Improving the work environment through creativity and innovation strategies

Executive Summary

The current research is an overview and a discussion about creativity and innovation in a business organization as it discusses creativity and innovation in the Oman Human Rights Comission and the different organizational and social blocks to creativity in the organization and how to plan for facing them. This is presented through reviewing the literature and finding suitable models and frameworks to be applied in the organization. The organization can apply these models and frameworks on its human resources by the help of effective leadership and management that can apply some basic interventions and training programs to make employees more successful in facing organizational and social blocks to creativity. The organization is recommended to find a model and a framework or more that can be convienient for its work environemnt and then try to implment them and make use of them to improve the current levels of innovation and creativity in addition to using them in facing the social and organizational blocks to creativity. It is also recommended to apply a plan for improving creativity and facing the blocks to it in the organization. 

Introduction

Any business organization needs to develop its human resources and make them able to communicate and exchange information in order to present new ideas and innovative creations that can improve the company's current levels of success, this can be done when the organization faces the different blocks to creativity and innovations. Axelsson and Sardari, (2011) Creativity and innovation are the two basic elements that can change any business organization success career and turn it to be more successful and profitable. Creativity and innovation can lead to great sudden changes that provide better opportunities for the organization and help it improve and develop its organizational environment through developing its human resources. Sternberg and Krauss, (2014). The current research is providing critical evaluation and discussion related to the organizational and social blocks to creativity in my organization the Oman Human Rights Commission and it tries to shed the light on the different models and frameworks that can be used to face the blocks to creativity in the organization through reviewing the literature and presenting a plan that can be effective and useful to be implmented by the organization.

Analysis

Many authors have discussed creativity and innovation and the blocks that can be found in a business organization and can hinder their work such as the organizational and social blocks to creativity such as Adams, (2005) who discussed the social blocks to creativity that are related to the society where the organization is established as he referred to the nature of different areas and how it can affect the organization's creative climate and may lead to passive and low understanding of creativity; in my organization this can be seen in many ways as they regard human rights for example in relation to people who are from the same religion and the same nationality more than rights of other different people and there are many efforts made for facing such social blocks that work against any creative and innovative ideas. Another social block to creativity in my organization is the low regard to women participation in different conferences and events especially if there is a need that the female employees travel abroad and attend meetings and conferences. Kadir, (2014) referred to the organizational blocks to creativity and innovation and focused on the organizational climate and how it can hinder the success of applying creative innovations and in my organization there are problems in the organization's creative climate as some employees don't realize or understand the meaning and requirements of creativity and they fear taking risks and this fear reflects on the work environment creating a climate that hinders creativity and innovation in the organization. Other organizational blocks include fears of leaders from the youth ideas and suggestions and they prefer suggestions of older people and this hinders new brave ideas that are creative and innovative. According to Mumford, (2011) another block is the difficulties management have in dealing with problems as the communication level in the work environment is in need for being improved and time is not suitable or managed well to provide such communication. There are other individual blocks to creativity that can be social or organizational such as the fear of some employees to take risky decisions or think of out of the box ideas and the fear of some leaders to listen to new ideas. This was well discussed in the views of Parjanen, (2012) who confirmed that the creativity and innovation management process can't be well managed without effective models and frameworks to be used and applied through, he mentioned the interventions model that depends on a number of certain interventions that are presented to employees and managers by specialists in creativity and innovation who can provide sessions of training relevant to creativity and innvoation concepts and implementation to employees of the organization, this should be done with cooperation of the company's management and leadership in order to manage time and let employees enjoy enough time for these interventions. Wilkins and Holtham, (2012) also discussed the models and frameworks that can be used to face the organizational and social blocks to creativity and they added that there should be focus on the individual and collective creativity in the business organization and this can help improve the creative climate in the organization and make employees able to take risky decisions that can lead to change and innovations. Amabile, (2012) provided a framework for improving organizational creativity and increasing the levels of innovation in it referring to phases programs that depend on preparing training courses and programs for employees as well as leaders in order to manage their time and let them able to take risky decisions that are well studied and evidence based, he mentioned a framework that depends on phases such as finding problems, finding fact, finding solutions for problems, problem solving and taking actions. The OHRC can use the model and the framework to solve the problems that face the organization when it tries to apply creative ideas and innovations such as the organizational and social blocks to creativity. The organization can also apply a comprehensive plan for applying the models and frameworks in order to improve the creativity and innovation in the organization. According to Henry, (2007) The plan should include an analysis for finding the main blocks to creativity and reasons for them, a model and a framework to be applied by the organization's human resources and effective time management program in addition to a system for evaluating the plan and ensuring its sustainability. The organization can work on finding some training programs, innovative ideas to be implmented by employees and challenging jobs that should be presented through the training courses to employees in order to make them face fear of risk taking and other organizational and social blocks to creativity. The plan can also include sending employees abroad for receiving additional training courses that encourage them be more creative and get rid of any social or organizational blocks to creativity. (Zhou, 2015).     

Conclusion

In conclusion, creativity and innovation are two important factors that can help the business organization succeed and open new markets and areas for success as this is mentioned in many evidence based researches and many business organizations have reached more success by applying innovative and creative ideas. As to the OHRC, itt can apply a model and a framework that are well used and evidence based in the literature in order to fight the different blocks to creativity. There are organizationaland social blocks to creativity such as the weakness of the creative climate in the organization and the social refuse of the employees to many creative ideas such as women participation in different events or applying the innovations of young employees or the fears of taking risky ideas. This can be faced by training the human resources of the organization and applying different models and frameworks that can be effective in improving the organization's creativity and innovation levels in it.  

Recommendations 

The OHRC is recommended to identify the reasons for the organizational and social blocks to creativity in order to prepare a plan and find effective solutions for these blocks. The organization should be able to do effective research in order to choose the most suitable frameworks and models that can ensure sustainability and effectiveness of creativity and innovation in the organization. There is a model for applying interventions that can be effective in training employees as well as leaders by a number of professional trainers who can help employees be dare and take risky decisions in addition to managing their time and raise the level of creative climate and communication in the organization. It is recommended that the organization apply a plan for its human resources in order to follow main phases and manage employees' time effectively in order to be able to ensure sustaiblity of the plan. The plan should be evaluated and improved.