AUTHOR
Forsgren, Thomas; Tregert, Martin; Westerlund, Fredrik

DATE
2004-01-15

DEPARTMENT
Business Administration and Social Sciences / Industrial marketing and e-commerce

SUMMARY
The world of business is today moving towards an increasingly open and globally competitive market, which leads to enormous pressure on all companies to enhance their competitive advantages. The aim of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of how an organization adds value through enhancing creativity in the workplace. Our research explores, describes and tries to explain the factors influencing creativity, how the creativity process can be described and finally how a creativity manager can be described. We have conducted case studies within the advertising industry and data was primarily collected through personal interviews.

Our findings show that the main factors influencing creativity in the workplace are related to participation, trust, freedom and personality. On the subject of the creativity process, six steps are considered, which initiate from a situation analysis of the client or the customer. Furthermore, we have found that it is important for creativity managers to discourage status quo, create a vision, support the employees and develop flexibility of the structure. Furthermore, this thesis reveals that internal communication is the most crucial underlying cause for a high level of creativity in the workplace. Finally, implications for managers, theory and future research are provided.

ISSN 1404-5508 / ISRN LTU-SHU-EX--04/076--SE / NR 2004:076