This chapter interrogates the power that lies within employees' collaborative creativity, as against individualism, to achieving stated organisational goals. It advances the fact that collaboration of man and machine in the workplace lends credence to the fact that collaborative creativity possess within it, a power that can help resolve snags confronting the organisation on the one hand, and the society on the other. This chapter locates its arguments within the Yoruba culture philosophical idiom of Ajumose (doing together) to advance the fact that, collaborativeness will encourage individual collaborator to abandon giving simple judgement on big tasks, but participate in a more critical thinking. It notes further that, establishing the culture of collaboration in the 21st century is a virtue that organisations seeking comparative and competitive advantage should adhere to. Lastly, it recommends for the establishment of a collaborative culture in the workplace amongst others.
TopIntroduction
Resolving world’s wicked problems that disquiets the society at large, and the workplace in particular, requires employees’ collaborative efforts, or say, collaborative creativity. Collaborative creativity is necessary to disassembling identified wicked problems; it helps in achieving organisational stated objectives and serve as a precursor to organisational innovation. Albeit, the rise of the fourth industrial revolution has necessitated a change to how issues are resolved, and how they are approached in the workplace. For instance, the collaboration of man and machine in the workplace lends credence to the fact that collaborative creativity possess within it, a power that can help resolve snags confronting the organisation on the one hand and the society on the other. As such, employees’ collaborative creativity should be properly harnessed for achieving profits.
Using the literature review methodology, the objectives of this chapter are to debate employees’ collaborative creativity and how it could help in achieving stated organisational aims and objectives vis-à-vis resolving world’s wicked problems; to examine collaborative creativity and the power that lies within it; to examine some of the skills that employees need to possess, and the extraordinary benefits of collaborative creativity; to examine an Africanist theoretical framework to explaining the power of collaborative creativity; to interrogate ways organisations can use to establish and enhance collaborative creativity in their respective workplaces; and finally, to explore the challenges to collaborative creativity in the workplace and how this challenges can be surmounted. The contribution of this chapter is that, it beams it light on an imperativeness of creative collaborations for achieving competitive and comparative advantages for organisations, most especially, those in developing countries who are still struggling with the problems of initiating novel ideas. Also, it will show the owners, proprietors and managers of organisations that enhancement of effective diversity management, enrichment of creativity training and development, and the establishment of an effective feedback-seeking system will aid their organisation’s sustainability.