Response post on Ekvall – ANSWERED

1. Review Discussion 1 and Discussion 2 along with their attached Worksheet’s about Ekvall’s ten dimensions and provide a 1 page feedback answering the following questions for each discussion. Each discussion should be 1 page in length:
-Do you agree or disagree with the need for additional dimensions?
– Were you surprised that Ekvall included only one dimension that is negatively correlated? What conclusions can you draw from that fact?
– Do you agree or disagree with the post about the dimension that is the most difficult to assess?

2. Review the creative climate assessments posted by your peers and provide your feedback by answering the following questions:
– Based on the notes, did you disagree with any of the ten ratings in the assessments?
– Do you think it would be more beneficial for organizations to try to strengthen the aspects of their creative climate that are the strongest or to improve the aspects that are the weakest?
– What recommendations would you make to the organization to improve their creative climate? For example, think about how established organizations with existing structures designed for efficient and effective use of resources can relax some of their restrictions to allow playfulness, freedom, and risk-taking without losing control of the things that allow it to be currently successful.

DISCUSSION 1(Worksheet attached)
I feel Ekvall’s dimensions of a creative climate are both intriguing and important. I noticed that the last one listed, conflict, is identified by a “negative correlation”. This was not surprising, since it is evident that conflicts will arise at one point or another if some of the other dimensions are weak as well. However, I was surprised to see only positive remarks around the risk-taking dimension, considering the impact of some risks are far greater than others. For example, certain aspects of the financial industry are riskier than others, take the stock market vs an accountant who manages the average family’s income. Regardless of the industry, I was a bit surprised to not see any note about the con(s) of risk taking in relation to the planning required by leadership to produce successful outcomes. (Tidd et al., 2021) At this point, it’s safe to say I would not add any dimensions yet, however throughout the innovation process it would be helpful to reassess needs and consider additional dimensions.

In my opinion, the hardest dimension of creative climate to evaluate was conflict. This dimension puzzles me, because I see the obvious side to it that it can/will occur at some point. The value of it can be somewhat present, for example in conflict resolution performance tracking. However, I feel it is ideal to minimize conflict as much as possible by strengthening the other dimensions like trust, freedom, healthy debate, and more to establish a supportive culture in the organization. My question ultimately leads to, why include it as a dimension of creative culture if it is negatively correlated? My first thought is that it stimulates the thought that conflict can arise, where ideally, leadership has time to prepare and plan for what conflicts may occur.

After reviewing my ratings, I have grouped together two of the highest and two of the lowest scoring dimensions and expand upon how I came to those conclusions. The two highest ranking dimensions I chose to discuss are challenge and trust. The trust and openness dimension captures the emotional relationship between colleagues and supervisors. (Tidd et al., 2021) There is stressed importance of role autonomy for employees, which is described in the freedom dimension by employees having discretion in the execution of their jobs. (Tidd et al., 2021) All of these aspects related to the trust and openness dimension are what lead to more productive communication, that could develop into breakthrough ideas.

Challenge is the second highest dimension I chose to discuss because the value is great across the board. Intrinsic motivation is a key attribute in any person, especially employee. An engaged employee typically feels challenged to a certain extent, motivated to find solutions, and overall enjoy the meaning of their work. The more engaged employees we have working for the company during innovation may improve our success rates due to the investment they devote to the projects.

The two lowest scoring dimensions were conflict and debate. There is in fact a healthy level of conflict and debate that can exist in the workplace, however if one becomes too high it could lead to more serious problems between employees. Conflicts may be interpersonal, personal, or emotional tensions, all of which may become out of hand quickly if not addressed from the start. (Tidd et al., 2021) However, if conflict and debate are too low then employees may lose interest in their jobs, not motivated, and do not contribute as much during meetings anymore. (Tidd et al., 2021)

Tidd, J., Bessant, J. R., Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2021). Innovation, Strategy, and High-Performance Organizations for Southern New Hampshire University. Wiley Global Education US.

DISCUSSION 2
(Worksheet attached)

• I wasn’t surprised by the ten dimensions that Ekvall has prepared but I absolutely made myself think hard about each of them before rushing to a score. It’s easy to throw a number to each of the categories to make organizations look better than they really are but what does that do for us in the long term other than cover up areas that may require attention.

• If I must select just one here, I say I struggled the most with Trust and Openness. I rated this a 2 but it could have gone as a 1 as well. With the amount of change my organization has experienced in the past 18 months, it’s been difficult to maintain trust among employees and leadership. Some feel the org has been hesitate or felt they hid information in the past and we are working to overcome some of the larger challenges that have occurred in the past but with that we have to build trust and keep our openness throughout all levels.

• I only scored one dimension as a 3 and that was Freedom. In my org we push for everyone to work autonomously and to build the trust of their colleagues, so they have the confidence to speak up and share insights.

• I didn’t have any scores that I felt deserved a 0 score, but I did have four dimensions that I gave a 1 score too. The one that could have teetered a zero is Challenge where the idea of employees being intrinsically motivated to make contributions is the case. At times it feels like employees only participate with the expectation for receiving something in return rather than for the greater good of the task.