The relationship between Creativity, Innovation and Organisational Culture: Achieving external adaptation by leveraging an innovative enabling culture

Abstract

In the face of intense global competition and economic instability, the extant reality for organisations in developing economies is to either adapt, innovate, or die! The purpose of this project was to empirically test the relationship between organisational culture; innovation and creativity and organisational adaptation; and test whether innovation and creativity has an impact on the relationship between organisational culture and organisational adaptation. The study also sought to explore and advance practical recommendations on how an organisation’s innovative and creative potential can be leveraged through culture to ensure organisational adaptation. The study proposed that the decline of the organisation under study was due to its failure to adapt or navigate the environment. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and Regression analysis were used to address research questions and test the hypotheses. Survey results of ART Corporation sample showed that the dominant culture type at ART Corporation is the Hierarchy culture with a mean score of 3.65, sd 0.43. Overall ART Corporation has a lower organisational adaptation index with a mean score of 2.50. sd 0.92 Significant relationships were found between Organisational Culture and Innovation culture (r = 0.56, p<0.00), Organisational culture and creativity and innovation (r=.32 p<0.01); the Innovation culture construct and innovation and creativity index (r = 0.67; p < 0.00,) however an inverse relationship was found between innovation and creativity and organisational adaptation (r = -0.43, p <0.001). A low significant relationship was found between organisational adaptation and organisational culture r =0.20, p<0.11. After controlling for mediation the variance explained by organisational culture changed from 4.2% to 14.44% that is the link with organisational adaptation increased significantly (β=.38, p<0.01) thus failing to satisfy the conditions necessary to determine mediation. Secondary analysis with specific organisational culture dimensions produced significant correlations with the strongest being dominant characteristics r=0.52, p<0.00. The results indicate that ART Corporation need to focus on its organisational culture to leverage organisational adaptation. Future research should focus on exploring other intervening variable that may be possibly mediating the relationship between organisational adaptation and organisational culture.