Ergonomics in the Age of Creative Knowledge Workers – Define, Assess, Optimize

While the performance of knowledge workers is becoming increasingly important, optimization for one of their key responsibilities is a difficult endeavor: The generation of new knowledge or products, meaning the creation of creative solutions. This is partially due to the fact that a coherent understanding of the term creativity as well as reliable assessment methods are yet to be found. After a brief overview of available definitions, and distinction and classification of measurement methods, this paper describes a new approach that can enable creativity assessment. Focusing on an outcome-centered view, a method is proposed, that describes how an environment or process can be tested towards it’s potential in enhancing creative performance. By devising carefully crafted tasks, a machine can objectively evaluate a product’s creative score in terms of usefulness and novelty. This enables systematic testing and comparable assessment throughout different contexts of interest, ultimately bearing the potential to unify testing across different domains. With growing datasets, it should be possible to discover additional common features of creative solutions, thus allowing further insights in the complex construct of creativity and how it is composed. This can facilitate understanding of work environments that foster creativity and shed light on an immanent human ability that is of increasing importance in the future.