Tudor Rickards

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Creativity Contributions of Tudor Rickards

Tudor Rickards is a British organizational theorist commonly known for his organizational creativity contributions within Europe since the 1970s, including the founding of Creativity and Innovation Management journal and The European Association for Creativity and Innovation. He is Professor of Creativity and Organizational Change at Manchester Business School, Manchester, England

Development of interests in creativity

Early influences

His interest in discovery processes were shaped by his education as a scientist, gaining a degrees in chemistry and radiation chemistry at the University of Wales, Cardiff, followed by post-doctoral research at the department of biochemistry of New York Medical College [1]

R&D (Research and Development)

On returning from New York to the UK, he worked for Unilever as a new-product development manager at Port Sunlight Research Laboratory. He became part of an innovation group including future Unilever director Richard Duggan , George Davies and Mike Woods [2] who were to maintain an extended interest in applications of creative problem-solving systems such as Synectics. [3] [4]

Creativity Research Unit at Manchester Business School

Alan Pearson, founding editor of R&D management journal , had formed links with the R&D managers at Unilever, and in 1972 invited Rickards to join The R&D Research Unit at Manchester Business School MBS), to study creativity techniques in R&D laboratories. [5]

He was later appointed lecturer in creativity at MBS by its first Director Grigor McClelland , and established The Creativity Research Unit. This appears to have been run on an informal, self-funding arrangement, although by the mid 1970s it was attracting international recognition: George Prince cited Rickards, with De Bono, Koestler and Vernon, as European contributors towards a better understanding of creativity. [6]

In the 1970s he visited with the Cambridge group of Epiphany Philosophers who had become intrigued by the philosophical challenges posed by lateral thinking. [7]


Tom Lupton, who succeeded McClelland as director of the Business School, encouraged Rickards to extend his research into organisational creativity and the management of change. As a consequence, he became influenced by colleagues such as Stafford Beerdeveloping ideas around managerial cybernetics.

Rickards began to examine creativity techniques as variety generation and control systems. Specifically, he argued that the divergence and convergence sub-stages of brainstorming systems were effective structures for teams in 'idea deficient situations'. [8]

Stafford Beer was to play a further part in the development of the organisational structure, and of the educational approach associated with Manchester Business School known as The Manchester Method.

International network building

Building an international research network

Since the 1980s, an international research network has formed of colleagues and former doctoral students researching creativity.

Tony Proctor has studied and published on creative problem-solving [9] including computerised approaches[10].

Simon Aldridge (d. 2007) pursued his interests in creativity in complex social systems such as the National Health Service. [11] [12]

Hernan Riquelmehas studied decision processes of venture capitalists.[13], creative imagery, and Simon'scognitive model of creativity.

Julie Hass researched a creative climate inventory[14] and extended the work into sustainability auditing.

Zain Mohammed applied Ekvall’s creative climate scale to organizations in Malaysia[15]

Christian de Cock has developed a post-structural approach to studies of creativity.

Fernando Gimenezhas examined the strategic decision-making of Brazilian entrepreneurs

Frederic Hsu has studied modes of rationality in strategic decision-making

Faisal Q Khokhar has researched leadership and entrepreneurship in Pakistan

Nathan Proudlove researches group decision systems[16]

Ming-Huei Chen collaborated on the two-barrier model of team development, and on the validation of its team factor inventory]. She has also researched creativity of entrepreneursin Taiwan,[17] and team creativity

Abdulla Al-Bereidi has studied creativity in Saudi Arabian organizations [18]

European Networks for Creativity and Innovation (1987-1993)

The study of creativity stimulation in business became formalized in MBS within The Creativity Research Unit, one of the earliest of such centers to be established in Europe.[19]

His contacts from Unilever Research in the 1970s [20] had helped form links with creativity practitioners in Holland. [21] An early contact in Holland was Jan Buijs who was to become a leading scholar internationally in the design field from the Technology University of Delft.


By 1986, The Creativity Research Unit at MBS had links with creativity centres that were emerging elsewhere in Europe. TNO, The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research , supported an international conference Creativity and Innovation: towards a European Network with the intention of helping ‘build a greater understanding of innovation and creative processes’ across Europe.

The steering group for the conference was Hans Smeekes of TNO for the Netherlands, Tudor Rickards for the United Kingdom, Per Groholt of the Norwegian Centre for Leadership Development acting as a liasion person for Scandinavia, and Patrick Colemont [COCD] for Belgium [22]

In December 1987 the conference took place in Noordwick, The Netherlands, attracting 160 participants from 16 different countries. The steering group was assisted by representatives of groups from Germany and Greece, as well as delegates from outside Europe.

The conference was to be the first in an unbroken series of events held biennially in Europe. In alternative years a similar sequence of conferences were held in North American venues, with collaboration between the steering groups.[23]

Over the period 1987-1994 four European conferences took place. Proceedings were published for each conference. Tudor Rickards provided continuity within the editorial teams for these:

1988: Colemont, P., Groholt, P., Rickards, T. & Smeekes, H., Eds, (1988) Creativity & Innovation: Towards a European Network, Kluwer, Amsterdam

1990: Rickards, T., Colemont, P., Groholt, P., Parker, M., & Smeekes, H., Eds, Theory in Practice: Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Creativity and Innovation, TNO, Delft

1992: Rickards, T., Moger, S.T., Colemont, P., & Tassoul, M., Eds Creativity and Innovation: Quality Breakthroughs, TNO, Delft

1995: Geschka, H., Moger, S.T, & Rickards T., Eds (1995) Creativity and Innovation: The Power of Synergy, Geschka Associates, Darmstadt

The proceedings of the 1994 conference announced the formation of The European Association for Creativity and innovation with support from the province of Limburg and the city of Heerlan.

European Association for Creativity and Innovation

The newly-established EACI group arranged the next conference in Vaals, The Netherlands (April 28th - May 2nd, 1996). The conference addressed the theme of generating and sustaining the impact of impact of creativity . It opened with a keynote speech by Edward de Bono, who argued that the mystique of creativity can be removed if perception is regarded as behaviour associated with a self structuring system. [24]

Creativity and Innovation Network and Management

Section to be added here

Research themes

Structures for stimulating creativity

His early work examined the nature of structured aids to creativity, appeared in Problem-solving through creative analysis.[25]

It was a theme returned to in studies of synectics[26], Creativity at Work, [27] Industrial new-product development, [28] electronic brainstorming,[29] [30] and (with Susan Moger)Handbook for creative team leaders[31]

His advocacy of structured aids to creativity addresses a presumption which he has described as the fallacy of unconstrained action.

The work has been criticised by critical theorists such as Martin Woodwho noted in a review article that Rickards is ‘claiming to speak on behalf of creativity whilst discussing only a percentage of the literature’ [32]

However, Rickards is not an unreflective advocate of creativity techniques. In empirical studies in 1970s with co-worker Brian Freedman [33] [34][35] he explored the mechanisms, scope and limitations of industrial brainstorming, concluding

'There seem two main reasons for utilizing [brainstorming] processes. The first is as an aid to creativity. The second is as an effective means of amassing ideas. These underlying principles have not been satisfactorily validated in the literature, but use of the technique for the latter, variety generating purpose, may be easier to justify than use as a creativity-spurring device'. </ref>

Models and diagnostics

Rickards with his co-workers have developed and validated diagnostics for exploring individual and team level creativity. Early studies led to diagnostics assessing the creative climate of work teams, drawing on the work of Goran Ekvall

A climate measure known as The Creativity Audit was developed in conjunction with John Bessant.

A measure of barriers to creativity was also reported. [36]

In the 1990s, further diagnostic work attempted to establish relationships between creativity, leadership and team effectiveness.

Their two-barriers model of team effectiveness was developed, which challenged the accepted Tuckman modelof team development. Rickards and co-workers suggest a modification to this theory, which they labelled the two-barriers model of team effectiveness. It was initially sketched out in Handbook for Creative Team Leaders. The model proposes two barriers to team effectiveness. The first barrier is claimed to restrict development of the poorest teams at the storm stage of team development. The second barrier, at the norm stage of team development, inhibits a further proportion of teams. Only by breaking out of the accepted norms is a team able to establish new ‘creative’ norms.

The Team Factors Inventory (TFI) was developed as an investigative tool for exploring the two-barriers model.

Discovery learning and The Manchester Method

The Manchester Method is an educational innovation which grew out of attempts to provide more experience-linked learning within business degree programmes at Manchester Business School. In a recent keynote presentation Rickards represented the Manchester Method as occurring with the application of structured aids to enhance creativity within project team work. However, The Manchester Method is also reported as being applied in situations without interventions designed to stimulate creativity.[37]

Other direct and indirect contributions to The Manchester Method were made by an eclectic group of researchers including Eric Miller of the Tavistock Institute, Enid Mumford, and Reg Revans [38].

Creative leadership

In Handbook for Creative Team Leaders Rickards & Moger suggest that creative leaders reconfigure the structures under which team members operate [by] reducing the impact of negative behaviour patterns of team members and providing a more benign structuring of work patterns.[39]

The connection between creative leadership and introduction of creative problem-solving technique systems for enhanced team creativity is supported by studies by Puccio and colleagues [40] at The International Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo, and Basadur and colleagues at McMasters University, Toronto[41]

Broadening The Manchester Method

More recently he has been instrumental in introducing leadership and creativity into the blended learning courses offered by Manchester Business School. These courses, offered to employed senior professionals, enable learning and development in leadership themes, creativity and team working in a way that is directly applicable back to the workplace. This route is also highly international, raising further considerations regarding culturality in teamworking and leadership.

Notes

  1. ^ Rickards, T., Herp, A., & Pigman, W., (1966) The kinetics of depolymerization of hyaluronic acid by l-ascorbic acid, and the inhibition of this reaction by anions of the lyotropic series, J of Polymer Science Part A-1 Polymer Chemistry, 5,4. pp 931-934
  2. ^ Whetten, D.A, Cameron, K.S., and Woods, M., (2000), Developing Management Skills for Europe, London: Pearson Education, ISBN 0201342766, 9780201342765 ISBN 0201342766, 9780201342765
  3. ^ Prince, G.M., (1970) The practice of creativity, NY: Harper & Row
  4. ^ 10.1111/j.1467-9310.1984.tb00505.x
  5. ^ Pearson, A., (1989) Twenty-one years of research into the Management of R&D, R&D Management, 19.2 99-102
  6. ^ Prince, G., Mindspring: Suggesting answers to why productivity is low, Chemical Technology, 6,5, 290-294, citation on p294
  7. ^ Rickards, T., (1978) 'Teaching creativity', Theoria to theory, Vol. 12,pp175-190
  8. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L., (1978) 'Procedures for managers in idea-deficient situations', Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp 43-55; Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L., (1978) 'A note on perceptions of brainstorming obtained from a cross-cultural study', Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp 347-349; Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L. (1979) 'A reappraisal of creativity techniques', Journal of European and Industrial Training, Vol 3 No 1, pp3-8
  9. ^ Proctor, T., (1999) Creative Problem Solving for Managers 1st ed: Oxford, Routledge.
  10. ^ Proctor, T., (1989) 'Experiments with two computer assisted problem-solving aids' Omega, The International Journal of Management Science Vol 17 No 2, pp197-200
  11. ^ Aldridge, S., A Study of Two Action Research Methodologies during Implementation of Technical Changes in the National Health Service., Victoria University of Manchester: Unpublished doctoral dissertation
  12. ^ Rickards,T.,Aldridge,S.,Gaston,K, (1988) Factors affecting brainstorming: towards the development of diagnostic tool, for assessment of creative performance, R&D Management, 18,4,309-320
  13. ^ Riquelme, H., & Rickards, T., (1992) 'Hybrid conjoint analysis: An estimation probe in new venture decisions', Journal of Venture Research, Vol. 7, No. 6, pp 505-518
  14. ^ Hass, J., An Investigation into the Organizational Change Processes Related to Environmental Issues
  15. ^ Mohammed, Z., (1997) Successful Implementation of Innovation amongst Malaysian Firms, Manchester: Doctoral dissertation
  16. ^ Nathan Proudlove (1999) The Support of Group Decision Making using Judgemental Modelling: An Exploration of the Contributions of Behavioural Factors
  17. ^ Chen, Ming-Huei,Entrepreneurial Leadership and New Ventures: Creativity in Entrepreneurial Teams. Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 239-249, September 2007
  18. ^ Albereidi, A., & Rickards, T., (2003) Creativity in a big-five accounting office: A Saudi Arabian case study, Managerial auditing journal, 18: 1/2
  19. ^ Freedman, B.L., (1976) Relationships between theoretical constructs and two major practical techniques of creative problem-solving, Unpublished MSc dissertation, Manchester: University Proctor, T., (1989) 'Experiments with two computer assisted problem-solving aids' Omega, The International Journal of Management Science Vol 17 No 2, pp197-200
  20. ^ Woods, M.F., & Davies G.B., (1973) Potential problem analysis: A systematic approach to problem prediction and contingency planning;an aid to the smooth exploitation of research, R&D Management, 4,1, 25-32
  21. ^ Abels, J.J, (1974) Generating new product ideas, a systematic approach, Netherlands: Markartikelen BV; Melis, T. (1991), The innovative packager. Singapore: Octogram Books
  22. ^ Colemont, P., Groholt, P., Rickards, T. & Smeekes, H., Eds, (1988) Creativity & Innovation: Towards a European Network, Amsterdam: Kluver, p vi
  23. ^ Gryskiewicz, S., (1992) Letter from America (With respectful acknowledgement to Alistair Cooke), Creativity and Innovation Management, 1,4, 214-215
  24. ^ De Bono, E., (1997) Preface, in Rickards, T., Moger, S., Tassoul, M., van de Kimmenade, I, & van den Beuken, J., Eds., (Creativity and Innovation: Impact, Maastricht: EACI v-vi
  25. ^ Rickards, T., (1974) Problem-Solving through Creative Analysis, Epping, Essex: Gower
  26. ^ Synectics: Reflections of a Little-s Practitioner, Creativity and Innovation Management, 12, 28-31, March 2003
  27. ^ Rickards, T., (1990) Creativity and Problem-Solving at Work, Gower, Farnborough, UK
  28. ^ Carson, J.W., & Rickards, T., (1979) Industrial New-Product Development, Gower Press,
  29. ^ Rickards, T., (1994) 'Electronic brainstorming: Asking the right questions', Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol 3, No 2, pp110-114
  30. ^ Rickards, T., (1999) ‘Brainstorming revisited: A question of context’ International journal of management reviews, Vol 1 No 1, pp 91-110
  31. ^ Rickards, T., & Moger,S.T., (1999) Handbook for creative team leaders, Aldershot, Hants: Gower
  32. ^ Wood, M., (2000) Review of Creativity and the management of change, Organisation Studies
  33. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L., (1978) 'Procedures for managers in idea-deficient situations', Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp 43-55
  34. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L., (1978) 'A note on perceptions of brainstorming obtained from a cross-cultural study', Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp 347-349
  35. ^ Rickards, T., & Freedman, B.L. (1979) 'A reappraisal of creativity techniques', Journal of European and Industrial Training, Vol 3 No 1 pp3-8
  36. ^ Rickards, T., Jones, L. (1991), "Towards the identification of situational barriers to creative behaviors: the development of a self report inventory", Creativity Research Journal, Vol. 4 No.4, pp.303-15.
  37. ^ Rickards, T., Hyde, P.J., & Papamichail, K.N., (2005) ‘The Manchester Method: A Critical review of a learning experiment’ in C. Wankel & R. De Fillippi (Eds) Educating managers through real world projects, Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 241-254
  38. ^ Reg Revans, pioneer of action learning
  39. ^ Rickards t., & Moger, S., Handbook for creative team leaders (1999), Aldershot: Gower Press
  40. ^ Puccio, G.J., Murdoch, M.C. & Mance, M., Creative Leadership: Skills That Drive Change
  41. ^ Wilson, P., (1997) Simplex Creative Problem Solving, Creativity and Innovation Management, 6,3, 161-167
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