INTRODUCTION: DETAILS ON ACCENTURE
For decades now, Accenture has been partner to Australia’s most successful public and private sector organisations, helping them continually improve their operational and financial performance. Today, Accenture is only technology independent consulting, IT services and outsourcing company in Australia with the capability to help clients design and manage enterprise-scale business and technology transformation. Accenture, global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company employing over one hundred seventy five thousand people in forty nine countries and work with clients worldwide, as well as government agencies. In Australia, Accenture teams of talented professionals work with seven of the ten most profitable public companies in Australia. Accenture is most recognized business brands, associated with deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and proven experience in consulting, technology and outsourcing.
DISCUSSIONS ON CREATIVITY AND DECISION-MAKING
The effectiveness of Accenture decision making can be issue in emerging urgency of evaluating team building capacity changing such nature of implicit assumption underpinning team operations from within organisational structures as adopted by such decision making at Accenture adheres to such dynamic process. The innovative decisions at Accenture may change the future substantially but such decisions by team members change little. There needs to be commitment from Accenture and process of commitment to implement actions to effect necessary changes in reality of Accenture creative process. Moreover, decisions never get it quite right and such invariably spend more time living with the consequences of decisions than people do in making them” (Cited from, Pfeffer, 1992, p. 19). The effectiveness of decision-making process could be assessed by the creative relevance, logic and appropriateness of the actual decisions, the degree of commitment of the participants and the contribution to individual and group learning of those involved. In order to come to grips with what all this might mean in terms of Accenture governance, it is necessary to analyse the nature and dynamics of decision-making process.
For instance, such team structure is seen as a more sophisticated version of team power where allegiance is more to the person than the position and there is also the need to work at gathering forces and resources to ensure sufficient power to get things achieved. Although Accenture positions seemingly deliver some hard power over such resources as there can be no guarantee of team influence if creative value is lacking to decide on what is needed. Aside, Blair’s (Cited from, 1995) advocacy for employee participation in creative control could be taken as one and its duty is applicable for Accenture, such as in their executive management that can be in such phase as illustrated in such dynamics of group knowing and decision making based from the figure below.
Figure One: Dynamics of Group Knowing and Decision-making Model
Source: Cutting, B. (2002), “Evaluating corporate board cultures and decision making”, Corporate Governance Volume 2 Number 2 pp. 27-45 MCB UP Ltd
Accenture will apply commitment on such group decision to achieve creative valuation and collaboration in making wise decisions as the cycle engages to the connected flow of such knowledge within group interpretation at the top level at Accenture in linkage to information group scanning and then back to the commitment essence. Accenture needs to be recognized that creativity cannot be generated in too much vacuum and will require the stimulus of certain presented information so that such team thoughts can be generated in working collaboratively on creative work paradigm with intensity, interaction and richness of ideas in the process.
CREATIVE PROCESS MODEL
Truly then, Accenture can basically utilize and apply such stages of creative process as being implied by the model illustration as shown and diagram below.
Figure Two: Seven Stages of the Creative Process Model
Source: MG Taylor Corporation (1996), “Seven Stages of the Creative Process”, Modeling Language Spotlight December 18, 1996
Available at: <http://www.mgtaylor.com/mgtaylor/glasbead/7stagcrp.htm>
For identity, Accenture can explore as well as discover and understand how such system produce conditions for creativity and use techniques of collaborative, creative design to see the system from different vantage points. The need to generate optional ways of seeing the system and its components. For Vision, it tells how Accenture will be at work n the future and should be careful not to derive negative conditions. Instead, Accenture will build working simulations of how certain system will operate upon teams adding vibrance and wisdom to the work environment. For intent, the greater the distance on such Accenture creative process that can be between old and new system, the greater the challenge and more energy Accenture will need in order to succeed in such team coordination. In the insight stage, there’s stumbling block, Accenture vision can be full of holes as the vision really will contain clear definition of the problem, and the answer, but usually there are lots of unknowns and gaps in understanding. For engineering, there is breeding ground for new variations as they vie to see which is more fit. As simple problems visible at Accenture may actually be solved in ideal environments as those that involve design of the materials and services. For building stage, nothing can be engineered without being built and applies in particular to Accenture wide environments as there assembles team complexity, but portion of process is beyond collective control of the team at Accenture. Then, the using stage, the idea were manifested and Accenture system produces new creative conditions and do evaluate whether these conditions are better than others developing team attachments as it again starts with the stage of identity.
CONDITIONS FOR CREATIVITY
Creativity at Accenture may involve ideation of new and unexplored perspectives entailing visual things from such known angles as creativity can act catalyst in team decision making process in the organization, facilitating efficient and effective decisions at the workplace. The creative process to be used will imply to the processing of relevant ideas and information to come out with creative ideas and perspectives among Accenture team management. Consequently, the ambiguity of decision-making authority is not whether a creative person creates concept with full authority or with other function’s intervention, but it is important to authorise power to the creative people themselves as team to decide prospective samples. By doing this, the creative people have enough space to develop innovative designs without too many critics. Moreover, the performance measurement criteria for creative designer Accenture ways need to be developed as knowing how well creative team appraise creative decision ability in resolving conflicting issues among the team (Cited from, Caudron, 1994).
According to John Kao, creativity depends on flow and exchange of ideas and information as such computer networks as well as knowledge representation provide flexible communication a tool for creative thinkers in the organization. The challenge for Accenture managers is to ensure that once they have attracted the best and brightest into their organization, they can provide an environment that will keep their workers motivated and enthused about their work.
Thus, Forrest Kessler argues that with teams being adopted as high performance working practice, it is important they understand how team decisions are made as team members are likely to accept responsibility for, and be committed to, the outcome of decision if they are involved in the decision-making process. However, if team decisions are not made properly, significant time may be wasted and incorrect decisions may be made. In other words, to ensure that Accenture teams do not waste time in their decision-making process and minimize risk that technically incorrect decisions are made, to maximize the acceptance of the decision by the team members, and to strengthen itself, Accenture should consider such points when making decisions: the appropriate decision-making process should be used and the team should strive for consensus only as warranted and decisions made by majority should not be considered a consensus decision. Accenture members should be aware of issues pertinent to the decision being made, or those involved in the decision making should be limited to those who are aware.
FOSTERING CREATIVITY
The following points are designed as checklist to help leaders at Accenture create an environment that will foster creativity and decision within teams.
Establish clear outcomes for teamwork. Accenture will derive the best results from teams when members clearly understand what is expected of them and understand both the overall big picture and vision for the organization, as well as expectations of them.
Believe in the capabilities Accenture team. Accenture need to expect the best from team, keeping expectations high and realistic. In terms of creativity, Accenture group is likely to come up with innovative solutions if you believe that they can and optimism and strength need to be realistic.
Encourage and respect new thinking. It takes courage to bring up new idea as creativity at Accenture can be mindset that needs to be championed and valued by the leader. Accenture will encourage people to build on ideas, not tear them down.
Strengthen relationships. Creativity is generated when Accenture have collaborative environment as exist when there is trust between team members
Empowering Accenture employees. Accenture can begin by sharing more of the decision making with lower levels in the organization.
Hire for creativity. Accenture should sure they recruit people that have creative ability as hiring groups of people who all think alike will not generate new ideas.
Building diverse teams. Diversity of backgrounds, thinking, experience and culture is the key to creativity. Although it is more difficult to build alignment and consensus among group of divergent thinkers, Accenture will get better ideas and upside from diverse team.
DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT
In order for Accenture organization to develop such creative work environment such aspects must be considered and be applied accordingly. One is the presence of organization support within the Accenture management that will not tolerate such team mistakes that may lead to such problems and issues within the employees at Accenture that may affect the integrity they had in dealing to clients that are based in Australia and its affiliates. The value of Accenture support in communication encouragement among such working groups and teams comprising better employee synergy through ideal ways of team building structuring as there offers job security in effective manner. Accenture then, can motivate and inspire the work environment to make it creative and desirable for their employees as it implies to such functionality and such task significance within the organization and that at Accenture, self leadership and empowerment is truly an imperative reality that is a core potential factor to drive creativity among such teams and possibly enhances framework upon its actual process as the flow of motivation can align Accenture in such job competencies for developing creative work setting along with sufficient resources and time.
CONSTRAINTS
Although, it can be fact that such constraints are amiably present in creativity and decision making for Accenture organization as such there can time constraints that will involve loss of creative work process and the production of knowledge blocking towards good decision making and the relevance of team awareness to foster team creativity. Accenture should avoid time constraints as it may impede team and employee growth from within and possibly terminating positive impulses towards creative innovation and motivation at work and thus, the need for Accenture to offer more avenues for creative enhancement and the application of appropriate decision making within the management and its team. Thus, another constraint can point to apprehension of evaluation within the organization this believes that such people are silently evaluating the work of the other and that, Accenture should be aware of this reality as if this happens, it may lessen the morale of their employees thus, affecting rapport among teams and will weaken team formation and effectiveness in the process. The decision making fits in as Accenture should not decide things for an employee in particular but, they need to decide on what is good for team as a whole in strengthening creative posits of work idealism and its dynamics. Thus, avoiding conformity to peer pressure within the group can impose a type of constraint and it is the responsibility of Accenture to identify such situation as these may suppress opinions that will oppose norms of the team and will break such solid bond of Accenture employees, respecting each other’s professional worth within the organization and thus, such risks and conflicts of ideas will be avoided if Accenture does not have any conformity to pressure of other people.
Aside, there can also be negative side of group think as there can be tendency for Accenture teams to value consensus at the price of decision quality formation as common when Accenture is highly cohesive and experiencing decision failures as the team leader tries his best to influence decision that others are not comfortable, the decision then should be approved by almost every employee at Accenture in order to achieve team unity and synergy dynamics in valuing creative environment they are a part of. Group polarization is also a constraint as there tendency for Accenture to make such extreme decision than individuals with riskier options for decision process and the belief that luck is on their side resulting into challenges and issues such as team trust and confidence to each other as individuals formed into groups and thus, expected to deliver work effectiveness through uniqueness in creative skills and better decision making at Accenture.
ALTERNATIVE TEAM STRUCTURES
Furthermore, in business world there are numerous team structures, as there can be relevant for Accenture to apply as Accenture can use standard, core and virtual team structures in order to improve their level of creativity and such height of their decision making process respectively.
Standard Team Structure
Generally, it became standard by natural progression, at Accenture more work needed to be done and team has to be well structured as the team can be in same building, so communication is at the peak, and the physicality of team structure for Accenture can be easier to find and solve issues together.
Core Team Structure
This is not a new structure, Accenture can have such improved modes of communication such as integration of the Internet for such outsourcing activities and others into a viable option as by forming Accenture core team made out of best employees and outlining the basis to creative touch using their skill and knowledge.
Virtual Team Structure
Accenture can take standard team hierarchy and fusing such with its outsourcing functions as the team can be composed of outsourcers and such IT consultants. Since virtual structure permits people to work creatively, it is then applicable that Accenture team could have employees working well into creative mode signifying ideal decisions to be made.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, as such teams at Accenture can produce better results that will take advantage of intellectual capital as possessed by their employees by having creative environment designed to recognize these individual differences and apply them to creatively solving problems, effectively resolving challenges, making great decisions, and successfully implementing solutions. Accenture where creativity blossoms has safe environment that is marked by openness, respect for abilities and willingness to challenge ideas. The ability to listen and to communicate is critical to Accenture environment that allows creativity to flourish and the awareness of Accenture talents and those of team members can thus help you all break through to more powerful team communication and interactions.
REFERENCE
Accenture Organization Source:
Available at: <http://careers3.accenture.com/careers/australia/>
Blair, M.M. (1995), Ownership and Control: Rethinking Corporate Governance for the Twenty-first Century, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC
Caudron, S. (1994), “Strategies for managing creative workers”, Personnel Journal, Vol. 73 No.12, pp.104-12
Cutting, B. (2002), “Evaluating corporate board cultures and decision making”, Corporate Governance Volume 2 Number 2 pp. 27-45 MCB UP Ltd
MG Taylor Corporation (1996), “Seven Stages of the Creative Process”, Modeling Language Spotlight December 18, 1996 Available at: http://www.mgtaylor.com/mgtaylor/glasbead/7stagcrp.htm
Pfeffer, J. (1992), Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA
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