Creative management techniques and methods as a part of the management education: analytical study on students' perceptions

Dynamic social and economic changes have created the need for the application of innovative teaching and learning techniques and approaches that would develop students' divergent thinking (problem solving ability) and mobilize their creative potential. Creativity becomes one of the basic managerial competencies. Therefore, managerial (higher) education is oriented to the creativity integration into teaching practice. The aim of this study is to examine students' perception of creativity enhancing activities, games and techniques applied on the on the course "Creative methods in management and managerial games (CMM&MG)" (part of the Master's curriculum at the Faculty of Management, University of Presov) which is primarily focused on the creative methods and techniques applicable in management practice. Primary data collection was conducted through a questionnaire survey among students attending the course in four consecutive academic years. Factor analysis was used for reduction of large set of observed variables. In the context of reduced factors, the attention was focused on the extracted factor " attractiveness of management techniques applied on the CMM&MG course". We found a strong correlation between items/variables within a factor of "attractiveness of management techniques applied on the CMM&MG course". Whereas the results showed a positive perception of the creative methods and techniques applied on the CMM&MG course, we consider the current setting of course to be correct and we believe that courses (developing creativity, divergent and convergent thinking) designed in this way are useful. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).