Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015 39
INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANISATIONAL CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION:
THEIR MANAGEMENT
Rudi Rozman
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics
Kardeljeva ploščad 17, Ljubljana, Slovenia
rudi.rozman@ef.uni-lj.si
Jure Kovač
University of Maribor, Faculty of Organization Sciences
Kidričeva 55a, Kranj, Slovenia
jure.kovac@fov.uni-mb.si
Abstract
Due to the development of technology, production and other business functions, customers have entered in the focus
of enterprises’ endeavours, displacing mass-produced standardized products. Efficiency is no longer sufficient: flexibility,
creativity and innovation have become vital. Creativity and innovation processes started to be studied, first at the
level of individuals and then within organizations. It became obvious that creativity and innovation depend on indi-
viduals themselves and, within social units, also on their organisation. From the organisational point of view, practi-
tioners and researchers attempt to determine the organisational variables that positively influence creativity. In this
paper, the authors describe both the process and characteristics of creativity and innovation conducted by an au-
tonomous individual as well as the same process conducted by members of a social unit. The appropriate organisation
supporting the development of a creative and innovative social unit is established by management whose responsibility
is to assure a rational achievement of new useful ideas and their development into products, services and processes.
Therefore, the authors focus on three processes, emphasizing their relationships: individual creativity and innovation
processes, organizational creativity and innovation processes, and the management of creativity and innovation.
Keywords: creativity, innovation, organisational creativity and innovation process, management of creativity and in-
novation
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The development of importance of creativity
and innovation
Since the appearance of Daniel Bell’s book ‘The
Coming of Post-Industrial Society’ in 1976, it has be-
come clear that contemporary developed societies
are not only post-industrial but also information so-
cieties (Webster, 2006). However, the results of the
development of information technology and infor-
mation systems started after the appearance of the
world wide web and introduction of new production
concepts such as 3-D printing, which represents a
true innovating in the production process: additive
manufacturing. Also noteworthy is the concept of
open innovation (Chesbrough, 2003), which was
only made possible with the support of the Internet.
Considering the aforementioned and other similar
changes, the globally renowned publicist Chris An-
dersen concluded that the main characteristic of the
coming new revolution is that the effects of infor-
Vol. 4, No. 2, 39-50
doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2015.v04n02a03
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015
Rudi Rozman, Jure Kovač: Individual and Organisational Creativity and Innovation: Their Management
40
mation technology and systems development will
reach all areas of human efforts and creations. The
current business and organisational models of all or-
ganisations will undergo revolutionary change (An-
dersen, 2013).
Undoubtedly, contemporary information-com-
munication technology has radically changed our
lives as well as the operations and organization of
enterprises and other social units. The challenges
currently encountered by organisations are more
complex than in the past and require new responses
(Kovač, Muehlbacher & Kodydek, 2012: 10). It is im-
portant for organisations to determine and to un-
derstand these challenges to efficiently and
successfully respond to them. The consultancy firm
Capgemini conducted research titled ‘Future value
change – 2022’ in 2013, in which 20 global trends
that will decisively impact enterprises have been
identified. Two of them are considered to be the
most important: digitalization and the fight for re-
sources.
Following the initiative of the Siemens Corpo-
ration, research titled ‘Pictures of the future sce-
nario: horizons 2020’ has been conducted by the
company TNS Infratest Muenchen for the European
Union. The purpose of this research was to show
and to improve the understanding of future devel-
opment trends in the EU. The study emphasized ten
megatrends facing the EU and requiring proper re-
sponse:
• increasing globalization,
• aging of people,
• decreasing birth rate,
• the increasing role of women in economy and so-
ciety,
• free choice of lifestyle,
• increasing importance of virtual entities,
• connection of different communication media,
• increasing mobility of inhabitants,
• increasing immigration to Europe and 
Figure 1: Strategies proposed by managers to deal with the future environment
Source: Organization of the Future – Designed to Win, 2012: 8
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015 41
• increasing the speed of technical development
and shortening of products’ and services’ life cy-
cles (Hartwitch, 2011: 13).
These key trends decisively determine and rep-
resent the present and future environment of en-
terprises and other organisations in Europe as well
as in the rest of the developed world. Managers and
other decision-makers have to consider the future
environment in order to manage their organisations
successful and to develop them.
The Boston Consulting Group conducted in
2011 a rather large international research. Their in-
tention was to find out the problems that managers
are facing today, and that will be important chal-
lenges of tomorrow. In the research “Organization
of the future – designed to win”, 1,600 managers
from 35 different countries took part. As most im-
portant challenges that managers will face tomor-
row they enumerated the following (Organization of
the future: designed to win, 2012: 6):
• increasing competition of business environment,
• environmental and business uncertainty,
• increasing the complexity of the business environ-
ment, and
• accelerated innovation and changes.
As most important strategies that managers
plan in order to cope with the mentioned challenges
are innovation leadership, customer orientation,
and quality leadership. The overview of the most
frequent strategies is given in the Figure 1.
From the perspective of this paper, it is impor-
tant to emphasize that many managers recognize in-
novation as a key factor that enables companies and
other organisations to develop and remain successful
in unpredictable, complex, and competitive environ-
ments. Even more, we can argue that innovation also
plays a major role within other strategies.
Thus far, through different empirical studies
mainly based on the opinions of managers them-
selves, the importance of creativity and innovation
and their management has been emphasized. How-
ever, the same conclusion can appear from the log-
ical approach. In the past, due to a shortage of
products and services, the emphasis was on the effi-
ciency, mass production of standard products and
similar. Competition was based on lower prices. Due
to the development of technology, the problem
ceased to be production but became marketing of
products and services. Focus moved from the prod-
ucts to customers. Companies have to follow the
customers’ requirements, which require differenti-
ation and, as a consequence, flexibility, creativity,
and innovation. Not only efficiency but even more
creativity and innovation became of utmost impor-
tance. Let us add that briefly described develop-
ment has also tremendously changed management. 
1.2 Purpose, goals and method of our
contribution
We can argue that the enterprises that develop
creativity (as the first part of the innovation process
or preceding it) and innovation in order to develop
new products, services, markets, customer ap-
proaches, organisational changes and even cultural
values and routines will possess strategic advan-
tages that will lead to their successful survival and
development. For that reason a very important
question arises: what should enterprises and other
organisations do today and tomorrow to become
and remain creative and innovative? Undoubtedly,
we can claim that creativity and innovation depend
on the enterprises and on the environment. Within
the enterprises mostly all employees can create and
innovate. However, the most important role is
played by managers. Not so much because of their
creativity and innovation but more so because they
influence, motivate, and enable others to create and
innovate. By their actions, managers are supposed
to assure the achievement of creativity and innova-
tion. Thus, we are narrowing and determining the
problem we will deal with to the question of ‘what
management or managers have to do to assure
that their company will become creative and inno-
vative’.
The answer to the above question can tremen-
dously impact the important competitive advantage
of enterprises: creativity and innovation and, thus,
the effectiveness of them. According to our findings
and those of others, we could improve the manage-
rial decisions in developing and increasing creativity
and innovation. By using a contemporary approach
to the managerial process, we could also contribute
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015
Rudi Rozman, Jure Kovač: Individual and Organisational Creativity and Innovation: Their Management
42
to the development of the organisational and man-
agerial sciences.
As already mentioned, we will discuss creativ-
ity and innovation processes and one of the factors
(the most important one) influencing creativity and
innovation: the management of creativity and in-
novation. The basic goal of our contribution is to de-
termine and discuss management activities leading
to creativity and innovation, developing or hinder-
ing them. The goal of the article is also to show
major characteristics of the creative and innovative
organisation and, above all, to discuss organisational
structure, processes and culture that assure creativ-
ity and innovation.
In order to attain set goals we will, following the
opinions of various authors, discuss the creative and
innovative process at individuals’ levels as a techni-
cal process, not a social or organisational one. We
will show the connection between the two
processes. Then we will look at both processes as
organisational ones and discuss management of cre-
ativity and innovation. We will follow the contem-
porary process of management, consisting of
business planning, planning, actuation and control
of organization and business control. The result of
this discussion will be the determination of factors
within the mentioned managerial processes influ-
encing creativity and innovation. Let us add that we
will also touch on some connected areas, such as
knowledge management, change management,
quality management and similar.
2. CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION OF
INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEES
2.1 Creativity and creativity process
Creativity as the ability to develop new ideas or
develop new views on the existent problems and so-
lutions is the most common definition of creativity,
as suggested by Runco (2004: 657-687). Similarly,
Amabile (1996), who is quoted by many other au-
thors, e. g. Robbins and Coulter (2009: 271) defined
creativity as the ability to combine ideas in a specific
way or to search for specific connections among
them. In a creative social unit, employees develop
new ways of actions and look for new problem so-
lutions. Other authors (e. g. S. C. Certo & S. T. Certo,
2009: 469) emphasize that new ideas have to be
feasible and useful. Daft and Marcic (2013: 675) sum
up the opinion of many authors that creativity rep-
resents the development of new ideas to solve the
existent problems or to prevent from the appear-
ance of future ones and to utilize the given oppor-
tunities or threats. Authors also agree that the
creation of new ideas represents a permanent and
continuous process yielding useful ideas.
This process is not commonly and clearly deter-
mined and does not follow an algorithm. It is more
a divergent, heuristic and intuitive process of trial
and error, which differs from one example to the
other. Solutions are often achieved by chance. De-
spite this, authors often approximately suggest a
broad creativity process. According to George and
Jones (1999: 513-521) this process consists of:
• recognition of a problem or opportunity,
• information gathering,
• production of creative ideas,
• selection of creative ideas, and
• implementation of creative idea(s).
The last mentioned step represents the innova-
tion process, which we will discuss separately. More
about the steps in creativity and innovation process
can be found in many authors, including Rozman
(2002: 121-132). Creativity, similar to the ability to
learn, is the trait of an individual. However, within
social units, the creativity of an individual is con-
nected with the organisation that determines and
directs individual creativity. Thus, we can say that
the ability to create depends on the employees
themselves, on their organisational relationships
and on the environment of social units. Managers
influence creativity by directing employees, or,
broadly, by establishing and maintaining a proper
organisation: structure, processes and culture. We
will discuss the management of creativity (and in-
novation) more broadly in the next chapter. 
Looking at the individual employee only,we can
say that their creativity is above all the result of
three components: knowledge, creative thinking
and motivation (S. C. Certo & S. T. Certo; 2009: 469-
470). The creator must possess a preliminary knowl-
edge of the area in which new solutions have to be
found. A creative employee is not satisfied with
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015 43
present solutions and is looking for improvements
and changes. Finally, he must be either intrinsically
(interest, passion, satisfaction) or/and extrinsically
(salary, financial reward) motivated.
2.2 Innovation and innovation process
Some authors discuss the creativity and inno-
vation process as one process consisting of two sub-
processes. In such a case, they term the joint
process as an innovation process. Similarly, in the
already mentioned empirical research in the intro-
ductory part, authors understand the creativity and
innovation to be a joint innovation process. Both
processes are connected, and there is not a clear
line between them. The innovation process starts
where the creativity process ends: with new useful
ideas. That is the reason that some authors
(Mueller, 1995: 16-19) claim that creativity repre-
sents the first broad step in the innovation process.
There exist many but similar definitions of in-
novation. Mainly, innovation is the transformation
of useful new ideas in new useful value: product,
service or processes (Robbins & Coulter, 2009: 271).
Thus, the innovation process is the process of idea
implementation. An innovative social group is ca-
pable of transforming ideas into results. Creativity
and innovation are not always developed at the
same level. There are creative employees (or groups
and social units) that are unable to implement their
ideas, and on the other side, there are not creative
but innovative employees (groups and social units)
who can implement others’ ideas. 
Innovation is present in different areas like tech-
nology, products and services, other processes, and
management (Higgins, 1994: 9-10). The process, al-
though to some degree divergent and heuristic, is
similarly defined by different authors and consists of
following steps:
• starting the design of solution based on the se-
lected useful idea,
• the analysis of feasibility and effectiveness of the
solution,
• preparation for the start-up of production in the
social unit,
• implementation and
• use of the solution (product, process, etc.) by the
user.
Many authors also add the controlling phase.
Often the proposed solutions do not lead to ex-
pected results, or the solutions have to be adapted.
Improved ideas and their solutions have to follow.
Innovation in the same area becomes continuous,
which authors describe as re-innovation (Rothwell
& Gardiner, 1989: 147-159). 
Woodman and co-authors (1993: 293-321)
claim that organisation, employees and organisa-
tional culture influence the innovation. We found
the same for creativity.
3 ORGANISATIONAL CREATIVITY AND
INNOVATION
Thus far we have briefly discussed the creativity
and innovation process conducted by individual em-
ployees. At the same time, we have to emphasize
that, being members of social units, employees are
not independent in the choice of the subject or the
manner of developing creativity and innovation. We
do not speak merely of individual but of a mutual or
organisational creativity and innovation of employ-
ees. This mutual creativity and innovation process is
directed by an organisation that is established and
developed by managers. There are also the relation-
ships among employees regarding their creativity
and innovation efforts. The individual’s creativity and
innovation thus depend also on relationships with
the other employees who are supporting each other
in their creative and innovative endeavours. Similarly,
as in our discussed case, we also talk about individual
and organisational learning (Rozman & Sitar, 2007).
We can conclude that organizational creativity and
innovation depend on individual employees as con-
nected one to the others as well as on organization
structure, processes and culture.
3.1 Employees and creativity and innovation
within social units
We already discussed the individual processes
of creativity and innovation and have indirectly
shown some of the required and desired character-
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015
Rudi Rozman, Jure Kovač: Individual and Organisational Creativity and Innovation: Their Management
44
istics of employees. The human traits can be inher-
ited or learned. Among the inherited traits, often
the importance of five major ones is mentioned,
one of which is especially important for creativity
and innovation: openness to experience. McCrae
and Costa (1992: 229-237) connect it with the fol-
lowing three characteristics of people: fantasy, ideas
and performance. Robbins and Coulter (2009: 273)
mentioned following characteristics: high self-con-
fidence, persistence, energy and tendency toward
risk taking. George and Jones (2000: 46) claim that
open-minded people are original, open to a wide
variety of stimuli, have broad interests and are will-
ing to take risks. People with these characteristics
could have some strengths in conducting ambiguous
tasks that require new solutions, risk taking, etc.
Daft and Marcic (2013: 283) emphasize the concep-
tual fluency; originality; less authority and more in-
dependence and self-confidence; playfulness,
undisciplined exploration and curiosity; and persist-
ence, commitment and focused approach. They also
enumerate similar characteristics for departments
and organizations as a whole.
Creativity and innovation can also be learned.
Furthermore, people possess more creativity and in-
novation than is required from them. It is the task of
managers to require the use of existent creativity and
innovation as well as to develop them. We already
mentioned that creative and innovative people ought
to have broad knowledge in the area, suitable per-
sonal traits and being motivated. Thus, managers
have to support the broad knowledge and enable its
development. They have to support the development
of appropriate characteristics. They have to free em-
ployees of the fear of being fired in the case of not
being successful and motivate them: support new
ideas, break the barriers, support the execution of
the ideas, etc. More autonomy and decision-making
power ought to be given to employees.
3.2 Organisational structures influencing
creativity and innovation
The uniform organisational structures are tech-
nical (duty), motivational (responsibility), authority
and communicational. The position of each em-
ployee within the organization is determined by the
characteristics of these four structures. Uniform
structures very rarely exist alone but together with
the others and are adapting to each other. The joint
or coordinated structure is known as the managerial
one. All mentioned structures develop into
processes: technical or business processes, motiva-
tion, communication and leadership ones, whereas
the coordinated or managerial structure develops
to the management process.
Basically, according to their characteristics, we
distinguish mechanistic and organic organisational
structures. The question discussed is: does organi-
sational structure influence creativity and innova-
tion and if so, what kind of organisation structures
supports them?
From the contemporary definition of the organ-
isation as a system of dynamic relationships or
structures that assures the rational achievement of
organizational goals, it is obvious that according to
this definition organisational structures also influ-
ence creativity and innovation. Robbins and Coulter
(2009: 271-272) gathered the research results of
many authors, which show five basic influences on
creativity and innovation. First an organic type of
organisation positively influences innovation. This
structure is low in formalization, centralization and
work specialization, which facilitates the flexibility
and sharing of ideas that are critical to innovation.
Second, necessary resources are important for in-
novation. Third, frequent communication within
and between organisational units breaks down the
barriers to innovation. Team organizational forms
thus support creativity and innovation. Fourth, cre-
ative and innovative organizations attempt to mini-
mize the extreme time pressures on creative
activities. Studies show that time pressure nega-
tively influences the creativity and innovation (Am-
abile, Hadley & Cramer, 2002: 52-61). Finally,
research shows that creative and innovative per-
formance is enhanced when the organization struc-
ture directly supports creativity and innovation.
Examples of beneficial support are encouragement,
open communication, readiness to listen, and useful
feedback (Madjar, Oldham & Pratt, 2002: 757-767).
We can argue that, with the exception of the second
factor, all the others are organizational factors.
The authors of the contingency theory of or-
ganisation, Burns and Stalker, came to the conclu-
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015 45
sion that the mechanistic model of organisation hin-
ders creativity and innovation. They claim that high
levels of organisational control clearly determine
tasks and roles as well as the centralization of deci-
sions, which all represent barriers to flexibility and
creativity (Hatch, 2013: 99). They came to the con-
clusion that the mechanistic organizational model
represents an insurmountable barrier to creativity
and innovation process.
In contrast, the development of organic organ-
isation model supports efficient and effective cre-
ativity and innovation processes. However, within
the organisations not only one model can exist; for
example, in most cases of production organisation,
the mechanistic model is more suitable than the or-
ganic one. Depending on their environment and
technology, different departments develop different
organisational models. The problem is that different
departments with different organization structures
have to cooperate. In order to achieve the integra-
tion and cooperation between departments, they
also have to adapt to each other (Vila, 1994: 257-
259). This co-existence can be achieved in the or-
ganisational or personnel sense. The organisational
approach means that the connections between de-
partments have to adapt: the organic model has to
cope with the characteristics of mechanistic one and
vice versa. This is possible because the organic-
mechanistic organisation has to be seen as a contin-
uum. In contrast, there also exists the area of
acceptability within which the relationships can dif-
fer to a certain level.
Let us emphasize again that the creativity
process requires the features of the organic organi-
sational structure. This does not mean that teams
and not individuals are the source of creative ideas.
What we are arguing is that organic structures pos-
itively influence both creativity and innovation.
However, we assume that innovation process al-
ready has to include some organisational features
of the mechanistic model.
The other possibility of how to connect creativ-
ity and innovation as well as production is the am-
bidextrous organisational structure. The concept of
organizational ambidexterity was introduced by
Duncan in the 1970s and was put forward in the rel-
evant literature by March in early 1990s. The idea
of ambidexterity is that companies have to develop
strengths on the exploration as well as on exploita-
tion levels. The exploration level requires flexible or-
ganisational structures supporting creativity and
innovation whereas the exploitation level requires
mechanistic structure aiming at efficiency. Usually,
companies develop different departments with dif-
ferent organizational structures, e. g. a research de-
partment with organic organizational features and
production department with organic ones. Am-
bidexterity can also be understood in such a way
that employees working in mechanistic depart-
ments work in teams, quality circles and similar
units from time to time. The less formal part of the
organisation, e. g. team structure, is suitable for cre-
ation and development of ideas whereas the formal
hierarchic part is more suitable for the execution of
ideas. The concept of ambidexterity is not only con-
nected to creativity and innovation processes but
also to processes of organisational learning, strate-
gic management and similar (Popadić, Černe &
Milohnić, 2015).
Undoubtedly, organisational structures devel-
oped to correspondent processes as well as manage-
rial, organizational processes (planning, actuation,
control), and organizational culture play the most im-
portant role in organizational creativity and innova-
tion. A well-known empirical study conducted in
2010 by Institute for the Management of Changes
and Innovation (IMSI) in Esslingen has confirmed a
clear correlation between creativity and innovation-
supporting structures, processes and culture and cre-
ative, innovative and overall business success (Vahs
& Schmitt, 2010). Furthermore, the connected devel-
opment of all three organizational phenomena has
been confirmed.
3.3 Organisational culture and creativity and
innovation
Similar cultural values have been found in cre-
ative and innovative organisations. The values are
quite similar to personal traits of creative and inno-
vative employees. However, these organisational
values are strong, especially so in creativity and in-
novation departments. The culture is in line with or-
ganizational structures and processes. Robbins and
Coulter (2009: 273) found the following values to be
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015
Rudi Rozman, Jure Kovač: Individual and Organisational Creativity and Innovation: Their Management
46
important in supporting creativity and innovation:
• accept ambiguity,
• tolerate the impractical,
• keep external controls minimal,
• tolerate risk,
• tolerate conflict,
• focus on ends rather than means,
• use an open system focus,
• provide positive feedback.
It is easier to change and develop organiza-
tional structures and processes than organizational
culture. Nevertheless, managers are trying to
change organizational culture. Change is not easy,
and it is mainly achieved within the HRM and lead-
ership process. Let us add that authors of different
cultural models usually consisting of four different
cultural types that clarify the distinction between
types consider also the values supporting and hin-
dering creativity and innovation.
4. MANAGEMENT OF CREATIVITY AND
INNOVATION
First, we can ask the question whether we can
talk about creativity and innovation management at
all. Management refers to enterprises, business
units, business functions, projects and similar enti-
ties. Phenomena like quality, knowledge, creativity
and innovation are quite different. By definition,
management is coordination, business planning and
controlling as well as determination and develop-
ment of relationships among employees to assure a
rational achievement of a social unit’s goals. We can
say directly, that we are not managing creativity and
innovation; we are managing the aforementioned
entities and employees. However, we are managing
and thus coordinating one of the characteristics of
employees: relationships among employees con-
cerning creativity and innovation. By managing, we
attempt to achieve a rationale achievement of cre-
ativity and innovation within asocial unit. Similarly,
managers are also managing quality, knowledge,etc.
We can conclude that overall management consists
of the management of ‘partial’ areas and also has
to coordinate them. 
Amabile (1997: 39-58), Leavy (2002: 70-85) and
other authors claim that the basic task of managers
is to create an environment that will enable and mo-
tivate employees to develop and use their creativity
and innovation.
Management of creativity and/or innovation is
the managerial process of assuring the achievement
of a creative and innovative social unit. The process
of management by most authors consists of plan-
ning, organizing, (HRM), leadership and control. We
can say that this is an obsolete approach not distin-
guishing clearly between business and organisation.
For that reason we will consider a contemporary
approach to managerial functions: business plan-
ning, planning of organisation, the actuation of or-
ganisation, the control of organisation and business
control as shown in Rozman (2012; 1-24).
In the business planning process, managers de-
cide upon vision and major goals, business policy
and strategies. Vision itself (which is also built on
imagination, which is the basis of creativity) shows
whether the company will emphasize creativity and
innovation, introducing innovation and differentia-
tion or merely follow improvements and evolution-
ary growth. Vision is followed by goals and
strategies. Goals and strategies based on new prod-
ucts, new markets, and differentiation are based on
creativity and innovation. In strategic and tactical
plans, companies can already include changes and
their consequences that will happen in the near fu-
ture. It is more difficult and questionable to include
changes that are still in the phases of creativity and
innovation. Still, companies can evaluate potential
ideas and their expected results as well as the
means needed for their implementation.
In the planning organisation phase, managers
design organisational structure, processes and cul-
ture that will assure the achievement of the planned
creativity and innovation. As suitable, we already
mentioned organic structure, which is connected to
team structure or project type structure. The am-
bidextrous structure can also be designed. Compa-
nies can design buffer departments, dealing with
different environments (e.g. research and develop-
ment), developing differentiation and integration of
employees, etc. Organisational culture is also de-
signed in this step.
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015 47
Connected to creativity and innovation, authors
most frequently emphasize the actuation phase,
which consists of HRM and leadership. The actual
organization is established by HRM. According to the
planned duties, accountability, authority and com-
munication, appropriate human resources are re-
cruited, selected, placed, motivated, and developed.
In this phase, many innovations can be introduced:
recruiting through the Internet, by suggestions of
employees,etc. In the selection of employees, espe-
cially of managers, a combination of different tech-
niques is used. Emphasis is given to the development
of employees: education and training. In motivation
and promotion (vertical or horizontal), creativity and
innovation are also considered. 
By leadership in the narrow sense, we under-
stand the characteristics and style of managers.
While in hierarchy importance is given to formal
rules, and only limited information is given to em-
ployees in the process of creativity and innovation
the leadership becomes participative. The charac-
teristics of this leadership are authenticity, open-
ness and trust (Goffe & Jones, 2005: 86-94). It is
important for leaders that their words match their
deeds; the consideration of ideas that are matters
of dispute is also important. Leadership is relation-
ship-oriented, and employees are supposed to be
autonomous and act accordingly. The usual leader-
ship styles used are participative, democratic, lib-
eral, authentic, transformation, and similar.
Leadership also includes communication and
motivation. Communication in a creative and inno-
vative environment becomes of high importance. It
runs within and between teams. It is horizontal and
through all channels. Besides the verbal and other
classic ways of communication, the electronic ones
are used.
Motivation for creativity and innovation is em-
phasized by all authors. They suggest a broad range
of different ways of motivating creativity and inno-
vation of employees. Intrinsic motivation is often
emphasized. However, the extrinsic and within it the
financial motivation should not be neglected.
Control of organisation controls whether the
planned organization is implemented. It controls
whether employees execute their duties and be-
have in an accountable way in the context of their
authority according to the planned organization.
The same holds for the control of the organizational
culture and organizational processes. It is usually
steady or concurrent control. In our case, we are in-
terested also in control of achieved creativity and
innovation.
Business control represents the control of the
overall business and its success. Concerning creativ-
ity and innovation, this control looks at introduced
novelties, their costs and benefits in our case mainly
from the creativity and innovation standpoint.
5. CONCLUSION
Business environment is becoming more unpre-
dictable, complex and thus uncertain. Managers of
enterprises and other social units are seeking an-
swers to new challenges that are also due to the in-
creasing focus on customers instead on products.
They found the answers to many environmental
challenges in the development of creativity and in-
novation. Even more, they look at creativity and in-
novation as a key factor in long-term business
success.
Creativity and innovation depend on inherited
and learned traits of individual employees. They
ought to possess a previously developed knowledge
in the area of research, creative way of thinking and
the motivation to create and innovate. The creativ-
ity and innovation process are of utmost importance
and are specific in the sense of their ambiguity and
divergency. Within social units, creativity and inno-
vation has to consider organisation: structures, cul-
ture and processes. The individuals’ processes are
mutual, and dependent on designed organisational
relationships and thus broadly take the organization
into account. We called the processes of creativity
and innovation management organisational
processes thus emphasizing the connectivity of in-
dividual processes. The organic organisation, espe-
cially team organisation, and ambidexterity are the
main characteristics of the organisation supporting
creativity and innovation.
Such an organisation supporting and assuring
creativity and innovation is designed and achieved by
management. In this article, the characteristics of
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015
Rudi Rozman, Jure Kovač: Individual and Organisational Creativity and Innovation: Their Management
48
management of creativity and innovation are shown
in different phases of the managerial process.
As important results of the study, we show a
clear distinction between individual and organiza-
tional creativity and innovation process as well as
between them and management of creativity and
innovation. Our discussion derives from this distinc-
tion and considers the contemporary approach to
the organisation as a system of dynamic relation-
ships. The organisational approach built on struc-
ture, culture and (managerial) process. For the
development of creativity and innovation, the coor-
dinated development of all three organisational el-
ements is required.
EXTENDED SUMMARY / IZVLEČEK
V prvi polovici prejšnjega stoletja je bil poudarek v podjetjih dan predvsem učinkovitosti oziroma
prizadevanjem za doseganje čim nižjih stroškov proizvajanja pretežno standardiziranih proizvodov
in storitev. Razlog temu je bila relativno majhna proizvodnja in posledično ponudba proizvodov in
storitev. Z razvojem proizvajalnih sil pa postaja ozko grlo prodaja, ne več proizvodnja. Proizvodne
zmogljivosti presegajo možnosti prodaje. V središču pozornosti podjetja ni več proizvod, marveč
predvsem uporabnik. Ta pa zahteva proizvode in storitve glede na svoje specifične želje, kar zahteva
od podjetja poleg večje učinkovitosti tudi večjo prožnost in prilagodljivost, s tem pa ustvarjalnost in
inovativnost. K večji ustvarjalnosti in inovativnosti v veliki meri prispeva tudi razvoj informacijske
tehnologije. To logično utemeljitev razvoja ustvarjalnosti in inovativnosti v podjetjih nedvomno pod-
pirajo razne empirične raziskave. Tako raziskava  »Pictures of the future scenario horizons 2020«, ki
jo je na pobudo korporacije Siemens izvedlo podjetje TNS Infratest Muenchen za EU, kaže 10 ključnih
sprememb v gospodarstvu in združbi, ki jih podjetja morajo upoštevati. Med njimi igra pomembno
vlogo večja hitrost tehničnega razvoja in skrajševanje življenjskih ciklov proizvodov in storitev. »Boston
consulting group« pa v študiji leta 2011, ki temelji na mnenjih ravnateljev (angl. managerjev), ugo-
tavlja med glavnimi izzivi ravnateljevanju v prihodnje večjo stopnjo ustvarjanja in inoviranja ter spre-
memb na sploh. Pa tudi v drugih izzivih vsaj posredno igrata ustvarjalnost in inoviranje pomembno
vlogo. Podjetja bodo, za doseganje dolgoročne uspešnosti, poskušala biti vodilna v inoviranju.
Tako ni slučaj, da mnoga, če ne vsa, podjetja poskušajo postati ustvarjalna in inovativna. Pri tem
ustvarjalnost razumejo kot ustvarjanje novih, uporabnih zamisli za svoje proizvode, storitve, procese,
organizacijske rešitve ipd. Inovativnost pa je spreminjanje teh zamisli v nove proizvode, storitve, pro-
cese, organizacijske rešitve itd. Avtorja proces ustvarjanja prikažeta v naslednjih korakih:
• ugotovitev problema ali priložnosti;
• zbiranje informacij o problemu ali priložnosti;
• ustvarjanje novih zamisli za njihovo rešitev;
• primerjanje ustreznih zamisli;
• določitev in prikaz najbolj ustrezne zamisli.
Temu procesu sledi proces inoviranja:
• oblikovanje konkretne rešitve na osnovi uporabnih zamisli;
• analiza možnosti izvedbe rešitve in njene pričakovane uspešnosti;
• priprava za zagon proizvodnje in
• izvedba zamišljenih sprememb ter uporaba proizvoda ali storitve s strani uporabnika.
Kar precej avtorjev oba procesa povezuje v enoten proces, ki ga poimenujejo po drugem delnem
procesu, inoviranju. Opisana procesa avtorja prikažeta najprej kot procesa posameznih, nepovezanih
zaposlencev v podjetju. Poudarita pa, da zaposlenci v podjetju ne delujejo neodvisno, marveč vza-
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, November 2015 49
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