Hi,

 

I would like to distribute the following call for papers for the CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation to the list https://e-publishing.cern.ch/index.php/CIJ/announcement/view/6

 

 

Call for papers for a CIJ Special Issue "Designing creative spaces to support Experimental Innovation"

Submission deadline: 30th April, 2018

 Special Issue editors

Matteo Vignoli, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Elisa Mattarelli, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Saku Mäkinen, Tampere University of Technology

In today’s society, change is the new constant and organizations are challenged to increase the levels of creativity and innovation, while fulfilling the needs and aspirations of knowledge workers and millennials in the workplace. The literature underlines that individual creativity and innovation abilities are not just driven by individual traits, but can be enhanced and developed (Ripple, 1989). For this reason, organizations have recognized the importance of designing collaborative workplaces aimed at furthering innovation and creativity, i.e. creative spaces (Amabile, 1996). Recently, we have witnessed an increase in interest from organizations to implement different types of creative spaces (De Paoli and Ropo, 2017). Examples are given by Ideasquare at CERN (http://ideasquare.web.cern.ch/), the Design Thinking Area inside Barilla, recently awarded by the ADI Design Index (http://www.adidesignindex.com/it/ricerca-per-l-impresa/2016/area-design-thinking-barilla), and the global SAP Next-Gen Program with creative spaces all over the world (https://www.sap.com/corporate/en/company/innovation/next-gen-innovation-platform/network.html).

In a recent study of several collaborative spaces the most common characteristic of creative spaces is that they look different from traditional office design (De Paoli and Ropo, 2017). Indeed, most of the literature on creative spaces focuses on the impact of the physical properties of the space (e.g., light, noise levels, furniture, layout) on individual or group creativity (Meinel et al., 2017). To this regard, creative spaces often take the form of an open space. Open spaces are built with the hope of improving creativity by furthering spontaneous communication, collaboration, and hybridization of different kinds of expertise. However, we also know that open spaces pose challenges, e.g. related to lack of privacy, reduced possibility of exposing identity makers, noise, reduced focus (Pearce and Hinds, 2018). To deal with these issues, a few studies underline importance of the combination of a physical space and organizational support like a facilitator or a coach connected with the space (e.g., Moultrie et. al, 2007).

Overall, the literature suggests controversial findings on the role and outcomes of creative spaces and does not explore how people experiment and innovate within them. However, new approaches to innovation, such as design thinking, lean innovation, and agile methods, focus on experimentation and teamwork and, more or less implicitly, assume that team members will work together within a creative space and experiment or prototype their ideas in multiple iterations. Unfortunately, the results of such experimentations vary greatly in different organizational, cultural, and industry contexts (e.g., Varlander et al., 2016).

This Special Issue calls for submissions that deal with the challenges managers, teams, and individuals face when organizations embed creative spaces in their premises. We are particularly interested in understanding how people make use of these spaces, how they experiment together, and the implications for innovative outcomes. We welcome contributions, both conceptual and empirical, from the field of creativity and innovation management, architecture and design, human resource management, organization studies, ergonomics, and psychology.

Among topics that might be of interest for this Special Issue of CIJ, we welcome manuscripts from areas including but not limited to:

  • Cases of successful implementation of spaces that foster creativity, innovation and experimentation.
  • Design elements to consider when designing, managing and using creative spaces (office elements, spatial layout, office types, organizational integration, dedicated personnel, connections with the society and the environment).
  • General trends and descriptions of the phenomenon.
  • Relations between workspace arrangements, organizational processes, activities and results in terms of creativity, innovation or experimentation.
  • Specific cases presenting spaces design that fosters creativity, innovation and experimentation.
  • Empirical evidence on the influence of creative, innovation or experimental spaces on variables related to interaction, collaboration, communication, and organizational culture
  • Impact of creative spaces on individual, team level and organizational level creativity, innovation, experimentation and performance.
  • Evolutions of the organization culture in terms of creativity, innovation and experimentation after the implementation of such spaces.
  • Experimental innovation spaces.
  • Design toolkits and best practices.

This Special Issue is seeking manuscripts presenting a concise answer to a specific research question following CIJ 1500 – 3000 words space limits. The submitted manuscripts should follow the CIJ template (can be found at https://e-publishing.cern.ch/index.php/CIJ/pages/view/for_authors) containing the manuscript outline and submission information.

 

For further information in case of questions concerning the Special Issue, please contact:

Matteo Vignoli, Guest Editor, (matteo.vignoli@unimore.it)

Elisa Mattarelli, Associate Editor, (elisa.mattarelli@unimore.it)

Saku Mäkinen, Editor in chief, CIJ (saku.makinen@cern.ch)

Valeria Brancolini, Managing editor, CIJ (valeria.brancolini@cern.ch)

 

Timetable

5 March 2018               Call issued
30 April 2018               Deadline for papers
20 May 2018                Reviews returned
31 May 2018                Revised papers submitted
30 June 2018               Special issue published

References

Kohlert, C. and Cooper, S. (2017) Space for Creative Thinking: Design Principles for Work and Learning EnvironmentsCallwey Verlag, Munich DE.

De Paoli, D. and Ropo, A. (2017) Creative workspaces – a fad or making real impact?, Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 19(3) pp. 157-167.

Amabile, T.M. (1996), Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity, Westview Press, Boulder, CO.

Amabile, T.M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J. and Herron, M. (1996), Assessing the work environment for creativity, Academy of Management Journal, 39, pp. 1154–1184.

De Paoli, D., Sauer, E., & Ropo, A. (2017). The spatial context of organizations: A critique of ‘creative workspaces’. Journal of Management & Organization, 1-22.

Doorley, S. and Witthoft S. (2012) Make Space. How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.

Dul, J. and Ceylan, C. (2011), Work environments for employee creativity, Ergonomics, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 12–20.

Kristensen, T. (2004), The physical context of creativity, Creativity and Innovation Management , Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 89–96.

Magadley, W. and Birdi, K. (2009), Innovation labs: an examination into the use of physical spaces to enhance organizational creativity, Creativity and Innovation Management , Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 315–325.

Meinel, M., Maier, L., Wagner, T. and Voigt, K.-I., (2017) Designing Creativity-Enhancing Workspaces: A Critical Look at Empirical Evidence. Journal of Technology and Innovation Management, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-12.

Moultrie, J., Nilsson, M., Dissel, M., Haner, U.-E., Janssen, S. and Van der Lugt, R. (2007), Innovation Spaces: Towards a Framework for Understanding the Role of the Physical Environment in Innovation. Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol. 16, pp. 53–65.

Pearce B and Hinds P. (2018) How to make sure your people won’t hate your new open office plan, Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2018/01/sgc-research-when-moving-to-an-open-office-plan-pay-attention-to-how-your-employees-feel

Ripple, R. E. (1989) Ordinary creativity. Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 189-202.

Värlander, S., Hinds, P., Thomason, B., Pearce, B. M., and Altman, H. (2016). Enacting a constellation of logics: How transferred practices are recontextualized in a global organization. Academy of Management Discoveries, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 79-107.

Vithayathawornwong, S., Danko, S. and Tolbert, P. (2003) The role of the physical environment in supporting organizational creativity”, Journal of Interior Design, Vol. 29, No. 1-2, pp. 1–16.

Young S. L., (2016), Creative workplace characteristics and innovative start-up companies, Facilities, Vol. 34, No. 7/8, pp. 413–432.