Creative Problem Solving for Managers

This prestigious textbook introduces ideas, skills and models to help students understanding how creative thinking can aid problem-solving. This updated fifth edition includes fresh case studies, exercises and suggested reading, alongside extensive diagrams and thought-provoking questions.

Auteur

Tony Proctor is Emeritus Professor at the University of Chester, UK.

Texte du rabat

Stimulating and developing the creative potential of all members of an organisation is widely seen as contributing to performance and results. This prestigious textbook provides a complete overview of the creative problem-solving process and its relevance to modern managers in the private and public sectors. It introduces ideas, skills and models to help students understand how creative thinking can aid problem solving, and how different techniques may help people who have different thinking and learning styles.

This updated fifth edition includes fresh case studies, exercises and suggested reading, alongside extensive diagrams and thought-provoking questions. A new chapter considers the use of heuristics in decision-making situations faced by managers, and examines how aspects of creative problem solving can relate to such situations. It also introduces a complex in-tray exercise, which demonstrates how the conflicting demands on an individual manager can be considered in practice. Supporting PowerPoint slides for lecturers are available for each chapter. Creative Problem Solving for Managers will continue to be an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying problem solving, strategic management, creativity and innovation management, as well as managers looking to develop their decision-making abilities.

Contenu

1. Creativity and its Importance in Business 2. Blocks to Creativity 3. Theories of Creativity and the Creative Problem-Solving Process 4. Problem Solving and Improvisation 5. Factors Influencing People's Ability to Undertake Ideation 6. Objective Finding, Fact Finding and Problem Finding/Definition 7. Morphological Analysis and Related Techniques 8. Brainstorming and its Variants 9. Lateral Thinking and Associated Methods 10. Synectics 11. Paradigm-Breaking Techniques 12. Miscellaneous Ideation Techniques 13. Evaluation 14. Decision Making and Problem Solving 15. Implementing Ideas 16. Computer-Assisted Creative Problem Solving