Unlocking Creativity and Understanding Organizational Structures

Posted on Dec 9, 2024 in Arts and Humanities

Unlocking Creativity in Organizations

Companies often seek to increase creativity, which is associated with the brain’s right hemisphere. However, several factors can block creativity:

  • Memory
  • Personality
  • Family environment
  • Friends

Types of Friends Who Hinder Creativity

  1. The Wall: Unresponsive and unsupportive.
  2. The Fugitive: Disappears when problems arise.
  3. The Deaf: Only hears what they want to hear.

Techniques to Enhance Creativity

  1. Brainstorming:
    • Involves generating a large number of ideas.
    • Ideas are often anonymous.
    • A coordinator records all suggestions.
    • Ideas are then evaluated to determine the best solutions.
  2. Call of the Profane:
    • Adopting a new paradigm or perspective.
    • Looking at things from a different point of view.
  3. Fishing-Pool:
    • Two groups participate.
    • One group presents ideas, while the other observes and takes notes.
  4. Six Thinking Hats (Edward De Bono):
    • Synectics: Making the familiar strange and the strange familiar.
    • White Hat: Objectivity and neutrality.
    • Black Hat: Pessimism and criticism.
    • Red Hat: Passion and sentiment.
    • Blue Hat: Decision-making, considering both good and bad aspects.
    • Green Hat: Creativity and originality.
  5. Bionics:
    • Drawing inspiration from nature.
    • Examples:
      • Snail/turtle shell inspiring mobile homes.
      • Spider’s web inspiring fishing nets.
      • Polar bear/chameleon inspiring camouflage for military uniforms.
      • Kangaroo pouch inspiring carriers.
  6. Forced Relations:
    • Connecting seemingly unrelated concepts.
    • Example: Relating a house, table, blackboard, pen, and sheet of paper to generate new ideas.

Vision of a Company

  • A long-term indicator.
  • Developed by the company owner or manager.

Company Mission

  • A synthesis of the company’s purpose.
  • A more current indicator, often for the medium term.

Objectives

  • Specific, measurable steps that enable the achievement of the mission.
  • Example:
    • Mission: Graduate college.
    • Objective: Pass all required courses.
  • Set by managers, ideally with employee collaboration.

Objective Example: Increase sales in November.

Employees should contribute ideas and be committed. Failure should be viewed as a learning opportunity, not a final outcome.

Integrated Behavioral Pattern: All members of the organization must understand and align with the objectives.

Example: In a restaurant, if the objective is good customer service, a rude waiter can negatively impact the customer experience and deter them from returning.

Coordination Mechanisms

  1. Mutual Adjustment:
    • Individuals coordinate their work through informal communication and agreement.
    • Places significant responsibility on the individual.
  2. Direct Supervision:
    • Supervisors are responsible for overseeing the work of others.
    • Implies a lack of trust in employees’ ability to self-manage.
    • Fayol’s Unity of Command: Each worker should have only one direct supervisor.
  3. Standardization of Processes:
    • Tasks are performed consistently following established procedures.
    • Often documented in procedural manuals.
    • Max Weber: Bureaucracy.
    • Taylor: Repetitive tasks, where employees are not expected to think critically.
  4. Standardization of Products:
    • Products are uniform and consistent, regardless of location.
    • Enables mass production.
  5. Standardization of Knowledge:
    • Individuals with the same qualifications have similar knowledge and skills.
    • They learn the same material and content.

Film: Dr. Jorge Molina-Hilda Fontevecchia (Daily Profile)

Biography:

  • Spent 15 years in a Catholic school.
  • Cuban Revolution occurred, dividing his family.
  • Fidel Castro persecuted Catholics.
  • At 15, he became a Communist.
  • The revolution closed the borders, allowing only the wealthy to leave.
  • Became a doctor in Cuba, representing a significant medical advancement worldwide.
  • Created a renowned medical center.
  • At 50, he decided the center would only serve foreigners due to higher earnings in dollars.
  • He resigned due to disagreement with this policy.
  • His child left the country and sent him money to live on as the government stopped paying him.
  • The Argentine government offered assistance.
  • Fidel Castro asked Hilda to stop visiting her ailing mother.
  • Hilda stated that if her mother died, she would hold Castro responsible.
  • The idea of socialism is that everyone is equal, which is not inherently bad in principle. The downside is the lack of freedom.

Henry Mintzberg’s Organizational Structures

Five Areas:

  1. Strategic Apex
  2. Technostructure
  3. Middle Line
  4. Support Staff
  5. Operating Core

Five Coordination Mechanisms:

  1. Mutual Adjustment
  2. Direct Supervision
  3. Standardization of Processes
  4. Standardization of Products
  5. Standardization of Knowledge

Types of Organizations

NameKey SectorCoordination Mechanism
Simple StructureStrategic ApexDirect Supervision
Machine BureaucracyTechnostructureStandardization of Processes
Professional BureaucracyOperating CoreStandardization of Knowledge
Divisionalized FormMiddle LineStandardization of Products

Characteristics of a Simple Structure

  • Strong presence of owners, often family-run.
  • Owners are authoritarian but have a clear understanding of the business.
  • Employees may stay long-term but have limited advancement opportunities.
  • The mission is clear, as the boss knows what they want.
  • Lack of external advice (support staff).
  • Owners lack time for training due to being absorbed in work.
  • They do not delegate.
  • Effective in times of crisis due to their small size.
  • A source of learning.

Machine Bureaucracy

  • Repetitive tasks performed in a standardized manner.
  • The technostructure is the most important sector, creating procedural manuals.
  • Examples: Laboratories, companies that create manuals and abstracts.
  • Power resides in those who create the rules and standards.
  • Features: Routine work, lack of creativity and flexibility, robotic work to avoid problems.
  • Solutions outside the manuals cannot be applied.
  • Buropathologies: Filtering of information, leading to decisions made without accurate information.
  • Reliance on spies or informers, often secretaries.

Professional Bureaucracy

  • Power resides in the operating core.
  • Professionals are experts in their respective fields.
  • They dislike being controlled and administrative paperwork, often delegating it to secretaries.
  • Customer contact is professional, not personal.
  • They are hyper-specialized.
  • Owners have a particular clientele.
  • Ideally, the leader is permissive.
  • The professional sector has strict rules.

Divisionalized Form

  • Large corporations.
  • The division chief is responsible for the results of their unit.
  • Unprofitable divisions may be closed.
  • Key sector: Middle line.
  • Coordination: Standardization of products.
  • Headquarters of large firms are often located in the parent company’s home country.