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2.3 Role of the Task, Group and Time
in a Creative Organization
Flexibility of the task has received considerable
research attention and empirical support as an
important situational factor that could influence
human creativity (Royyon and Sheenas, 2008).
The task is one of the key factors that directly
affects the potential of organization creativity
(Seltzer and Bentley, 1999), because it creates the
conditions for employee to satisfy their ambitions
and self-realize. Correct identification of task
specification and characteristics positively impacts
an organization and its performance. As creative
organizations are innovative and based on each time
a new assessment, and often - difficult tasks,
standardization becomes a relative concept.
However, some degree of standardization of tasks,
however, is possible. In this case, these tasks
become routine. They can be monitored, regulated
and controlled due to its predictable structure: their
goals are specific and experience is embedded in the
behaviour of employees. Managers of a mid-level
could control these tasks. Procedure of a task
execution can be transferred (repeated). In such a
way the evaluation of a result becomes possible.
Creators who perform standardized - routine tasks
are more suitable for centralized control, because in
this case it is necessary to evaluate the
implementation of the objectives and tasks requiring
less expertise through self-knowledge and ideas. In
addition, the right for decision’s making should be
controlled, and the application of knowledge and
ideas should be limited. The opposite situation is
with unique or the new tasks. Control of these tasks
must be carried out only by top-level managers,
because the process is unfamiliar, goals are abstract,
creativity is competence based, and there is no
experience of executing that task or, at best, not at
the organization.
Thus, the standartization of a task is hardly
possible in the creative environment. This causes
problems of management and coordination. The task
specification can directly affect both positively and
negatively the organization of creators. Task novelty
and complexity results two-fold result of the
administrators and creators aspect – it is more
complicated for the leaders and more interesting
creators to perform this type of task
Permanent change of tasks, groups, the nature of
the tasks (new and complex) leads to limited
resources for accomplishment of those tasks. Both
creators and administrators, are forced to perform at
the same time for a several tasks or they are given
too little time to complete the task. This time
limitation especially affects creativity. Time as a
factor of making creativity-friendly environment
becomes very significant and important in order to
create a favourable environment for ideas and
knowledge creation. Time can influence (positively
or negatively) creativity differently: too less time
results stress and decrease creativity, on the other
hand it concentrates and may increase creativity.
Unsworth, Wall and Carter (2005) detected that time
demands were positively related to creativity. It is
also a significant criterion is considered to be
characteristics of the working groups, as group size,
the degree of harmony and composition, its
members' expertise and skill distribution of suitable
conditions for the development of creativity and to
create and manage knowledge (Wagner, 2003),
especially the principles of teamwork improves the
microclimate in the organization. Goncalo and Staw
(2005) state that groups might be more creative than
individuals. George (2007) suggests that groups
composed of diverse members should be more
creative than more homogenous groups because they
presumably can call upon a greater diversity of
knowledge, skills, expertise, and perspectives to
generate new and useful ideas (citing Mannix and
Neale, 2005).
Analysing characteristics of task encouraging
creativity and creation of new knowledge, new and
complex tasks creates a potential breeding ground
for new ideas and the emergence of knowledge.
They become a challenge for creators (Seltzer and
Bentley, 2000). Based on the above analysis, the
main features of task, group and time are defined:
- Task characteristics: short/long, clear/uncertain,
routine/new, simple/complex.
- Group characteristics: size, integrated/free, group
harmony degree, heterogeneous/ homogeneous,
chemistry of a group, knowledge, skills and
composition, approval/objection existing
assumptions.
- Time characteristics: the number of different
tasks, time properties (a little/a lot of,
fragmented/concentrated), job autonomy (full
autonomy/narrowly defined objectives).
Hemlin et al., (2006) stated, that generally short
product lifecycle projects due to constantly changing
nature of the task (short/long-lasting, easy/difficult,
routine/new, modulated/in tegrated), the project
group composition (size, integrated/free, group
harmony degree, heterogeneous/homogenous
participants, persons, group harmony, the
knowledge, skills and abilities composition
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