Leadership for Creativity and Innovation

Catalog description

Students will examine the influence of leadership on the psychological and social processes related to developing creative ideas and implementing them within work groups and organizations. PSY 813 Leadership for Creativity and Innovation (3) Organizations face continuous and strong pressures to be innovative with regard to all types of organizational functions. Creativity and innovation are not just important with regard to developing new products and services that organizations can offer to their customers, but with regard to developing more effective administrative, production, and delivery systems. At the same time individuals and groups within the organization are likely to resist change because of its inherent uncertainty and risk. Furthermore, while innovation and creativity may be strategic goals for the organization, at the same time the organization is also likely pursuing goals of efficiency, standardization, and quality that conflict with introducing change into the organization. Leaders in the organization thus face difficult paradoxes related to the achievement of multiple, conflicting goals. Organizational and work group creativity and innovation face a number of obstacles that leaders must minimize if the organization is to be successful or even survive. Leading for innovation is a critical skill in today's organizations. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the psychological and social factors that underlie creativity and innovation in work groups in organizational settings with an emphasis on the role that group leadership plays in the development and implementation of novel idea and processes. The course will focus on the development of the students' ability to think critically about the complexity of factors that influence creativity and innovation and the range of approaches to dealing with the normative resistance to change that often exists in organizations. Particular attention will be paid to how individuals and groups develop alternative potential ideas, evaluate those alternatives, and implement a novel approach to the issue at hand. Over the semester students will be exposed to relevant examples, cases, and discussions that emphasize the application of psychological theory and research findings to the practice of leadership functions in work settings that help develop and implement novel ideas. Some examples of the course material that will be addressed include: models of the creativity-innovation process within organizations; resistance to change; individual, group, and organizational factors affecting creativity; individual, group, and organizational factors affecting innovation; role of leadership in creativity and innovation; paradoxes related to concurrent need to lead for innovation and lead for efficiency; special challenges related to leading for innovation in multinational and virtual teams.