To provide support for the United Arab Emirates National Innovation Strategy, this study sought to explore creativity and innovation in the Dubai Government. First, employees of the Dubai Government (n=979) completed a research survey investigating individual, team, organisational and job design factors pertaining to creativity and innovation. Second, the written responses of Dubai Government employees to the question “What do you think could be done to encourage more creativity and innovation in your organisation?” were coded and analysed. These two analyses led to two broad classes of policy recommendations: Culture and Leadership; and Supporting Practices.
In summary, the survey respondents perceived the following two areas to be least conducive for creativity and innovation: support at work for creativity and innovation from supervisors and colleagues, and the creativity and innovation culture. The analysis of the written responses provided strong support for the development of these two areas. The written response themes suggested that the most important aspects to develop to encourage creativity and innovation were a supportive culture that values creativity and innovation. In addition, the themes of support in terms of Reward & Recognition, Risk-taking & Blame Culture, Openness to New Ideas, Empowerment and Transparency & Trust also pointed towards the importance of developing a climate, environment and work places that more explicitly embolden colleagues to have and share creative ideas and see them through to become innovations.The final policy recommendations presented in this report outline 25 potential changes that could be made in relation to Culture and Leadership, as well as in terms of Supporting Practices.
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