Newcastle University

Aims

The module Understanding and Managing Creativity explores the concepts of management, creativity, creative industries, managing creative organisations, creative personality and the creative economy. The course will give the students an opportunity to develop a critical awareness of current theories concerning the origins and role of creativity in the economy and the society, and inform them about the current approaches to the management of creativity at the levels of the individual, small teams, organisations and in public policy. It is when organisations invest in active self-organising systems that establish asymmetric patterns that challenge orthodox thinking and responses that creativity begins to surface. The course is designed to help students to understand and manage creativity (including their own). Through a series of lectures, workshops and small group learning activities students will develop an understanding of the importance of creativity on a personal, organisational and national level in a world characterised by the globalised economy.

Aims
• To provide an understanding of the concepts of management, creativity, creative industries, and managing creative personalities, creative organisations, and the creative economy.
• To enable students to identify, analyse, discuss and debate the broad range of perspectives and practical issues concerning the nature of creativity.
• To encourage students to critically evaluate the determinants of competitiveness stemming from understanding and effectively managing creativity (including their own) in the real business world.
• To equip students with the knowledge and practical skills needed to improve their perspective about creative industries and managing creative workplaces.
• To enable students to reflect on the processes of managing creative practices (including their own).

Original Summary:

Outline Of Syllabus

18 two-hour sessions spread over eighteen weeks.

1. Introduction: Management and Creativity.
2. The Evolution of Management Thinking: the organisation as an open system.
3. Principles and Practices of Management.
4. Motivation and Leadership in the work context.
5. Creativity and Creative Thinking.
6. Creative Industries and the rise of the Creative Class.
7. Designing Creative Organisational Cultures.
8. Managing the Creative Organisation: From bureaucracy to controlled chaos?
9. Managing Creativity: Individuals, teamwork, networks and strategy.
10. The Creative Process.
11. Entrepreneurship and Creativity: Deriving meaning and making money from ideas.
12. Presentation of Group Assignments.
13. Presentation of Group Assignments.
14. The Creative Personality.
15. Emotional Intelligence and Creativity: Unleashing the creative power of the human mind.
16. Marketing Creativity: Branding and Authenticity.
17. Promoting the Creative and Cultural Economy.
18. Course Recap and Review.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The course is structured as 18 two hour sessions, each organised around a concept/ theme as presented in the ‘outline of syllabus’ below. Each week there is a core reading, which students should do before the session and a range of further reading, which will enable students to explore each theme in more depth. I will also be recommending other material – ‘non-academic journals’, newspapers, television programmes, websites, blogs and so on – which will give the student further insight into understanding and managing creativity in the real business world. Case studies, real-world examples and problem-based learning will be mostly used in the 18 two hour sessions sculptured around the philosophy of a student-centred learning process; the academic environment provides ample opportunities to create core expertise, analytical and critical thinking, and to produce high-quality practitioners, while making the sessions enjoyable to participating students.
As well as formal learning session, the Newcastle University Business School has a large number of integrated Business Networking Events, which students attend. These provide them the opportunity to listen to practitioners and guest speakers, as well as network with a wide range of local business people.
Blackboard Learning Environment:
The lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, details of assignments and other information, together with important announcements, will be available on the Blackboard web site for this module. We will be using Blackboard to communicate with you and you are strongly encouraged to use Blackboard to communicate with each other (for example through discussion forums). You can access Blackboard at http://blackboard.ncl.ac.uk.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Aware of the variety of knowledge outcomes of this module, postgraduate students are required to develop their understanding of the concept of creativity and the management of creativity within organisations. Students are assessed through one group and two individual assignments. The first assignment (counts for 10% of the final grade for the module) is set at the beginning of the semester and it aims to give students the opportunity to correct their mistakes early enough in the course, while they also feel more confident towards preparing their final assignment, which is more important in terms of the final grade for the module. The second assignment (counts for 30% of the final grade for the module) aims to develop student’s methodical skills, group work unity, and collaboration in order to write a group report and do an in vivo presentation in one of the module’s session. The third and final assignment (counts for 60% of the final grade of the module) is again an individual assignment. Students are expected to critically synthesise the knowledge they have gained from the course in order to write a 3,000 essay in one a topic relevant to creativity.