Organizational Creativity, Innovation, Planning, and Forecasting – Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from the lecture notes on creativity, innovation, planning, and forecasting.

Creativity

The ability to generate original ideas or new perspectives on existing ideas.

Expertise

Everything that an individual knows and can do in the broad domain of his or her work.

Creative Thinking

The capacity to combine existing ideas in new arrangements.

Motivation

An individual’s need or passion to be creative.

Appropriate level of job-related challenge

A challenge level that is not too simple nor too difficult.

Freedom within clearly-defined work goals

Autonomy within defined goals to conduct work.

Time to complete tasks

Providing appropriate amounts of time to finish tasks.

Diversity in work groups

Establish work groups with diversity rather than similarities.

Reward creativity

Verbal encouragement, recognition, and other rewards for creative effort.

Supportive environment for creativity

Developmental feedback, collaboration, and information sharing that support creativity.

Hire and retain creative people

Recruiting and keeping individuals who are creative.

Innovation

The process of applying a new idea to improve organizational processes, products, or services.

Creative but not innovative

An organization with lots of good ideas but limited ability to turn them into tangible results.

Innovative but not creative

An organization that can turn ideas into tangible benefits but lacks a strong source of new ideas.

Creative Organization

Generates sound ideas for improvement.

Innovative Organization

Turns sound ideas into tangible benefits.

Creative and innovative organizations

Both generate sound ideas for improvement and turn them into tangible benefits.

Organizations that are creative but not innovative

Creative but not innovative: fertile ideas without the ability to implement.

Low time pressure

A time condition where creative thinking tends to explore ideas; may involve collaboration with one other person.

Autopilot

Low likelihood of creativity due to minimal encouragement; more meetings and group discussions, less collaboration.

Expedition mindset (creative thinking under low time pressure)

Exploratory thinking focused on generating ideas, often with one-on-one collaboration.

Mission mindset (creative thinking under low time pressure)

Focused work on important tasks; positive challenge; balanced focus on problems and ideas.

Gantt Chart

A bar-chart scheduling device showing time on the horizontal axis and resources/tasks on the vertical axis.

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)

A network-based scheduling method showing task times and their sequence; events are boxes and tasks are arrows.

Critical Path

The sequence of activities that takes the longest time to complete.

Inventing

Establishing a new idea (technology, product, process, or management).

Developing

Making a new idea practical.

Diffusing

Putting a new idea to use by customers or end-users.

Integrating

Establishing an invention as a permanent part of the organization.

Monitoring

Tracking a newly implemented idea to determine if and when it should be improved or terminated.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

A company-wide approach involving all members to ensure quality in production and services.

Quality benefits: Positive company image

A benefit of quality: a positive company image.

Quality benefits: Lower costs and higher market share

A benefit of quality: lower costs and higher market share.

Quality benefits: Decreased product liability costs

A benefit of quality: reduced product liability costs.

Incremental Improvement Process Step 1: Improvement theme

Choose an area of improvement (theme), e.g., shorter cycle time or fewer defects.

Incremental Improvement Process Step 2: Improvement team

Form a quality-improvement team with diverse roles.

Incremental Improvement Process Step 3: Benchmarking

Benchmark best performers to identify required improvements.

Incremental Improvement Process Step 4: Analysis

Analyze how current performance can improve to meet the benchmark.

Incremental Improvement Process Step 5: Pilot study

Test remedies with a pilot study.

Incremental Improvement Process Step 6: Implementation

Management implements the improvements.

Re-engineering

Redesigning or restructuring a company or part of its operations.

Re-engineering Principle: Organize around outcomes, not tasks

Structure around the results of the process, not the tasks performed.

Re-engineering Principle: Have those who use the output perform the process

Users of the output should perform the process.

Re-engineering Principle: Subsume information-processing work into real work

Integrate data handling into the actual work that produces the information.

Re-engineering Principle: Treat dispersed resources as centralized

Coordinate remote resources as if centralized.

Re-engineering Principle: Link parallel activities

Coordinate activities that happen in parallel rather than sequentially.

Re-engineering Principle: Put the decision point where the work is performed

Make decisions at the point of work with built-in control.

Re-engineering Principle: Capture information at the source

Obtain information once, at its source.

Planning

Determining how the organization can reach its objectives and what actions are needed.

Affirmative planning

Planning aimed at increasing organizational success (future-oriented).

Protective planning

Planning aimed at reducing risk and clarifying consequences of actions.

Standing Plan

A plan used repeatedly; includes Policy, Procedure, and Rule.

Policy

Broad guidelines for taking actions aligned with objectives.

Procedure

A sequence of actions that must be taken to accomplish a task.

Rule

Specific required actions.

Single-Use Plan

A plan used for unique or rare situations; includes Programs and Budgets.

Program

A designed set of activities to carry out a project.

Budget

A financial plan detailing how funds will be spent and obtained.

Organizational Objective (Mee)

Profit motivates managers; service to customers; social responsibilities.

Eight Drucker areas: Market standing

Objectives indicating where the company would like to be relative to competitors.

Eight Drucker areas: Innovation

Objectives outlining commitment to developing new methods of operation.

Eight Drucker areas: Productivity

Target levels of production.

Eight Drucker areas: Physical and financial resources

Use, acquisition, and maintenance of capital and monetary resources.

Eight Drucker areas: Profitability

Profit the company would like to generate.

Eight Drucker areas: Managerial performance and development

Rates and levels of managerial productivity and growth.

Eight Drucker areas: Worker performance and attitudes

Rates of worker productivity and desirable attitudes.

Eight Drucker areas: Public responsibility

Company responsibilities to customers and society.

Organizational Purpose

What the organization exists to do for a group of customers.

Short-Term Organizational Objectives

Targets to be achieved in one year or less.

Intermediate-Term Organizational Objectives

Targets to be achieved in one to five years.

Long-Term Organizational Objectives

Targets to be achieved in five to seven years.

Management By Objectives (MBO)

An objectives-based management approach with individual objectives, periodic performance reviews, and rewards based on attainment.

Forecasting

Predicting the likelihood of uncertain events or outcomes affecting the organization.

Scheduling

Formulating a detailed listing of activities, allocating resources, and setting time tables to achieve objectives.

Jury of Executive Opinion Method

Managers discuss opinions on future sales.

Salesforce Estimation Method

Forecast future sales by analyzing salespeople's opinions as a group.

Delphi Method

A forecasting method that gathers and summarizes expert opinions for a forecast.

Moving Average Method

Forecasts future sales by averaging historical sales over a selected number of periods.

Regression Analysis Method

Predicts future sales by analyzing the historical relationship between sales and time.

A PERT Network

A network diagram showing task time estimates and the sequence of activities; events are boxes, tasks are arrows; the critical path is the longest-duration path.