How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

How to ... be a reflective practitioner.

Truth and method

This article presents a meta-analysis of team-level antecedents of creativity and innovation in the workplace. Using a general input-process-output model, the authors examined 15 team-level variables researched in primary studies published over the last 30 years and their relation to creativity and innovation. An exhaustive search of the international innovation literature resulted in a final sample (k) of 104 independent studies. Results revealed that team process variables of support for innovation, vision, task orientation, and external communication displayed the strongest relationships with creativity and innovation (rhos between 0.4 and 0.5). Input variables (i.e., team composition and structure) showed weaker effect sizes. Moderator analyses confirmed that relationships differ substantially depending on measurement method (self-ratings vs. independent ratings of innovation) and measurement level (individual vs. team innovation). Team variables displayed considerably stronger relationships with self-report measures of innovation compared with independent ratings and objective criteria. Team process variables were more strongly related to creativity and innovation measured at the team than the individual level. Implications for future research and pragmatic ramifications for organizational practice are discussed in conclusion.

Team-level predictors of innovation at work: a comprehensive meta-analysis spanning three decades of research.

The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy

We propose that theories of project team development and of creativity can be integrated into a new conceptual framework. The framework proposes two structural barriers that bear on team performance, and modifies the well-established team development model of Tuckman. Creative leadership is suggested as an important means of breaching the barriers. Its differentiating feature seems to be its effectiveness in establishing protocols that sustain the creative efforts of team members. We have designated the protocols ‘benign structures’. Empirical evidence is provided from a range of studies of project teams in industrial settings.

Creative Leadership Processes in Project Team Development: An Alternative to Tuckman's Stage Model

Articles published in Creativity and Innovation Management volumes 1–9 (1991–2000) have been examined for their contributions to understanding of leadership as a process contributing to creativity and innovation. The study reveals nine overlapping themes, within each of which leadership plays a part in the production of creative insights or innovative productivity. However, for many authors, leadership remains an implicit factor within their models of change. We suggest that leadership, creativity and innovation are knowledge systems which can be more closely integrated for improved theory and practice within communities of practice.

Creative Leaders: A Decade of Contributions from Creativity and Innovation Management Journal

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The Routledge Companion to Creativity

Claims have been recently made for a seven-factor model that ndifferentiated performance levels in project teams. We have tested the model with results from a self-report inventory. Forty-four opportunities for data collection were taken and a total of 1103 useable inventories collected from participants across European, Asian and African locations. Teams reported on were predominantly work-related. All seven factors correlate as predicted with leadership and team-performance criteria. We report results supporting the original proposition that team effectiveness, including its creativity, can be interpreted as arising through leadership interventions of a transformational kind, which impact on a set of theoretically-derived team factors.

Development of a Self‐Report Instrument for Exploring Team Factor, Leadership and Performance Relationships

Every worthwhile organization strives continuously to improve. What the authors of this groundbreaking book offer is nothing less than a system for achieving peak performance. As a result of their work with more than 2000 teams, in some 40 countries across the globe, the authors identified the 7 factors that distinguish what they call ’dream teams’ and on that basis they developed the structured approach described in the Handbook. Part I sets out the principles that underlie team performance. Part II shows how to train teams to become more creative. Finally, in Part III, the authors demonstrate their ideas in action with real-life examples from a wide variety of organizational settings. They emphasize throughout the role of leadership in stimulating creativity and innovation, and they explain how to inject new dynamism into existing organizational systems and practices. Anyone involved in teamworking would profit from a close study of the Handbook. It will be especially valuable to team leaders and facilitators, to project managers and to HRD practitioners and consultants.

Susan Moger

Papers

Creative Leadership Processes in Project Team Development: An Alternative to Tuckman's Stage Model

Creative Leaders: A Decade of Contributions from Creativity and Innovation Management Journal

The Routledge Companion to Creativity

Development of a Self‐Report Instrument for Exploring Team Factor, Leadership and Performance Relationships

Handbook for creative team leaders