds, (1988) Creativity & Innovation: Towards a European Network, Amsterdam: Kluver
  25. ^ Gryskiewicz, S., (1992) Letter from America (With respectful acknowledgement to Alistair Cooke), Creativity and Innovation Management, 1,4, 214-215
  26. ^ Colemont, P, & Verhagen, M., (1994) Letter from Heerlan, Creativity and Innovation Management, 3,3, 198-200. This communication marks the first from the newly inaugurated office of the European Association for Creativity and Innovation (E.A.C.I).
  27. ^ De Bono, E., (1997) Preface, in Rickards, T., Moger, S., Tassoul, M., van de Kimmenade, I, & van den Beuken, J., Eds., (Creativity and Innovation: Impact, Maastricht: EACI v-vi
  28. ^ Rickards, T. (1993), "Creativity from a business school perspective: past, present and future", in Isaksen, S.G., Murdock, M.C., Firestien, R.L., Treffinger, D.J. (Eds), Nurturing and Developing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline, Ablex, Norwood, NJ.,
  29. ^ Rickards, T., & Moger, S., (1999) Creativity: The slumbering giant, Creativity and Innovation Management, 8,4, 231-232(2) DOI: 10.1111/1467-8691.00141
  30. ^ Rickards, T., (1999) Creativity and the management of change, Oxford: Blackwells DOI: 10.1111/1467-8691.00141
  31. ^ Xu, F., & Rickards, T., (2007), Creative Management: A Predicted Development from Research into Creativity and Management , Creativity and Innovation Management, 16, 3, 216-228.
  32. ^ Synectics: Reflections of a Little-s Practitioner, Creativity and Innovation Management, 12, 28-31, March 2003
  33. ^ Rickards, T., (1990) Creativity and Problem-Solving at Work, Gower, Farnborough, UK
  34. ^ Carson, J.W., & Rickards, T., (1979) Industrial New-Product Development, Gower Press
  35. ^ Rickards, T., (1994) 'Electronic brainstorming: Asking the right questions', Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol 3, No 2, pp110-114
  36. ^ Rickards, T., (1999) ‘Brainstorming revisited: A question of context’ International journal of management reviews, Vol 1 No 1, pp 91-110
  37. ^ Rickards, T., & Moger, S.T., (1999) Handbook for creative team leaders, Aldershot, Hants: Gower
  38. ^ Rickards, T., (1978) 'Teaching creativity', Theoria to theory, Vol. 12,pp175-190
  39. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L., (1978) 'Procedures for managers in idea-deficient situations', Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp 43-55
  40. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L., (1978) 'A note on perceptions of brainstorming obtained from a cross-cultural study', Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp 347-349
  41. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L. (1979) 'A reappraisal of creativity techniques', Journal of European and Industrial Training, Vol 3 No 1 pp3-8
  42. ^ Basadur, M., Graen, & Scandura, T.A., (1986) Training effects on attitudes toward divergent thinking among manufacturing engineers, J Applied Psychology, 71,4,612-617
  43. ^ Wood, M., (2000) Review of Creativity and the management of change, Organisation Studies
  44. ^ Rickards, T., Jones, L. (1991), "Towards the identification of situational barriers to creative behaviors: the development of a self report inventory", Creativity Research Journal, Vol. 4 No.4, pp.303-15.
  45. ^ Team Factors Inventory. See Rickards, T., Chen M-W., & Moger, S.T., (2001) Development of a self-report instrument for exploring team factor, leadership and performance relationships, British Journal of Management, 12, 3, 243 –250
  46. ^ Rickards, T., Hyde, P.J., & Papamichail, K.N., (2005) ‘The Manchester Method: A Critical review of a learning experiment’ in C. Wankel & R. De Fillippi (Eds) Educating managers through real world projects, Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 241-254
  47. ^ Reg Revans, pioneer of action learning
  48. ^ Rickards T., & Moger, S., (1999) Handbook for creative team leaders , Aldershot: Gower Press [ISBN 0 566 08051 6]
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