click on star to go back to Joseph Sarkis' HomepageThis paper addresses the effect of group processes on creativity and innovation in a technical organization. In particular, we address the question: "Do organizations with a high commitment to structured processes (Japan) produce more creative research than organizations that provide a more autonomous environment (US)?" Results of current research seems to indicate that US engineers produce more creative research in the basic sciences but tend to be less productive in the process areas. Japanese engineering organizations, on the other hand, appear to be less productive in basic science research, but demonstrate high creativity in those research areas related to process control. Group dynamics and the level of consensus in the decision processes appear to play an important role in this phenomena. Although this paper is not based on actual experimental data, research on the subject does support the development of a pair of proposals: (1) High levels of group commitment will have a positive influence on process design creativity, and a negative influence on process design creativity, and a negative influence on basic research creativity. (2) Low levels of group commitment will have a negative influence on process design, and a positive influence on basic research activity.
click on star to go back to Joseph Sarkis' Homepage