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Creativity in Management
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Nature of Management
Before expounding on the organizational design for creativity, let me clarify what I mean by management. Management can be thought of as an organized collective activity in the pursuit of human goals. Management is needed in all organizations, whether profit-seeking or otherwise, public sector or private sector. Organized collective activity is quite commonplace in nature. The ants are a highly organized society in which there are specialized roles, hierarchy, coordination, and even collective agriculture - the ants grow fungus to feed their larvae. Bees too are a highly organized society. So too are tribes of chimpanzees, prides of lions, and pods of killer whales. But 'management' goes far beyond the level of organized collective activity of these creatures. It is far more complex, far more dynamic, far more creative, and far more versatile. Besides, 'management' shapes human nature, human history, and human civilization far beyond what it would as ordinary collective activity..
Management is not just administration. At its core, management is a system of structures, techniques and processes designed and operated in an organization by people vested with the authority to achieve the objectives of the organization. As a distinctive activity, 'management' has been vested with certain functions that other groups in the organization do not perform to any notable extent (Massie, 1971). The first is the development of a vision of excellence given the purpose of the organization, and determining the concrete goals for achieving that vision and the means for achieving these goals. This includes the taking of decisions about what goals the organization should pursure and in what manner, the design of the policy framework to guide the taking of decisions, the evolving of growth and competitive strategies, the securing of the needed technologies and equipments, the obtaining of the needed finance, the fixing of key roles, and what jobs should be assigned to whom. It also includes determining how to get hold of the right persons for these roles and jobs and groom them for effectively performing these tasks. It also includes the planning of operations in the short, medium and the long term, coordination of interdepartmental activities, and the control of operations so that the organization does not stray from its chosen objectives. Another key function of management is to provide leadership, guidance and counseling to employees, and meet the needs of the stakeholders of the organization such as its employees, customers, owners, and vendors. If the organization has to compete for customers, as most business organizations have to, then the management has also to develop strategies for winning over customers from others through marketing activities. Increasingly, given the challenges of sustainable development and ethicality in operations, managements have been concerned with devising ways of meeting their objectives in environmentally-friendly ways and in ways that do not transgress what is considered ethical conduct.
