K(OIM) - A New Model of Creativity Based on the Concept of Knowledge Clusters

Abstract

The World Economic Forum states that by 2025, the top five skills employers will be looking for are innovation, complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and originality. Looking at these qualities closely, one can argue that all these skills are somehow related to creativity itself. However, despite a myriad of publications, there are many myths and misconceptions about creativity. To date, there is no unique model that can assimilate all different views on creativity. The present work is an attempt to empirically create a new model of creativity called the “K(OIM) Model of Creativity". The concept of Knowledge Clusters, proposed by the author in his earlier work, is at the center of the K(OIM) model of creativity. The proposed creativity model is based on the three simple cognitive processes; O-observation, I-imagination, and M-manifestation operating under the influence of K-knowledge clusters. The author suggests that the knowledge clusters corrupt an individual's observation, limit the imagination, and inhibit the manifestation process and that the crux of creativity lies in the individual’s ability to control these knowledge clusters. The greater the control over knowledge clusters, the better is the creativity of individuals. The author further suggests that the creative contribution happens in five ways based on different combinations of stock of knowledge and knowledge clusters. Based on this, the difference between scientific and technical creativity (which comes from implicit knowledge), artistic and literary creativity (which comes from social knowledge and the knowledge clusters) and managerial creativity (which comes from the ability to effectively control knowledge clusters) has been explained for the first time in this paper.