'n Ondersoek na die rol van strukturele groepfaktore en groepprosesse met betrekking tot bestuurspaninnoverendheid

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Innovation and creativity are established research areas but both are relatively newresearch areas within the field of organisational psychology. Early research oninnovation and creativity were primarily the focus area of academics in related socialsciences disciplines. Research on innovation and creativity was integrated with theorientations and perspectives of organisational psychologists over a period of time. Inother words the development and identification of innovation as a success factor of thework environment is something that took place over decades. Changes in the competitiveenvironment over the last few decades contributed to the increasing interest in theconcept of innovation. Today managers recognise innovation as a necessity that needs tobe managed and developed.Three levels of analyses (the individual, group and organisation) can be identified in theinnovation literature. Until recently researchers focused primarily on the individual andthe organisation as units of analysis. As a results of this, research that focuses on theindividual and the organisation are quite comprehensive compared to studies that focuson the group as a unit of analysis. The utilisation of teams have increased inorganisations, but our knowledge of the factors and dimensions that determine groupinnovation are still restricted. The complex nature of group innovation could perhaps be a contributing factor in terms of the amount of research studies that have been done ongroup innovation.It is especially in this regard that this study sets out to thoroughly investigate existinggroup innovation literature and to combine this with an investigation into the possiblecontributions of related social psychological research (for example group decisionmaking, intragroup conflict and creative problem solving) to the innovation literature.Each one of the three units of analysis (individual, group and organisation) has a uniqueimpact on group innovation, but not one of them explains exclusively the innovativenessof a team. An interdependent relationship exists between these factors. This stresses thecomplexity of the concept and as a result of this, researchers are encouraged toinvestigate the possible contributions of related social psychological themes to theinnovation research and literature.In this regard this study focused extensively on a input, process and output model ofgroup innovation by West and Anderson (1996) to determine to what extend some of theaspects of the model explained the innovativeness of a group. This is a comprehensivemodel and for the purposes of this study only certain aspects of the model were includedin the research process. The size of the team and team tenure were the two inputelements that were included in the study. The process elements of the model includesclarity and commitment to team objectives, participation, task orientation and support forinnovation. In terms of the output aspects of the model the focus was on the following:how radical, effective, new and extensive the innovation is, as well as the number ofinnovations per team. The results of the study indicate that there are a relationshipbetween the variables of West and Anderson's input, process and output model (1996)and the innovativeness of the team. The results of this study indicate that the model byWest and Anderson is a valuable contribution to the research literature on groupinnovation behaviour.Although group innovation has not been researched extensively, it seems that groupinnovation is starting to make an impact on the organisational psychology domain andthat it will be a central aspect of the research agenda of organisational psychologists infuture. If we are able to establish a sound theoretical basis organisations will be able tounderstand and predict group innovation behaviour.It can be concluded that this study made a contribution to the research literature on groupinnovation behaviour in terms of an awareness of the impact and necessity of innovationin today's work environment, and also in extending the existing knowledge base of groupinnovation behaviour

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University