I was not surprised by the inclusion any of Ekvall’s ten dimensions as I could quickly see
reading the description of each dimension the impact that it would have on a creative climate.
I could not think of any additional dimensions that should be added, but I found it interesting
that conflict is the only negatively correlated dimension.
The hardest dimension to evaluate was conflict. I have worked for several departments within
my current organization and have experienced a vast difference in the amount of conflict that I
have seen. In my current department the average tenure of employment is over 10 years.
Everyone on my current team is extremely supportive and looks out for each other. We are an
externally facing department and must constantly work together to ensure our messaging is
consistent with our various hospitals and accounts. I had a very different experience working
in one of our operation areas where the more senior employees often conflicted with the newer
and often younger employees. In that department there was a heavily established way of doing
things and any potential innovation to improve the existing processes was discouraged by the
senior employees. This created a rift amongst that team that was only solved by a change in
leadership and a change in workforce mobility allowing associates to work remotely.
After reviewing my organization two of the highest rated dimensions that stood out to me were
freedom and trust. Our organization offers a lot of freedom including options for working
hours which appeals to a lot of our employees who have young children and it allows them
more work-life balance. Our organization also has worked to mobilize our workforce
transitioning 75% of the company into mobile workers who work primarily from home, while
still offering office spaces for any employees who would prefer to work in an office setting. I
have found that the ability to work from home has reduced the amount of tension and stress I
feel while doing my job, but there was an adjustment period. Our organization also encourages
employees to sign-up for career enhancement programs that are completed during work hours
and help associates to learn new skills, job shadow with other areas, and discover their path
within the organization. Trust and openness are another dimension I wanted to highlight with
my organization. I always feel that I can pick up the phone or walk over to my colleague’s
desk and bounce ideas off them with the comfort of knowing that they are open to ideas and
are trustworthy. My current team often faces new challenges that require a great deal of
brainstorming and collaboration to solve and having a high level of trust and openness makes
creative problem solving so much easier. It also allows our team to leverage the individual
experience of all our teammates and tap into them to get their thoughts on new ideas and
collect honest feedback.
The lowest rated dimension for my organization that I evaluated is risk taking. This is partially
the nature of the beast in the industry that my organization operates in (health insurance), as
we constantly are navigating new and everchanging laws and guidelines that we must abide
by. My organization is often hesitant to take on a great deal of risk and one example that I
noted was our reliance on a few old systems that haven't been updated to mitigate the potential
impact to our network. We are very thoughtful and cautious before we bring a new product to
market which in some ways are a positive, but it also means we can be slow at times when it
comes to bringing innovative ideas to market. e e
Were you surprised by the inclusion of any of Ekvall’s ten dimensions? Are there any
additional dimensions that you think should have been included?
Good afternoon, everyone! This was a very insightful exercise and provided a helpful glance
at the importance of evaluating an organization’s creative climate. I was not surprised at the
dimensions that were included. I did not think of another area that should be included at this
time.
It gave me an added awareness that the perceptions of the employees are relevant and shed
light on the mannerisms and energy that is present within the organization. In my work
experience, the culture, or beliefs and values, of the organization are an important dimension
and catalyst for employee engagement and enthusiasm. The culture is important and relevant;
however, it is critical, in my opinion, to foster a climate that invites employees to make
contributions, share innovative ideas, feel encouraged, trusted, and supported in their decision
to step out with a new idea and be vulnerable.
Which dimension of creative climate was the hardest to evaluate?
It was difficult to evaluate the conflict area because the conflict is kept to a minimum and the
authoritarian style of leadership often creates an atmosphere of fear and obedience. It is easy to
observe employees doing what they are told, repenting for wrongdoing, and downplaying any
tensions for the sake of the mission. I do not think there is warfare or plots. I notice an
unhealthy fear and dismissal of conflict so to avoid further complications among the team. The
focus is the mission regardless of the cost to personal boundary violation or ridicule to staff
that is inappropriately handled.
Share any insights or thoughts about the creative climate for the organization you evaluated.
Discuss the one to two dimensions that received the highest and lowest scores.
The area of challenge in the creative climate is a strong area of motivation for the team. They
are driven by the mission and goals that focus on healthy choices and saving lives. I believe
that the culture for the non-profit is the driving force for the team. Every person that is a
member of staff or a volunteer believes in the mission and will accept any challenges that are
presented because they believe in the mission of the organization. The mission creates a
personal sense of mission to live out what the staff and volunteers are passionate about. This
creates joy, comradery, and family atmosphere. That encourages joyful and meaningful
attitudes that drive the mission forward. That area was an easy high score of engagement at a 3.
The area that was lowest was the debate. This was based on the information and perception
that the leadership is not to be questioned. There is an air of fear and obedience. It is something
that I believe needs to be addressed and the entire organization would benefit from healthy,
outside led, dialogue on the elements of healthy and creative climate in the workplace.
I was happily surprised with the dimensions; it allowed me to learn more information about
the company and get an understanding of what I need to understand about the company. I
would try to add more informational questions about how they stay motivated or how they
stick to a needed schedule for movement in the process.
I was struggling to rate the importance of freedom. I felt that it was a high importance and that
it needed more room for explanation. At the same time, I felt risk taking was about the same
idea as freedom. I felt that if we were able to take more risks its basically having full freedom
or even if we take risks but with a given range of freedom, we could still take the risk needed
but staying in line with company choices.
I felt that the challenge explained by the person I interviewed was a very important idea to
work on. The inability to close a sale of a product or unable to up sale features can cause less
revenue for the company and potentially take money from their pocket. Debate would be the
one idea I felt it was not important within his organization because the rules for their sales was
set for certain areas and debating how one person sales to a customer compared to another was
not quite relevant because each customer has different wants.
References
Omni Skills (2021). Creative Climate. Retrieved from Creative Climate - Ekvall (snhu.edu)
