The article begins by introducing the major concept in the article; this provides background and a clear understanding of the rest of the article. According to the article, idea generation is all about the degree or level of creativity an individual has; creativity is defined as a âpersonality trait or an achievement.â There are certain factors noted to affect the creativity of people; they include cognitive variables, environmental variables, and personality variables. Highlighting these factors is very important this is because the understanding of the factors helps a lot in creating an environment that encourages creativity. In addition, it helps to ensure that the factors that affect creativity positively are encouraged while the ones that have negative impacts are discouraged.
The introduction article presents creativity as based on individual traits but later contradicts by noting that learning and improvement with time result in creativity. These are two contradicting issues and can affect the understanding of the reader on the concepts. This is because, at first, the reader understands it as dependent on personal traits, but it is different in the course of the article. (Hughes, 2003).
The article helps in understanding the decision-making process and the importance of creativity in the process. According to the article, decision-making is a process, and it has steps that are followed; creativity is one of the essential components of the decision-making process. This is because all the steps call for the decision-maker to be creative; for instance, problem design helps the decision-maker to identify different alternatives for implementation. In addition, the choice of suitable valuation replica represents creative practice. It is clear that creativity enhances the stage of making choices in the decision-making process.
The article provides a clear understanding of the way in which creativity can improve the performance of a person through increasing efficiency in decision-making. However, according to the article, most of the decision-makers are not aware of the importance of creativity, while others lack expertise in the use of creativity. This means that there is no efficient use of creativity in decision-making by many of the people and decision-makers. This calls for creativity-enhancing support through information systems in order to improve effectiveness in decision-making. (Massetti, 1996).
The presentation of the ideas and concepts in the article is clear, well organized, and to the point, this is because the ideas are first theoretically presented in order to give the reader a clear understanding of the way in which it is used in decision-making. After the theoretical presentation of the ideas and concepts, a practical approach to the concepts is finally taken. Demonstration of the way in which creativity can enhance decision-making is very important and carried out perfectly in the article. Through this, it becomes easier for the reader to understand the concepts clearly and the implementation process. (Satzinger & Garfield, 1999).
Also, through the practical demonstration of the way in which creativity can enhance the decision-making process, the different phases of decision-making are presented. This gives a clear understanding of the way in which creativity and idea generation are integrated into the decision-making process. In addition, the measurement of the outcome of the practice is based on both metric as well as non-metric measures. This is good since basing measurement on one side would bring in deceitful results because effectiveness cannot be one-sided.
From the analysis of the tests, it is clear that the analysis provides contradicting conclusions. This is because one of the non-metric analyses shows that there is no significant difference between the use of a creative decision support system and the traditional decision support system. On the other hand, it is clear that groups that used creative decision support systems enhanced performance as compared to the groups that used traditional decision support systems. This shows that creativity plays an important role in the decision support system.
The article was good and valid since it considered the other studies carried out in the area. From the article, the conclusion arrived at supports the findings from previous studies; this shows the validity of the study. As compared to the previous studies on the issue, the article used a different approach that enhanced the use of creativity tools. The article has represented the concepts in a clear manner that is clearly understandable to the reader. The concepts and ideas are represented in an orderly manner, and the flow between the ideas is well organized.
Although the article has presented ideas and concepts in an orderly manner and systematically, it has several weaknesses. In the first place, the number of airline users used is small; this, in one way or another, could have affected the results of the experiment used. In addition, the user group used in the experiment is limited in scope; this also has its effects on the results obtained. For an experiment to give out the best results, the sample used in the case should have been bigger, and the user group diversified in order to ensure that the results obtained are diversified. (Satzinger & Garfield, 1999).
Another weakness is that the article used multiple criteria in the analysis of the experiments done. As evidenced in the article, multiple criteria have brought about contradicting results, and this can bring about a conflict of ideas and issues. In conclusion, the article has generally presented the ideas in a systematic and orderly manner. Also, the ideas are presented in such a manner that they are easily understood.
References
Hughes, G.D. (2003), Add creativity to your decision process, Journal for quality and participation, pp.1-6.
Massetti, B. (1996) An empirical examination of the value of creativity support systems on idea generation, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 0276-0290
Satzinger, JW and Garfield, MJ (1999), The creative process: The effects of group memory on individual idea generation, Journal of management information systems, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 5-7.