Studienhandbuch | KS CB2: Innovation management

Inhalt

[ 986CABUCB2K22 ] KS CB2: Innovation management

Workload	Education level	Study areas	Responsible person	Hours per week	Coordinating university
3 ECTS	M1 - Master's programme 1. year	Business Administration	Matthias Fink	2 hpw	Johannes Kepler University Linz

Detailed information

Pre-requisites

SE BC2: Induction: Team development UND SE BC1: Foundations of management UND KS BC3: Foundations of management science

Original study plan

Master's programme Leadership and Innovation in Organizations 2025W

Learning Outcomes

Competences
Students grasp the nature of creative processes and understand the characteristics of creative people. In addition, they have some preliminary ideas about how to manage both (ideas to be further developed in the seminar complementing the course) Students acquire scientific knowledge from advanced primary sources, elicit its theoretical and practical implications, and critically reflect on it. Students explore and further develop their personal, largely implicit theories of creativity/innovation. Students test, reflect on and further develop their abilities to contribute to and shape creative processes, individually as well as within a team Students grasp the nature of creative processes and understand the characteristics of creative people. In addition, they have some preliminary ideas about how to manage both (ideas to be further developed in the seminar complementing the course) Students acquire scientific knowledge from advanced primary sources, elicit its theoretical and practical implications, and critically reflect on it. Students explore and further develop their personal, largely implicit theories of creativity/innovation. Students test, reflect on and further develop their abilities to contribute to and shape creative pro-cesses, individually as well as within a team.

Skills	Knowledge
Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course/seminar, the students will be able to: LO2a: summarize top-tier academic literature, identify and evaluate their core messages, LO2b: independently designs test for selected implications drawn from this literature; LO3a: develop their mindsets towards improved creativity and innovativeness; LO3b: examine (i.e. document, interpret and analyze) their own experience as creative individu-als embedded in creative networks; LO4: improve their ability to manage creative processes and further develop their ability to lead creative teams.	This course is part of the JKU Master Program Leadership and Innovation in Organizations. It requires 2 weekly hours of presence in class; its estimated workload is equivalent to 3 ECTS. Complementing this course, a seminar is offered that focuses on managing innovation in established firms. The seminar builds on this course’s contents, deepening and further advancing them to provide students with a comprehensive overview of current innovation management. Arguably, technically advanced and wealthy societies rely increasingly on innovation as their primary driver of economic development. Consequently, human resources, specifically highly qualified, creative people have become the most important economic resource—sought after by firms and regions alike. This course focuses on creativity as a human capacity that everyone possesses to a greater or lesser extent and on particularly creative people—who they are and what they do. Learning Outcomes LO1a: name and explain the key characteristics of creative processes and creative people; LO1b: compare explanations from the literature with their own creative experience and, based on this experience, critically evaluate these explanations;

Criteria for evaluation

Presence in class is mandatory.
- LO1a, LO1b, LO2a, LO2b, LO3a, LO3b, LO4
The preparatory task for workshop 1 is graded ‘pass or fail’.
- LO1a, LO1b, LO2a, LO2b
The team task is graded as described above. The criteria for evaluating a presentation are as follows:

->-> (a) How original is the solution, to what degree does it meet the specific challenge, and how profession¬ally is it implemented? (b) How clear is the description and how insightful is the reflection on the team’s creative process?

LO3a, LO3b, LO4

In the final exam students are required to answer open questions about the core readings and teachings of workshops II and III.
- LO1a, LO1b, LO2a
To pass this course, a student must pass the preparatory tasks, and both the team task and the final exam must be graded ‘4’ or better.
If so, the final grade is equally composed of the team task (=50% team achievement) and the final exam (=50% individual achievement).

Zero tolerance for plagiarism and use of artificial intelligence tools

When handing in an assignment, students agree that their assignment will be checked for plagiarism through software used by JKU. If plagiarism is detected (either regarding third-party sources or across students), you will fail the respective assignment type.

Methods

This course is predicated on the notion of the reflective practitioner, who actively engages in and shapes creative processes while—with varying intensity—monitoring, reflecting on and developing his or her own behavior and its results. Interestingly, innovative action and knowledge about inno¬vation can both support and undermine each other. Therefore, this course invites students to explore the relationship be-tween knowing and doing by both engaging in a concrete creative process and acquiring advanced, so-phisticated scholarly knowledge about creativity.

Phase I: Innovation Challenge — Delving into the Creative Process

Team task: Creative challenge Teams of approximately five students are each presented with a creative challenge. One team member is assigned the role of the reporter, who carefully documents the creative process (i.e. how the other team members deal with the creative challenge and implement a legal, creative solution)—without however directly engaging in this process.

Coaching Each team is offered a half-hour coaching session. Teams come prepared to their coaching sessions, presenting specific and already-tested ideas on how to cope with their challenge (i.e. alternative creative solutions). Coaches help with assessing and refining these ideas and potential solutions, as well as assist in exploring those aspects of the task (challenge) that appear most challenging to the team.

Workshop I: Presentation Each team prepares a 25-minute presentation, showing the final result, i.e. the solution that meets their challenge, describing and reflecting on the process through which the team arrived at their result,

including individual and team observations and reflections regarding the knowledge from Amabile (1998) and Dyer and his colleagues (2009).

Grading: The criteria for evaluating a presentation are as follows: How original is the solution, to what degree does it meet the specific challenge, and how professionally is it implemented? How clear is the description and how insightful is the reflection on the team’s creative process?

Phase II: On Creative People

Workshop II: Creative Networks What is knowledge brokering? How does someone’s position in a social network affect his or her creativ-ity? Which social network structures foster team creativity? What is the role of support in creativity? What specific network constellations enable creativity during different phases of the creative process?

Preparatory Task Workshop II includes a preparatory task to be announced in class at the end of Workshop I.

Workshop III: Creative Individuals What is the role of expertise, dedication and passion in creativity? How do highly successful entrepreneurs describe their creative abilities, and what can others learn from that? Can boredom foster creativity? How do emotions effect creativity and creative processes? Is it possible to train for cre ativity and, if so, how?

Language

English

Study material

Workshop II: Creative Networks

Core Readings

Perry-Smith, JE. 2006. Social yet Creative: The Role of Social Relationships in Facilitating Individual Creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 49/1: 85–101.
Sosa, ME. 2011. Where Do Creative Interactions Come From? The Role of Tie Content and Social Networks. Organization Science, 22/1: 1–21.
Obstfeld, D. 2005. Social Networks, the Tertius lungens Orientation, and Involvement in Innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50/1: 100–130.
Perry-Smith, JE & PV Mannucci. 2017. From Creativity to Innovation: The Social Network Drivers of the Four Phases of the Idea Journey. Academy of Management Review, 42/1: 53-79.