Creativity

Code:

ESG0008

Acronym:

CRIA

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Economics
OFICIAL	Engineering

Instance: 2009/2010 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Services Engineering and Management

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MESG	24	Syllabus since 2007/08	1	-	6	42	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

- To familiar students with creativity;
- To raise students’ awareness to the importance of creativity when managing change, problem resolution and innovation processes;
- To underline the behavioural, individual and organisational features which favour the emergence of new ideas and solutions;
- To foster students’ imagination and creative skills;
- To understand the mechanisms and skills associated to the creative process;
- To be familiar and use methods and tools capable of fostering the appearance of new ideas, improving them and managing the process of their application;
- To understand the aspects of creativity and innovation management in organisations.

Program

1. Understanding creativity
- The notion of creativity: misunderstood and reality
- The difference between creativity and innovation
- Basic creative skills
- Obstacles and aspects promoting creativity

2. The creative process
- The CPS model – Creative Problem Solving
- Stages and dynamic of a creative process
- The practice of facilitation

3. Creativity in the organisational context
- Characteristics of efficient and innovative organisations
- Practices of management, creativity and innovation
- Case studies and inspiring examples
4. Methodologies and tools to manage the creative and innovation process
- Understanding and identification of problems/questions
- Solution conceptualisation
- Solution concretisation

Mandatory literature

ed. by Robert J. Sternberg; Handbook of creativity. ISBN: 978-0-521-57604-8
Tom Kelley; The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, Doubleday Business, 2001. ISBN: ISBN-10: 0385499841 ISBN-13: 978-03854999842
David Silverstein, Philip Samuel, Neil deCarlo; The Innovator's Toolkit, John Wiley & Sons , 2008
James Higgins; 101 creative problem solving techniques: the handbook of new ideas for business, New Management Pub. Co. (revised edition), 2005. ISBN: 1-883629-00-4

Teaching methods and learning activities

This course unit has two main components:

- An expositive component, which will introduce the fundamental concepts and ideas and will provide the appropriate context to their practical application. This component will be enhanced by the presentation of examples and description of real cases, which illustrate the importance of application of concepts to an individual level in organisations.
- A practical component which is based on a set of practical exercises in the domain of creativity. They will support the development of the necessary skills to the creative process management and the obtainment of innovative results.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	0,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

This course unit is theoretical-practical, therefore the continuous assessment is compulsory.

Calculation formula of final grade

- Regular attendance and participation in classes (10% of the final grade)
- Case studies (30% of the final grade)
- Group report on the application of creativity techniques (30% of the final grade)
- Individual reflective texts on practical exercises and learning process (30% of the final grade)

Examinations or Special Assignments

- Research assignment and presentation of a case study on organisational creativity;
- Group assignment on the application of creativity techniques;
- Individual reflective texts on the use of techniques of a specific subject;

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

70% of class attendance is compulsory to all students, even working students.

Classification improvement

Students may improve their grades by attending a special exam during the season of exams: a practical exercise and reflective text on course unit themes.

Observations

Web resources:

http://www.creax.net
CREAX – Creativity & Innovation Portal

http://www.mycoted.com/index.htm
Mycoted

http://mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_CT.htm
Creativity Tools

http://innovation.im-boot.org/index.php
IM-BOOT Creative People Worldwide