Vol-7, Special Issue-Number4-June, 2016, pp550-559 http://www.bipublication.com
Case Report
The effect of individual creative habits on time management
(Case Study: Lorestan Province Gas Company, Limited)
Moslem Haghi Karamollah1 and Abdol Reza Beygi Nia2
1MSc. Public Administration, 1*Assistant Prof., Faculty of Humanities,
Shahed University, Tehran, Iran (Corresponding Author)
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to identify the "impact of individual creativity habits on time management in Lorestan Province Gas Company".Individual creativity habits (tolerance of ambiguity, listening to the inner voice, lateral thinking for assumptions, ideas collection and development, ideas prevent the rapid evaluation, step comparison, welcome to fortuity) was considered as the independent variable, and time management was considered as the dependent variable.Data collection was conducted by two valid and reliable questionnaireswhichhave been used in previous studies, after some adjustmentsin propositions and retest their reliability and validity in order to measure individual creativity habits and time management. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for both questionnaires calculated as0.88 and 0.92 respectively.Based on the correlation method, survey data were analyzed with SPSS software and multiple regression, Pearson test and Friedman ranking test, were also used.Test results of the hypotheses in the confidence level of 0.95 confirmed four hypotheses of the seven hypotheses of the study. But enough reasons to confirm three other hypotheses were not authenticated.In general, the overall impact of individual creativity habits on time management was approved.
Keywords: individual creativity habits, time management, Lorestan Province Gas Company
1. INTRODUCTION
The today world is rapidly goes through the way of change and global competitions are also on the rise.Creativity as a key element in the social, organizational and personalareas is considered as an indicator of the starting point for innovation and entrepreneurship in organizations.So to recognize the concept of creativity leads to growth and excellence of the organization (Amabile & Moustakis, 2006:79-104). Organizations that do not have the creativity and innovation, could not survive andwould gradually fade from the sceneover the time.In this way, organizations are constantly looking to increase creativity and innovation.Today, "creativity" and "time management" have a special place in management scienceand time is the most valuable human capital that needs to be managed and handledso
organization. In brief, the literature of creativityin organizational and individual level indicatesvarious classifications from inside and outside of the organization that influence people's creativity and innovation (Standy& Tomas, 2008:551-552). People who have more creativity could design their time so that it leads to better time management. Today, creativity, both individual and organizational, is necessary for the survival of organization. Creativity, as a powerful talent exists within the human’s nature from childhood, and human is born inherently creative.However, creativity is not evolved in the early stages of life and therefore need to pay attention, guidance and training (PirKhaefi, 2000, 12-32). Increasing global competition and the increasing demands for products or services made the time dimension of workbecomes more important (Orlikowsky,2002: 684-700).Due to these changes, the pace of life is faster and people are forced to do their work more quickly (Garhammer, 2002: 56-217).For this reason,the necessity of time management at work is felt. Using time management methods, the understanding of how to use time will bemore (Koolhaas, 1992: 94-105).In this case, people can more accurately estimate the time it takes to complete tasks and achieve better results by realistic planning(Francis, 1999:333-47).In today's world, competition in the international arena has forced everyone to pay attention to the time factor since it has impact on productivity. Cost-based management has changed its place with time-based management. So acting on the basis of methods like "just in time", efficient processes, and innovative procedures can be useful.So, paying attention to factors of quality and time besides cost will be very valuable (Iranian national productivitycongress, 2004, 162-171). This study examines the "impact of individual creativity habits on time management in Lorestan Gas Company employees". Since individual's creativity and time management is important in performing tasks in every organization, so the organization under this study also is no exception.
2. An overview of the theoretical framework
and literature
First, to the extent of necessity, the theoretical framework and literature including the categories of individual creativity habits as the independent variable and time management as the dependent variable are discussed and then the researches related to the two main variables (individual creativity habits and time management) will be referred to briefly and concisely.
2.1.Individual and organizational creativity
Waste of time is one of the most costly tasks that usually is done; so, this important resource must be exploitedin the best way through creativity (kay Barbara, 2011:26-27). The words “creation”, “creative”, and “creativity” stem from the same root. “Invention” also called“innovation”, sometimes used as a synonym for the word; therefore explaining these terms will helpto better understand the problem.The word “creation” also means: to create, innovate, establish, being born, being created and emergence (Dehkhoda, 1998: 9924). Creativity may be considered as the highest level of human learning, the highest capacity of thinking, and the final product of human's mind and thought.Dewett (2004)believes that creativity in an organization is often defined as the creation of new andefficient ideas (Dewett. 2004: 257). Based on the results of research conducted in several government agencies, those who enjoy a higher level of creativity in comparison with others have the ability to take higher risks (zhuang et al.,1999: 66). Creative efforts are directly related to people's willingness to take risks. When people are creative or trying creativity, they are more risk taking (Dewett. 2004: 260).The organization itself would not innovative, but the creative people with certain characteristics form the body of the organization.
3. Time Management
guidelines that can be used to manage the time in different areas such as home, school and work (Sida, 2006, 23-43). Time is the most valuable resource that is accessible to human, because other resources are meaningful when the time is available.That's why the importance of time in different cultures and languages is spoken profusely.It should be noted that time cannot be rectified when lost. Efficient use of time is one of the most important aspects of management. Time management, in fact means to take the time and work in our hands and not let things and events to guide us (Nazem & Mohammadi, 2007, 6).Time management is not a new concept and it took into consideration especially in the 1950s and 1960s (Nonis, 2005: 280-409).Time management can be considered as a way to monitor and control the time;hence people can do multiple tasks at the same time with their management (Eilam, 2003: 304-34), understand their duties and responsibilities and be compatible with the constraints (Wratcher, 1988; 566-70). By planning and allocation of time, people's perception of available time could be increased to provide regular and structured use of time(Burt, 1994: 155-68). If someone wants to perform an effective work, he must formally or informally pay attention to it. Virtually all people apply time management to some extent; the question is how good it is used and how it will affect their work (foresyth, 2007, 4). Time management is indeed a sense of self-management and it is interesting to know the skills that we need to manage others are the same skills that we need to manage ourselves; such as the ability and skills in planning, delegating, organizing, leading and controlling.Accurate and timely understanding of the factors wasted our time is very important, since in this way we will shorten its treatment time (Ghorbani & Khosravi, 2005: 79).
4. Literature review
Based on searches done on internal resources, no study entitled “The impact of individual creativity habits on time management” was found. However, the result of the search in external sources
indicates the presence of a study entitled “The relationship between individual creativity and managed time” that was conducted by Zampetakis (2010) in Greece.Nevertheless, in internal resources some researches have been done on time management and individual creativity separately, which in continue each of the studies is referred to briefly.
4.1.Internal studies
Amiri et al. (2007) in their study entitled "the relationship between organizational structure and creativity of staff managers in Physical Education Organization" achieved the result thatthere is a significant relationship between organizational structure and the creativity of staff managers.The most important factor in reducing the creativity of staff managers in Physical Education Organization was the focusing on self-determination rather than participate in decision-making as well as the mismatch between jobs, the fieldof educationand the level of education. The results of the research conducted by Peyvastegar (2010) entitled "The relationship between creativity and subjective well-being in students"revealed that there is a positive relationship between creativity and subjective well-being. Bidakhti (2008) in the study entitled "The relationship between dimensions of organizational climate and creativity among teachers in primary schools in Semnan, Iran" has reported a positive and significant relationship between these two variables. The results of study by Dehshiri (2006) as "the relationship between time management and job stress of high school teachers" showed that there is a significant relationship between time management and job stress.
4.2.External studies
5.3. Hypotheses Main hypothesis:
Individual creativity habits are effective on time management.
Sub-hypotheses:
1. “Tolerance of Ambiguity” is effective on time management.
2. “Listening to inner voice”is effective on time management.
3. “Internal thinking for assumptions”is effective on time management.
4. “Ideas collection” (Ideas Bank)is effective on time management.
5. “Ideas prevent the rapid evaluation”is effective on time management.
6. “Step comparisons”is effective on time management.
7. “Welcome to fortuity”is effective on time management.
5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Based on correlation method to analyze the collected data, descriptive statistics were used to assess demographic variables of the study included age, education and the like, using SPSS software. Then the relationship between variables is examined using inferential statistics based on the Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The multiple linear regressions were also used to test the hypotheses.
5.1.The definition of variables
Tolerance of Ambiguity: Creative people have
greater tolerance for ambiguity than others. They have control on their hasty motives at the times of the decision-making (Mirmiran, 2010: 23-72).
Listening to inner voice: By developing this
ability,creative people would be able to hear everything happens in their subconscious mind. The comprehensive scope of deep thinking is anastonishing gift that God has given to creative people (Mirmiran, 2010: 23-72).
Lateral thinking for assumptions: One of the
strengths of creativity is to find assumptions.Assumptions play important role in the thinking.The basis of research thinking is hypothesesand unconscious assumptions that we
are on the underside of our mind (Mirmiran, 2010: 23-72).
Ideas collection and development: The basis of
research thinking is hypotheses and unconscious assumptions that we are on the underside of our mind (Mirmiran, 2010: 23-72).
Ideas prevent the rapid evaluation: If you want
to develop your own ideas, avoid the rapid evaluations. Give the new ideas a chance for growth. Never froze theflowing ideas with rapid evaluation (Mirmiran, 2010: 23-72).
Step comparisons: Creative people use
metaphors and comparisons in practice.Comparison is, at first glance, a form of hypothetical reasoning since when doing comparisons they will judge on possible assumptions about similarityof the characteristics of two phenomena that have the same features (Mirmiran, 2010: 23-72).
Welcome to fortuity or opportunity: fortuity or
chance/opportunity is opportunities that combine with appropriate time to resources and create the desired results (Mirmiran, 2010: 23-72).
Time Management: Time management is the
effective use of time/moments and a way to achieve personal and organizational goals (Zampetakis, 2010: 23-32).
Taking into account the variables and (their components), the conceptual model (researcher-made) is shown in Figure 1.
independent variable (and its components) dependent variable
5.2. Population, sample and the sampling method The study population consisted of all employees of Lorestan Province Gas Company in Region headquarters (based in the city of Khorramabad). So the population is limited, thus Cochran’s formula were used for determining the sample size of the limited population (sekaran, 2002: 71).Population size in our study was 218in the time of study that using the above formula, the sample was determined as 140 employees.No distinction was applied between managers and employees in terms of employment level.
5.3.Tools and methods to collect and analyze data
Mirmiran’s questionnaire (2010) was used to measure the variable “individual creativity habits” (and its components) and Zampetakis’ questionnaire was used to measure time management. The questionnaires used in the study are valid and reliable in terms of reliability (the experts) and validity due to persistent repetition in previous researches yet to ensure,it was examined using pilot method (on 20 of the statistical population).Pilot result based on the reliability of each tool in terms of Cronbach's alpha to measure each of the variables is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of items and reliable coefficient for each data collection tool
Questionnaire Author Number of items Validity coefficient in terms of Cronbach’s Alpha Individual creativity habits Mirmiran (2010) 22 items 0.8775 Time management Zampetakis (2010) 22 items 0.9168
6. Descriptive analysis of data
In the following, the demographic situation of sample is examined briefly. 39.3 percent (n = 55) of sample are women 60.7 percent (85 people) are men. Most of the sample, 55.7 percent (n= 78) had a bachelor's degree and most of the sample, 58.6 percent (n = 82) were formally employed.
6.1.Inferential Analysis of Research Data 6.1.1. Data Analysis
Before examining the hypotheses and determine the presence or absence of effect of independent variables on the dependent variable, it must first be determined that whether there are a relationship between variables. Pearson test was used to investigate the correlation between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Pearson test results are shown in Table 2.It should be noted that in the absence of any relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable, the investigation of the hypothesis would be discarded.
Table 2. Variables T o le ra n c e to a mb ig u it y L ist e n in g t o i n n e r v o ic e L a te ra l th in k in g Id e as c o ll e ct io n & d e v e lo p me n t Id e as p re v en t th e ra p id e v a lu at io n S te p c o m p ar is o n s W el c o me t o fo rt u it y In d iv id u al c re at iv it y T ime ma n ag eme n t
Tolerance to ambiguity 1
Listening to inner voice 0.282** 1
Lateral thinking 0.180* 0.418** 1
Ideas collection &
development 0.277** 0.148 0.243** 1
Ideas prevent the rapid
evaluation 0.191* 0.238** 0.346** 0.322* 1
Step comparisons 0.269** 0.069 0.129 0.257** -0.010 1
Welcome to fortuity 0.216* 0.198* 0.418** 0.337** 0.264** 0.120 1
Individual creativity 0.512** 0.485** 0.650** 0.740* 0.623** 0.410** 0.285** 1
Time management 0.237** 0.352** 0.395** 0.705** 0.410** 0.285** 0.334** 0.718** 1
The values stated in Table 2 indicate that there is a significant relationship between the independent (and its components) and dependent variable.Thus, the hypotheses could be tested.
6.1.2. Test hypotheses and findings
Using multiple linear regression analysis, the study hypotheses are examined and at the same time the impact of independent variable (and its components) on the dependent variable is measured.The inferential statistics was used to test research hypotheses and due to the nature of hypotheses, "the effect of individual creative habits on time management", multivariate regression was applied.The results of the test of hypotheses are inserted on table 3.Based on the results obtained from the analysis of inferential statistics, in all seven hypotheses, the impact of the independent variable (and its components) on the dependent variable is measured, specifically.
Table 3. Summary of multivariate regression coefficients (the effect of individual creativity habits on time management)
Hypothesis Dependent variable Std.
Error β t-statistic sig result
1st hypothesis Time management 0.038 0.063 -1.06 0.302 Doesn’t impact 2nd hypothesis Time management 0.039 0.190 3.06 0.003 Does impact 3rd hypothesis Time management 0.054 0.113 1.69 0.092 Doesn’t impact 4th hypothesis Time management 0.048 0.583 9.32 0.000 Does impact 5th hypothesis Time management 0.044 0.148 2.41 0.017 Does impact 6th hypothesis Time management 0.031 0.124 2.12 0.035 Does impact 7th hypothesis Time management 0.031 0.011 0.182 0.856 Doesn’t impact For example, in the first hypothesis, because the amount of achieved significant level is more than the value of α = 0.05 and there is not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis, so at the confidence level of 95%, the null hypothesis is confirmed. This means that the element of "tolerance of ambiguity" has no impact on the variable "time management". Given the similarity of statistical test for other hypotheses, both proven and unproven hypotheses, in order to avoid prolongation of sentences and given the limited size of the paper, describing the results of other tests was refused.
Table 4. The test result of the research main hypothesis
Main Hypothesis Dependent variable Std. Error R
2 β t-statistic sig result
Individual creativity
habits Time management 0.067 0.515 0.718 12.10 0.000 Does impact The main hypothesis was lower than the value of α = 0.05 at the achieved significance level; and there are not enough evidence to confirm the null hypothesis, so at the confidence level of 95%, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is confirmed. This means that the variable“individual creativity habits”has impacton the variable “time management”.Due to the fact that the amount of β is 0.718, the impact is positive. Furthermore, the coefficient of determination (R2) is equal to 0.515 and is indicative of the high fitness of the model.
According to the information in table 3, the regression equation is expressed as the equation 1. Equation 1:Y= 0.389 + 0.190 x1 + 0.583 x2 + 0.148 x3 + 0.124 x4
So that:
Y = time management X1= listening to inner voice
X2= ideas collection and development
X3= ideas prevent the rapid evaluation
X4 = step comparisons
changes in dependent variable (time management) as the obtained correlation coefficient, and can affect the dependent variable as mentioned coefficient.
6.1.3. Friedman’s Test
This test is used when statistical data are at least ordinal and they could be ordered with the concept of ordinal.With the help of this test,the variables in the studycould be ranked.
Table 5. Freidman Test results for possibility of components of “individual creativity habits” variable Number of Sample Chi-square Degree of Freedom Sig Result
140 151.41 6 0.000 Ranking is possible
According to the table 5, the amount of sig. is obtained as 0.000and given that sig < 0.05, the null hypothesis is not confirmed and it could be said that the components of individual creativity have not the same rank and they could be ranked. Friedman test was used to rank the components of creativity habits.. Based on this test, the component “step comparisons” possesses the first position and the component “tolerance of ambiguity” is located in the last (seventh)ranking. The results of Friedman test that reflects the order of priority of components of individual creativity habits is shown in the table 6.
Table 6. The results of Friedman test in order to rank the components of “individual creativity habits” Components of individual creativity
habits Ranking Mean Priority
Tolerance to ambiguity 5.05 1
Lateral thinking for assumptions 4.89 2
Listening to inner voice 4.49 3
Ideas collection & development 4.28 4
Welcome to fortuity 3.33 5
Ideas prevent the rapid evaluation 3.01 6
Step comparisons 2.96 7
7. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Literature review indicates that so far in the country no considerable research has been done in this area. Creative and innovative employees are of the main sources for organizations. Scholars of development and progress in various aspects including economic, social, cultural, technological, health, and so on consider the man as the axis of development. They believe that the development of communities and organizations totally depends on optimal use of all possible manpower in each community and organization. Creativity of people in the organization and managing time in doing things is one of the basic organizational resources. Organizations which do not pay attention to creativity and innovation and do not comply with time management in their activities will be deleted from the competition arena.
In the current research, the impact of "individual creativity habits" on "time management" of
Based on theoretical foundations and its history, people who are morecreative,better can manage their time. In addition, other researches which areconsistent with any of the components of the present study, this study confirmed the previous study.
The initial expectation of the researchers was that component "tolerance of ambiguity" in the study population is in the lower level compared to other factors of the “individual creativity” such as “listening to inner voice”, “lateral thinking for assumptions”, “ideas collection and development”, “ideas prevent the rapid evaluation”, “step comparisons”, “welcome to fortuity”. But the results (Friedman test) showed that this component of the "individual creativity habits" variable compared to other elements of "individual creativity habits" is located at the highest rank.
Based on the results of the research,the component of "ideas collection and development" was known as a factor that showed the greatest impact on the variable "time management".
In this regard, perhaps the studied organization should pay more attention on the hypotheses that have been confirmed in order to improve employees’time management skills sinceat the competitive conditions of today organizations, employees are considered as the most valuable assets of the organization.However, no alternative to replace human resource are imaginable currently.
Some applied recommendations are provided in the following for the studied organizationbased on the results obtained from the test of hypotheses. a) The results showed that "Listening to the
inner voice" is effective on "time management". This suggests that by developing this ability, creative people would be able to understand the events that will be happening in their unconscious mind.Therefore, the organization's employees and managers are suggested to listen to their inner voice in very precarious and uncertain
conditions or use the method known as "intuition method".
b) The results showed that "ideas collection and development" is effective on "time management". Based on the result, a set of ideas and information and concepts that exist in the mind can affect creativity and thus time management to do the activities. More learning opportunities should be given to the managers and employees to obtain more information and knowledge (for example through in-service training programs) and improve their basic principles through the meetings, scientific conferences, scientific reinforce. In this way, they become familiar with new and efficient methods and concepts especially the creativity techniques and brain storming.
c) The results showed that "ideas prevent therapidevaluation" is effective on "time management".Accordingly, it is suggested that without adequate thinking; merely on the grounds that some methods worked well in the past, therefore, it would not be a proper basis for doing things in the future since the future is changing and evolving.Therefore deserves to developed and applyappropriate solutions using creative and innovative thinking methods to solve future problems.
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