ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concepts of organisational culture and climate. Seven key factors are of crucial importance in developing a climate that fosters innovation: structure, leading individuals and teams, vertical and lateral communication, trust, motivation, rewards and recognition, and training and staff development. Businesses that take a democratic workplace approach to pursuing their objectives have built cultures and climates that foster innovation. The chapter explains management acceptance and encouragement of business creativity. It reviews what is needed to encourage personal and group creativity before discussing what changes need to be made to traditional organisational structures. The chapter focuses on building teams with reference to Belbin, MBTI and KAI inventories, and empowering groups – tasks of a creative problem-solving facilitator. It describes the personality factors of an organization. For organisations to successfully innovate it is essential for top management to adopt a holistic attitude and climate that encourages business creativity and innovation.
