| Unit name | Managing Creativity and Innovation |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MGRCM0056 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Sotiris Lalaounis |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | University of Bristol Business School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences |
Why is this unit important?
The unit explores how organisations can organise for, and manage, creativity and the creative process to achieve innovation. It also discusses how organisations can organise and manage creative teams to foster creativity and successfully deliver creative projects (in creative firms or in-house creative departments). In addition, the unit offers you with a thorough understanding of creativity and innovation paradoxes and their successful management through ambidexterity. The unit has strong connections with industry (connections with the Bristol Creative Industries Network, and utilising the networks provided by the three Professors in Practice at the Business School) and practice and provides you the knowledge and skills necessary to become successful design leaders.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit is part of the Design for Creativity pathway (Pathway 3) of the MSc Systems Design Management, which focuses on design and creativity (in comparison to advanced manufacturing and sustainability which are the foci of Pathways 1 and 2 respectively). The unit builds on concepts introduced in the Integrated Perspectives on Systems Design and Creativity compulsory unit in TB1 regarding the creative process but delves deeper to understand ways organizations can manage the process successfully to deliver innovation. It also provides you significant knowledge and skills in other areas because it explores paradoxes inherent in innovation and the creative process and how these paradoxes can be successfully managed to ensure effective organizational performance. Hence, the unit will equip you with the knowledge and skills to manage creative teams, the creative process, paradoxes, and ambidexterity which are essential skills for design leaders.
An overview of content
The unit draws from organisation and management studies to provide you with an understanding of the two important dimensions of creativity: novelty and usefulness, as well as the stages of the creative process (e.g., the preparation, incubation, illumination, and evaluation stages). It also explores general paradoxes organizations face (paradoxes of organizing, learning, belonging, and performing) as well as paradoxes specific to creativity and innovation (e.g., novelty vs. usefulness, convergent vs. divergent thinking, exploration vs. exploitation etc.). The unit explores ways organizations can manage these paradoxes successfully. In addition, the unit develops your knowledge of ambidexterity and how organisations can achieve both exploitation and exploration to deliver incremental and radical innovation. Finally, the unit delves deeper to explore paradox mindset as a micro-foundation of organisational paradoxes management and discusses its effects on team and organisational performance.
How will students, personally, be different as results of the unit
Upon completing this unit, you will have the knowledge and skills to lead and manage creative teams or in-house creative departments. They will have a solid understanding of the strategic contradictions inherent in creativity and innovation and how these can be managed successfully to deliver incremental and radical innovation. You will apply your conceptual learning in practice by completing your individual assignment. The assignment involves a ‘Creativity and Innovation Paradoxes Audit’ of an organization where you critically assess an organization in relation to paradoxes, outlining how the organization has successfully managed these (or not), and providing strategic recommendations for the future.
Learning outcomes
Upon completing this unit, you will be able to:
ILO1 – Manage the design and creative process.
ILO2 – Critically evaluate organizational performance by successfully pursuing a creativity and innovation paradoxes audit.
ILO3 – Develop and implement strategies for managing paradoxes of creativity and innovation.
ILO4 – Understand how to successfully manage and lead creative teams to achieve ambidexterity.
The teaching method will be centred around a 1-hour lecture and a 2-hour seminar every week for ten weeks (30 contact hours in total). The lectures will explore the concepts of creativity, the creative process, paradoxes, paradox mindset, and ambidexterity. Seminars will focus on interactive and problem-based learning. During these sessions, you will engage in case studies where you will analyse organizations and undertake practical exercises in which they work with others to develop strategies for managing creativity and innovation.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Case studies: You will explore a number of case studies during seminars. This will provide them the opportunity to make connections between theory (taught during lectures) and practice by analysing specific innovation organizations.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Creativity and Innovation Paradoxes Audit – Individual assignment – This covers ILOs 1, 2, 3, and 4
You choose an organization (preferably an organization with publicly available information such as growth strategy documents and annual review reports) to conduct research regarding the organization’s structures, processes, and stakeholders, and future plans to complete the following tasks:
Your submission will be an individual 2,500-word written report.
When assessment does not go to plan
The re-assessment will take the same form as the original assessment: If the student does not pass the individual assignment, the individual should resubmit the assignment (2,500 words) on a different organization (than your first submission).
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MGRCM0056).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
