Managing a Creative Culture Essay -- essays research papers

Managing a Creative Culture: Do â€Å"Creatives† Fit into the Traditional Management System? The ability to reach the creative individual cannot be achieved through the traditional management organization. Creative people don't fit in very well in a hierarchical organization with traditional management techniques. To manage creatives, a new model must be developed. Organizations must take heed to the needs of creatives or be subject to losing these valuable resources. Summary Resources, freedom and challenge are the management keys necessary to develop and maintain a creative environment. These keys, along with encouraging and supporting â€Å"creatives,† will foster the growth and development of an organization’s employees, management and ultimately it’s culture. Many organizations have tremendous success in recognizing and cultivating the creative talent of its employees. Whether this talent is already in effect or brought out, managers must take the best approach to ensure a positive, creative impact on the organization. Organizations that do not change with the times will soon find themselves behind or more seriously—non-existent. Different things motivate them and money is no longer the top motivator for creatives. Looking at creatives from another view, this group, also referred to as the creative class, represents a powerful economic force. Not economic force in terms of ownership of property or the means of production but their creative capacity which is an intangible because it is literally in their heads. So what will draw the creative to a particular organization? Creative expression and the chance to present new ideas and deliver results in different ways is the top motivation, but does traditional management provide this opportunity? This paper will present a correlation between organizational management, culture, creative types and how understanding and fostering their integration produces successful organizations. Introduction Managing creatives is counter-intuitive. It goes against almost everything we are taught about managing a business. That's why managers rarely do a good job at managing these kinds of workers. Managing creative people is counter-intuitive for two reasons--the nature of the work is different and the nature of the worker is different. Creative people don't fit in very well in a hierarchical organization with traditional man... ...ir work to inspire them. They want to feel good about who they are through the work they do. When that happens, creativity flourishes. An organization must look within its employees and understand what they are passionate about. It is then that they will build systems to successfully nurture creatives. References Amabile, T. (1998). How to kill creativity. Harvard Business Review, 77-87 Beir, J. (1995). Managing Creatives, Vital Speeches of the Day, 61(16) Cummings, L. (1965). Organizational climates for creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 220-227 DeSalvo, T. (1999, June). Unleash the creativity in your organization. HR Magazine, 154-164. Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class. New York: Basic Books. Myers, R. & Ray, M. (1986). Creativity in business. New Jersey: Doubleday & Company, Inc. Robinson, A. & Stern, S. (1997). Corporate creativity: How innovation and improvement actually happen. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Smethurst, S. & Glover, C. (2003, March). Creative License. People Management, 30-34 Tan, G. (1998). Managing creativity in organizations: A total system approach. Managing Creativity in Organizations, 7(1): 23-31