Running Head: CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND CREATIVITY

Cultural Communication and Creativity

Ametta Roe

LDR 630

Professor Lucas

4/14/2017
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Cultural Communication and Creativity

Communication and learning within organizations can only occur if everyone is on task

and develop training and skills within the organization. Understanding the way communication

and creativity work together to solve problems in an organization is by understanding obstacles

that stand in the way of creativity and being able to overcome issues. There are four major

conceptual blocks that represent obstacles in how employees perform and grow in an

organization (Whetten & Cameron, 2002). These blocks include: constancy, commitment,

compression, and complacency. The way most organizations today are trying to overcome these

obstacles is not the suggested way of overcoming these conceptual blocks. According to Amabile

& Conti (1990), organizational creativity stresses the role of an organization's work environment

in affecting creative behaviors of individuals and team. Allowing members of an organization to

come up with creative ways of thinking and problem solving in an organization is necessary.

Creative thinking creates more employees to be open about issues and allows for deeper thinking

skills to be put into the resolution to problems.

Conceptual Blocks

The first conceptual block is constancy. According to Whetten & Cameron, (2002) when

an individual becomes wedded to one way of looking at a problem or to using one approach to

define, describe, or solve it (p.168). This occurs more regularly at an organization that has

minimal training, people that have been in the business for years and people that are not up to

change. For example, in my current position I have several sales people who still do not use the

technology sitting in front of them every day, rather they write everything down in a notebook or

on a piece of paper. Being constant, or consistent, is a highly valued attribute for most of us. We
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like to appear at least moderately consistent in our approach to life (Whetten & Cameron, 2002,

p. 168). Whetten and Cameron also stated two specific examples of how constancy blocks out

creative thinking in an organization, by using single-thinking language and vertical thinking.

Single-thinking language, according to Whetten and Cameron (2002) refers to the theory that

most people think in words that is, they think about a problem and its solution in terms of verbal

language (p. 169). However, there are several other languages Whetten and Cameron (2002),

mentioned such as non-verbal or symbolic languages, imagery, sensory, emotions and visual

imagery (p.169). When more languages are available when problem solving in an organization

this in turn makes for a creative solution.

Commitment the second conceptual block according to Whetten and Cameron (2002) is

when individuals become committed to a particular point of view, definition, or solution; it is

likely that they will follow through on that commitment (p.170). For example, the organization

I work for is committed to finding you the best deal on the car you are looking for and are

willing to do what we can do make sure it happens, since we are a small family owned dealership

we find ourselves losing customers to bigger dealerships who have more money to take out of

their profit than we can. However according to Whetten and Cameron (2002), this can lead to

stereotyping based on past experiences and ignoring commonalities when solving problems. This

is referred to as perceptual stereotyping. Perceptual Stereotyping is when, certain

preconceptions formed on the basis of past experience determine how an individual defines a

situation (Whetten & Cameron, 2002, p. 171). This is not necessarily a good way to go about

solving problems, considering everyone has a different perception of things creating less creative

problem solving skills and limited data to base a decision off of. This creates a much more
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drastic approach to finding a solution to a problem and creating a much more complicated form

of problem solving than there needs to be.

The third conceptual block is compression. According to Whetten and Cameron (2002),

compression is, looking too narrowly at a problem, screening out too much relevant data, and

making assumptions that inhibit problem solution (p. 172). Two examples of compression are

artificial constraining problems and separating figure from ground. According to Whetten and

Cameron (2002), artificial constraints are boundaries that sometimes people place

around problems, or constrain their approach to them, in such a way that the problems become

impossible to solve (p. 172). This can cause an inability to separate the important from the

unimportant, and to compress problems appropriately, serves as a conceptual block because it

exaggerates the complexity of a problem and inhibits a simple definition (Whetten & Cameron,

2002, p. 174). Artificial constraints are blocks from within that are eventually overcome by

creative thinking within an organization. Separating Figure from Ground is the ability to

constrain problems sufficiently so that they can be solved (Whetten & Cameron, 2002, p. 174).

Understanding the problem is the easiest way to solve the problem by making sure to filter out

inaccurate, misleading, and irrelevant information to define the problem correctly and come up

with alternative solutions.

The fourth conceptual block is complacency. According to Whetten and Cameron (2002),

complacency is some conceptual blocks occur not because of poor thinking habits or

inappropriate assumptions but because of fear, ignorance, insecurity, or just plain mental

laziness (p. 175). For example, people become complacent when they get to comfortable in a

position. We have several people that work for my current organization that have been here 10

plus years which is great but there are a select few that now only are here to do the minimal work
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rather than pushing to go to the next step. Two examples of complacency that Whetten and

Cameron (2002) mentioned are Non-inquisitiveness and Bias against Thinking (p. 175). Non-

inquisitiveness is the inability to solve problems due to the unwillingness to ask questions, obtain

information, or search for data (Whetten and Cameron, 2002, p. 175). We often stop being

inquisitive as we get older because we learn that it is good to be intelligent, and being intelligent

is interpreted as already knowing the answers, instead of asking good questions (Whetten &

Cameron, 2002, p 176). This happens to delay the process of being a creative thinker in

determining alternative solutions to problems. Bias Against Thinking is in an inclination to

avoid doing cognitive work (Whetten & Cameron, 2002, p176). Bias Against Thinking refers to

assumption and how people do not necessarily think before they speak. For example, because

you see someone not necessarily starting at their computer screen at work typing or clicking

could just mean they took a second to think of the next thing they were going to do or what to do

next, rather than assuming they are not doing work or getting things accomplished. According to

Whetten and Cameron (2002) this is a common conceptual block in western cultures (p. 176).

The left and right hemisphere of the brain is where most creative thinking comes from. The left

hemisphere is concerned with logical, analytical, linear and sequential tasks. While the right

hemisphere is involved with intuition, playfulness, and qualitative judgment, however the most

creative problem solvers are ambidextrous. Ambidextrous is flipping from both the left and right

hemispheres when thinking.

Creative Problem Solving Technique

The first step according to Whetten and Cameron (2002) that can overcome conceptual

blocks and recognizing that creative problem solving is a technique that can be developed

(p.178). To develop creative problem solving techniques when overcoming an issue there are
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four steps that Whetten and Cameron suggest to follow. These four steps include: the preparation

stage, the incubation stage, the illumination stage and the verification stage. The preparation

stage begins with defining the problem and generating alternatives, the incubation stage includes

thoughts that suggest a solution, the illumination stage is when an insight is recognized and the

creative solution is articulated and the verification stage is evaluating the solution to make sure

it is the best fit for the situation (Whetten & Cameron, 2002, p.178). One big difference Whetten

and Cameron (2002) mentioned was creative problem solvers are less constrained than others

and give themselves a bigger range to approach problems and solve them (p. 178).

Analytical Problem Solving Technique

The most commonly used way in organizations to solve problems is by using the

analytical problem solving technique. The proposed framework for resolution is distinguished

from the processes of adjudication, arbitration, conciliation, mediation and settlements

(Christopher, 2012). According to Whetten and Cameron (2002) this leads to implementing a

marginally acceptable or merely satisfactory solution instead of the optimal or ideal solution

due to the tendency to select the first reasonable solution (p.160). This technique can also be

broken down into four steps. These four steps include: define the problem, generate alternative

solutions, evaluate and decide on an alternative solution, and implement and then follow up on

the solution. According to the research done by Whetten and Cameron there are several restraints

on the analytical problem solving technique including: there is seldom consensus as to the

definition of the problem, few of the possible alternatives are usually known, limited information

about each alternative is usually available, and acceptance by others of the solution is not always

forthcoming (Whetten and Cameron, 2002, p. 165).

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Promoting Communication based Creativity

Communication is a huge part of any organization. The creative problem solving

technique is one that enforces employees to communicate and be open to communicating more

often. This technique allows organizations to be more open to creative communication; allowing

employees to suggest new ideas and be creative and be receptive for new ideas and changes in

the organization. In several organizations, communication is something that is not always

allowed. Organizations need to be more committed to allowing communication more freely. This

helps in generating several new and creative ideas when being able to speak amongst themselves

rather than sharing an idea with a top executive right away. This helps employees to generate

ideas together and come up alternative solutions to problems together rather than depending on

each individual employee to come up with ideas themselves and have repetitive ideas. After

problem solving techniques have been shared, upper management should take these creative

ideas and put them into effect, this will empower employees and continue to work together and

be creative in the future.

Plan of Action

I believe the creative problem solving technique is a much better plan when creatively

solving problems and coming up with alternative solutions to problems in the workplace. I

believe I personally have the ability to develop better creative thinking ideas in everyday life, at

home and at work. This will help in overcoming conceptual blocks and help my current

organization to advance the current analytical problem solving technique to better the

organization and be more creative in problem solving with different situations. The biggest

conceptual block I personally face is commitment. I plan to take my previous stereotypes and
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past experiences and make a habit to staying focused and being creative in the organization I

currently work for. This will involve changing ideas and habits that I currently have made routine

in my everyday life.

Personal Experiences

One instance I had with using the creative problem solving technique was recently when

the sales people at my current organization were not using the CRM to input customers when

they were coming in the door. Whether I had spoke with them previously to them arriving by

setting an appointment or even if they were new to our dealership customer information, notes,

and vehicle of interest were not getting put into the system. I had to come up with a way to better

track customers and implement a system with the sales team to show them how it would benefit

them to be entered into the system and then be followed up with the following day. The process

put into place was that no pricing or numbers could be run unless customers were entered into

the CRM for the finance manager to work up figures and every morning sales people were to

report to me every customer that came in the door or they had spoke to that was in the market

for a vehicle. They were required to enter all information for the customer they had into the

CRM and then give me a list of the customers that were at the dealership or that they spoke with

including stock numbers, notes and customer information. If I had not came up with this creative

way to get customers entered into the CRM and have everyone at the dealership on the same

page, I would have to try to continue to figure it out on my own. Losing money myself and

having customers not getting followed up with after a visit.

Conclusion
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The four conceptual blocks Whetten and Cameron identified; constancy, commitment,

compression and complacency are obstacles we face when thinking creatively. The analytical

problem solving technique which many organizations use today is the least effective. When

solving problems this does the least to overcome conceptual blocks from choosing the first

solution to a problem in the shortest amount of time that is the easiest to implement within an

organization. Implementing this type of solution in an organization involves little time spent on

analyzing the problem and creatively coming up with a solution. However, the creative problem

solving technique actually takes time to analyze the problem and gather data, and creatively

come up with ideas to implement. The creative problem solving method is the better of the two

because it allows communication feely in an organization, more time to analyze and gather data

based on the actual problem at hand, and leads to more creative ideas in the solution. According

to creative problem solving can be used to strengthen the productivity, quality of teamwork,

thinking and communication skills (Lumsdaine, E & Lumsdaine, M, 1994, p. 9).

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References

Amabile, T., & Conti, R. (1999). Changes in the Work Environment for Creativity during

Downsizing. The Academy of Management Journal, 42(6), 630-640. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/256984

Christopher, R. (2012). Handbook of conflict resolution: The analytical problem-solving

approach. The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Lumsdaine, E., & Lumsdaine, M. (1994). Creative problem solving. IEEE Potentials, 13(5), 4-9.

Whetten, D. A, & Cameron, K. M. (2002). Ch.3: Solving problems analytically and creatively.

Retrieved from:

http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Whetten_CH03.pdf