ISSN 2156-7506

VOLUME
2 Journal of Contemporary Business Studies
International
Vol: 2, No: 3
3 .March, 2011 ISSN 2156-7506
NUMBER
MARCH

2011

International

journal of Contemporary Business Studies

IN THIS ISSUE:

Managerial Competence and Non-Performance of Small Firms in a

Developing Economy
Sanda.A, Jocelyn Sackey, Ylva Fltholm

A Comparison of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Model & Auto Regressive

Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) Model For Forecasting Indian Stock
Market
Dr. Tripathy.N

Idea Generation: A Catalyst for Productivity and Innovation in Advertising

Jahanzeb Shah,Dr. Bakhtiar Ali

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Corporate Vision

Dr (Ms) Ravi Kiran, Anupam Sharma

An International Journal Published by

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies

Vol: 2, No: 3 .March, 2011 ISSN 2156-7506

Idea Generation:
A Catalyst for Productivity and Innovation in
Advertising
Jahanzeb Shah (Corresponding author)
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science & Technology (SZABIST),
Plot # 67, Street # 9, H-8/4, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
Tel: +92-51-9067-26230
Dr. Bakhtiar Ali
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management Sciences,
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science & Technology (SZABIST),
Plot # 67, Street # 9, H-8/4, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
Tel: +92-51-4863363-5

ABSTRACT
Idea generation and creativity in todays hi-tech organizations is expected
to boost up productivity and equip the firms to face modern times global
challenges of a business world. The study is based on the assumption that
certain job related dimensions which serves as impediments to creativity
needs to be minimized that may opens the doors for far-reaching
innovation and sustained competitive advantage. The research was
conducted on Advertising Firms based in four major cities of Pakistan. The
data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire using
stratified random sampling technique. The analysis of data and results
contended the assumption that a hypothesized structural regression model
of impediments to creativity is validated when tested in Pakistani
perspective using Structural Equation Modeling technique. However, the
demographic characteristics and attitude/ interest taken as moderators upon
working style of advertising professionals were found unimposing i.e. not
serving the purpose of a catalyst for improving idea generation and
creativity.
Keywords: Idea generation, Creativity, Structural Equation Modeling,
Advertising Firms

INTRODUCTION
Increasing global recession and competition having volatile market share, along with new
technological developments and market dynamism regarding product life cycle, has made firms,
both local and international, more exposed to a fiasco than in the past. Consequently, it has
become extremely significant for organizations to concentrate on these issues in a creative
befitting manner. No proper consideration has been given to the issues of creativity and survival.
However, only few organizations have realized that creativity is imperative to their long-term
survival in competitive environment (Torrance, 1994).

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Vol: 2, No: 3 .March, 2011 ISSN 2156-7506

Likewise, it is stressed (Ford, 1999) that there are certain crucial factors required for a creative
output, which are often overlooked. He summed up the factors that are essential from the
perspective of collective creativity. His discussion about competitive paranoia in the same study
deals with the creation of joint feeling by a group of common interest people having a common
goal of surviving against the competition faced. This approach emphasizes a creative
environment on one side, by linking group members towards the long-term goal of organizational
survival that encourages generation of new ideas, on the other hand, it reinforce the commitment
of members towards organizations facing external threats.It is a dilemma that organizations
cannot handle a creative people having great ideas because there is an unknown fear of chaos in
the organizational settings. Due to this factor, people who try to be creative often are discouraged
and creativity initiatives are usually placed in cold storage (Claude & Rob, 2008). The study aims
to further improve the understanding of how managers in organizations tackle and figure out the
impediments to creativity in this rapidly changing environment. This study will be unique from
the previous research about creativity as it will underpin an Asian, non-western developing
countrys context. By having a clear understanding of the impediments to creativity, one can gain
a sustained competitive advantage in terms of innovative solutions to cope with market demands
in the South East Asian Developing Nations.
Although numerous studies have attempted to identity the personal and organizational
characteristics that explained creative endowment in the western world, little research has focused
on determining the factors that negatively affect organizational creativity in the developing world.
The purpose of this investigation is to address this core issue in developing world context. Thus, a
distinct contribution to the literature is to identify the potential barriers that affect idea generation
and creativity in the developing world having special emphasis on Pakistani Organizations.
This classification will lead also to a better understanding of the job-related impediments to
creativity as suggested by (Amabile, Jennifer, William, Constance, Steven, & Lee, 2002) as if a
manager reduces time pressure, organizational political problems, and criticism on newly
developed ideas; it will augment idea generation and creativity. Likewise, a manager needs to
foster the freedom of action, having challenging tasks in the work for employees; abundant
resources provision like work-group supports, having diversified skillful teams, help in improving
commitment of employees towards their job, and discuss and encourages useful ideas contributed
by them. Moreover, if a manager values those individuals who actively contributes more,
creativity will increase manifolds. If he/she provides and ensures job security among group
members within the organizational settings by settings, clear and workable goals while giving
free hand in completion of these goals, a positive reinforcement can induce creative ideas for a
better future and finally, he/she needs to persuade top management to give rewards and
recognition to those who produces creative outputs.

Advertising Media and Creativity

In todays era of rapid globalization, the media and technology is playing its pivotal role in
making the life patterns of humans softer and easier day-by-day. Nowadays, the advertising
industry of Pakistan is quite dynamic and vibrant and still growing in a sophisticated and
competitive market environment since the inception of private Television (TV) and Frequency
Modulation (FM) Radio Stations in the past decade. Advertising is a medium used to persuade the
potential buyers to purchase certain products or services. It plays a pivotal role in achieving the
financial and commercial objectives of the firms concerned. The advertiser are nowadays more
focused to inform, educate and facilitate the customers in order to have a timely access to certain
product or a service in a creative, novel and innovative way. Thus, advertisers are conceiving
different ways to make advertising more creative and effective for better penetration among
potential buyers.
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Vol: 2, No: 3 .March, 2011 ISSN 2156-7506

Advertising plays a dominant role in the developing positive or negative perception and attitude
towards purchase decision making by the consumers.Advertising must focus on social and
economic dimensions of consumers and advertisers should create advertisements that are realistic
and resourceful. This relationship emphasize that advertisers should be sensitive to the issues that
may generate consumer indecision (Nicholas & Ugur, 2005).
Creative advertisement in media, can be classified in to two types of groups, one are effective and
creative, and on other side neither effective nor creative. In advertising, creativity and
effectiveness go side by side in order to penetrate the consumers minds where efficiency of a
commercial ad is measured by the proper combination of its creativity and effectiveness. Thus, a
commercial advertisement is to be a creative one, which turns out, well in both streams. An
important aspect is that even if creativity in advertising is a significant ingredient, however,
creativity just for sake of creativity can be of no use if it is not efficient. In order to be creative, an
idea, a thought or a piece of knowledge derived from research can trigger a thought provoking
impact upon potential buyers.
Therefore, as creativity and advertising has a strong link and ties, it needs to be empirically
investigated in Pakistani context as well. To the best of researchers knowledge, no study on
impediments to creativity in advertising industry has been carried out in the Pakistani context in
past. The objective of the study is based on this notion and a search of the literature revealed a
huge gap in the measurement of impediments to creativity particularly in advertising industry in
Pakistan.
Due to this potential vacuum, need is there to empirically identify the impediments to creativity
that may be of great use in future by this industry in improving time pressure constraints,
removing organizational political problems like lobbying and backstabbing. This would help in
creating an environment of constructive criticism on new and creative ideas. Removing
impediments to creativity will fosters the freedom and challenging assignments will be done in
befitted manner. This will ultimately improve commitment towards the job, and members will
openly discuss and encourages useful ideas.
Moreover, by encouraging those individuals who actively contributes more by providing and
ensuring job security, organization can move forward in rapidly changing global arena. This will
make certain that how advertising firms may flourish by introducing new novel ideas and creative
advertisements as per their customers needs and wants, if and only if, the impediments to
creativity are effectively removed. Therefore, developing a creative environment for the
advertising firms in the industry is of greater importance and there is a need to empirically
measure the key impediments that undermine creativity in these firms.

Problem Statement
The purpose of this paper is to empirically measure and identify the impediments of creativity
that obstruct idea generation with specific focus on advertising industry firms in Pakistan.
The statements of the problem are given as follows:

1. What are the key impediments that inhibit idea generation in advertising industry
of Pakistan?
2. What is the impact of demographic variables and attitude/interest on the behavior
of employees towards idea generation in Pakistani advertising firms/organizations?

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Vol: 2, No: 3 .March, 2011 ISSN 2156-7506

Objective of the Study

The main objective of this paper is to test the proposed model and identify the essential factors,
which may undermine creativity of individuals and groups within advertising industry firms.
Based on the quantitative data collected along with statistical analysis and interpretation done, we
may have an opportunity to properly deduce results about the problem under consideration and
may offer some recommendation for future usage.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Skimming through the literature on creativity studies, an exhaustive list of impediments to
creativity is available. However, let us have a look as to why idea generation/creativity itself is
important for organizations.

Why Creativity/Idea generation is important?

The global competitive forces are compelling organizations to develop highly innovative and
creative environment, where idea generation is encouraged and serves as a live blood for
organizational survival. Because of this pressure on organization to be more innovative and
creative, they gradually turn towards idea generation.
The concept of creativity generally means a move towards achieving a practical and unique
result, which is quality oriented. The creativity is nothing else but the generation of novel and
useful ideas (Amabile T., A model of creativity and innovation in organization, 1988). Likewise,
it is commented that various scientists characterize creativity as a source of generating novel or
useful ideas by individuals or teams members. This manifests that idea generation and creativity
are two sides of a same coin (Greenberg & Baron, 2003).
Creativity is an approach that abridges an organization systems and processes which leads
towards a competitive advantage (Cook P., 1998). Moreover, creativity is a vital characteristic
related to life that we act upon in daily routine. It covers a problem at workplace that become
pleasure or an imagination that becomes a reality in a hi-tech world (Bonnardel, 1999). Creativity
and productivity are highly correlated due to which firms strongly believe in the effects creativity
has on better performance and due to this conviction, they spends a lot of money on creativity in
firms (Dennard, Creativity in the 2000s and beyond, 2000).
However, in order to foster the idea generation process and creativity the organization are
compelled to identify the underlying elements. For creating such environment various factors
have been identified & explored by the scholars (West, Sparkling fountains or stagnant ponds: An
integrative model of creativity and innovation implementation in work groups, 2002a); (West,
Ideas are ten a penny: its team implementation not idea generation that count, 2002b); (Mumford,
2003); (Gilson & Shalley, 2004); (Amabile, Barsade, Mueller, & Staw, 2005); (Shin & Zhou,
2003), and (Cheng, 1994).

Impediments to Creativity
In line with review of literature related to creativity, the various impediments are influencing idea
generation/creativity and can have an extremely strong positive or negative impact if altered.
Based on the studies conducted by (Eisenberger & Aselage, Incremental effects of reward on
experienced performance pressure: positive outcomes for intrinsic interest and creativity, Journal
of organizational Behavior, 2008), (Mostafa, 2005), (Amabile, Jennifer, William, Constance,
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Steven, & Lee, 2002), (Eisenberger & Rhoades, Incremental effects of reward on creativity,
2001), and (McNeely & Meglino, 1994), four dimensions of job related issues that serves as
impediments to creative environment are operationalized as given below:-

Low commitment
Commitment of organizational member to their work teams and to the organization can influence
team and organizational performance. Building employee commitment to the workplace is one
important goal of human resource policies and practices. The previous research study presented
that commitment has a positive effect on productivity, turnover and employees willingness.
However, the downsizing, wage erosion and high productivity demands of recent years have
reduced this commitment. Therefore, the issue is not to enhance commitment to the organization
but to the specifically focused on commitment in work group or teams. A person might be
committed to organizations but he will not be contended if his team performance is low. Due to
this, commitment level can be enhanced by re-arranging the organizational structures in
organization to foster creative endowments (Bishop J. W., 1997). It is evident that having low
commitment due to lack of management support continuously reduced employees commitment
towards the organization. If the working atmosphere led to low morale, employees would become
less committed to the organization and it would directly discourage them from being creative.
They would not want to serve the company whole-heartedly, nor would they like to help the
company, which focus on creative thinking (Mostafa, 2005).
Nevertheless, no study had been done to explore the causes of both team and organizational
commitment and the effect they have on productivity, willingness to help team members, and
intention to quit in Pakistani perspective.

Risk aversion and time pressure

All organizations to some extent avert risk. At a certain level, it is a good to be in a position to
take risk if and only if calculated priory in order to protect the organizations from fallacy.
However, the drawback in this approach is that many organizations has typical an unhealthy level
of risk aversion which can be a major barrier to developing a sustainable innovation capability
and the silent killer of many potentially great ideas the may lead to radical innovation (Christian,
2006).
Moreover, Amabile (2002) studied the connection between time pressure and creativity by
employing a new methodology for investigating daily thinking patterns, experiences, and dealings
made in organizations. The most notable and unique finding of the same study is that generally,
time pressure seems to have an important impact on creativity, but, surprisingly, this presupposition was found contradictory. The participants of her study were giving confirmations of
being less creative when time-pressure is not there, while, more creative, when time pressure is
escalated on order to meet certain deadlines in organizational settings. In addition, it is a reality
that risk aversion is deeply rooted in every culture and researchers have reported that managers
are often risk avoiders (Al-Nimir & Palmer, 1982); (Ali & Krishna, 1997). Excessive workload
dominates most of the employees time and in fact, no spare time is available to settle down and
think of any creative idea for talking the problem.

Threatening evaluation
In organizations where coercive management is used a way of doing things, a high level of
negative energy produces. Creativity is used to work against autocratic leaders in spite of
contributing positively to the organization (Wheatley, 1999). Therefore, participative
management approach and threat free environment is conducive for creativity.
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According to Bishop (2005), short-term time pressure may be bad option to steer the mind as it
does not provoke the mindset to engage in the making an effort at various cognitive levels and
consequently, powerless ideas popped up through this process. However, individuals who feel
themselves intrinsically motivated can perform better in short-term time pressure by setting
cognitive forces in to motion and can generate more affluent ideas through this process.

Mechanistic organizational structure

Mechanistic organizational structure is a stable and have specialized differentiation of functional
tasks. The problems and tasks facing an issue in firms as a whole are broken down in to parts. In
mechanistic organizational structure, an individual task pursued is more or less dissimilar from
those of the issue as a whole i.e. the functionaries tend to pursue the improvements of means,
rather than the accomplishment of the ends. It reinforces the hierarchic structure by the location
of knowledge of at the top-level in hierarchy, where the final reconciliation of distinct tasks and
assessment of relevance is made. A mechanistic organizational structure focuses on loyalty to the
issues/problem under consideration and obedience to superiors as a condition of membership in
any firms/organization. In this approach, there is a vertical hierarchical approach between
superiors and subordinates to do things (Burns and Stalker, 1961).
Likewise, Weiner (2000) contended in a study that management has a tendency to preserve the
established traditions, and therefore many rules and standard procedures were set for the
employees to follow and keep them under rigid control. In fact, corporate bureaucracies often
became rigidly formal and thus greatly inhibit creativity. So, based on the relevant literature
review and the resulting theoretical framework, it has been argued that the various job related
issues/dimensions like Low commitment, Risk aversion and time pressure, Threatening
Evaluation and Mechanistic Organizational Structures are influencing the ability of employees to
foster/obstruct idea generation, which is the starting point of creativity.

HYPOTHESIZED MODEL
The framework of this study includes a hypothesized model based on impediments to creativity as
four independent variables that are assumed to have a significant impact on idea generation
(dependent variable). In addition, the two other variables i.e. demographics characteristics and
attitude/interest of respondents have also been hypothesized to check their impact upon dependent
variable.
The path model of impediments to creativity as presented in Fig.1 includes four independent
variables including Low Commitment (Y1), Risk Aversion and Time Pressure (Y2), Threatening
Evaluation (Y3) and Mechanistic Organizational Structure (Y4). Idea Generation being a
predictor of creativity is the dependent variable in this hypothesized model. Demographics
Characteristics (Z1) and attitude/interest (Z2) are moderating variables.
Path analysis models are usually conceived only for testing the observed variables not the latent
one (Stein, 2007). The purpose of this research study using path analysis and structural regression
model is to examine the empirical influence of Low Commitment (Y1), Risk Aversion and Time
Pressure (Y2), Threatening Evaluation (Y3) and Mechanistic Organizational Structure (Y4) on
Idea Generation (X) of employees working in advertising industry in Pakistan.

Hypotheses of the Study

By looking to the path model above, there would be 07 hypotheses of our interest that would
reflect the influence and predictive power of various independent variables such as Low
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Commitment (LC), Risk Aversion and Time Pressure (RA & TP), Threatening Evaluation
(TREV) and Mechanistic Organizational Structure (MOS) on the dependent observed variables
and BTC as latent variable for these four independent observed variables. Idea generation (X) is
an observed variable along with moderating effect of two other latent variables named as
demographics characteristics (Z1) and attitude/interest (Z2) that will check interrelated
characteristics of idea generation.
The hypotheses are as follows:Hypothesis 1:
generation.
Hypothesis 2:
generation.
Hypothesis 3:
Hypothesis 4:
generation.
Hypothesis 5:
Hypothesis 6:

Low commitment of employee is barrier to creativity that obstructs idea

Risk Aversion and Time Pressure is barrier to creativity that obstructs idea
Threatening Evaluation is barrier to creativity that obstructs idea generation.
Mechanistic Organizational Structure is barrier to creativity that obstructs idea

Attitude/interest positively affects idea generation process.

Gender & Education of employee, being demographics characteristic, positively
affects idea generation process.
Hypothesis 7: Barriers to creativity negatively affect idea generation process.

METHODOLOGY
This exploratory study is based on survey research design in which potential impediments to
creativity that affect idea generation were analyzed using LISREL 8.8 and SPSS 14.0 softwares.
The study is comprised of testing certain hypotheses and overall proposed model investigation
using Structure equation modeling technique.

Sample
Based on the fact that advertising firms in Pakistan represent a large segment of the market in
todays era of piquant media and technological environment, which has a great deal of influence
upon masses, and they deserve considerable attention by researchers in the field, therefore, the
sample from advertising firms has been chosen for this study.Based on their ROI/ financial
returns in the past decade, the sample was drawn from Top 5 firms of Pakistans advertising
industry. The questionnaire was developed by researcher and distributed via emails to the
professionals like copy writer, art directors, media manager etc. in top five advertising firms who
details were extracted from industry directory available online or via Yellow Pages (The
Advertising Agencies in Pakistan, 2010).

Procedure
For content validity, primarily, the survey questionnaires developed by researcher were pretested, using expertise of professional like researchers and practitioners in the field. After the pretesting procedure done, some minor modifications were made in consultation with experts and the
language as well as flow of questions was changed.
Then pilot study was conducted on 15 respondents from advertising firms and Cronbachs alpha
values for scales developed for independent variables i.e. Low Commitment (Y1), Risk Aversion
and Time Pressure (Y2), Threatening Evaluation (Y3) and Mechanistic Organizational Structure
(Y4) and dependent variables i.e. Idea Generation (X) of employees were found in a range of 0.65
and 0.78.
Finally, the revised survey instrument was distributed initially among 80 potential professionals
of five advertising firms via email as per details provided by concerned HR department of firms.
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Initially, the number of returns of questionnaire from the same survey had disappointing response
rate of less than 10 per cent, then a self-administered approach for collection of data was adopted
from the rest of the initial sample selected with the help of various professional colleagues at
Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar.
While utilizing two types of data-collecting procedures, the researcher got 99 self-administered
questionnaires. 04 questionnaires having certain ambiguities in responses being less suitable for
analysis were discarded, which finally left 95 usable questionnaires with us for analysis using the
LISREL 8.8 and SPSS 14.0 softwares.

MEASURES
The instruments/questionnaire developed consists of three parts. Firstly, the demographic part is
containing respondents name, age, gender, post field/cadre, education level, job tenure,
organizational name/sector, and organizational size. Secondly, Attitude/ interest variable was
measured by adopting a scale developed by Holt et al. (2002).Thirdly, the researcher developed
the instrument based on a study conducted by Mostafa (2005). The developed instrument includes
03 dimensions used as independent variable derived from a study conducted by Mostafa (2005)
containing dimensions such as Low Commitment, Risk Aversion and Time Pressure, Threatening
Evaluation. Fourth dimension used as independent variable was adapted from a study by Ali
(2008) having a dimension of Mechanistic Organizational Structure. Moreover, a 13 items scale
for idea generation and creativity were developed from few creativity-based studies such as
Eisenberger and Aselage (2008), Eisenberger & Rhoades (2001) and McNeely & Meglino (1994).
The responses for 50 items scale, after pilot testing, were calculated on five points Likert-type
scale, which ranges from 1-5 i.e. Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. By using ten different
scales developed by the researcher, which has different ranges between two-points (e.g. gender)
to five points (Likert Scale), the data from respondents was collected in five weeks.

Reliability and Validity of Measures Developed

As per Gatewood and Field (1990), an instruments ability to present coherent results if used
repeatedly is called reliability. According to Flynn et al. (1994), the reliability and validity
analysis for the measures used in empirical research is essential for several reasons. It makes one
certain about the results and finding which means a clear prediction about the proposed
hypotheses. In addition, a validated instrument/s may be used in different field of studies for
research purposes in distinct populations samples.
Likewise, Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) suggested that in order to test unidimensionality for
internal consistency and reliability of items used in the measures, one has to calculate Cronbachs
alpha statistics, which should be above the acceptable threshold of 0.70. Similarly, George et al.
(2000) showed in their study that Cronbachs alpha is the basic measure for testing reliability
issue of scales used.For this study, the items of instrument in each variable were clubbed together,
and coefficient alpha was calculated for each dimension given in Table 1 as follows:

1
2
3
4
5
6

Table 1: Reliability Statistics

Constructs
Items
Low Commitment Items
08
Risk Aversion & Time Pressure Items
04
Threatening Evaluation Items
08
Mechanistic Organizational Structure Items
17
Idea Generation Items
07
Creativity Items
06

Cronbachs Alpha
.7038
.7105
.7231
.7201
.7710
.8201

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The Cronbachs Alpha calculated values for instruments used in this study are ranging from 0.70
to 0.82 as shown in Table 01, which predicts reliability of measures developed. In addition,
Bagozzi and Yi (1988) also recommended that all composite reliabilities measures of constructs
must exceed the recommended level of 0.70 only then one can rely on the results obtained.
Moreover, for discriminant validity, the correlations of likely related constructs were also
calculated to check potential multicollinearity issue in the data. According to Hair et al. (1998),
no single pair of measures should have correlations among them exceeding the criterion (0.9 and
above). The results shown below entails that there is no issue of multicollinearity among the
study constructs that we used.
The correlations are shown in Table 02 given as follows:Table 2: Correlations
LC
LC
1
RA & TP
-0.1473
TR EV
0.0508
MOS
0.1212
Interest
0.0338
Gender
0.2258
Education
0.1245
Idea generation -0.0661

RA&TP

TR EV

MOS

Interest

Gender

1
0.1421
0.1749
-0.0329
0.0596
-0.0503
0.2992

1
0.6144
1
0.0650 0.1890
1
-0.0507 -0.0859 -0.0105
1
0.1232 0.0408 -0.0183 0.0285
0.5910 0.6554 0.0561 -0.0334

Education

1
0.0102

Therefore, the results of the various tests for checking the unidimensionality, reliability and
discriminant validity show concrete evidence of the internal and external validity of the
measurement scales which have been used in this paper.

ANALYSIS OF DATA AND RESULTS

Descriptive Statistics
Table 3 to 7 represents descriptive statistics of sample under consideration, which include
demographic characteristics such as gender, employees age, education level, job tenure and
organizational name.
Gender
Male
Female
Total

Table 3: Gender
Frequency Percent
51
53.7
44
46.3
95
100

Table 4: Employees Age

Age
Frequency
Percent
20 TO 30 yrs
24
25.3
30 TO 40 yrs
36
37.9
Above 40 yrs
35
36.8
Total
95
100

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Table 5: Education Level

Education Level
Frequency
Percent
PhD
1
1.1
MS
31
30.5
Masters
34
35.8
Bachelors
29
32.6
Total
95
100
Years
1-3 yrs
4-7 yrs
8-10 yrs
Above 10 yrs
Total

Table 6: Job Tenure

Frequency
Percent
30
31.6
25
26.3
21
22.1
19
20
95
100

Table 7: Name of Organizations

Name of Organization
Frequency
Manhattan Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan.
20
Orient Mccann-Erickson (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan.
22
Interflow Communications (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan.
25
R-Lintas (Pvt.) Ltd, Pakistan.
10
Prestige Communications (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan.
18
Total
95

Percent
21.1
23.2
26.3
10.5
18.9
100

Proposed Model Testing

Structural equation modeling method was employed to test the hypothesized model. The LISREL
8.8 (Student Edition) program was used for the analysis of the same. The model testing results are
shown in Figure 2. It has been found that out of 04 dimensions of impediments/ barriers to
creativity, 02 of them are significantly explaining negative effect upon idea generation in
advertising firms employees. The observed variables used to predict the latent variable in
structural equation modeling were obtained by processing the data collected via research
instrument. A proposed hypothesized path model as shown in Fig.1 was tested relating four
dimensions of Impediments/Barriers to Creativity with Idea generation in this proposed model.
This model has been validated and model fit statistics is clearly illustrating a statistically
significant positive relationship (p<0.01) for 02 independent variables. No negative relationship
was reported in this model fit statistics. The t-values for only two of independent variables i.e.
Threatening Evaluation and Mechanistic Organizational Structure and a latent variable,
Impediments/Barriers to creativity (BTC) with dependent variable Idea generation (IDEA) were
found significant as it ranges between -2 to 2, so the results have been significantly proved and
validating the two of the proposed hypotheses in this case.
As per Wheaton et.al (1977), the relative/normed chi-square (2/df) as mentioned in a study by
Hooper et.al (2008), Chi-square/degrees of freedom value less than or equal to three is acceptable
one for model fit. Even though, there is no agreement regarding an acceptable ratio for this
statistic, recommendations normally ranges from as high as 5.0 (Wheaton et. al, 1977) to as low
as 2.0 (Tabachnick and Fidell,2007). Moreover, GFI, and CFI greater than 0.9, an AGFI greater
than 0.8, RMSR less than 0.1, and RMSEA less than or equal 0.08 are generally being considered
a model fit indices for better prediction (Hooper et.al, 2008).
As depicted in Table 8, all goodness-of-fit indices for model are fulfilled and are in the range of
the recommended values and model is a fit for prediction.
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Table 08: Fit Indices for Research Model

Independent Variables

Chi-square/
df

GFI

LC, RATP, TREV, (20.204 /18) = 0.95

MOS,
Interest, 1.122
Education, Gender

AGFI

CFI

RMSR

RMSEA

Remarks

0.90

0.98

0.09

0.036

Model fit
for
prediction

Note: (2/df) 3, GFI and CFI > 0.9, AGFI >0.8, RMSR < 0.1 and RMSEA 0.08.
Where as GFI = goodness-of-fit index; AGFI = adjusted goodness-of-fit index; NNFI = nonnormed fit index; CFI = comparative fit index; RMSR = root mean square residual; RMSEA =
root mean square error of approximation.
Figure 1:

Proposed Path Model

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Figure2:PathEstimatesofResearchModel

Figure3:TvaluesforResearchModel

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Hypothesis Testing
Hypothesis 1 and 2 are postulated that Low Commitment and Risk Aversion/Time Pressure are
barriers to creativity and have negative effects on idea generation. However, the direct paths
between Low Commitment towards barriers to creativity and Risk Aversion/Time Pressure
towards barriers to creativity are insignificant since the regression coefficients (11 and 12) are
(0.14 and 5.28) with insignificant t-values for both of them. These shows an insignificant
statistical result and conclude that Low commitment and Risk Aversion/Time Pressure issues
does not hampers idea generation in our chosen sample.
However, Hypothesis 3 and 4 are postulated that Threatening Evaluation and Mechanistic
Organizational Structure is a barriers to creativity and negatively affect Idea generation. The
regression coefficients (13 and 14) are (6.14 and 5.56) with t-values of 4.37 and 4.47. This
clearly portrays a significant statistical result and deduces that when there is a high level of
Threatening Evaluation and Mechanistic Organizational Structure in organizations, it serves as
impediments/barriers to creativity.
Table 9 shows relative hypothesis test results for research model under study.
Hypothesis
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
H6
H7

Co-efficient
11= 0.14
12= 5.28
13= 6.14
14= 5.56
15= 0.017
16= 0.023
17= 0.12

t-values
0.00
0.00
4.37
4.47
0.32
0.22
4.56

Sig.
Non-supported
Non-supported
Supported
Supported
Non-supported
Non-supported
Supported

In addition, Hypothesis 5 and 6 are postulated that Demographic Characteristics and

Attitude/Interest have a positive effect on Idea generation. The regression coefficient (15 and 16)
are 0.017 and 0.023 with t-values of 0.32 and 0.22. This insignificant result also shows that
Demographic Characteristics and Attitude/Interest have a no significant effect on Idea generation.
Finally, Hypothesis 7 postulates that impediments/barriers to creativity obstruct idea generation
process. The regression coefficient (0.12) and t-value (4.56) clearly predicts that idea generation
decreases with an increase in impediments/barriers to creativity.
The whole model summary such as R Square and Adjusted R square values that predicts model fit
in this case are presented in Table 10 given as follows:Table 10: Model Summary
Model
R
R Square
Adjusted R Square
Std. Error of the Estimate
1
.734
.538
.501
.4701
a. Predictors: (Constant), Low Commitment, Risk Aversion & Time Pressure, Threatening
Evaluation, Mechanistic Organizational Structure, Gender, Education and Interest
Dependent Variable: Idea Generation

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

This paper underscores the impact of various dimensions of impediments/barriers to creativity in
advertising firms and its degree of importance in generating new ideas. The creativity barriers in
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various dimensions play a decisive role in impeding the workforce to think creatively and reduce
novel idea generation. This study is being an empirical investigation popped up with results that
various dimensions of barriers to creativity undermine idea generation.The most prominent
finding of the study is that a high level of importance and value that has been calculated for
threatening evaluation and Mechanistic Organizational Structures i.e. two important variables of
creativity barriers. It is concluded in our study that least concern was reported about Low
Commitment, and Risk Aversion & Time Pressure, which is totally in line with studies conducted
by Bishop (1997) and Amabile (2002).
Low commitment has no affect upon idea generation in our sample just because in order to be
creative, employee not only needs to be committed to the job but require freedom, trust and idea
support. As our chosen sample predicted that there is no issue of commitment among advertising
firms employees and a climate having higher level of freedom, trust and supporting new ideas,
employees are purposely doing their job in such a manner as they like so they are creative and
exercise organic control for strategic alignment towards organizational goals.
Secondly, the sample of study have not clearly acknowledged one of the hypotheses i.e. Risk
Aversion and Time pressure does not affect idea generation activity as a better motivating/
instrument, and they are least concerned with Risk Aversion and Time pressure issues at
workplace for idea generation and creativity. This is also in line with surprising results already
investigated by Amabile (2002). So, this hypothesis has been validated in connection with
previous research done.
In this study, it has been concluded that, tough and rigid climate characterized by threatening
evaluations, mechanistic structures and rigid rules is potential threat for advertising firms that
needs to focused and overpowered for better productivity. Workers who execute their activities in
a predefined way having no autonomy to alter or redefine their assignments will ultimately
impede creativity.
Based on the analysis and results obtained, it is concluded that an approach to enhance and boost
up idea generation for achieving innovation in work performance with the help of reducing
Threatening Evaluations and Mechanistic Organizational Structure is a simplest way. It is
suggested that the Top Level Leadership of advertising firms must exert their focus upon further
humanizing their organizational environment by reducing impediments/barriers to foster idea
generation and creativity.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS

This paper has offered understanding regarding the impact of key factors associated with barriers
to creativity upon idea generation. As per finding of this study, Leadership of advertising firms
may further develop commitment and support for risk-taking attitude, based on the premise that
learning and new ideas could be the outcome of risk taking and will make the employee feel at
higher level of satisfaction. In fact, the employees behavior can be altered in such way when they
will make mistakes and handle them at their own. This will determine whether employee feel
liberated to act creatively or not. Brodtrick (1997) advocated the same by saying that mistakes
can be discounted, censored, used to punish someone or considered as a learning opportunity.
Thus, we can precisely say that acceptance of mistakes is an important component that
encourages and elevates creativity and innovation.

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The HR and Marketing experts may revise and improve their organizational environment and its
working in order to achieve a competitive advantage. For that reason, this study shows empirical
results that may be useful for the Top Level decision makers in organizations, as the results have
clearly showed the considerable relationships and links between various dimensions of barriers to
creativity and idea generation process for creativity in organizations. This study contributed to the
literature by discovering a model having key facts regarding the insight about employees of
Advertising Industry of Pakistan, which were not empirically investigated in Pakistani context up
until now.
The academic implication of this study is that a new dimension was explored in developing
country context and knowledge on the subject field has been enlarged. Through this approach, an
organizational culture can be altered by applying this tested model in order to cope up with latest
challenges and threats faced by 21st century organizations. Moreover, an empirical investigation
will further provoke the issue under consideration to further enumerate the impediments to
creativity in a better way in other social and scientific field of studies and will make effort to
reduce them in order to gain competitive advantage.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
A sample chosen for this study was reasonable in number/size, but due to limited resources like
time factor and financial resources, the study was restricted to a sample chosen from only Top
five advertising industry firms of Pakistan. This study was conducted in Pakistani perspective so
it is not a better idea to generalize the results to other Asian Countries as the economic,
technological, environmental and political situations are very much different from Pakistan.

FUTURE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

The future research may focus on the impact of creative barriers upon idea generation in
relatively large sample taken from advertising industry of Pakistan for more persuasive
assessment. In this paper, a limited sample based study was conducted and need is there that more
firms may be included in the sample and further investigated by researchers so that to have a clear
and more compelling predictive assessment among majority of advertising companies working in
advertising industry in Pakistan.
A sample from various other industries such as Oil and Gas Sector, Banking, Telecommunication
etc. can be drawn and empirically tested to properly generalize the model and results calculated
from the same study. In this way, the unidimensionality and generalizability of the current study
can only be achieved.

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