Over the past few decades, creativity has evolved from a characteristic normally associated with artistic activities into a quality that is found in people of various professions. However, in the 21st century, creativity has become a rather controversial issue. Some people have a significant bias against it, believing that creativity is linked to irrationality, failure to manage tasks and time, and disrupts regular operations. Others believe that creativity contributes to work performance and is crucial for organizations aiming to promote innovation and remain competitive. This essay aims to discuss the two positions on creativity and argue that being creative is vital to achieving success in the 21st-century workplace, as creativity contributes to problem solving and effective leadership and helps in fostering innovation.
First of all, creativity is perceived as a useful quality that encourages out-of-the-box thinking and is thus tightly linked with problem-solving abilities. The 21st-century business environment is highly complex and unstable, which creates unique challenges both for leaders and for workers. Creative person would be able to approach the problem from a different angle and to compose a solution based on his or her interpretation of the problem. This can be explained by the fact that creativity affects the way individuals interpret and use the information to solve issues (Carmeli, Gelbard & Reiter-Palmon 2013). The positive influence of creativity on problem solving is evident in different types of 21st-century workplaces. For instance, Chan (2013) argues that creativity is associated with improved problem-solving skills in nursing care. Thus, creative workers’ ability to solve problems allows them to be successful in a variety of modern workplaces.
Nevertheless, not all organizations and people encourage a creative approach to usual tasks. For example, creativity becomes irrelevant when there is a certain procedure that has to be followed by workers, such as in factories or large production organizations. In these cases, creativity might disrupt the normal function of the workplace, especially if creative workers try to apply their ideas to processes without the leaders’ approval or encourage others to do so.
Whereas this might be true for some of the lower-rank positions, creative people still make excellent leaders that have a positive influence on the modern workplace, thus achieving success in their job. Firstly, as noted above, creative workers are knowledgeable and competent in problem solving, which makes them useful in strategic planning and improving performance. Mainemelis and Epitropaki (2013) state that creative leaders are particularly important in extreme situations, where they can take calculated risks and make decisions that would drive the company forward.
Moreover, creativity allows leaders to be effective in managing the 21st-centrury workplace by promoting the company’s vision and developing useful HR strategies. Today’s workplaces are notably varied and diverse. A lot of large organisations employ people from various cultural backgrounds who have different goals, skills, and talents. Creative people are naturally charismatic, open-minded, and inquisitive, which allows them to build useful relationships with employees and to understand them better, thus promoting effective human resources and talent management (Van Velsor & Wright 2015). Being effective in their jobs as leaders, in turn, allows creative people to achieve success in the 21st-century workplace.
Despite the fact that creative leaders might be better at decision-making and addressing challenges specific to 21st-century businesses, their success in modern organizations might be impaired by the bias of workers and company owners. Creative people are widely perceived to be irrational and unorganized, and these qualities are not embraced by companies. Olien (2013) refers to multiple studies that proved that many non-creative people are biased against creative thinking. This might impair communication in the workplace, while also affecting creative people’s career paths, especially if their ideas and input are underestimated. Bias against creativity might impair leadership, thus hurting creative people’s efficiency in leadership positions. Therefore, building resilience and determination is essential for creative workers to achieve promotion and recognition in 21st-century workplaces.
Nevertheless, when creative people get the recognition they deserve, it is mostly due to their innovativeness. Indeed, the 21st century is the age of innovation and development in all areas of business and thus, for many of modern workplaces, innovation is critical to success. Whether the company is aiming to develop a new, innovative product or to implement an original marketing strategy, creative people are needed to generate new ideas. Creative workers promote innovation in organisations by offering valuable ideas and insights that can help in designing new products and services. For instance, creative engineers or architects are capable of developing and building structures with innovative features and functions. Creative people working in hospitality and customer service, on the other hand, can use their problem-solving skills and imagination to find new ways of approaching difficult clients and building long-term relationships with customers.
Overall, whereas it might be perceived as unnecessary and disturbing by some, creativity allows people to develop a set of skills and qualities that help workers to succeed in all types of 21st-century organisations. Hiring creative workers is also highly beneficial for companies that are looking to improve their profitability, promote innovation, and develop solutions to existing problems. Developing creative thinking using various tools and strategies is one of the ways for people to improve their work and enhance skills that are critical to success in modern workplaces (Tracy 2014). Enhancing creativity and learning how to use it to resolve complex tasks aids and achieving success, both in life and at work.
Reference List
Carmeli, A, Gelbard, R & Reiter‐Palmon, R 2013, ‘Leadership, creative problem‐solving capacity, and creative performance: the importance of knowledge sharing’, Human Resource Management, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 95-121.
Chan, ZC 2013, ‘Exploring creativity and critical thinking in traditional and innovative problem‐based learning groups’, Journal of Clinical Nursing, vol. 22, no. 15-16, pp. 2298-2307.
Mainemelis, C & Epitropaki, O 2013 ‘Extreme leadership as creative leadership: reflections on Francis Ford Coppola in The Godfather’, in CM Giannantonio & AE Hurley-Hanson (eds.), Extreme leadership: leaders, teams and situations outside the norm, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, pp. 187-200.
Olien, J 2013, ‘Inside the box: people don’t actually like creativity’,Slate. Web.
Tracy, B 2014, Creativity & problem solving, AMACOM, New York, NY.
Van Velsor, E & Wright, J 2015, Expanding the leadership equation: developing next-generation leaders. Web.