This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student. It was the last of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Press, the Creative Person and the Creative Process. This journal emphysis the importance of creating a product or [...]]]>

Introduction To This Creative Thinking Journal (4 of 4):

This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student. It was the last of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Press, the Creative Person and the Creative Process. This journal emphysis the importance of creating a product or output as the final stage of being creative, and exhibts some of the fun necessary for creativity to flourish.

The Creative Product

In our final Creative Thinking assignment, we studied the last of the ‘Four P’s’ (Mel Rhodes, 1961) – the Creative Product. We discovered, “They [Creative Products] can be the results of a group effort or the work of an individual.” (Fox). In this reflective document I will describe our teams creative product, and briefly discuss some of the theories and tools used to try evaluate the level of creativity of a creative output.

The Challenge:

The challenge we were assigned for this project was to create a business product solution for a fictitious derelict girls boarding school, located somewhere in Ireland on a 20 acre site. We produced a physical model approximately 9ft by 4ft, that included several elements representative of our overall solution.

Those elements included:

• Outdoor astroturf tennis courts/football pitches – represented by green material with playing areas drawn with pen
• Family cycling and adventure biking tracks – represented with earth, grass, and wooden logs
• Kayaking – represented with blue area for lake/river
• Petting farm and organic gardens – represented by toy farm animals, and green areas
• Mobile home accommodation park
• Library and heritage centre – represented with music CD’s, trophy’s and books
• Outdoor assault course
• Indoor climbing wall
• lazer tag
• Indoor play area
• Cafe/dining and gift shop
• more…

[Final Creative Product photographs removed as the copyright of the image belongs to all the team and not just the author of this journal.]

Creative Product Elements:

A creative product can be the result of both creativity and innovation, and can be tangible and intangible. Creativity is concerned with idea generating, imagination, novelty, the processes used and also promotion. Innovation is focused on the product, it’s implementation and development, as well as it’s usefulness and packaging (Fox). Referring to these guidelines, I believe our creative product was innovative in nature as its elements are not very novel. However, the combination of all the elements we used in one resort may be novel to some extent.

Four Approaches To Evaluating The Creative Product:

1. KacKinnon states that for a product to be creative it must be new, useful and produced. Beyond these requirements, MacKinnon has two more optional criteria; that the product be aesthetically pleasing (well designed) and transformational (radically change peoples view of the world, e.g. Darwin’s theory of evolution).
2. Besemer and O’Quin’s developed the semantic scales for evaluating a product
3. Fox & Fox believe the act of simply bringing anything into existence makes it creative. The challenge then is to measure it’s level of creativity.
4. Amabile and Hennessey’s Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) advocates that experts in a particular field can consensually determine the relative level of creativity of a product.

Besemer and O’Quin’s studied ways researchers have tried to evaluate creative products, and grouped them into four categories. One of these categories they call Peer Nominations. This allows peers to decide how creative a product is. Our class teams voted for the most creative product, and our product won by a landslide. Our team agreed this to be a satisfactory way of measuring creative output. We were each rewarded with bars of Cadbury’s chocolate by our lecturer [name removed], and our delicious prizes made victory all the sweeter.

Conclusion:

There are many theories for evaluating the level of creativity of a product, but none that is conclusive or agreed upon by all. However, it is clear that the product output is key to creativity, when the idea moves form concept to reality.

Bibliography:

• Fox, J.M. & Fox. R. (2008) Exploring the Nature of Creativity, Kendall Hunt Publishers.

This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student, it received a grade ‘A’. It was the third of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Press, the Creative Person and the Creative Product. This journal introduces many of the [...]]]> Introduction To This Creative Thinking Journal (3 of 4):

This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student, it received a grade ‘A’. It was the third of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Press, the Creative Person and the Creative Product. This journal introduces many of the powerful tools used to enhance individuals and teams creative output. I have left out the cover sheet, which includes the student and lecture’s personal details and so on.

The Creative Process

The Creative Process provides a set of tools that help enable us to be deliberately creative when problem solving. These tools are part of and overall set of tools for creative problem solving known as CPS or ‘Creative Problem Solving’ (Osborn & Parnes, 1950′s).

Our team project was to identify tourist business ideas, for a fictitious derelict girls boarding school building, located on a twenty acre site somewhere in rural Ireland. In this reflective document, I will touch on some of the important tools of the Creative Process that we used, and provide examples where appropriate.

The Key Creative Tool:

The key tool used during the creative process is of course the human brain. “Our brains are divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is sequential, logical, and analytical. The right hemisphere is nonlinear, intuitive, and holistic.” (D.H.Pink, A Whole New Mind, 2005)

The right hemisphere is proven to be far more active during creative thinking, as compared to the left hemisphere. For the brain to achieve maximum creativity while problem solving, it must be allowed to consider all possibilities, without fear, and often without judgement. To assist the brain in its work, we can avail of several powerful thinking tools.

Divergent Thinking:

Divergent Thinking can be used to develop many creative ideas and options. While it can contain elements other than ideas, it’s key requirement is for the participants to defer judgement of ideas until this creative stage is complete. Judging ideas as they are generated will inhibit the creative process, because people will be less inclined to submit ideas to the group for fear of rejection.

For Divergent Thinking to be effective, we must:

• Defer Judgement
• Strive for Quantity
• Freewheel
• Seek Combinations

(J.M.Fox & R.L.Fox, 2000)

Divergent Thinking Tools include:

• Brainstorming (Osborn, 1938)
• Brainwritting
• Forced Relationships
• Morphological Matrix

We don’t have space to discuss all these tools in full, so we’ll focus on the two tools used most by our team during our creative process project.

Brainstorming:

During the development of our team project for the Creative Process, we first used Brainstorming (Osborn, 1938) to identify new ideas. The result of using this technique was surprisingly valuable. There were a number of ideas put forward that I felt were not suitable. However, I deferred judgement, and instead ‘Freewheeled’ with the idea flow. My team members did the same, each of use picking up on ideas and evolving them. As a result we developed an entire group of useful and novel Irish heritage ideas that otherwise might not have been considered. These included Irish dancing classes, an introduction to Irish sports, and Irish folklore storytelling for families. We produced a high quantity of ideas for other pursuits too, with many based around indoor/outdoor sports, games, relaxation, accommodation, and necessary facilities for the resort.

Using the next tool, the Morphological Matrix, we sought new combinations of ideas, resulting in many novel, and useful activities.

Morphological Matrix:

Morphological Matrix is an excellent tool used for discovering new creative combinations from items within groups of variables listed under related subject parameters. The Morphological grid usually has four or five columns (it can have more or less), each with a parameter as it’s header. Below each column parameter, as many variations as possible are listed. This list of variations could be a result generated by using another divergent tool, Brainstorming.

The Morphological Matrix In Action:

Using the grid to generate new idea combinations is easy. Simply choose one variation from each column at random. The combined result is different every time, and each idea can be explored for it’s potential usefulness. The following is one Morphological Matrix grid we used for our project. I have listed two combinations below, with conclusions regarding the potential viability for each result.

• Combination #1: Men and women’s activity, cycling, indoors in the afternoon.
• Conclusion: If we had an indoor stunt bike course this might be viable, unfortunately we don’t, so this combination is not viable. However, we might consider the feasibility of building an indoor stunt bike course, a new idea that had not come up while brainstorming!

• Combination #2: Singles activity, arts & crafts, off site (outside of the resort grounds), scheduled for the morning time.
• Conclusion: This combination presents a viable option for further exploration.

Convergent Thinking:

While we could go on diverging ideas forever, we must eventually decide when to start narrowing the list of options to those with the most potential for success. Convergent Thinking is the creative process used to select options from our list of possibilities. There are clear guidelines for using Convergent Thinking as follows (Fox & Fox, 2000):

• Use Affirmative Judgement – find advantages first
• Be Deliberate – Evaluate systematically
• Consider Novelty – Seek new and unusual options
• Work to improve your options

There are many useful Convergent tools, including

• Hits – Intriguing, clear, stands out, feels right etc.
• Highlighting – Clustering Hits with common themes, and restating/labelling the cluster
• Card Sort – Prioritise, rank and compare options written on cards or Post-It Notes
• PPCo (D. Foucar-Szocki & R. Firestien) – Pluses, Potentials, Concerns, overcoming key concerns
• LCOb – Likes, Concerns, Opportunities and going back to main concerns to find ways to overcome them

Our team used Hits and Highlighting to identify and group activities with common themes. For example, we decided to combine activities such as forest adventure biking near an outdoor forest assault course. These were to be in a separate part of the forest to the nature trails and family picnic areas. The idea behind these clusters was to minimize noise pollution and danger to people not involved in adventure activities.

Conclusion:

Due to assignment word count limitations, I cannot expand on the other creative process tools studied in class, but will briefly mention them here. They included SCAMPER (Osborn), Da Vinci, and De Bono’s Six Colored Hats. Like Brainstorming and the Morphological Matrix, each are powerful for generating new ideas and combining options that might otherwise never be considered.

Besides being extremely useful, they are a lot of fun to use! I will certainly use them for future creative projects.

Bibliography:

• Fox, J.M. & Fox. R. (2008) Exploring the Nature of Creativity, Kendall Hunt Publishers.
• Daniel H. Pink (2005 – 2011) A Whole New Mind, Marshell Cavendish Business.
• [Item removed]

This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student, it received a grade ‘B’. It was the second of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Press, the Creative Process and the Creative Product. Creativity is important not just for [...]]]> Introduction To This Creative Thinking Journal (2 of 4):

This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student, it received a grade ‘B’. It was the second of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Press, the Creative Process and the Creative Product. Creativity is important not just for work, but for self-fulfilment, and I hope that this, and the following journals help you in better understanding and nurturing your own creativity. I have left out the cover sheet, which includes the student and lecture’s personal details and so on.

The Creative Person

What inputs can have a negative impact on personal creativity? How can we recognise personal creativity traits and problem solving styles? How can we maximize creativity within groups? Are there methods we can use to develop our creative skills?

My training and career is in visual multimedia, and spans over [info removed]. Until recently I lacked any clear understanding of what creativity is. Using my own experiences, I will examine the questions above in an attempt to explain the ‘Creative Person’. I will also examine how the compromise of creative traits had devastating impact on my creativity, and what can be done to restore those traits.

Creative Motivation

The concept of intrinsic motivation (Amabile, 1983), studies the personal motivation an individual feels for a task. Amabile asserts that individuals are more creative in the execution of their work when they have internal motivation rather than being driven by external motivations. Amabile believes extrinsic factors such as pay rises, deadlines, and supervision tend to have little positive impact on creativity. These negative factors are called ‘Creativity Killers’.

In order to avoid creativity killers, people must be driven to complete tasks by their internal motivators such as personal interest, enjoyment of the challenge, freedom to take the time necessary to examine the problem, and an understanding that failure is often a necessary step towards success. In my experience, my extrinsic need for generating more income/security had a devastating impact on my creativity.

Common Personal Traits Of Creative People

Harvard University studies have found several traits common among creative people. These include thinking skills, and continued efforts, combined with the use of imagery, applied to problems. This suggests creativity is less about inspiration and more about focused effort, often over prolonged time periods.

As a visual creative I often experienced a ‘breakthrough’ in creativity after long periods of obsessing over a design or layout, seeking ways to make it unique, understanding it’s core function and keeping within the customers brief. Unknown to me then, these techniques were in-line with the ‘Snowflake Model’ (Dr. Perkins, 1981), which identified six creative traits as follows:

1. Personal Perspective – open mind; enjoys challenge; identifies core problems
2. Ability to excel in defining problems – thinking time; asking questions; exploring solutions
3. Mental mobility – see beyond assumptions, ask “What if?”
4. Willingness to take risks – freedom to fail; up for the challenged
5. Objectivity – examine and explore ideas critically
6. Inner motivation – what compels us personally

I had all of the above creative traits to some degree, however, the compromise of two of those traits, namely inner motivation and risk taking, had devastating impact on my creativity. As a result of growing responsibilities in my life, I needed to earn more money, or at least a predictable income. I became increasingly concerned with income which made me more risk adverse. I began to compromise my creativity, because failure was costly, and a luxury I could not afford. My inner motivation was affected as outside pressures mounted. My financial anxieties continued to grow, and the problem deepened greatly in 2008 when the recession hit, transforming cash flow into bank debt.

The result was a complete freezing of my creativity, and while I continued to work in design I felt like a fake, and produced ‘run of the mill’ work. My creative fire had been quenched by a sea of responsibilities and financial fears. Ironically, the more I compromised my creativity, the more my ability to generate income declined. I had sacrificed one for the other and ended up with less than nothing.

Of course, I did not understand the process that was taking place at the time. I believed for some unknown reason, that I had simply become less creative. I lost confidence in my abilities, my personal relationships were in turmoil, and for almost four years I have drifted in a daze, without any real goal or direction. For me the ‘Creativity Killers’ that caused the eradication of my internal motivators and aversion to risk were induced by two external forces, responsibilities and financial pressures.

Creative Styles

Another welcomed revelation came when I discovered there are different creative styles. At their extremes these are creative adaptors, and creative innovators. According to research into cognitive style, titled Adaption-Innovation Inventory (Kirton, 1976), many people are somewhere in the middle of those creative extremes.

Adaptors:

When faced with a challenge, adaptors make changes to existing systems and procedures to solve the problem within certain boundaries. Thomas Edison is an example of a creative adaptor who’s philosophy was “within the rules I can change the world.” Adaptors tend to be detailed oriented, disciplined, and are sensitive to group cooperation.

Innovators:

Innovators tend to break the rules and ignore established systems and boundaries in their pursuit of a solution. They approach the problem from an unusual angle, challenge the ‘status quo’, have little regard for details and can be insensitive within groups.

Middle:

Middle creatives (Kirton, 1987) share characteristics from both groups which often makes them a bridge between the extreme creative styles, enhancing communication within working groups.

Group Creativity

The Creative Studies Department at Buffalo State College completed lab experiments with three creative groups. The first group were all adaptors, the second were all innovators, and the third a mix of the two. They were given vague instructions to make inventions with newspaper within a fixed time. Only the mixed group excelled in the task, coming up with many ideas, and producing several inventions.

Our class team recently completed a ‘Creative Press’ project that was well received by class and tutor. Our team worked well together, generating ideas and working on their details and application. I believe our team consists of varying degrees of innovators and adaptors, and this was the reason for our creativity and productivity. The other teams failed to deliver any physical solution, and I suspect this is because they consist mostly of adaptors. The benefits of building mixed innovator and adaptor teams in organisations is obvious.

Conclusion

Having discovered the traits of creative people and the factors that led to the loss of my creativity, I am excited to learn that with deliberate effort and time I can restore my creativity. While this will not solve my financial/security stresses, it will fulfil a more important, personal need. Once I have regained my creativity, perhaps those external issues will be easier to overcome, but whatever the outcome in that regard, I will live a richer life.

This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student, it received a grade ‘C’. It was the first of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Person, the Creative Process and the Creative Product. Creativity is important not just for [...]]]> Introduction To This Creative Thinking Journal (1 of 4):

This journal was written by a Creative Thinking third level student, it received a grade ‘C’. It was the first of four journals written by the student, the others included the Creative Person, the Creative Process and the Creative Product. Creativity is important not just for work, but for self-fulfilment, and I hope that this, and the following journals help you in better understanding and nurturing your own creativity. I have left out the cover sheet, which includes the student and lecture’s personal details and so on.

The Creative Press

Creative thinking can occur anywhere and at any time; but what if we did not have to wait for the muse to show up, or a sudden moment of inspiration to drive our creativity? It is possible to develop environments and culture that are conducive to creative thinking, and in this document I will discuss ways this can be achieved, using theoretical and practical classroom examples. We will discuss what creativity is, how The Creative Press (Fox & Fox, 2008) can help or hinder creativity. I will reflect on class room practicals and finish with my personal learning from this exercise.

What Is Creativity?

“It’s (creativity) where you are engaging in producing something new that also at the same time resolves or responds to an issue. Or perhaps it’s a new idea that leads to a possibility.” (Puccio)

Many definitions comprise of three components. “First, creative ideas must represent something, new, or innovative. Second, creative ideas are of high quality. Third, creative ideas must also be appropriate to the task at hand or some redefinition of the task. Thus, a creative response is novel, good, and relevant.” (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2007)

An example of a well know creative person is Leonardo da Vinci. His design for a flying machine, a helicopter, was new and innovative. The idea was high quality, and it was appropriate for the purpose of flight.

Creativity Practical 1 – In a classroom practical, we discussed personal pet-hates within a team. Next, we made a list comprising of one pet-hate from each individual. We further condensed this into one or two similar problems. The team then sought various solutions to these problems, that were later presented to the class.

Solutions offered by the class highlighted possible opportunities for developing customer training products. While this is an obvious business reward for creative problem solving, the real lesson dawned on me later when I studied ‘Ekvall’s 10 Dimensions’, which I’ll discuss later in this document.

The Creative Press

The Creative Press is, “Those things pressing on us that help or hinder our creativity”. (Fox, J.M. & Fox. R., 2008). The Creative Press is the environment or climate in which we tackle challenges and how it impacts our creativity. This climate consists of two components, the Physical Press and the Psychological Press.

The Physical Press deals with the creative environment. For example, if your work space is cold, it may have a negative press. If you need silence to be creative, and are working in a quiet room, this is a positive physical press.

Creativity Practical 2 – A second team practical required each team to make a creative group space. We noted our individual creative climate needs, then discussed how we could develop the team environment taking individuals needs into account.

We discovered that our team had broadly similar creative requirements. The main conflict was that two people preferred to have music. This is resolved by listening to music on headphones. We created our shared space within the classroom by adding throws and cushions to groups of chairs and a large bean bag on the floor. We draped a tablecloth on a desk and dressed it with scented candles. We closed the blinds to block natural light and used a soft lamp light instead. To recreate the fire we played a looped video of a log fire through the class projector onto the large screen. These elements combined to make a relaxing creative team environment with subtle sensory stimuli.

During class reflective, we realised that the time for ending a creative session could be represented by the fire gradually dying down over a period of time. This could be coupled with a lamp set on a timer, so that it gradually became brighter during the last five minutes of creative time. This will ease people out of their session, and negate the need for jarring alarms to suddenly stop the creative flow.

Because the materials are inexpensive, or free (staff could bring their own), it would be easy to recreate this creative climate in offices. However, encouraging the use of creative environments in companies will depend on the leadership and culture of the organisation.

After studying Ekvall’s 10 Dimensions of External Press, I understood that our second team assignment worked well because of our groups positive psychological press. Briefly, this related to our team as follows:

1. the ownership individuals felt for the project
2. individual freedom to consider options
3. liveliness of our group in discussions
4. open communication
5. time taken to explore all ideas
6. informal and relaxed team
7. idea sharing and development was good
8. everyone’s opinions were valued
9. no fear of appearing foolish
10. got on well, no conflicts of personality

It is interesting that Ekvall and other creative theorists such as VanGundy and Himes, independently came up with almost identical concepts about how the physical press can impact creativity.

The Internal Press is how the individual’s skills, experience and confidence in their abilities come into play within the creative climate. Our team members had positive internal press because we each possessed the necessary skills to agree on our shared environment.

Conclusion

I have studied and worked creatively most of my life, but until this point I did not understand creativity. Over the years of ‘living in the real world’, I rejected my creativity to a great extent. It was something beyond my control, that happened as it pleased and deserted me as suddenly as it arrived. [Paragraph used to protect the identity of the author]

Now, I see the value of being creative, and believe I have the potential and knowledge to become a creative person again. I understand that creativity can be encouraged within an environment that I can control, and can be developed in myself and others through positive behaviour. No longer a vague concept, creativity is something I am interested in exploring in both my personal and business life.

Bibliography:

• Fox, J.M. & Fox. R. (2008) Exploring the Nature of Creativity, Kendall Hunt Publishers.
• Kaufman & Sternberg (2007). The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology.
• Puccio, Ph.D., Department Chair and Professor at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7GT7vGS8Hc (interview)

Class Assignment Photographs:

Photographs are not included as copyright of the creative space is owned by the entire group and the author did not seek permission to use the images of the space.

Description of setting:

These observations took place in ‘TC’s home. ‘TC’ home is in an estate of houses set [...]]]> Integrated study of one child

Date of observation: 18 August 2011
Time observation started and finished: over a number of days
Number of adults present: myself and ‘TC’ (The Child) mother.
Number of children present: 1

Description of setting:

These observations took place in ‘TC’s home. ‘TC’ home is in an estate of houses set in a small town. It has a small lawn at the front of the house and a garden at the rear of the house. It is a 3 bedroom spacious house and has all the equipment needed for a baby.

Immediate context:

These observations took place mostly in the sitting room of the house which has plenty of baby toys available for the ‘TC’, while one took place in the front garden.

Brief description of the child observed:

‘TC’ is female aged 6 months old. She has a good eating and sleeping routine. She is minded by a child minder four days a week for 4hours a day, she is also minded by her 18 year old brother and her Aunt. The father is absent from the family.

Aim of observations: Is too identify any developmental delays in ‘TC’ and if some found to put in place a system in order to aid her development.

Methods used:

Checklist-cognitive, narative- physical, time-sample- emotional , pre-coded – language.

Please see the following documents for the study examples.

1. Example Evaluation Of Emotional Development In A Child
2. Child’s Cognitive Development Evaluation and Methods
3. Child Care Training – Social Development Observation Sample
4. Cognitive Development – Child Care Training Reference

The purpose of this observation was to observe TC and determine whether her emotional development is inline with the milestones setdown for her age group. TC is in freeplay with both adults and children [...]]]> In the following example, ‘TC’ is ‘The Child’, ‘C’ is an older ‘Child’ playing with ‘TC’, and ‘A’ is ‘Adult’.

Evaluation-Emotional

The purpose of this observation was to observe TC and determine whether her emotional development is inline with the milestones setdown for her age group. TC is in freeplay with both adults and children interacting with her.

Emotions are categorised into primary emotions and self-concious emotions. In the first 6 months the self-concious emotions do not show, but the primary emotions do, such as; joy, fear, disgust, anger, sadness and surprise.

During this observation some of the primary emotions were observed for example joy and anger, but not all. In all of the samples above except for one, TC shows a happy emotion and she does this by smiling, cooing, giggling, high pitch squeals and waving arms. She displayed anger when she wanted the keys and they were out of reach, ‘A’ misunderstood her cry as wanting the bottle, but quickly realised that the keys were the focus of her gaze, TC became content when she was handed keys and showed this by waving keys around in her hand and smiling.

I would categorise TC in the ‘Easy baby’ temperament type(Stella Thomas and Alexander Chess(1977)) as she displays mostly positve attitude as is demonstrated in the above samples, she is mostly smiling and giggling and only becomes frustrated once, when she cannot reach the object of her desire.

The sample at 14:25, show the mother interacting with TC and TC reacting positively to her by reaching out to her and saying mama. This would indicate that this baby is ‘securely attached’ (Mary Ainsworth(1979)).

Overall TC seems to be emotionally secure in her relationships with the people around her. She is easy going and a happy baby. There was no signs of stunted emotional development observed, and one could conclude that from the brief time we did observe TC, shows all the signs of secure and happy baby.

Emotional Observation-Time Sample

A good example of imagination in ‘TC’ would have been if she had copied [...]]]> Evaluation- Cognitive

The aim of this observation is to examine ‘TC’ from the point of view of her cognitive development. “Cognitive development is the development of each of the following: Imagination, Creativity, Memory skills, Concentration skills, Problem-solving skills, Concept formation”(Flood, p85).

A good example of imagination in ‘TC’ would have been if she had copied ‘As’ actions in the example above, this was not witnessed during this observation. This is not to say that she cannot do this, it was just not observed at this time. ‘TC’ used her imagination when she was able to realise that when the brick was dropped, it was not gone, and looked for it and picked it up. When ‘TC’ is looking towards the hallway trying to locate the source of the noise is an example of her imagination being active, as she was curious to see what was causing the noise.

“Creativity is the expression of imaginative ideas in a unique and personal way.” (Flood, p86). It is not possible to give an example of ‘Tcs’ creativity in this evaluation as it was not observed. To help encourage creativity in ‘TC’ can be done by having a space that is inviting with age appropriate toys in a number of shapes, colours, sizes and textures. Everyday objects, such as, wooden spoons, plastic containers, and cups can stimulate creativity and curiosity.

Memory skills are one of the easier skills to recognise in a 6 month old, as there is clear evidence that the child is using memory e.g.

• when they recognise their mother and their care givers
• They repeat the same vowel sounds e.g. mama
• When they see an object that is familiar to them and they like, they will let the caregiver know that they want it.

In the above observation ‘TC’ is recorded saying the vowel sounds ‘mama’ repeatedly, after ‘A’ has said them to her first; she also shows that she recognises her mother when her mother picks her up she is comforted and stops crying.

‘TC’ demonstrates her ability to concentrate when she is watching the brick, observing it fall and then picking it up. Secondly, when she listens to ‘A’ say ‘mama’ and she repeats it, this demonstrates concentration. These games are very good for ‘TC’s concentration and will help to develop it further.

The example in which ‘TC’ is looking at her image in the mirror is a demonstration of her problem-solving which is another important aspect of cognitve development. Babies are constantly problem-solving in their day to day lives, because that is how they learn about the world they live in. ‘TC’ bangs the mirror realising that the baby she is seeing is a hard surface and does not have a face and hair that she can take hold off and put into her mouth as she normally would. ‘TC’ will eventually learn that the baby is an image of herself, but this will take another few attempts at grasping at the baby in the mirror before she realises the reality of the situation.

These everyday repetitive situations help ‘TC’ to develop her problem-solving skills. “Children begin to be able to mentally predict what may happen. This is called the hypothesis approach to problem-solving.”(Flood, p90)

‘TC’ is to young to observe concept formation as we would need her to be able to verbalise her ideas about the world. A good way to develop ‘TC’ concept formation is describe and discuss objects and animals in her everyday life.

‘TC’ is only 6 months, but using the milestones identified by the experts, I believe that ‘TC’ is developing normally in the cognitive category.
 

By Migel Jayasinghe

Organizational behaviour studies and theories of motivation to account for the need to get the most out of workers in industrial or business concerns is very much [...]]]>

Please find below an insightful article by Migel Jayasinghe about motivational theories from some of the formost minds in the field.

Motivational Theories

By Migel Jayasinghe

Organizational behaviour studies and theories of motivation to account for the need to get the most out of workers in industrial or business concerns is very much a twentieth century phenomenon. Following the industrial revolution, large concentrations of workers were needed in mills and factories to mass produce goods on factory sites, which replaced agricultural and craft work hitherto produced in small rural family or communal units. In the early days of industrialization in the West, slave labour, or indentured labour including child labour at starvation wages, could be harnessed at the behest of the ruling classes.

After two Word Wars and a radically changed social, economic and political environment, owners of capital could no longer treat labour as a disposable commodity. Trade Unions, Communism, and demand for universal education by the population in Western and Western-style democracies, along with worldwide markets meant that the old methods of almost forced, repetitive labour (‘the dark satanic mills’) became a thing of the past. New disciplines like psychology, sociology and economics sprang up. Unlike in the natural sciences like physics, chemistry and even biology, theory building in the social sciences, often followed practice, and were uneven and far less cumulative, reliable, or universally valid and applicable (see Gillespie below). Organizational behaviour and management science developed alongside advances in the social sciences.

The ‘carrot and stick’ approach to early theories of management owe to the writings of Frederick Winslow Taylor. He coined the term ‘scientific management’ to a theory later termed simply ‘Taylorism’ which sought to break down tasks to their simplest elements so that an assembly line robot could undertake the task without any need for thinking. All brain work was to be removed from the shop floor and handled by managers alone. This is the principle of separating conception from execution. This approach may have worked with early immigrants to the US without much language skills (English), but its effectiveness was short lived. However, in automated plants using very high tech solutions for 24- hour routine work with little or no human input, the principle still applies.

Douglas McGregor called Taylorism and similar top down command and control approaches to management of labour, Theory X, and proposed instead Theory Y giving the employees more autonomy and discretion at work so long as they met the overall organizational objectives. He was appealing to a more skilled and educated workforce as the workplace technology became ever more sophisticated with the passage of time. McGregor drew upon the work of Elton Mayo in what became known as the Hawthorne Studies conducted between 1927 and 1932 at the Western Electric plant in Cicero, Illinois.

Gillespie made a thorough review of Mayo’s Hawthorne plant experiments and questioned the whole ethos of regarding such work as objective science, although Mayo’s conclusions were widely discussed and accepted in the intervening years. Gillespie believes that there is ‘no purely objective scientific methodology’ and that what is agreed as ‘scientific knowledge is manufactured and not discovered’ (ibid). Every type of intervention that Mayo instituted in the factory, including changing the illumination, changing the hours of work, and giving more, or less breaks, all ended with the workers producing more with each intervention by the social scientists. The ‘Hawthorne Effect‘ has been summarised as employees becoming more productive because they know they are being sympathetically observed. In other words by the psychological stimulus of being singled out, involved, and made to feel important’.


Industrial relations have to be based on ‘human relations’, which was the name adopted by the Theory Y School of motivators. Their conclusions were that there was an informal group life developing among factory workers, and the norms they develop affect productivity. In short, the workplace is a social system and managers must ignore the fact to their cost. Workers develop among themselves a sense of responsibility to work well. Such an ethos was adopted by Japanese car makers, and until very recently it worked very well for them when they conquered the world car market.

A very similar type of investigation was undertaken by the Tavistock Institute in London to study the work of coal miners. Researchers found that job simplification and specialization did not work under conditions of uncertainty and non-routine tasks’. They advocated semi-autonomous groups. Meanwhile, there had been extensive work undertaken outside the organizational framework that was to influence motivational theory. This was the seminal work of Abraham Maslow who identified a hierarchy of human needs requiring satisfaction form the lowest level of basic physiological needs going up the scale to creativity and self-actualization. According to Maslow, ‘a need once satisfied, no longer motivates. The company relies on monetary rewards and benefits to satisfy employee’s lower level needs. Once those needs have been satisfied, the motivation is gone… employees can be most productive when their work goals align with their higher level needs’.

Although McGregor used Maslow’s theory to bolster up his Theory Y, Maslow’s theory with its much more complex hierarchy has been labelled Theory Z. In brief summary form and visualized as a pyramid with its broad base first:

- Physiological needs (Lowest)
- Safety needs;
- Love/affiliation needs;
- Esteem needs; and
- Self-actualization needs (Highest)

There is one more influential theory of motivation (among many less well-known) which needs to be explored. This is Herzberg’s ‘two-factor’ theory of motivation. ‘The theory was first drawn from an examination of events in the lives of engineers and accountants. At least 16 other investigations, using a wide variety of populations, (including some in the Communist countries) have since been completed, making the original research one of the most replicated studies in the field of job attitudes’ (op. cit.). He hypothesised that the ‘factors involved in producing job satisfaction (and motivation) are separate from the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction… The opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction, but, rather, no job satisfaction; and similarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not job satisfaction, but no job dissatisfaction’.

Herzberg’s lower level hygiene factors may be listed as security, status, workplace relationships, personal life, salary, supervision, and company practices. His higher order, motivators may be listed as growth, advancement, responsibility, work itself, recognition, and at the very top a sense of achievement, which corresponds to self-actualization in Maslow’s hierarchy.

Having explored the changing nature of motivational theory as reflective of the changing nature of the global social, political and economic landscape over the years, this essay also delved into Maslow’s more general Theory of the Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s workplace oriented Two-Factor theory of motivation. Since all social science theorising remains contingent on so many factors, more recent theories such as total quality management (TQM) and business process reengineering (BPR) have evolved to take into account current organizational concerns.