Creativity and Efficiency
...elationships. Social hours and periodic meetings intensify the contact between the employees. Another way of supporting interpersonal contacts is with the promotion of teamwork and project management (Schlicksupp, 1999, pp.42-43). The more ideas the team can pool, the more creative they become. 1.2.3 Available potentials Up until now we have examined the human-based factors. However, there are other factors which also have an influence on the creative process - for instance, time. Companies should try to avoid time pressure because the more time an employee has to produce a new idea, the better it gets (Schlicksupp, 1999, p.45). A further resource that makes up the quality of an idea is knowledge and information. Employees should have free access to information and be kept up to date about entrepreneurial activities. The more knowledge a person has about a specific field, the more ideas he can bring into his thinking process. Consequently the output, which is a creative product, is more varied and of a higher quality (Schlicksupp, 1999, p.51). 1.2.4 Environment Not only human and intellectual factors are important for the unfolding of creativity. The environment also has to be taken into consideration. The employee has to feel comfortable in his job. Creativity can only unfold if the person can identify himself with the culture and environment of his company. Therefore companies should drop traditions, rigid routines and habits and give way to free thinking. Only when an employee can think freely, can new creative ideas be developed. Once presented, they have to be judged objectively and carefully without being hastily dropped (Schlicksupp, 1999, p.50). Another way to support the creative process is job rotation. Through this employees can deepen their expertise and learn about the problems which can arise in different jobs. Consequently the person develops a higher understanding of problems and this, in turn, helps in the creation and implementation of new ideas (Schlicksupp, 1999, p.43). 1.3 When is creativity necessary? Now that the influences on creativity have been analysed, we devote ourselves to the respective questions of when companies should make use of creativity and when creativity is required. Both, Schlicksupp (1999) and West (1999) think that in a problem-solving process creativity is a must. However Schlicksupp distinguishes between two different categories of problems (p.30). The first type can be solved logically and consistently and therefore the connections are transparent and precise, like, for example, a mathematical problem. Consequently you cannot actually call those well-structured problems “problems”; they are rather duties or routine problems (Schlicksupp, 1999, p.30). The other sort of problem cannot be solved with the help of logical methods because there is no one solution. The answers to the problems have to be sought and for that purpose the person needs more than the ability of logical thinking – creativity is required (Schlicksupp, 1999, p.30). Creativity is not only useful in problem-solving but also necessary for innovation. An innovation is the introduction of a new product or the use of a new method, so obviously here creativity is very important (Schlicksupp, 1999, p.32). 2. Efficiency 2.1 What is efficiency? Efficiency can be defined in different ways. The more theoretical one, according to the Omnibus Lexicon, is the following: “Efficiency is a measurement of the output per unit of cost.” On the contrary, the philosophy of Herbert N. Casson is that efficiency is a harmonious striving for optimal achievement with the smallest possible but concentrated input of strength, resource and time with the simultaneous promotion of joy of life for oneself and one’s fellow man (Efficiency Club Zürich, n. d., p.1). 2.2 How to work efficiently As the first definition is only general, I would like to go into this subject more deeply and analyse which factors affect efficiency. 2.2.1 Personnel management In a firm, the main factor which influences efficiency is the staff. It is very important that the company take into consideration the needs and interests of the individual employees. Trustful and cooperative interchange between the company and the employees is necessary. Lots of superiors are promoted according to their professional qualifications despite their lack of leadership. A remedy for this could be management courses for the executives, and this should be an ongoing process (Weyer, 2000, pp.1-2). Further, organisational factors play a certain role. The responsibilities, competences and tasks have to be clearly defined and the flow of information must be ensured. Also important is the company’s esteem for the individual employee and vice versa. The greatest contribution a company can make in this respect is to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship, which means every employee thinks and acts as if he were self-employed. A material instrument for increasing efficiency is achievement-oriented salaries and bonuses. This all has an influence on the work climate, happiness a...