Abstract
M.Comm.
Globalization initiates rapid change and innovation that is: “… no longer an option,
but it has become a business imperative” (Grulke, 2002, p. 18). Innovative
organizations have developed the ability to satisfy both the shareholders’ demand for
wealth (Hamel, 2000) and the customers’ demand for more creative and innovative
products that facilitate ease of use (Kelley, 2001) while at the same time ensuring
business sustainability (Skarzynski & Gibson, 2008).
The development of creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills are
crucial for the survival of organisations in the 21st century. Creative problem-solving
training was generally found to be the most effective when organizations wanted to
equip their employees with creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving
skills.
A specific financial services organisation in South Africa realised that they had to join
the innovation revolution in order to remain commercially competitive in the twentyfirst
century. With retailers and other competitors such as the telecommunication role
players entering the traditional financial services domain, the organisation recognised
that they required a novel approach to conduct their business. The highly regulated
and to some extent conformist environment of the financial services organization
constitute the sphere within which the research problem is situated. The organisation
commissioned the researcher to design a Creativity and Innovation Workshop with
the intent to improve the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills
of their employees. The evaluation question that the study purports to address
therefore is whether employees in a corporate context such as a financial services
organisation can develop appropriate creative and innovative thinking and problemsolving
skills through an intervention such as a workshop and can a benefit for the
business unit and organisation be identified. The unit of analysis is a niche business
unit in a South African financial services organization. The sample used in this study
comprises of managers (employees) and senior or executive management of those
employees who attended the Creativity and Innovation Workshop.