This study aimed at determining the relation between the unlearning and absorptive capacities and the creative level of the various products created by the members of an entertainment media company at work through creative working processes. To examin...
This study aimed at determining the relation between the unlearning and absorptive capacities and the creative level of the various products created by the members of an entertainment media company at work through creative working processes. To examine the effect of such relation on the creative work environment and the human resource development, the study established five research topics: (1) the kind of correlation that is established between an individuals' creativity and an organizational creative product; (2) how unlearning capacity affects an individual's creativity and an organizational creative product; (3) how absorptive capacity affects an individual's creativity and an organizational creative product; (4) whether unlearning capacity and absorptive capacity affect an individual's creativity and an organizational creative product in consecutive order; and (5) the differences in the process of creativity development among organizations that have different levels of awareness on the work environment disrupting or promoting creativeness.
Towards these ends, the model study specified an individual’s creativity as the independent variable, unlearning capacity and absorptive capacity as the intervening variables, an organizational creative product as the dependent variable, and the creative work environment as the moderator variable. The individual's creativity was measured using the questions of Zhou and George (2001) on creative behavior, and the assessment of the creative product was performed with reference to the model of Q'Quin and Basemer (1989). Unlearning capacity was measured based on the model of Navarro and Moya (2005), and absorptive capacity was assessed by the model that separated the potential absorptive capacity and the practical absorptive capacity, created by Zahra and George (2005). The creative work environment was measured using the structured questionnaire, developed by Amabile et al. (1996).
A group of C-Group-affiliated companies were selected as the target group in this study as such company conducts a stable business from the production to the distribution of original cultural contents through vertical integration, and the 357 copies of survey questionnaire from E, G, and H companies were finally used for analysis purposes. The SPSS 17.0 and AMOS 7.0 statistical programs were used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis, covariance structure analysis for the verification of the research model and the mediation effect, multi-group factor analysis, and the statistical signification for inferential statistics was set at .05.
Below is a summary of the study results. First, as the result of analyzing the correlation between an individuals' creativity and an organizational creative product, the higher the creativity of an individual member of an organization was, the higher the organizational potentials to produce a creative product. The unlearning capacity was not shown to directly affect the creative product of the organization, but the absorptive capacity was shown to directly affect that.
Second, the individual's creativity was shown to affect the creative product of the organization, not with unlearning capacity, but with absorptive capacity as a mediating factor. It was shown that the significant path from an individual organization member's creativity to the creative product of the organization was mostly affected by the successive mediating models in the order of "individual's creativity → unlearning capacity → absorptive capacity (potential absorptive capacity→ practical absorptive capacity) → creative product of an organization" with the secondary mediating effect.
Third, according to the result of multiple group factor analysis related to the creative work environment, there is differences in the process of creativity development among organizations that have different levels of awareness on the work environment disrupting or promoting creativeness, the support from superiors, group of colleagues, and organization, and the sense of posing a challenge. However, the work pressure and the resources were shown identical. As a result of the path analysis, it was shown that the support from the superior affects the relation between the individual creative property and the organizational creative product as a moderating factor, and the support from the group of colleagues affects the relation among absorptive capacities. In addition, the organizational encouragement or disruption affects the relation between absorptive capacity and the organizational creative product as a moderating factor.
The following are the key issues emanating from the results of this study on the development of human resources for the promotion of a company's creativity.
First, for the effective creativity management, the human resource development should investigate the structure and dynamics of organizational management that expanded from the aspect of individual capacity to the capacity of an organization, and adapt this in accordance with the characteristic of its industry.
Second, it is necessary to find a way to acquire and implement absorptive capacity that is based on the unlearning process. This verified the importance of the development of human resources, which focused on the continuous organizational changes and development, including the knowledge management of the organization, innovation and learning organizations, etc.
Third, the human and non-human working environments affecting the performance should be examined, and the organizational policies and leadership model need to be developed in consideration of each factors’ different effects.
The following can be suggested for future research: (1) To strengthen the competitiveness of creativity, the human resource development should be expanded from the aspect of individual company focusing on employee training to the national level of human capital development. (2) It is necessary to develop and utilize an organizational learning mechanism that supports and promotes the unlearning and absorptive capacities, and accordingly, the effectiveness of such organizational learning mechanism should be measured. (3) The study on the individual or the organizational properties that can promote or disrupt the creativity needs to be implemented. Finally, the proposed model should be further verified not only with an entertainment media company but also with companies in other business fields or types.