Self-Organisation and Group Creativity
Authors: Tomas Backström, Tobias Söderberg.
Issue: 2016, Vol. 2
Abstract
The team has become the basic organisational unit of development and innovation work and an understanding of creativity at the collective level is crucial for long-term sustainability. This article takes a process perspective and understands group creativity as emerging from the interaction among group members. It is about the possibility to enable the emergence of self-organisation, thereby increasing group creativity. This paper presents an experiment where four out of eight randomly formed groups of students were given a work order structured according to the group process model “GroPro”. In groups using the GroPro ideas were significantly more often promoted, observed and used by other group members, and used in the final solution. Further, the two best solutions and the more creative solutions of the task were found among the GroPro groups. A work process structured according to the GroPro model seems to increase self-organisation as well as the creativity of the group. Further, the group process is shown to be more important for group creativity than the individual creativity of the group members. Our results encourage more focus on the group process by both academia and practitioners.
Keywords: group creativity, interaction, emergence, group dynamics, process theory, creativity, innovation, team, complex systems, theoretical model, management tool.
To download the article, please click on the PDF file or read on this page below:
Authors: Tomas Backström, Tobias Söderberg.
Issue: 2016, Vol. 2
Abstract
The team has become the basic organisational unit of development and innovation work and an understanding of creativity at the collective level is crucial for long-term sustainability. This article takes a process perspective and understands group creativity as emerging from the interaction among group members. It is about the possibility to enable the emergence of self-organisation, thereby increasing group creativity. This paper presents an experiment where four out of eight randomly formed groups of students were given a work order structured according to the group process model “GroPro”. In groups using the GroPro ideas were significantly more often promoted, observed and used by other group members, and used in the final solution. Further, the two best solutions and the more creative solutions of the task were found among the GroPro groups. A work process structured according to the GroPro model seems to increase self-organisation as well as the creativity of the group. Further, the group process is shown to be more important for group creativity than the individual creativity of the group members. Our results encourage more focus on the group process by both academia and practitioners.
Keywords: group creativity, interaction, emergence, group dynamics, process theory, creativity, innovation, team, complex systems, theoretical model, management tool.
To download the article, please click on the PDF file or read on this page below:
| Self-Organisation and Group Creativity by Tomas Backström and Tobias Söderberg. |
About the Authors:
Tomas Backström has been a researcher in the work life area since his PhD in 1996. Starting with an undergraduate degree in Theoretical Physics his work has developed more and more multi-disciplinary and he has published articles and chapters in a wide spectrum of venues such as: The Learning Organization, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Economics and Business Letters, Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, and Emergence: Complexity & Organization. He currently researches and educates about innovation management and creativity in groups and organisations, with a special focus on communication and leadership. Backström is the initiator and leader of InnovationsGym® where people can train their innovation skills and drive innovation processes, and where different socio-epistemological-technology tools for groups’ innovation processes can be tested. The research is often performed in cooperation with organizations characterised by decentralisation and distributed responsibility, where emerging structures are of high importance. Complex systems theory is used as a meta-theoretical base.
Tobias Söderberg is a lecturer at Mälardalens University Sweden with a background in industrial production and a strong interest in user-involved development processes. Creativity and group processes are an important part of understanding how to support innovation. This is Tobias debut as a participant and contributor in a research project.
Tomas Backström has been a researcher in the work life area since his PhD in 1996. Starting with an undergraduate degree in Theoretical Physics his work has developed more and more multi-disciplinary and he has published articles and chapters in a wide spectrum of venues such as: The Learning Organization, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Economics and Business Letters, Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, and Emergence: Complexity & Organization. He currently researches and educates about innovation management and creativity in groups and organisations, with a special focus on communication and leadership. Backström is the initiator and leader of InnovationsGym® where people can train their innovation skills and drive innovation processes, and where different socio-epistemological-technology tools for groups’ innovation processes can be tested. The research is often performed in cooperation with organizations characterised by decentralisation and distributed responsibility, where emerging structures are of high importance. Complex systems theory is used as a meta-theoretical base.
Tobias Söderberg is a lecturer at Mälardalens University Sweden with a background in industrial production and a strong interest in user-involved development processes. Creativity and group processes are an important part of understanding how to support innovation. This is Tobias debut as a participant and contributor in a research project.
