Although there is an ever increasing demand for new technology and innovations in the economy and society in general, we currently know little about the conditions for stimulating creativity in relation to research and innovative activity. This book fills a significant gap in the literature by examining the environmental factors that encourage creative working processes for research and innovation. Uniquely, the book investigates creative environments rather than creative individuals which has been the traditional focus of most previous research. The authors first explain what a Creative Knowledge Environment (CKE) is and then examine the phenomenon in a number of case studies at the micro, meso and macro-levels. By analysing the conditions and mechanisms conducive to creativity in both private and public institutions, they are able to identify the work environments which appear to best stimulate the creation of knowledge. They combine and integrate the previously rather disparate literature on creativity and innovation, and summarise what we know about creativity on the basis of current research in a range of disciplines. They also link their findings to contemporary debates about the knowledge society, the knowledge economy and knowledge management, and address relevant issues in science and technology policy relating to knowledge production and exploitation. The concluding chapter summarises what we now know about CKEs and how best to stimulate them, including a discussion of the policy implications and an agenda for future research. Academics and researchers in the fields of science and technology policy, innovation management and business will welcome this original and insightful book. It will also be a useful reference for policymakers involved in knowledge management, and practitioners in R&D departments, universities and knowledge-intensive business sectors.

Leadership is vital to creativity and successful innovation in groups and organizations; leadership is however seldom studied in the academic literature as a creativity driver. One reason for the lack of attention paid to leadership's effect on creativity may be the common belief that creativity cannot and should not be managed. Creative individuals and groups are regarded as, and indeed often are, autonomous and self-driving. From this belief the erroneous conclusion is drawn that there is no need for leadership in creative environments and situations. The better conclusion, proposed by this book, is that leadership not only stimulates creativity, but that such a leadership in the science, technology, and innovation fields should specifically possess at least two features: a) expertise in the field(s), and b) an ability to create, support, and encourage individuals, groups, and creative knowledge environments. A number of specialist authors in this volume offer original theoretical, empirical, and applied chapters that elucidate how to better organize and lead creative efforts in science, technology, and innovation. A number of important research questions are raised and answered, including: What kinds of leaderships are needed at different levels of S&T organizations for a creative output? What social and cognitive abilities and skills are needed for leadership in creative environments? How does leadership vary with different phases of the creative process? This book offers concrete analysis of how leaders and managers can facilitate, promote, and organize for creative performance in science, technology, and in innovating organizations, making it required reading for academic and industrial research leaders, scientists, and engineers.

The indigenous psychologies (IPs) stress the importance of research being grounded in the conditions and culture of the researcher's own society due to the dominance of Western culture in mainstream psychology. The nature and challenges of the IPs are discussed from the perspectives of science studies and anthropology of knowledge (the study of human understanding in its social context). The Element describes general social conditions for the development of science and the IPs globally, and their development and form in some specific countries. Next, some more specific issues relating to the IPs are discussed. These issues include the nature of the IPs, scientific standards, type of culture concept favored, views on the philosophy of science, understanding of mainstream psychology, generalization of findings, and the IPs' isolation and independence. Finally, conclusions are drawn, for example with respect to the future of the IPs.

Leadership is vital to creativity and successful innovation in groups and organizations; leadership is however seldom studied in the academic literature as a creativity driver. One reason for the lack of attention paid to leadership's effect on creativity may be the common belief that creativity cannot and should not be managed. Creative individuals and groups are regarded as, and indeed often are, autonomous and self-driving. From this belief the erroneous conclusion is drawn that there is no need for leadership in creative environments and situations. The better conclusion, proposed by this book, is that leadership not only stimulates creativity, but that such a leadership in the science, technology, and innovation fields should specifically possess at least two features: a) expertise in the field(s), and b) an ability to create, support, and encourage individuals, groups, and creative knowledge environments. A number of specialist authors in this volume offer original theoretical, empirical, and applied chapters that elucidate how to better organize and lead creative efforts in science, technology, and innovation. A number of important research questions are raised and answered, including: What kinds of leaderships are needed at different levels of S&T organizations for a creative output? What social and cognitive abilities and skills are needed for leadership in creative environments? How does leadership vary with different phases of the creative process? This book offers concrete analysis of how leaders and managers can facilitate, promote, and organize for creative performance in science, technology, and in innovating organizations, making it required reading for academic and industrial research leaders, scientists, and engineers.

Indigenous psychologies are attempts to portray the concepts, and to present the evidence, about human behaviour and experience from a point of view within the cultural traditions of the group. It takes a position that distances itself from a uniform (usually Western) psychology, and explores human psychological variation in its own cultural contexts. Indigenous psychologies provide important alternatives to the existing unitary psychology, but in their very diversity we may discover variations and communalities that could provide the basic material to create a more truly pan-human psychology. Thus, diversity in psychological knowledge may allow for the eventual development of a more representative psychology that will likely be very different from current conceptions of human behaviour.