The Harvard Business Review - Research Paper Example

HBR Article Review ID Number Faculty HBR Article Review Q1. Problem Identification The Harvard business review addresses a problem related to how to manage collective creativity in film production (Catmull, 2008). The article defines collective creativity as a collective engagement involving a group of people from distinct disciplines and departments with an aim of solving fundamental and unforeseeable problems (Catmull, 2008). Many technical companies rise and fall due to poor or lack of collective creativity. The hypothesis formulated by the author was that the trick to enhance collective creativity involves three steps. The first step involves placing the creative authority for product development in the hands of the project leaders (Catmull, 2008). The second step involves building a culture and processes that motivate people to help one another and share relevant information. The third step involves dismantling the natural barriers that create divisions in an organization (Catmull, 2008). Strong leadership is essential to make sure people do not pay lip service to those standards, and people should not assume that just because the company is successful, everything it does is right. In addition, the author suggested several principles to manage a creative organization. The first principle seeks to give the creative people control over every stage of development of an idea. The second principle is to encourage people to help each other produce their best work also known as creating a peer culture. The third principle asserts that managing a collective creativity in an organization is to free up communication (Catmull, 2008). The third principle defines an efficient way of solving numerous problems, and it encourages individuals to focus on challenges without waiting for authorization. The fourth principle involves creating a learning environment, and the author notes that learning together is fun. The fifth principle is to carry out post mortems on projects to stimulate discussion (Catmull, 2008). Q2) The need for the article The Harvard business review article is worth studying since it is educative on how to manage collective creativity in an organization. According to the author, many companies rise and fall due to lack proper collective creativity (Catmull, 2008). Many people consider creativity as a unique act attributed to a single person. The article teaches that talented people should work effectively with one another and takes trust and respect. Loyalty to collective work and one another creates an extraordinary feeling in an organization. Moreover, the accomplishments of the talented people attract the community to talented people coming out of schools or in the working place. The article is imperative for MBA level since it is at this level that students are required to carry out and submit projects. The students subdivide in groups and bear the mandate to pull up ideas and complete a project successfully. This means that the students should manage a creative group whereby everyone has the freedom of communication. In such an environment, people from different disciplines can interact and appreciate what each other does. Secondly, the MBA students either are managers or will be managers at some point. It is paramount to learn that managers, as executives they should resist the natural tendency to avoid or minimize risks. They should develop an environment that promotes trustful and respectful relationships and allow individuals to release their creativity. The author says that managers need to learn that it is normal and okay to walk into a meeting and be surprised with ideas if the environment is safe for everyone to offer ideas. Q3. Methodology The research methodology used by the author is the qualitative method and it is useful in understanding the human behavior and the reasons that govern the human behavior (Catmull, 2008). Qualitative approach focuses on linguistic data and disregards numerical data. The author has used both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data offers firsthand information about an individual or a piece of art. The primary sources of data used by the author include interviews with managers, direct observation of the trend of technical company’s historical data from companies (Catmull, 2008). The secondary sources of data play an important role of describing, interpreting, analyzing, supporting, and summarizing primary sources. The secondary sources of data used include books, movies, and journals. The first assumption of the research is that the technical companies represent all other companies. The second assumption is that a company can only remain successful only if the organization is able to manage the collective creativity of the peers (Catmull, 2008). A limitation of the research is that the qualitative methodology is less objective compared to quantitative methodology. Another limitation of this research is that the author looks at only one aspect, which is collective creativity (Catmull, 2008). The potential for future research is to combine both qualitative and quantitative in order to obtain information that is more objective. Again, the researcher should look at several aspects rather than concentrating on one aspect. Q4).Summary of review literature pertaining to the problem in the article Every organization must be able to manage collective creativity within all the disciplines and departments in order to become and remain successful (Catmull, 2008). Creativity is a situation that involves the creation of a new product. Creativity is essential for society and economic growth, and its traits include idea generation or incubation, personality, motivation, and confidence. The managers and leaders of organizations should create an environment where everyone has the freedom to communicate with anyone. Such an environment that is safe for everyone to offer ideas and stay close to innovations happening in the academic community. The managers should also embrace creativity in decision-making and support that will provide an environment that fosters honest feedback from all parties in an organization (Catmull, 2008). The author puts it that if you give a mediocre idea to a great team they will make it work but if you give a good idea to a mediocre team they will screw it up. Literature review motivates the research question, provides readers with a coherent state of knowledge, and identifies the limitations current of state of knowledge. Sources and methods of creativity include incubation or temporary break from creative problem solving that can result in insight (Catmull, 2008). Convergent and divergent thinking also define creativity. Convergent thinking aims at establishing a single correct solution to an issue while divergent thinking seeks to adopt creativity in deriving multiple solutions to a specific issue. Conceptual blending is another method that defines creativity. In conceptual blending two different frames of reference tend to intersect. Creativity honing theory is another creativity method that relates to the universal self-organizing and self-mending aspect. The final method of creativity is everyday imaginative thoughts. We can also relate the creativity process to the imagination for alternatives to ideals as adopted by specific individuals. Ideally, we can establish five motivation factors that promote creativity in an organization. These factors are organizational climate, leadership style, organizational culture, resources, skills, and the structure of the organization (Catmull, 2008). Communications channels can act as threats or opportunities for advancements and creativity. Indeed, creativity relies on how organizations promote or inhibit communication channels. Diversity and the aspect of sharing ideas among individuals with distinct frames of reference foster creativity. Moreover, integrating creative personalities in the organizational culture also enhance creative performance. The conclusion of the research findings is that the practice of getting people from different disciplines and departments to work together as peers is core to all organizations. However, there are many barriers to collective creativity such as natural class structures in an organization. Negative perception, different languages spoken by different disciplines and even the physical distance between offices in an organization also hinder collective creativity. The barriers hinder us from achieving high and unique productivity and hence we should strive to overcome them. Q4. Student’s critique Research is going beyond personal experience, thoughts, feelings, and opinions that do not refer to other sources of information. A study seeks to address the research question that involves exploring a new idea, investigating a fundamental issue, and establishing a solid argument. Notably, this article involves an investigation on creativity with reference to film production. Some subjects in research require us to go beyond our personal knowledge and experience. The Harvard Business Review article is worth reading since it educates on how to develop and sustain a collective creative environment in an organization with the freedom of communication. The methodology used is less objective since it uses only linguistic data. Combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies gives findings that are more objective. The limitations of the article are that it concentrates on only one aspect, which can lead to failure of an organization while there are many challenges that an organization faces. Another limitation is that the article depicts a sample size that cannot develop a significant inference. Ideally, an effective research relies on a larger sample size to guarantee representation of the entire population. In addition, the article is self-reported data and therefore limited by the fact that it is very rare to verify it independently. Reference Catmull, E. (2008). How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. Harvard Business Review. Read More